what's your 20

it has been busy around here! it's always crazy when campers arrive. it has been so much fun to be here as returning staff since i already have a relationship built with the kids. we have inside jokes and they say hi to me from across fields. most importantly, they remember a lot of the skills they learned in the leadership class i taught.

in culinary academy we made open faced quesadillas with lime sour cream sauce, and yesterday we made bruschetta. i think only one kid of 10 had ever had it before, so it was a new experience for them. lots of them claimed not to like tomatoes, but they thought it was pretty good. the best part was when i called over the walkie to tell the staff we had some extra if they'd like to try a sample, and 5 people arrived at the door, panting, in the next 30 seconds.

tonight we're watching a movie in the pool. a dive-in movie. funnnn, fun.

flim flam

a few more. 

the whole fam

gram and spanky's party clothes hanging up in their bathroom

mutti and my cousin ann

us and gram

the kids i taught leadership skills to last year got here today. you always have a secret fear that none of them are going to remember/care about you, but a bunch of them ran up to me when they got off the bus, and they all seem to remember lots of inside jokes. some of them grew several inches. one girl grew so much, she tore a tendon in her leg. 

today we just did opening day check in stuff. tomorrow is low ropes. should be funnn.

new hampshire

random pictures from gram's, part 1.

 peonies from the garden

 our cousin, hunter, and matt

 gram in her nightgown this morning

 lobstah!

 spanky

jeff and i

 the porch

 faj

 uncle rich, fajjy and spanky working on the car

 gram and jeff

 minky

 me

 gram and jeff

 steve and spanky

jeff, gram, matt and i

:)

time to go to camp! i'll try to upload some later in the week, but the internet is incredibly slow there. 

purple mountains majesty

happy fourth of july, all! it is usuuuually one of my favorite holidays, but there's not been a lot of rain in texas lately, so all of the fireworks were canceled this year. they had them at the lake, but after 4+ hours on a plane today, i couldn't talk myself into the hour-long drive. but i did get to see nirav, bec and her parents briefly in the airport in austin. bec & nirav were headed back to DC when i got in to austin.

one story before bed. ..so i came a week ahead of the fam to NH, as you know. they were dropped off by one of matt's roommates, johnny. then he drove my mom's car back to their house, and it's been there all week. i texted him this morning to tell him i'd be there 6ish to get the keys/car. he said ok. they were throwing a big bbq.

matt and his roommates are awesome. arguably the most awesome is david f. he also happens to be the only neat one of the 3 roommates. unfortunately, he's out of town all summer. so when i was dropped off, i walk in to their house, and there is stuff covering every single available inch of counter space. food, dust, cups, etc. so at first, when johnny couldn't find the keys, i was expecting we would pick up a solo cup and see them underneath.

but as minutes ticked by, hope waned. johnny asked a friend, another david, if he had seen any keys. at first, he said no. thennn he remembered they had found a random set of keys the other day. were they VW keys? with a flip key? yep. where were they? maybe david's house, maybe his friend courtney's.

so i took a seat outside, on the picnic table johnny had cut, stained and bolted together the previous month, while i waited for david to go look for them at his house. i chatted with some of matt's friends while i waited. they thought i was his younger sister because i have a quiet voice. i guess one day i'll appreciate people thinking i'm much younger. anyhow, 20 minutes later, david reappeared with the keys, and i was off.

time for bed. camp tomorrow!
ps i can't find my camera card reader anywhere. but frys has them for $5. so i'll post pictures in the next week or so, internet allowing.

sunday

i didn't take any pictures on my phone, so i can't show you anything yet, but my grandparent's anniversary party was today. it was a lot of fun. 75 people.. friends, neighbors, family. it's always interesting for me to go to those things because a lot of people's mental image of me is as a 4 year old with platinum blonde hair running around in dresses with puffy sleeves and mary janes on. they kept coming up to me and saying 'you have to be Megan.' fun to put faces to names. everyone thought jeff was the official photographer because he was wearing all black, walking around with my camera and his around his neck.

jeff and matt and i sat with two sets of neighbors at dinner.. one past, one present. fran and gene, who currently live down the street. norma and her sister deedee, who lived in their neighborhood 30 years ago. gene kept telling me i needed to get married. norma told him to shove it and that she got married at 38 and had her son at 41 or something. deedee never got married and was a VP at time magazine. we chatted about hiking the great wall. they are two cool ladies.

afterward, all of the family ended up at gram's. hunter, our 5 year old cousin, was dancing up a storm. jeff is trying to make this video go viral, so feel free to fwd it to 10 of your closest friends ;)


i fly home tomorrow. dad is staying in NH for the week, and the rest of the fam will be in NY for a bit visiting my mom's family.

ripley is at some kennel while everyone's gone. my mom bought her 'beach club' every other day after hearing she would be spending her days in a small cage all by herself. with beach club, she gets to go swimming and play frisbee. hopefully she's having fun.

lobstah

hooray for lobster day!

lobster is delicious, but man is it rich. once a year is enough for me. we hit the food highlights today. newicks chowder for lunch and lobster for dinner at the house.

matt and jeff also figured out how to make a cool panoramic photo of the backyard.. you should be able to click and drag one side to spin around in a circle and see it from every angle. this was the first attempt.

the second one is from 'down in back' as gram says. it's a little further down the hill.

if you look closely, you might see a hidden matt or two. it's also kind of funny to look down and see their disembodied feet.

1,000

for my 1000th's post (on blondeintaiwan and coincidenceless combined), i'm going to share the secret to 65 years of marriage. this is part of a love letter my grandpa wrote to gram in 1948, 2 years into their marriage:


My very dearest sweetheart;
...
Jean honey I love you so very very much I just could hug and kiss you forever. I think we are more in love than anybody has ever been. Our lives just belong to one another, everything I do I think of you and I know you are always thinking of me because I feel you so close to me even when we are a thousand miles apart.

Please give Richie a lot of kisses and hugs for me and tell him I miss him. I'll call you tomorrow evening.

All my love always,
Len
Goodnight and sweet dreams darling
 

(editor's note: the picture at the top is of my grandparents and some of their neices and nephews, i think. the woman sitting in the chair is one of my great aunts. at that point, they only had one boy.)