Our first week was spent in Applegate, CA (near Sacramento) for Joshua's work conference. The overarching organization that Joshua, through CUNA, works with, People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO), is an international non-profit that encourages the employees to bring their families to the yearly week-long work conference. I've been wanting to attend for years but this is the first time that the trip didn't interfere with my own employment. Alma and I spent our days playing with the other 40+ kids in attendance and enjoying the beautiful Jesuit retreat center where the conference was held. And, at night, Joshua and I would hang out on the patio overlooking the pond and share a crossword puzzle.
Sadly, Joshua's grandmother passed at the beginning of June, so we spent the next week with his family celebrating her life. While it was a sad event, it was so nice to have some time with the Chisholm clan when we had not been planning a visit with them for this summer. We were able to spend a day at Santa Monica beach (photo of Alma and me was snapped by Hayden!), some time in the backyard shooting cans with a BB gun, and Alma had plenty of time idolizing her cousin Hayden.
After a wild trip home -- three days of delayed flights, car rides interrupted with me getting sick on the side of the road (yes, that happened more than once), an eventual red-eye flight home with an overly tired toddler -- we were home for 20 hours before leaving for a trip up to the Adirondacks for a week of relaxing with Kate, Neal (a.k.a. Uncle Fun), their pup Rio and our dog Simon. It was a week composed of all the greatest things: best friends (even Simon had his best friend), delicious food, and an amazing house right on Lake Paradox. We spent days hiking, napping, watching the dogs swim until near-drowning fatigue and our nights were long games of Kate beating us at Settlers of Catan.
