The first week of August was just as busy as the rest of the summer(of course). I was just finishing up SCott's laundry from his boy scout trip and repacking him for another camping trip scheduled overnight during his Wilderness Adventure program.

Allison needed packing up too as she was off to Pennsylvania as well for a week of Field Hockey camp. The Field Hockey team recommended sending the girls to World Camp near Philly(again) and since Allison has to try out for the VArsity team(or not play), we decided to take their advice and signed her up.

Camp started early Monday morning, so Tom and Allison got up early and hit the road.

Scott on the other hand was participating in a camp sponsored by our County Parks and REc dept. I had signed him up for this camp early in the year not knowing that SCott was heading off to Boy SCout camp this summer. He spent the week kayaking and canoeing, swimming, zip lining and completing the high ropes course before they headed out for a day of rock climbing and tenting. Except the day they were supposed to rock climb it was storming, so they ended up seeing a movie and shooting archery at a nearby park. The weather cleared at night, so they were able to sleep in tents. The next day they went tubing which SCott absolutely loves. This camp is just a 4 day, so he had plenty of time to pack again for our trip to Michigan!

Allison spent a very busy week practicing her goalie skills and getting pummeled with the field hockey ball. Fortunately she caught a ride home with a fellow team mate on Thursday morning. That gave her time to repack her suitcase too!

On Friday I packed up an extra dishwasher for my parents(my favorite dishwasher that died last November). Tom replaced a part and we thought we'd try installing it in my parents lake house. Their old dishwasher in the basement kitchen died, so hopefully this one will work. Tom could not join us on our trip to Michigan as he had a busy travel schedule for work and they did not want to give him up for another week. He was looking at traveling to Virginia for half a week, and then off to California the rest of the week. So instead we put Cookie back at her kennel and I hit the road. I am not a very good long distance driver, so I had to make the trip in two days, stopping near Youngstown Ohio.

Tom and I did enjoy an evening out with the kids gone as I had purchased Tom tickets at EAster to see Steely Dan at our local outside concert stage. We had a beautiful evening and I had picked up tickets for lawn seats. It wasn't terribly crowded so we had a great spot on the lawn-we just wish the facility had a better sound system. The music was terrific, but it was hard to hear Donald FAgan singing. (And yes he is much older but still sounded great and played the keyboard the whole night-they even have some new music which sounded just as good). The base guitar however drowned out the lyrics. And we could have done without all the smokers-don't know why the facility did not remind people of the designated smoking areas, but we found that there are a lot of very rude people around. ONe guy even asked me if he could smoke next to me since someone else had yelled at him and told him to move. Needless to say I was not very sympathetic. I was also very disappointed to see that the tshirts cost more than the concert tickets! So we may not be visiting Merriweather Post Pavilion anymore for concerts. We are still stuck with that place however when Allison graduates from high school! WE also tried to bring along our neighbors, but Dan was traveling as well-to China and then the Phillipines. I attempted to invite some other friends but the wife got ill and had to skip the evening with us.

I will fill you in on my Michigan trip in my next blog. Enjoy more photos of our Hilton Head trip-HOrseback riding expedition! And Scott's very first trail ride!

Baltimore blog.