Well spring is almost completely sprung and summer is ushering in. June is the one month that the weather in Buffalo seems just right. 75-degree days, evening Jeep rides with the t-tops off, mornings on the porch in the adirondack chairs… now that’s living. Too bad we don’t get 365 days of this sort of thing.
In the weeks since our last posting, we’ve returned to Buffalo and settled back in. Melodia and the kids had enjoyed 6 full weeks in Tampa, FL with Lala and Lalo (Melodia’s parents), and so getting “settled” back into our Buffalo apartment best describes the transition. I have started a rather heavy (5 classes, MWR 1200-330/400p, T 800a-400p) summer school teaching schedule, but we figured, with the economy as it is, taking all the overtime/extra pay one can is probably a good thing. The weather in Buffalo has finally climbed to temperatures that allow us to keep the windows open all night without freezing (though it’s dipped into the 40s a few nights). The pool is open at the apartment complex, but somehow, 76 just isn’t warm enough when it’s water. I take 76-degree air all summer, but 76-degree water is just downright cold. I need about 86-degree water, but unfortunately, this apartment’s pool is not heated. I know, time to move.
So we’re easing into summer and trying to enjoy it. I know that, like this last year, summer may just fly by, too. So we’re trying to soak up all the time we can, enjoying weekend trips and morning (pre-summer school afternoon classes) times together. The start of summer allows us to enjoy one other activity that we’re fond of as a family… looking for “selling toys,” that’s the kids’ lingo for garage saleing.
Every Friday morning we’re out by 8 or 9 with the GPS filled up with the weekend’s garage sales. In two years of doing this as a family activity, I think Melodia and I have each bought about 1 thing. But, the kids always come home with 2 or 3 toys to add to their coffers. And we’re ok with it, as the prices are so minimal. Last week, will scored a new tricycle (that’s motorcycle looking) and McKinely found a large, plastic dollhouse, each for $5 bucks. We also added to our kids’ book collection and scored about 20 coloring books (a good find).
The funny thing is, despite never really buying anything for myself at these, I love the stuff we find for the kids. And most of these sales are loaded with kid’s items. Of course, soon enough, we’ll probably have to have our own sale to sell it all back!
This last weekend we decided to head down to Allegheny State Park and rent a cabin for the night. We’ve been looking at pop-up campers and will likely buy a used one before summer’s out. I think we’ve settled on the pop-up as making more sense than a travel trailer for us right now. We’d even talked about tenting it a few times to see how that goes. In the end, it’s all about just getting the kids out camping. I’m so thankful that my parents did that with my sister and I when we were little. That, coupled with growing up in the country in Michigan, are the two biggest things that likely factored into my lifelong love for nature. I’d like to instill that same love in my kids’ hearts. And it’s not hard to do; the kids love camping… already. It’s almost like it’s innate. Then again, I might argue, we were originally born and raised in a garden, outdoors… I mean, weren’t Adam and Eve both campers?
The cabin was an interesting experience. With Izzabelly at 10 months, any kind of camping with her is still a challenge… bottles, diapers, her crawling around, etc. But nonetheless, we’re braving it. Gotta start sometime, and there’s so many other things that we’ve not started early enough (e.g., swimming lessons).
Allegheny SP was beautiful. We took an evening drive to look for wildlife; the kids love looking for deer. We spotted many deer, a skunk, and a raccoon. I also discovered an Eastern Newt while walking and we enjoyed looking at it, holding it, and looking it up in our Audubon: First Field Guide to Amphibians. We bought the kids the First Field Guide set because they love creatures and learning, and the set helps us to teach them about different things in nature. The bright orange of the Eastern Newt made him especially fun to look at. We also discovered grasshoppers, caterpillars (which Wil enjoyed for the whole day in a makeshift empty waterbottle terrarium), and Osprey atop a telephone pole nest.
We drove all throughout the park on Saturday morning, visiting areas we’d not seen before. I’d been in the park on 2 or 3 other occasions, but Melodia had only been there once. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It made us eager for more, and we should be planning them; but we’ve also been taking the last week day by day.
We’re on the hunt for a new apartment, duplex or country house rental. That’s taking up some time right now. We’ve just outgrown our little 2 bedroom, one year experiment in under 800 square feet. So we’ll be moving stuff in the next month (a task I really dislike). Living in our old North Buffalo house for 3.5 years was nice in that I didn’t move stuff two summers in a row! But, this year, it’s moving, moving, moving…
The thought of working 4 days a week all summer (remember, I have a teacher’s mentality, not a 40 hour, 50 weeks per year mentality) coupled with moving this summer is my gray cl0ud! Getting out on the weekends for adventures, Friday morning garage sales, and things along these lines are my sunshine.
I should also slip in here that I am amazed how much more beautiful my wife becomes with each new day. It’s so unfair. I’m just getting older, grayer, heavier, and she’s just getting prettier, wiser, wonderful-er. It’s really something to behold. I am such a lucky man. She is also my sunshine, and I love her deeply.
That’s a quick recap on us. It’s 65 on the porch this morning, and Wil is riding his scooter on the sidewalk in his pajamas. Behind me, inside the apartment, just past the open screen door, McKinley sits playing with her “new to her” dollhouse. All is as it should be. These moments are treasures.
To all reading, I hope you find these treasures today in your life.
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