Happy Birthday Allison!  This week Allison celebrated her 22nd Birthday(at GS camp). She was off the entire week to Harper's Ferry, a small historical town located on the Potomac river where Virginia, W Virginia and Maryland all come together. I've been there with the kids in the past on a tour and to hike the Appalachian Trail. Scott and Allison also went there during middle school for a historical tour as this was a hot spot during the Civil War. This time Allison was camping in the tree houses with her traveling Girl Scouts.  The lodges are built on stilts around large trees. The tree trunk is actually inside the lodge!  I was glad she had a chance to camp there since I missed scheduling the outing to the tree houses when I had my Girl Scout troop. Allison enjoyed being out on the large river for a 6 hour tubing adventure, along with a hike along the Applalachian trail. Although it was quite hot and they did not get far. But the girls all really enjoyed their trip and camping experience.

Allison celebrated her birthday on a Thursday, July 13. I had mailed her a Birthday celebration box that was waiting for her when she got back to camp. I included  some  butterfly sugar cookies and a large Chocolate Chip cookie decorated with roses to share with all her counselor friends. I also threw in some flip flops and a bamboo mat to use at camp, as well as some birthday balloons. We were holding the bigger family celebration for when she came home.  That was easier said than done. She had planned on coming home on Friday evening after dropping off all the campers via bus and van. Allison was following the chartered bus full of girl scouts on their way down to Annapolis after dropping off girls closer to Baltimore first. Unfortunately she got caught up in tstorms and heavy downpours which slowed down their progress, along with a bus accident. Seems their driver took a sharp turn on a country road and caught a car coming the other way between the bus and a small cliff. So they had to wait for a police report, another bus and the tow truck to pull the car away from the bus. She then had to drive her van back to GS camp to drop off staff about 1.5 hrs north of our house. She called at 11pm quite upset and exhausted and very much wishing to come home for the weekend. So Tom drove up to camp and picked her up(right after he got back from picking up Scott at work). They did not get home until after 2am.

Friday was quite a long day for Tom as well. He had taken Scott off to his driving test in the morning out in Frederick MD. We found that this office had a simple and fair driving assessment-30 mins on the road. Scott had spent the entire week practicing driving with Tom, especially practicing backing up. They eliminated the parallel parking assessment and switched to a 3 point turn, including backing into a narrow space. Guess the DMV figures cars are coming with the built in automatic parallel parking, so why bother. I think it is crazy, but then again, Scott passed his test and is an official driver now! Congrats Scott!

As soon as he got home I took him back to the doctor to have his ear checked. He had finished his medication for an inner ear infection while at Boy Scout camp, but his ear was still hurting and now leaking. Turns out he had an outer ear infection too. So now he had ear drops for a week. Anything to get him in shape for our upcoming vacation. Then he was off to work.

On Saturday we enjoyed a trip to Hershey Park. Allison wanted to join us, so Tom picked her up from camp the night before. We had free tickets to Hershey that expired at the end of the month, so this was our only chance to use them. First Allison opened her Birthday presents and had a piece of Brownie Birthday cake. We then spent a beautiful day at the Park, not too hot, and the kids got to ride a few roller coasters, eat Hershey chocolate and shop for goodies. And Tom and Allison enjoyed their summer Chevy Test Drives and free tshirts in the parking lot. We even took Cookie along with us and she hung out in the "Barking Lot" kennel during the day. This way we were able to feed her dinner and take her for walks and potty breaks during the day.

On Sunday, Tom was up early in the morning to drive Allison back to camp. I was off to work for the day to get a head start on our upcoming vacation. Scott was just getting off work! I volunteered Scott to house and dog sit for our neighbors. They were headed to Wisconsin but did not want to travel with their Golden Retriever, Ellie. She is a very sweet dog, but extremely afraid of tstorms. They wanted someone to be around in case any storms rolled in while they were away. So for the entire week, Scott played, fed and walked Ellie during the day, as well as took in the mail and trash cans. And at night he slept at their house with Ellie in the basement on a mattress on the floor they set up for the two of them. Fortunately we only had 1 tstorm roll in during the day, so Scott kept Ellie company while she attempted to sit on his lap in the basement!  Scott enjoyed his house sitting job, but did not get a whole lot of sleep. Ellie gets up around 5am to go outside which was Scott's #1 job(besides security for tstorms), and then after she had breakfast, he would come home and go back to sleep in his own bed!  We also had back up during the day in the form of neighbors that checked in on Ellie and her water and food bowls which came in handy when we were gone to Hershey Park for the day.

Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July! I can't believe the year is half over already!  Here we are in the middle of summer. Both of the kids were gone for the first week of July to Scout Camp.

Scott worked on the 1st of July at the Roller Rink, but I had to take him into the doctor Saturday morning to get his ear checked. He was having pain in his ear and last summer he spent vacation at Hilton Head with an ear infection. We did not want to have a repeat performance at scout camp, so I took him to the Kaiser Urgent Care. He spent the next 10 days on antibiotics for an inner ear infection. Allison had been ill for the first two weeks of GS camp, but was feeling much better. She was able to come home Friday night for a much deserved break.

Scott was off to Boy Scout camp Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, this camp was not too far away-just the north end of the Chesapeake Bay which is about 1.5 hrs drive. All the boys arrived at 1pm to set up camp. This was the first year the boys were scheduled for camp during the holiday week. They took the early week since part of the troop is headed to Jamboree in W Virginia at the end of the month. Since Scott has finished all his required Eagle badges, he was able to pick out a few activities that were just plain fun. I talked him into kayaking to start off his day. He was not crazy about the idea of kayaking, but ended up loving the experience. The boys paddled their own kayaks, so lots of freedom and lots of getting wet. (another reason to have his ear infection treated before camp).  I tried to talk him into the Jet Ski badge, but he did not want to have to ride with another scout. And he already completed sailing and motor boating, so kayaking worked out just fine. He also signed up for a few badges he wanted to try over the years and just never had time including Art, Pottery, and Graphic Arts. These badges were especially nice since they were indoors which worked well when it was extra hot and very rainy. And he took his bike to camp which made it really easy to get around. On the 4th of July, the boys parked their camp chairs on the shore and watched fireworks all over the Bay. Scott brought along some patriotic music on his phone to accompany the show. On Saturday morning we picked him up, along with his very wet and smelly clothes, tent and sleeping bag and headed home. He had a really wonderful camp experience this year(and no broken arm!). On the way home we decided to drop in on Allison who was still up at camp over the weekend. She had to stay over for a short Mommy and Me camping program. She was so surprised to see us pull into the campground! She gave us a tour(I have not been up to GS camp in a few years) and we even ran into our neighbor's daughter who is also a counselor this year for the first time. We wish we could have stolen Allison and taken her out for breakfast or lunch, but the campers were already arriving.

Allison had come home Friday night before the holiday week for a much needed break from working at Girl Scout camp. She had spent the week running around assisting with multiple stations, although archery is her favorite. She helped run a week long camp for girls and a weekend camping trip for a Mommy and Me event before coming home for a few days before the holiday week. Allison found herself assigned to bus driver, responsible for driving down to the Baltimore area to pick up scouts to transport them to camp and then back again for drop off as well as shuttling the staff needed to monitor the campers. She is learning to navigate the freeways in large, Ford extension vans that the camp just purchased. I sent her a goodie box with an extended rear view mirror!  She was looking forward to sleeping in her own bed, washing her clothes and eating red meat! Unfortunately, she did not plan an unexpected meeting with her boyfriend Tyler on Saturday morning before the holiday week.  He decided he just was not getting enough face time with Allison, especially with her being gone during the summer to GS camp and then leaving for school again in the fall to complete her Masters. So sadly they broke up. Allison was of course sad, and mad, but a bit relieved that she does not have as much pressure trying to schedule visits with a boyfriend, especially with her upcoming school year which will prove to be challenging.  Plus she is still trying to find another roommate to take Jen's place in their condo which is turning into another challenging event. I had planned on taking Allison out to celebrate her graduation with Grandma Bozyk on Saturday night, but she wasn't exactly in the celebratory mood. Instead, our family all headed out to see an outdoor movie at The Wine Bin in old Ellicott City-Air Force One with Harrison Ford(or as Allison puts it, with Han Solo). The kids never saw the movie, and they really liked it. We packed up wine and popcorn and even our neighbors joined us for a very crowded viewing. It was a lot of fun although incredibly hot. I will have to reschedule Allison's celebration dinner with Grandma.

Usually Allison has to head back to camp on Sunday morning to welcome the new scouts for the upcoming camp week, but because of the holiday, they had a short week scheduled. However, they decided to have the counselors come up on Monday to complete two days of training before the campers arrived on Weds. So Allison had Sunday off and decided to drive with us to drop off Scott. His Boy Scout camp is located near a cute, small town, so we stopped in after dropping off Scott to enjoy some ice cream and a stroll through the gift shops and antique stores. On Monday she was headed back to camp to finish up the training. The girls did take some time to enjoy a fireworks show too on the 4th. And Allison also brought along her downloaded patriotic music to play along with the firework show that they caught at a local school. I have trained my children well! Looks like neither one can watch a firework show without accompanying patriotic music!  I think it was all the BSO concerts we went to with the pomp and circumstance and 1812 Overture with fireworks that we so often attend at each year. Unfortunately, we missed it this year. The concert was scheduled on Monday night, the 3rd.  We had such a great time last year, and even brought Tyler along. But this year, both kids were at camp, and of course, Allison was no longer dating Tyler. So no concert.

 Since the kids were both gone during the 4th of July week, Tom and I decided to take Monday off and visit the distillery on the eastern shore with our neighbors since I had bought Tom a tasting and tour. We enjoyed lunch out at an Alehouse just on the other side of the Bay Bridge before visiting the distillery. It was a very interesting presentation on how they distill whiskey, vodka and rum. And we had the place to ourselves. After a few samples we were given our own shot glasses and a bottle of vodka to take home. It was a very nice outing. The distillery is named after an old sailing ship, The Sloop Betty. The original ship carried wine from Spain and was captured by Blackbeard's pirates in the Chesapeake Bay. The plan was to sell the wine and steal the ship. Instead, the pirates drank the wine and sunk the ship. Silly pirates. The distillery hopes to get a liquor license to sell mixed drinks and bring in Food Trucks to expand their tourist industry. We will have to go back. Plus it is on the way to visit Allison at school(works for us).

I decided to work on the 4th of July. I get paid double time, and Tom and I did not have any special plans. I spent the evening walking Cookie and watching the DC Fireworks and show on tv. Never have been brave enough to travel to DC for the fireworks show in person. I was holding off for my fireworks show at the Frederick baseball game on the following Saturday night. It was scout night, and our Girl Scout choir was once again asked to sing the National Anthem. And they have a great fireworks show right after the game. I worked from Tuesday to Friday and was very busy. I finally squeezed in an outing with my Mom on Friday night. We enjoyed seeing "Mary Poppins" at the High School with the County Theater players. They did a terrific job, even had Mary Poppins flying across the stage! And Mom got to sing along!

Saturday morning was our outing to Boy Scout camp to pick up Scott and visit Allison. Saturday night was the Frederick baseball game. Scott stayed home and did laundry. We took our friend John D instead. Sunday we had our neighbors over for dinner after I spent the afternoon at our GS choir director's house filming a training video. Lots of  GS activities!

Just catching up on the end of June.  Scott was enjoying his time off school. He spent his time cleaning his room and his turtle tank. Also preparing for Boy Scout camp. He has pre requisites to complete for his upcoming badges, so he finished up the research. Now he just has to pack. He is just so happy not to be studying!  Before he heads off to boy scout camp though, he is going to be volunteering at Cub Scout Day camp. He needs volunteer hours for his Honor Society in school next year, as well as his Tech Honor Society. He is happy to be scheduled to work the Science and STEM station. This year's theme is bugs. On Sunday afternoon, we headed to the fairgrounds where they hold the day camp for training. That lasted about an hour, and it gave Scott extra time to practice his driving there and back home. Tom also took him out driving during the week. His driving test is scheduled for mid July. We also are practicing parking and backing up. I still cannot believe that they eliminated parallel parking as part of the test. I guess they figure newer cars are doing it for everyone, so they don't need to learn! Crazy! Of course, we all try to avoid parallel parking if we can, even though we know how to do it.

Scott wanted to enjoy some of his time off, so he invited a few friends over on Friday night(thank goodness he did not have to work). He even offered to cook for his friends, so we picked up some burgers and chips on Friday afternoon and he grilled out. He had a few friends over Friday night and after dinner they played video games and watched a movie. It is weird that he has friends that can drive themselves over to our house now. Scott kicked them out at 10pm though. He did not want to entertain too late into the night!

And on Saturday he was off to work in the afternoon. I picked him and my mom up after he got off work and took both to the hair salon. Scott got a summer hair cut and mom stayed longer for a perm. Meanwhile, Scott and Tom picked up one of our scouts who was attending another Eagle celebration near our house. The boy needed a ride home and I promised his mom that we would help them out.  She is always doing us favors and giving Scott a ride when he needed one. Since it was getting late, I picked up dinner for mom at Burger King at dropped her off to her place around 8pm. Tom ended up inviting our neighbors over for drinks and dessert later that evening out on our patio. They had us over  when I got back from Ocean City so we owed them one. We tried sitting out on the patio, but there were a lot of bugs. A screened in porch sure would come in handy. So we made it an early evening.

Before heading over to Scott's scout training on Sunday afternoon, we spent the day working outside in the yard. Tom was busy cutting the grass, and Scott and I spent the day trimming trees and shrubs in the backyard. We have a couple of trees that grew branches over our neighbor's fence, and I wanted to trim them before anything broke off into their yard. Or fell and broke the fence for that matter. Scott did the trimming and cutting, and I did the clean up.

Allison did not get to come home for the weekend. She had spent her first week up in camp training, and this past week the first summer campers arrived. Before the week long campers showed up, she worked a Mommy and Me weekend camping trip. Unfortunately, she started feeling ill. Turns out she was sick to her stomach for about two weeks. She seemed to have developed a stomach virus and it really got in the way of work. She spent two days sleeping at the nurse's cabin in the air condition. She was also having problems with her allergies. She stopped into a Patient First clinic during a break over the weekend to make sure it was nothing more serious. They gave her some anti nausea pills along with Benadryl for her allergies. Allison and the rest of the family has been taking allergy medication for years, but not usually Benadryl. Allison is not used to it, and she ended up nodding off during arts and crafts, dragged her feet on the hike and finally fell asleep next to the swimming pool. Fortunately she is feeling so much better and has been enjoying the camp food once again. Since she did not make it home the first weekend, I sent her off a care package.

The last week in June I ended up taking off work on Tuesday. One of the girls at work wanted to switch days off with me. Turns out it was June 27, our wedding anniversary. I spent the morning at the dentist with my mom. She had more dental work that needed done and I had my yearly cleaning. I also had taken Scott to his dentist appointment the week before early in the morning before going to work. We are keeping the dentists busy!  Mom and I enjoyed our day out together. First the dentist, then lunch and shopping before I dropped her back to her apt.

I had to pick up Scott. He had started working at Cub Scout Day Camp this last week in June. It is an early start. The boys have to be to camp by 7:30, so I was dropping him off before work at the Fairground and getting home early. With plenty of time to get to the parent's scout meeting on Monday evening. On Tuesday night, Tom and I decided to celebrate our 30th Anniversary with dinner out. I had a gift certificate to the Iron Bridge Wine company that we have been wanting to use. The restaurant is in a small house and always incredibly crowded. They put out a Happy Anniversary card for us at our table and gifted us with two glasses of champagne. We enjoyed cheese, sausage and cracker appetizers, steak and salmon dinners and chocolate creme brulee for dessert along with a glass of wine. Tom bought me some pearl earrings to mark our 30th. I mentioned that pearls were the old gift and diamonds were for the new tradition. Tom is old fashioned.  He also had to get home to pack. He had an overnight trip to San Diego for work and had an early start on Wends morning. On Weds night there was a scout meeting. I am busy putting together our August camping trip and outing to Six Flags. On Thursday night I dropped in on Mom for an early 4th of July BBQ at her apt. We all sat outside and enjoyed burgers and hot dogs, chicken and ribs. It was quite tasty. They also had a musician playing patriotic songs during dinner. On Friday night, Scott was back to work after a long day at Cub Scout camp. He enjoyed his time, but was pretty worn out. He spent most of the week making fidget spinners(not exactly the bug theme we thought it would be). Fidget spinners keep the kids occupied(if you haven't seen them) with a small triangular top that sits on your finger while you spin it. They are ideal for kids with ADD. Scott and I thought it was hysterical that they made so many when they were banned during his training session before camp started.  He spent 3 days building fidget spinners with hundreds of cub scouts, and then they switched to catapults and paper airplanes. The adult Scout Leaders were very grateful for all of Scott's hard work.

By Friday night, he was worn out and not feeling well. When he mentioned his ear was starting to hurt, I quickly made him a doctor appointment for Saturday morning. I did not want him going off to Boy Scout camp with an ear infection. And I did not want a repeat of last summer!

So Scott was happy to have a shorter week with Memorial Day off, but he was back to a full week of school afterwards. He was busy taking tests and finishing up projects and homework. He had one more full week of school left before finals. We took a small break to enjoy an end of the year robotics party at his school. We dragged Allison along for high school memories. Mainly we had the opportunity to pick up a new tshirt from the High School Robotics team for Scott. This year they just opted for cookies and punch rather than a dinner buffet(tight budget), And sadly they did not make it to state regionals this year.  Scott was really looking forward to the weekend and his annual White Water Rafting trip with the Boy Scouts. He got all his homework done early and was packed and ready to go when he got back from school on Friday.

Allison finished up her presentation with Tom's coworker and was asked to complete revisions. The instructor needed more detail rather than a power point presentation. Allison had an excellent dentist appointment, but needs to plan on getting her wisdom teeth out. Probably before school starts again in the fall. So Allison spent some time visiting with her neighborhood friends during the week and a visit with Tyler before packing up her Girl Scout trunk and heading up to camp early Saturday morning. She had a whole week of training scheduled.

I also had a dentist appointment scheduled. I took off work one morning during the week to finally have my final dental implant placed. I decided to schedule Mom Bozyk for an appointment the same day. She had a cavity that needed to be redone, along with a new crown. Mom took several hours of  dental work, but did a wonderful job. We have an extremely patient and excellent dentist that is very good with Mom B. And I was very pleased with my dental implant. It is very odd to have a permanent tooth in place after so many years of a temporary bridge. I also had my end of the year Girl Scout choir performance at a nursing home near the GS headquarters. I even got to sing a solo part! We were short on young girls, so I needed to stand in.  After our performance, we had a dinner buffet and meeting. I made a huge serving of chicken nuggets, and the girls all wanted to know what happened to my taquitos! Just can't win. That was ok, more chicken nugget leftovers for Scott.

He was just looking forward to the weekend and our trip to Ohiopyle for the White Water Rafting Trip.  Tom and I decided to join Scott for a visit to Pennsylvania but skipped the camping and rafting. The town of Ohiopyle is in the Laurel Highlands south of Pittsburgh. The area is beautiful, with the mountains and river, near Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water's House. Scott loves to paddle the river in his own inflatable kayak. Tom and I enjoy a bike ride along the trail running above the river. We dropped Scott off Friday night and helped him set up his tent. On Friday we had to drop off Cookie for her summer grooming and then to our neighbors for our weekend away. The scouts were up early Saturday morning and on the river by 8am. Tom and I headed to Uniontown and stayed in a Hilton Garden Inn hotel. We were up early Saturday for breakfast and then headed to town for our bike ride. Tom and I rode 10 miles round trip and called it quits. It was very busy in town and a beautiful weekend. We stopped for lunch and then headed back to our hotel. Tom was busy spending his extra time working on his schoolwork online. He had started a whole new class and was extra busy since this is a shorter semester. Scott was done kayaking and had a great time(only fell out a few times on purpose so he could swim in the river). I ended up driving back to Scott's camp with one of the other moms. Her son wasn't feeling well, and she needed to pick him up along with his camping stuff. She was also staying in a nearby hotel. Unfortunately for Scott, her son was scheduled to cook for the patrol, so we passed that job onto Scott. Scott was pretty worn out and ended up climbing into his tent by 7pm. Meanwhile, Tom and I went out to dinner and a movie. We decided to catch Tom Cruise's The Mummy. We enjoyed it and expect there will be several more in a series(if they make enough money off this one). We did not have many options for dinner, but we definitely did not want to visit the local bars being so close to Pittsburgh. There were a lot of Penguin fans in the area enjoying their attempt at the Stanley Cup(and it looked like they were going to get it!).

So on Sunday we packed up early and picked up Scott. We were home early in the afternoon. Just in time for us to pick up Cookie, for me to cut the grass, Scott to study for finals and Tom to pack his suitcase for a trip to San Diego.

Happy Father's Day! So Tom was in San Diego on business for his new position at Northrop during the week. He is already happier with his new post. And he got his homework done for the week, so he was ahead of his schedule. He returned from California late Thursday night. Before he left though, he got a call from Car Max. Tom was interested in a Buick Encore last year when he was car shopping, He ended up with the Ford Escape, which he enjoyed. But he really wanted the Buick. And Car Max found one for him. So he ran over and sold them back the Escape and picked up the Buick. It needed a new arm rest(the original was broken). So we dropped it off to the car dealer for the week. But they could not find a replacement part-only 1 available in the country and it is back ordered. Oh well.

Meanwhile, Allison was off to GS camp for a whole week of training. She continues with her archery certification and was very excited to complete the ropes course and given free reign. She was very happy to be visiting with all her old friends, including the girls from overseas as well as making some new friends. She even ran into our next door neighbor's daughter Sydney who is also working as a camp counselor for Girl Scouts for the first time. Fortunately, Allison has been made a Unit Leader, so she is looking forward to traveling with the older girls. They go on weekly trips to places like Ocean City and Assateague, Hershey Park and New York City. She can't wait.

Scott was finishing up his last week of school and finals. He had 3 half days of testing. He was done on Weds, and spent the afternoon finishing up his last on the road driving instructor class. He drove about 30 mins West to Frederick and practiced the on road driving test with his instructor. He should be able to schedule an appointment for his driving test in the coming months. As soon as he got home from his driving class, we were on the road to his end of the quarter Boy Scout Court of Honor. I did not have time to cook anything ahead of time, and neither did Scott. So we just brought along a bowl of taco dip. After the meeting I had time to eat and chit chat with other scout parents. I need to schedule our August scouting trip to Six Flags Amusement park along with a camp ground. Tom will be cooking for the adults on that trip. Probably our last one. Scott will be turning 18 in the fall this year and probably will not be as involved in the scouting program. Especially after he receives his Eagle rank. Right now he is waiting for the Boy Scout council to review his Eagle project and rank requirements. He is also waiting for recommendation letters from family, adult friends and teachers. He has to have 5 recommendation letters for his review. It certainly is a long, drawn out process to Eagle!

We decided to celebrate the end of Scott's Junior High School year with a trip to Ocean City. Well, Scott and I. Tom is not so much into the beach. I wanted to head down to the ocean to see the Blue Angels Air Show. When we visited Allison at school I noticed a flier that recommended attending the practice sessions on Friday afternoon-less crowds. Unfortunately, when Scott and I arrived at the beach, it was so overcast with sea mist, you could not see a thing. It was still hot, but a nice breeze was blowing. We found a parking structure right on the beach and paid extra for event parking. But it was so wonderful to just pick up our chairs and umbrella and walk a few feet to the sand. Parking is quite a premium on the beach!  And quite a few places were closed off for the event with tents and vendors. So Scott and I found a little board walk cafe and sat and had lunch. Scott tried the octopus tacos with mango salsa and decided they ruined them with the slimy fruit. But it was worth trying(I think). The waitress was quite fascinated with the whole experience. We mostly enjoyed sitting along the boardwalk, watching the people go by. They actually attempted a fly by, but you could not see anything. Just hear a loud noise. We laughed and said it was in stealth mode. That or Wonder Woman's invisible plane! It  looked like that was it for the day, so Scott and I packed up and headed to Allison's condo in Salisbury, about  a 30 min drive. Allison meanwhile had driven from GS camp to her condo and was waiting for us when we arrived. She took a shower, did her laundry and we jumped in the van to head out and catch the new Cars movie. The theater was packed, but we got good seats and food for Allison. We really enjoyed the 3rd movie in the series and went back to Allison's to crash for the night. We had the whole place to ourselves. One of Allison's roommates moved out and the other girl was off to the beach for the weekend with friends. Scott slept on the couch, and Allison and I bunked together. In the morning, Allison made us breakfast-pancakes. I picked up a few items at the local dollar store, we did some morning shopping and running errands(shopping for Father's Day) and then I decided to take one more shot at the air show. I was not looking forward to driving into Ocean City with all the expected crowds and traffic. But it turned out pretty well. We decided to head north up the beach to a hotel with an outdoor patio restaurant and bar, The Castle in the Sand. We lucked out and got free parking at the convention center across the street. We put up our umbrella and chairs and sat back to enjoy the show. They had already started with the parachuters when we were driving in, so we got a good view of that, along with an air show from the bi planes and sky writing. Someone proposed right in front of us.  On the beach we enjoyed the military planes and were so excited to have a few fly bys by the B2 bomber. That was Tom's first project at Northrop. It is quite a thing to see when that huge plane flies overhead. Very quiet, until it banks overhead. And very hard to see straight on-very stealthy! It is nice to see an air show at the beach since the view is so vast. Sadly, a big rain cloud was moving in quickly so they hurried the show along and brought out the Blue Angels. I am always amazed at their performance. And so loud! We got in the show just as the rain began to fall. We quickly packed up and headed home.

Sunday morning, Father's Day, we all got up early to send Allison off to camp. We stopped into Starbucks for a cup of coffee together. Allison was off to camp and we spent the day doing yardwork after dropping Scott off to work. The roller rink decided to open up on the non major holidays. After Scott got off,  I then picked up my mom and we brought her over for dinner. But not outside, it was just too hot. We gave Tom a cold coffee brewing pitcher to help him through the hot summer months of studying and writing papers.

Looks like I have some catching up to do!

So I ended up working Memorial Day. Turns out it was a very long day. My facility has had a complete turnover of administration, and they are asking the therapists to pick up extra patients by working with our residents, as well as trying to bring in more patients from various hospitals in the area. So I have been working long hours and extra days. One of our staff members was on vacation to Hawaii, so on top of everything we were short staffed. So it turns out I ended up working on Friday too, right after my morning exercise class. A very long week. I also attended a Boy Scout meeting on Memorial Day-parents meeting. I am getting ready to plan a Scout trip this summer to Six Flags with a camp out. Several years ago I planned a trip to Hershey Park. The boys chose the closer amusement park this year. This is a busy time of the year for scouting. Scott and I opted out of assisting with the Preakness Balloon Festival this year. My back was hurting that weekend, so I really did not think I would have been much help. The county holds an annual Balloon Festival each year in conjunction with the Preakness Horse Race in May. They moved the festival to the fairgrounds this year to accommodate more people. The scouts were going to be holding onto balloons that would give patrons a ride up. They were expecting 1000s of visitors this year. Turns out the weather was not the greatest, and if there is too much wind or rain, the balloons cannot fly. So I don't think they had quite as many visitors as expected. The festival runs from a Thursday to Saturday, morning and evening. Scott and I have volunteered both in the morning sessions and evening. I love the evening session the most when they light up the balloons just when it gets dark. I also loved that when we volunteered, we did not have to pay to get in or parking, and we got up close and personal with the balloons! Just not this year. My mom and I did enjoy watching the Preakness horse race that weekend with a surprise winner, Cloud Computing. No possibility for a Triple Crown winner this year though.

Allison finally came home on Memorial Day. She was able to help out with cooking, laundry and dishes, And Cookie loves Allison's company and walks during the day when Scott is at school and we are at work.  Allison also had a few projects to work on for herself. She made a dentist appointment, and then looked into summer employment. Unfortunately, all the offers for internships that Allison received were out of state, mostly in Virginia. Tom really did not want to pay for her to stay at a hotel, or rent another apartment just so she could work out of state. And most of the internships were in marketing or sales. Not exactly her interest. So she decided to contact the Girl Scout office again. They offered her a leadership position at summer camp, so she decided to take it. They wanted her to train as a lifeguard, but she opted out. She would have had to get to camp right away, and she still had some things to take care of while off work. They may be sending her out on some GS travel camps, so they need extra lifeguards, but not necessarily a must. At least Allison did not have to run around and get certified or have security clearance like the first time she applied for a counselor job. She was using her time off to organize a power point presentation for certification in Green Belt Management. She had attended a training program at Northrop that Tom helped facilitate in Management Training in the past.  Tom is a certified Black Belt and often hosts training programs for this type of management. Allison finished the class at Northrop about a year ago, and just had to put together a project afterwards. She completed a project in one of her classes and was busy organizing the data to present to one of Tom's coworkers. And she needed to get some shopping done for camp, as well as getting a hair cut. So she was a busy girl. Allison and I stopped into Walmart on Saturday while Scott was at work so we could pick up her supplies, as well as stock up on some more veggies and flowers for my garden. My new planter had arrived while we were in Salisbury and Scott assembled it on the back porch. I just wanted to fill it with lots of jalapeno pepper plants. I already planted my tomatoes out in the garden, and added a zucchini. And I just needed a few more flowers to fill my pots. So I should be done planting for the rest of the season. Now I have to start watering!

Allison took advantage of our beautiful weather by enjoying a bike ride with Tyler on Sunday. Afterwards, she was invited over to a cook out with his family. I had her bake some cupcakes to take along. Meanwhile, we decided to have my Mom over for our own cookout. Tom made some hamburgers and we enjoyed dinner out on the patio again after picking Scott up from work. My mom enjoys dinner at our house on the patio while listening to all the birds chirping, along with a few of our leftover spring peeper frogs. And now the cicadas. We had another bug explosion, but this one was 4 years early since it has been so warm. Cookie seems especially interested in the bugs, and actually ate 1 or 2! I was rather surprised!

We also enjoyed a night at the movies after Scott got off work on Saturday. Tom and I were looking forward to seeing Wonder Woman, but the kids were not as interested. So we split up and they saw Captain Underpants instead. They had read all the books when they were little, and found the movie to be very funny. And very short. They had to wait around for Tom and I since our Wonder Woman movie was 2.5 hrs long! I thought it was very good and did not notice how long the movie was since I enjoyed the story line so much.

Scott bought me a new planter for the deck for Mother's Day. Jalapenos here we come!

What an exciting week! This was our big trip to Salisbury to celebrate Allison's graduation from Salisbury University. We decided to take off work the day before Allison's graduation. Her ceremony was scheduled for Thursday, so we headed out to the eastern shore on Weds. Most of the nearby hotels were full when we made reservations, so we decided to stay about 1 hr north of Salisbury at Rehobeth Beach in Delaware. We figured we would enjoy the smaller beach town. Ocean City is closer, but very crowded. We decided to enjoy an early Memorial Day Weekend with Allison.

We arrived at Salisbury at lunch time and enjoyed a quick meal with Allison, shopping at the Salisbury book store, and a tour of the new library before packing her up and driving over to our hotel in Rehobeth Beach. Turns out the weather was quite a bit chilly and not terribly enjoyable for strolling along the beach. However, we did enjoy strolling through some of the many shops along the strand, but it was getting late and we were getting hungry again. We decided to try the Japanese restaurant next to our hotel. We loved our sushi and box plate dinners(little compartments with salads, chicken and dumplings). But the big, unexpected pleasure was the dessert. Normally we pass on dessert, but they brought out a tray of incredible cakes that fit each one of our tastes. Tom had a big piece of coconut lemon cake and Allison and I enjoyed a Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge cake. Plus I had to have a bowl of green tea ice cream to wash it down.  Turns out the desserts are brought in from a bakery in Philly. We need to find that bakery!  We were plenty tired and needed to get up early the next day. So Allison and I helped each out with manicures before we went to bed. Neither one of us had time for professional manicures, but I did spend a few hours at the salon the week before getting my hair cut and highlighted. Allison figured she was wearing a cap, so she was waiting on a hair cut.

Thursday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and drove back to Salisbury. Allison had to get dressed at her condo and we did too. Her ceremony was set for 2:30 in the afternoon at a large indoor concert arena near the campus. We got dressed and stopped into one of snack shops on campus for a quick sandwich before heading to the arena. Fortunately the weather was cooler, but we still packed some water bottles. There was no assigned seating, but we each had to have tickets. Since we didn't have any more guests to the ceremony, Allison was able to sell off her extra tickets and made quite a profit. The place was filled to capacity.  We found great seats near the stage, although Allison's row in the Business school was towards the back. And she was one of the last students across the stage to gather her diploma and get a photo shot. Besides the Business School, we had to sit through the Degrees in Fine Arts/Liberal Arts. Two hours later our Allison walked across the stage graduating with Honors. Thanks to those that logged in and watched the ceremony live!  Allison appreciated the support. It was a very nice ceremony and it was time to celebrate. Tom had made dinner reservations at Ruth Chris Steakhouse near Ocean City. Turns out the restaurant was located on a Golf Course. The actual restaurant was a converted horse stable that once housed Man O War and War Admiral-two very famous racehorses. We had a lovely table next to the window looking over the golf course and an incredible dinner. Allison's dessert was on the house. She opted for the chocolate lava cake after her steak dinner. We also enjoyed steak dinners and Tom and I shared a white chocolate bread pudding. And we brought in our own bottle of wine to celebrate the special occasion.(with no corking fee!). So dinner was incredible and we drove back to our hotel during a big rain storm.

On Friday, the day was chilly but sunny. It was still too cold to sit out at the beach, so we decided to visit a local State Park in Delaware on the coast. The park had been a Military compound used during WWII to locate German ships. They built about a dozen 75ft towers on the compound to spot German ships. Then they had a base camp and lots of large guns to shoot at the ships. They never had to shoot at any ships. We figured we would hike the park, but they had free bike rentals, so we rode around the park for 2 hrs, checking out the military compound and climbed the spiral steps in one of the towers. They also have a public beach and camping in the state park, along with sand dunes(and lots of black snakes! Yuk!). So we really enjoyed our morning out, and then headed back to Rehobeth beach to walk through a few more shops and have lunch overlooking the boardwalk at The Greene Turtle restaurant. Then we decided it was time to head home. We dropped Allison off to her condo as she was staying for the holiday weekend to celebrate with her friends and Tom and I got home early Friday evening.

Unfortunately, Scott was not able to join us on our mini vacation since he still had school. He is wrapping up the end of his school year with tests and projects. He managed to get himself to school and scouts on his bike. Plus he had dog watching duty. Our friends with their cavachon Ripley were going out of town for Memorial Day weekend and asked if we could puppy sit. Scott had his hands full with the cat and two dogs!  But he did a great job. On Friday night, before we got home he headed off with the Scout Troop to place American flags at the gravesites in the Military Cemetery. This was the Troops 30th anniversary of placing American flags at the cemetery. Scott had to work Saturday afternoon, but when he got home we both packed up the van for an overnight Boy Scout camping trip.

Each Memorial Day Weekend the Boy Scouts camp out overnight at the fairgrounds and help out with a Ham Radio/Technology garage sale held on Sunday morning. The boys help direct traffic and we clean up after the sale. We arrived in time to set up camp and sit down to dinner. We also had the unexpected pleasure of enjoying a High School jazz concert that was being held in the Fairground pavilion.  They had moved their concert from an outdoor venue in case of rain. Most importantly, Scott sat down in the evening with his Scoutmaster to complete his Eagle Conference. Stage II. The meeting takes 2 hrs and the Scoutmaster reviews the Eagle project and then tests the boys on their scout skills, asking questions about safety and first aid, even demonstrating knot tying. Scott passed! So now his application for Eagle is on to the way to the Eagle Board for review. We may get through this process yet! On Sunday morning we were up at 4am for breakfast and set up for the sale. The vendors start showing up around 5am and the actual sale starts at 8am. We were done by noon, but the vendors hung around until 2. The boys were excited to pick up a few treasures. Scott even bought himself a hand held video game! The Troop participates in this camping trip each year since they get paid for working and it gives the boys a chance to work on scout skills, like cooking. Again I was the only female on the trip. I always feel like a den Mom!

I was signed up to work on Memorial Day Monday, so we decided to celebrate our Holiday on Sunday. Tom put on some ribs in the crock pot in the morning and I picked up my Mom in the afternoon when we got back from camp. Allison was still at school enjoying her weekend at Ocean City with her friends. We had a lovely evening sitting out on our deck for dinner, listening to the backyard birds and frogs singing!