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The day after Mark's birthday I flew to Colorado to meet my new niece, the sweet Laila Jane, and spend some time with my brother Adam and sister-in-law Joli. I was absolutely no help with baby Laila, even though my skills are still pretty up to date, but it was wonderful to meet this little girl that I can claim to be mine in just a tiny way - I'm really a nice aunt. It was strange to be away from my own kids, and factor in the high altitude, and I was a bit dazed and confused, but loved my visit.
Audrey's last week of school was a buffet of fun - field trip, family picnic and activity day, class party day, and the 3-hour-only last day of school. I think they could have used a couple of those days to learn some more math or science, but I'm not in charge of that decision. I was one of the room moms and highly involved in these special days - luckily my two co-room moms were more organized and motivated than I so everything went well.
Two days later Mark left for Korea. The girls and I spent a week at home entertaining ourselves at the library, beach, assorted restaurants, and watching TV. Audrey and Claire both signed up for the summer reading program and Audrey finished her 8 hours within the week - she read a book a day until she ran out of books. We stayed busy, but not too busy, and it was good for mom and children - we were all pretty relaxed. Then we went camping with Nanie and Papa, and that was everything but relaxing - long drive, hot weather, persistent flies and the constant threat of ticks, not to mention noisy neighbors and crazy loud birds. It was a nice change of pace and fortunately only two days because I could not have lasted any longer. To my parents' house from there for lots of swimming and visits with friends. Mark got home on the 3rd, and we gave him a night to try to sleep off his jet lag and came home on the Fourth of July.
