A Few days in July

The second weekend in July almost burst.

Crab Soup - an annual celebration hosted by the Brohawn family. This year they held it at a state park. There was plenty of space with plenty of activities, but it was a big change from years of hosting in big back yards. The biggest change was the prep night, the pre-party, the post party and the clean up. Those are all things that Jim has participated in for years and some was still done but not all. There wasn't set up to do the night before or cleaning to do the morning after, but there was still picking crabs and slicing onions and potatoes to prep and a late night after party. It was a different experience from previous years but still a great time. Jim took his turn as grill master, churning burgers and dogs out for an hour with only a little arm hair sacrificed to the heat. Hanna loved dancing in front of the music, checking out Dan's audio/visual high tech gear, and ohh the puddle. She had a blast giving herself a bath in a giant mud puddle created by the sprinkler. Megan and Bridget had a great time at the craft table and eating lots of snowballs. Rachael chilled out, talking and eating and taking turns watching Hanna on the playground. Emma was working that morning at Sam's Bagels so she didn't join us until dinner time, Rachael was glad to Emma arrive: Those too can be quite a pair.

Cunningham Falls - The day after Crab Soup, Megan's girl scout troop had a trip up to Cunningham Falls. Since I was driving Megan to the falls, I decided that we would make a family trip of it. Hanna hadn't napped the day before and was a mess at Mass, so Jim stayed home with Hanna and Rachael. Em, Meg, Bridget and I all went for the afternoon. It was hot and packed but we enjoyed a hike and then the girls cooled off at the beach. Some of Megan's troop was camping overnight but since we weren't, we split off and decided to hike over to the falls and eat our dinner there. Their eyes lit up when they saw the Falls. It yelled out to them "Climb me!"  Our trail was lined with wild raspberries and after a little convincing Bridget joined her sisters to try the tart fruit. It is things like picking and tasting raspberries that a summer should be full of.

Taylor Swift - Then on Monday we had tickets to the Taylor Swift 1989 tour Concert. This was Megan's first concert and I got tickets for the 2 of us and her friend McKenzie and mom, Courtney. Tickets were hard to get and Emma's friend group also got tickets but since the mid price tickets were sold out they went for more expensive seats, where we went for the nosebleeds. We took the metro down to DC and found everything to go smoothly. The concert was in Nationals Ballpark and was swarming with the happy energy of young women and girls. Taylor Swift packs stadiums and make millions because she put on am amazing concert; from converting 80% of the bathrooms to womens, and playing hits from 1989 inbetween opening acts, to the coolest light up wristbands that were programmed to change color and activity for each song. She had a mal-function on her elevated runway and got stuck mid way up and turned it into an extra song by requesting her keyboard be attached as well. It was so professional and yet she connected with the crowd. It was a great show, but at 11:30 Courtney and I decided that we should head out before the crush on the metro. We missed 3 songs, but the girls were so wide eyed and tired and had already had an amazing time that they didn't complain. We didn't get home until 1:00 and Emma was a full hour later. She too had a great time with her friends.

It was 3 days bursting with activity and new experiences.