Pittsburgh–Again

I’m in Pittsburgh for the NEH summer faculty institute on Afro-Latinx and Afro-Latin American Transnational Dialogues. It’s fascinating, career changing, and I’m learning so much! Over the weekend, Patrick brought the kids up for a fun weekend so we could not have to go two weeks without seeing each other. I could have driven back…

Transition Days

It snowed! In Falls Church, but we weren’t there, so we missed it. That was fine, because it meant that while we are still in the West, the kids aren’t missing school. We skied one beautiful day at Arapahoe Basin, and it was a really fun mountain. We had considered skiing on our transition day…

Road trip Out West, Part 1 DC to KC

Last week, Seamus and Gilbert went to sleep away camp, while Porter and Harlan did Dance Camp locally. Sleep away camp was good, except for the homophobic conservatives in Seamus’s cabin, but he had his cousin to keep him company and that was a positive. Porter and Harlan worked hard on their dances, but we…

Gilbert’s Solo Trip

For Seamus’s 10th birthday, Patrick and I took him to NYC by himself, leaving the other kids at home with grandparents. We were sad that we couldn’t do the same for Gilbert, as we’d hoped it would be a tradition we could do for each of the kids. But we managed it before his 11th…

Five Days in Olympic National Park

Patrick and I were excited when my parents volunteered to spend a week with the boys so we could head out of town, something we haven’t done since August 2019. We debated a little–I wanted to go to Portland, he wanted to go backpacking, and we settled on a trip to Olympic National Park for…

Skiing in Colorado

We took 10 days hunkered down at home, flew to Colorado, and spent a glorious week skiing and enjoying the view of the mountains. It was a tough travel day, mostly because it was so long, but we made it through that and were able to enjoy the time at high altitude. Poor Porter couldn’t…

Halloween–Star Wars Pandemic Edition

Halloween ended up being extra fun. Porter, after buying some new shoes, wanted to go to the party story to work out his “Boy with Sword, AKA Army Man!” costume. I finally figured out what he was going for when he mused, “Should I be a red army man, or a blue army man?” Aha!…

Granny

I’ve been sitting on this post for awhile because I know it will make me sad to write it, even as I want to share these memories and keep them for the boys and my family. My grandmother (mom’s mother) died last month at 95. She was amazing. When I was a kid, she was…

Gilbert’s 10th Birthday

Gilbert’s birthday was before Labor Day weekend this year. It was important to us to generate some enthusiasm for his birthday. We couldn’t take him on a solo trip like Seamus got to NYC for his 10th birthday, so we settled for a socially distanced movie party. We invited four of his friends over, set…

Great Lakes Tour 2020

I have so much to write about. Some sad, some happy, some probably a bit boring. But before I get into all that I want to report on our trip to the Great Lakes this summer.  We had planned to drive, camp, and see our friends on the Upper Peninsula, and I was hopeful that…