Summer Summary - What We Did

The boy left early Saturday. All three of us are in our usual slump that happens after. It's hard to describe how right the world feels when he is home and how terribly wrong it feels when he leaves.

It was a good summer. Lots of family time.

fairieboy read the entire Chronicles of Narnia series, a book on puberty and The Hobbit. He's started Fellowship of the Ring. We had lots of wonderful talks and fun adventures. He actually managed to beat me at Chess for the first time. Most days were quiet, reading and playing with our boy. Sometimes his friends came to visit or had sleep overs. It was beautiful.

We started the summer with his birthday party, which, since he was nine, is also a sleepover with a dozen kids. This year's theme was pirates. I helped him put together a costume which he dubbed "Captain Dragon." He looked fantastic. He has grown his hair out long. It's curly, unruly and blond. His Aunt Tammy brought beads of shells and skulls and I braided them into his hair and the hair of his best friend, who he appointed his First Mate. They looked fantastic. We hadn't coordinated it, but their costumes matched. She has been his best friend since he as three and they do make a great team. He had most of his favourite kids at the party. I made a pirate cake and uncledark had spent the month making boffer swords. Every child got one to keep. We fed them cake and ice cream and then sent them out to the backyard to beat on each other. Adults and children alike had fun with them. uncledark also took pictures of all the children in costumes so I can do my photoshop art project with them like I did a few years ago. It was a very good day.

On our wedding anniversary, we all went to Santa Cruz, to the spot where airshipjones and I were married twenty years ago. It is a redwood grove next to a lime kiln up on the UCSC campus. We stopped at Zoccoli's Deli and got lunch for a picnic. We brought the scroll with all the family vows and re-read them to each other. I think it means a lot to our boy to hear how much we all love each other and him. I was amazed at how well we actually have kept our vows. uncledark and fairieboy climbed around on the rocks and the three guys went down into the quarry for a while. It was beautiful.

We went back up again to Santa Cruz a couple weeks later. This time to Caer Ellilon, where the totem pole and Cat's Cradle are located. We finished the repairs on the totem pole, including touching up the paint on the faces. fairieboy really enjoyed the paining part. He also loves the whole story about how his parents erected (and recently re-erected) the totem pole. He likes the idea of it as a family legacy.

And movies. We went to the movies as a family nearly every week. Summer movies we saw included: Iron Man, WALL-E, Hancock, Hellboy II, The Dark Knight, The Mummy IV. The best was The Dark Knight, which we went to twice! fairieboy has also worked his way through the first two seasons of Babylon Five on DVD.

Toward the end of July, we were preparing for our supposed-to-be-annual trip to Seattle. Some of our best friends -- including ocicat whom I have known for 21 years -- live up there. We like to stay with them every summer, visiting the ranch and other friends. Last year things didn't go well and we couldn't make it. The year before that it had been cut short by a death in our ex's family. This year we planned an entire week with all four of us going up. Only my mother, redhatmary became ill. I had to take her to the hospital. This had happened back in April, too. I was torn. I didn't want to leave mom alone. Mom assured me that since she would be in the hospital and taken care of the entire week, we should go. I was very torn about it but finally relented. It actually went well. She has a good team of doctors, I called every day to talk to her and they released her just the day before we got back. She was able to get a taxi home and we had a friend house/cat sitting who was able to help her get inside. Thanks hopeforyou.

The trip was wonderful. Relaxing. I forget how noisy my neighbourhood is until I am at the quiet peace that is the ranch. I loved it. I love sitting there watching a herd of elk grazing in the yard and looking up at the mountain. But most of all I enjoyed being around our friends again. And watching our boy spend time with his parents. We played games, the guys did boffer sword fights with him, and generally hung out. We called up a friend who does massage and got body work for each of us. (Something we really needed after the fifteen hour drive up.)

Our only busy day was the day we actually went into Seattle itself. We had been very frugal on the trip. We only had one splurge -- we finally got airshipjones the Utilikilt we have promised him for years. And uncledark one too! They look fantastic in them, of course! Then it was off to visit some friends we knew in Iowa who now live in the Seattle area. Saturday we headed home. We were happy to visit but also ready to be back in our own space, our own beds. So another long drive down and we arrived home in the middle of the night.

The other big thing the guys did this summer was the Father-Son D&D game. fairieboy has gotten really into it and asked his daddies run a game for him over the summer. The neighbourhood kid and his dad joined them. They ran about half the Sundays of the summer and had a blast.

Overall, it was, like most summers with the boy -- marvellous. He is growing so fast and I am always delighted by him. Puberty is definitely underway and I can see already the outline of the man he will become.

Now we struggle to go back to life without the boy for the next few months. I will try to catch up on bureaucratic work I have put off and other chores. And throw myself into my writing to keep my spirits up.