July is half what?

I stand here and shake my head, as July 15th comes to a close.  The 15th means that July is half OVER!  How did this happen?

TIGHT SCHEDULE.  We seem to have scheduled our summer a little tighter than I had thought.  The day after we returned from our week in Virginia, Kim came, and we "vacationed" here at home for the next week, doing fun Boston things.

YOUTH CONFERENCE.  2 days after Kim, Duane, and Dallas left :( , we took David and Teresa to youth conference and then that evening, hosted different youth here (8 teenage boys) for the conference nights and breakfast the next morning.  (They were such nice kids!  Polite.  I heard so many "thank you" 's throughout our time together.  Really neat people.)  What a great conference, by the way.  I am amazed at the number of adult hours it takes to pull off a two-stake youth conference.  There were 220 kids there, between the ages of 14 and 18.  We helped with various meals, and hosted for night accommodations and breakfast.  It was a mix of activities, including fun things, and also alternating with inspirational speakers and scripture study, and lesson prep where the youth could teach gospel principles to people wondering about our church's beliefs.   As a parent, I am SO grateful for those willing to put something like this together.  It was a fun,  uplifting time for David and Teresa.

SCOUT TRIP.  So that conference ended yesterday.  Tomorrow Frank and David will set off on a "High Adventure" week!  They'll camp in the Adirondack mountains of New York, with 10 total in the group.  8 teenagers, 2 adult leaders.  Who knew there was so much equipment to pull together for a group campout!  They'll gather at 8 tomorrow morning, and drive to New York.  This week they will hike a mountain peak, canoe multiple rivers and lakes, explore caves, and rock climb.

COMPUTERS.  A recent inconvenience (annoying) in our home office: the computer where I work on all the photos is refusing to connect to the Internet.  So I can't transfer photos to the blog like I usually do, in just a few easy steps!  Ugh.  So, I'm just writing this time, from the laptop.  Maybe Frank can clean up the other computer a little, or we can figure out another way to get it going again...when he gets back from this campout!  (Or maybe he'll have time in September.  Like I said, we scheduled our summer a little tighter than I had thought.)

SUMMERTIME.  Oh, I got a great reminder from the "Hands Free Mama" blog I'm following, to be "hands-free" this summer.  Do something "summery" every day.  Take a walk.  Swing.  Read.  Plant something.  Put a blanket down and eat lunch outside.  Our summer is ticking away.  Find ways to consciously enjoy it!

Have a great week!  Love, Kari

4th of July in Boston

Hola!

The last 2 weeks have been full of activity, but I'll save our Virginia excursion until I have some focus time...we returned from Virginia, and our Arizona relatives (my sister Kim, Duane, and Dallas) flew in the next day, to visit!  So I haven't spent a lot of time viewing photos.  Next week, I'm sure!

Yesterday was the 4th of July...Happy Independence Day everyone!

This was the first time we have been in town, not traveling, on the 4th of July here in Massachusetts.  Each 4th of July, Boston puts on a big, huge, beautiful, amazing show for the 4th.  People do things downtown all day, of course, but in the evening there is a concert in the Park by the Charles River, by the Boston Pops Orchestra.  They have 32 sound towers up and down the river, so even if you're not sitting where you can see the orchestra, you can hear them quite well. (here is an Internet photo from the site I linked, above)

So the orchestra plays (along with some singers and other bands intermittently) for about 2 hours, and it's televised, too, before the fireworks display.

They say that 500,000 people come to listen and watch the fireworks.  Another 7 million people view it on television.

We took the "T" (the train) downtown, and found a spot along the street by the river, to watch.

COOL MOON SHOT.  Frank noticed the moon as we walked.  Isn't this great, the moon between the city buildings of Boston's skyline:

Hot temps and humidity, and ultimately lightning and thunderstorms threatened to delay the show.  But it happened just about on time anyway!  The minute the fireworks started, the raindrops came down.  It rained for about 5 minutes really hard, then stopped.

Here is part of the show...

Here we are, wet, packing up...

More fireworks!

The photos, of course, can't do it justice.  We really liked the show.  Happy Independence Day America!  :)  Kari