We here in the Tassava family took the challenge of the first day of summer pretty seriously, and - I don't mean to brag - we kicked some summer butt.
We started by ending Friday with a bang. It had been, as Shannon reported, rather a rough day, but we capped it - and tried to divert the girls - with a post-dinner trip to the city pool (half price!). The girls enjoyed themselves, even if they're not exactly amphibian like some kids their ages.
Saturday morning was consumed by the usual flurry of errands, but the afternoon sent the girls and me out for a long trip around campus, which I described in part yesterday. I left out one choice bit, though. Walking past at this wall of greenery,
Julia stopped, turned to study the leaves, and said in a funny little sing-song, "I wonder if there are any an-i-mals in here?" Trying to keep Vivi from stumbling over a tree root, I mumbled something about how there were probably birds and bugs and maybe a squirrel in there. Julia, still peering into the leaves, responded, doubtfully, "Are you sure there aren't any bears or zebras in there?"
We couldn't confirm this preschoolerish hope (fear?), but we did see some amazing images cast by reflections of windows on the west end of Laird Hall onto the east wall of the library.
Both Friday and Saturday were excellent summer days, but today was the real deal - ideal temperatures, almost entirely sunny, a nice breeze, and blue skies that would shame Provence.
We took full advantage, heading out in late morning for a big trek to the Arb. We had one mosquito-induced false start and then had to persevere through one of Vivi's truly unbelievable crying fits. Here, she's tantruming well behind us because we all figured, why be close to her when you can be 25 yards away, not hear the screaming, but still keep a good eye on her.
Once Vivi banked the fires of her rage, we had a pretty nice walk around the area near the Hill of Three Oaks. The girls climbed on the (rather moving) memorial to Shelby Boardman, a beautiful ring of big cut rocks; they gathered good stones and ran up and down the slopes; and we all admired views like these:
If the weekends over next three months bring half this much fun, we'll have had a great summer 2008.