Some like it hot

We started our summer vacation with a great schedule.  As soon as Monday rolled around, Gillian started her theater rehearsal.  She auditioned for Annie, and although this was her first musical performance, she was able to get a good part, that of Grace, the secretary.  This was a perfect match for Gillian's personality and voice.  Her rehearsals ran every day from 1 to 4, so we decided we would get our chores, school, and reading done in the morning, and then spend the rest of the day at the pool while Gillian rehearsed.  And that's what we did.  When Gillian was over with her theater practice, I would leave the boys with my friend Christina or my mom, pick Gillian up, and then continue swimming till dinner time.  It was the best and most relaxing schedule that I've ever come up with.  There was no rush and all the necessary things were taken care of. While the boys played the whole time in the water, I read or talked to my mom or Christina.  The best part of this whole thing was that Charlton overcame his fear of water and is "swimming" all by himself.  When his two older brothers were diving and swimming with each other, he either played with his grandmother or just by himself.  We will definitely keep this schedule for most of the summer.

 

Besides swimming and acting, these last two weeks of June were filled with productive and fun activities.  Elijah took the boys camping one night for their father and sons annual experience. The boys were on cloud nine.  Mom was with us, so Gillian and I didn't get the one on one afternoon experience.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed shopping, eating out, and then when mom went to bed, Gillian and I watched Jane Eyre movie, the BBC production.  Needless to say, we were on cloud nine, too.

One night we joined our friends at Chuck E. Cheese and let the kids go wild.  I don't usually like going to this place (it's too noisy and dirty for my taste), but when you have friends to talk to, and the kids have their own friends to play with, time goes by fast.  This time even Charlton was having a good time playing on his own.

Another night, I took mom to the movie theater to watch The Fast and the Furious, which had been out for a couple of weeks.  We went to the early afternoon showing, and to our surprise we had the theater all to ourselves.  Just before the movie started, we were joined by three more couples, but that was it.  Mom thought that was awesome.

We closed our June experiences with a hike on the hottest day of the month.  Jefferson' scout den had planned a 3-mile hike on Mount Diablo, followed with a few scout activities such as learning how to put a tent up, making fire, cooking and washing, keeping the park clean, etc.  We could drop our scout off, and then pick him up when they were done, but since siblings were allowed, I decided to take part as well.  I love hikes and I thought the kids would love it oo.  Charlton was tired in the end, but he did it!  He loved being in the big boys' league.  We really did enjoy the whole experience, but it sure was hot!  No worries; as soon as we finished, we went straight to the pool.