A Six Word Summer

If I was asked to describe our summer in six words (in no certain order) I would respond with "baseball, travel, death, pigs, swimming, and running".

Baseball
We ended Little League Season with a solid record and quickly transitioned to travel ball practices all summer.  The recent wildfires

have created hazardous air quality and have put a bit of a damper on practices.  Last year both boys went to a baseball camp at the University of Oregon in Eugene and this year we brought along seven more boys from Scott Valley.  All of the boys had an absolute blast and the moms really enjoyed themselves too.  Luckily Uncle Jim took all of the boys (and their younger brothers) one night so that the moms could watch a Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert.  Carter set his intentions on daily baseball practice this summer with so many buckets of balls, hits, or throws.

Travel
We left for Cabo San Lucas for the first whole Isbell Family Vacation in 20 years just two days after school got out.  Upon landing my mother in law inquired as to when Hurricane season was.  Bradley assured her that there has never been a Hurricane this early.  We spoke too soon.  The next morning we woke up to reports of "Hurricane Bud: The earliest Hurricane ever!"  Luckily it downgraded to a tropical storm, but still cut out 80% of all possible beach and pool time.  Remember that scene  in Home Alone 2 when the family is watching movies in their Orlando hotel room when the winds and rains were just hammering?  Yep, that was us.  It was clearly evident as the massive amounts of water came pouring in that despite the modern buildings, we were dealing with third-world infrastructure.  I went out for a run and didn't realize why all of the workers were wearing rubber boots (no rain jackets or hats) until I realized I was running through raw sewage and possible exposed electrical.  Overall, it was a really great trip with many laughs, lots of fun drinks, lots of authentic Mexican food, and no food poisoning.  The kids enjoyed every moment and are longing to return for more beach time.

We also took time on my birthday weekend to travel to Sacramento and San Francisco.  We took the boys to see ZZ Top at the county fair and then Chris Stapleton the next night. We capped off the weekend with a Giant's game where both boys got several signatures and two game balls.  The last morning mom ran a half marathon and her main men greeted her at the finish line with a ride to Sears for brunch. 

We also managed to get a hike into a new to us mountain lake with friends.  Statue lake did not disappoint and neither did the fishing.

Speaking of fishing, Bradley took a guys trip to Trinidad and brought back a bounty of Lingcod, Rock Fish, and crab.  The crab was a bit of a surprise and the guys were pretty happy to roll in at 10:30pm at night to pots full of boiling water with Old Bay and a crab cleaning station set up courtesy of the wives. 

Death
Sadly, we lost Bradley's grandma and our boys' Great-Grandma Cora earlier this summer.  Grandma Cora has been a constant part of Bradley and our boys' entire lives.  She always treated me as if I was her own granddaughter (complete with all of her pearls of wisdom and advice).  She was tightly interwoven into nearly every aspect of our lives and there wasn't an event that she wasn't at .  All of this makes a loss so much harder.  Her consistent presence ensures sad moments in nearly daily activities.  The silver lining of her passing was the ability to spend a lot of time with family both to prepare for her service and to put on an Estate Sale to prepare her home to be put on the market.  We had sore muscles from muscling decades of treasures and sore bellies from laughing at discoveries. 

Pigs
Carter began his pig farming career this summer.  Hunter Pence was our butcher hog and Aunt Edna is his fair pig.  It's been a steep learning curve for all of us.  Hunter Pence has already been butchered and we transport Aunt Edna to the Siskiyou Golden Fair tonight (after one last clipping and whitening bath).  Carter has gotten up every morning that we have been home to feed/water and over the last month and a half walk his pig.  He is not old enough to sell his hog at the fair, but he will enter showmanship as part of his 4H club.  There's a lot to showing pigs.  Did you know that pigs love marshmallows?

 That's right, some consistent guiding nudges with a whip and a marshmallow and you can manipulate the behaviors of a pig pretty easily.  Pigs also love to be bathed.  At least Aunt Edna does.  Her eyes literally roll back in her head.  Want to know something else really interesting about pigs?  They can get lice.  Yes.  Lice.  From new pine shavings.  There's noting like having to explain to the checkout clerk (who is sorrowfully looking at your young son as you are buying lice shampoo at your smalltown grocery store and says "Good luck mom!) that NO, this lice shampoo is for our pig.  The clerk looked back at me like, "I've heard that one before!"  Nothing says love like picking out dead lice eggs from your son's fair pig.  Rest assured, Edna is lice free and so are we.  Luckily humans can't get this kind of lice. 

Swimming
The boys begrudgingly went to swim team practice every day that we were home this summer.  This meant that they had to get their animals fed, eat breakfast, and do some sort of school work before we made it out the door.  They both made huge gains and earned several ribbons and one high point award at our county meet.  They much prefer to swim in our warm saltwater pool in our back yard where they could be found every afternoon and every evening.  Many great memories were made at our pool this summer with friends.

Running
The air quality has forced me in on the dread-mill much more than I would have wanted, but I've still logged hundreds of miles this summer.  I enjoyed a podium finish at the 4th of July run.  Our whole family joined in the fun and Carter was seconds away from a podium finish.  Miles and I also competed in the local YMCA cross country series and placed quite well. 

I also spent a bit of time still "running" a school by completing an extensive playground renovation which has been recently completed.  I'm very proud of the community efforts and grant partnerships that were a part of this project.  I'm so happy that our students will have a "state of the art" place to play. 

At the end of every summer, people always ask "where did it go?".  That's easy, it went into moments, and movements, and memories.  Here's to starting up a new school year with the rejuvenation that summer brings, but let's hold the lice.