My dear Artie-heartie,

You’re on your final dwindling weeks of lazy summer. In just a couple of weeks, the busy time will begin, with band camp, Mubby/Skitter week, and Miniatures Camp on the horizon. After that, you’ll barely have time to catch your breath before school starts in the end of August. Fortunately, you’ve been doing a lot of solid resting up to this point in the summer. I hope you’re thoroughly recharged.

We recently got home from our big family summer vacation, a road trip to Ithaca, New York. The primary purpose of the trip was to reunite with some of my extended family. That was lots of fun for me but slightly less so for you, as you’re not the most social of people. I think it was also hard because it was a big group of mostly strangers, and you felt awkward and uncomfortable with the cousins who were around your age. After a while you warmed up a bit, especially after getting acquainted with my aunt and uncle’s dogs. You were also a sweet caretaker to some of the littler kids. I understand that it’s hard to find common ground with people when you feel like an outsider. I’ve felt that way many, many times before. It’s also hard when you’re an introvert and have to spend so much of your energy trying to make conversation with strangers. I hope, as you grow, that you find ways to address those feelings of discomfort and power through them. I’m sure a lot of your cousins would have enjoyed getting to know you better.

You seemed to have fun in the parts of the trip that required less intense socialization. We visited a beautiful natural area called First Dam that had a couple of waterfalls and swimming hole. I wished we’d brought water shoes, because the bottom was pretty rocky. You were brave, though, and you made it all the way across to the far side and stood under the waterfall.

After we finished up the family togetherness in Ithaca, we took a couple of side trips to the Corning Museum of Glass and Niagara Falls. I think you had a lot of fun at those locations. The Corning Museum of Glass excursion was your dad’s idea, but we all ended up enjoying it. We saw a lot of interesting modern and ancient glasswork, and you especially liked a glass chess set you saw displayed. You and your siblings also did an ornament-making project, in which you designed and helped make a blown-glass holiday ornament. They were too hot to take home the same day, so we had them shipped to our house. They arrived a few days ago, and I was so impressed with how they turned out. They’re very beautiful, and I know we’ll enjoy getting them out to hang on the Christmas tree every year. They’re quite heavy and substantial, so we’ll have to be extra careful to hang them on a strong branch.

Niagara Falls was fun, and everyone really got a kick out of the ride on the Maid of the Mist. I didn’t get any pictures from the most dramatic moments, because we were getting sprayed way too much by the giant waterfalls to risk taking out my phone. We all had a good time, though the Canadian wildfire smoke was most noticeable there. From what I understand, it drifted to our home city in a really bad way while we were gone, and we were fortunate to be elsewhere.

The only bad part of the trip was that right around Niagara Falls, the air conditioning in Skitter’s van stopped working. We had been enjoying the spacious luxury of the van for most of the trip, and aside from a few periods of heavy rain, it was an easy drive to Ithaca. Those two hours between Niagara Falls and Erie, Pennsylvania, were pretty challenging. The sun was beating down on my through the windshield as we headed west into the sunset, and we didn’t want the windows open too much due to the poor air quality. Once we arrived in Erie, your dad did some calling around to see if anyone could fix it for us, but no one could get us in. Luckily, the rest of the drive featured more cloud cover and less smoke in the air, so it was easier to find moderate comfort. Also luckily, the fix for the air conditioning wasn’t too complicated or expensive. You and your siblings did remarkably well. I credit the extra space provided by the van. You didn’t bicker or squabble at all. We listened to audiobooks and made frequent stops for cold beverages and snacks, and we all survived.

Your current favorites: cream soda, pasta, Chex Mix, online chess, the TV show Lost (which I enjoy discussing with you, but you’re way ahead of me in the rewatch schedule), making and playing Scratch games, ice cream, stay up late and sleeping in late.

I hope you enjoy your last couple of weeks of relaxation before things start getting busy again. I like having you around, though I also acknowledge that it’s good for you to be out doing things. You are not exactly excited about the outdoorsiness and physical challenge that come with band camp, but I know you’ll be glad you did them (eventually, maybe many years in the future).

Love,

Mom