whew

It was an amazingly busy three weeks, a whirlwind. Ariel was in town but I only got to see her a brief time one evening. She spent a little more time with Cyndi and the boys one afternoon. At some point the boys, Cyndi and I had some pleasant dinners at the Chinese restaurant next to us, another sushi place also nearby, and the burger place, where the boys got chocolate shakes and new Lego minifigures from the Borders next door. We also went to the little league meeting. Ry will be a Cub this year, and Jackson a Red Sox. Practice starts this week, with games a month away. At the Cub Scout banquet, Jack got a year's worth of awards and his Bear. The latest Lego story is that they've pretty much disassembled all the sets and, Ry especially, is building things from scratch from all the little pieces. The minifigures have lots of tiny pieces, and the boys use bits from all to create new figures. This seems to be a favorite thing to do.

The trial ended at 5 on Friday, and it took me a long time to decompress. I wanted to get out of town, but the closest we got was Belen. Cyndi needed to be there Saturday night to care for her parents and do some cleaning, so the boys and I stayed at a motel there that night. We visited in the afternoon and again early evening. I cooked some steaks I got from Costco. In the morning we visited after our little breakfast, tried the Harvey House museum down by the old depot, but it wasn't open, checked out, and spent another hour visiting before heading out. The boys and I also bought a ball for $30 at Costco, which we took to the soccer fields that afternoon, inflated with a small hand pump for at least a half hour, and then the boys took turns crawling inside the ball and tumbling around the field. Cyndi even tried it.

I thought I had mentioned the boys roller skating night for school, but I see that I have not. It was a school night, and both boys got to go. Jackson brought his own roller blades and took off, often skating alongside his classmates. It was Ry's first time, and he got the hang of it pretty quick. He didn't want help. He was the fastest 5-year-old out there. Even Cyndi took some laps. Actually, a nice event and maybe a place for a birthday party. The music included teeney Justin Bieber, and every single kid was singing "Baby, Baby" when his song came on, despite the fact that, according to Jackson, no one likes his music.

Around the corner from sushi this past weekend was a new shop called Love Yogurt Bar, which was a nice discovery for us. It looks very popular, and I'd swear it was a franchise but it's not. Only one of its kind, so far.