It's been too long since Carrie or I have posted, so I thought I'd share a bit about what we've been up to this summer.
Carrie just got back from a mommy vacation with a friend. No kids, no husbands, just the two of them. They went to West Virginia for the weekend. I think she enjoyed it. They mostly sat around and did crafty stuff and talked. She says that WV looks a lot like central Pennsylvania. I can imagine that. I bet I'd like the mountain biking. Anyway, we managed OK at home. Went swimming, ate pizza, stayed up late.
The kids are enjoying summer. We got Dallin a new bike and he probably spends an hour or two a day just riding in circles around our courtyard. Dallin cracks me up. His desire to speak and learn new words definitely exceeds his actual verbal ability, and some pretty funny things result. He has this funny habit of just repeating the last couple words of whatever you last said, often with a question inflection on the end. It really threw him for a loop when I shaved off my beard recently. For about a week he just kept asking me about it and wanting to touch my face. Alas, I already have about two weeks growth on my face again, and now he just talks about how scratchy it is.
Sadie is looking forward to first grade and her upcoming birthday. She spends most the time outside playing. She's lost a bit of the zeal for reading that she had right after school ended, but she did pick up a newspaper when we were in downtown State College yesterday and took it home and asked me questions about all the articles. It was cute.
We went camping a few weeks ago. It was great. We went to Raystown Lake, which is about an hour or so from us. We went swimming, played, hiked, and so on. They recently finished a new system of trails designed especially for mountain bikers. They were amazing. So fun that a week later I went back for a night by myself.
I've had a busy summer. I finally picked up our guitar that had been gathering dust since we got it a while back. I've been playing a bit every day and having a blast with it. It's amazing how much progress you can make it just a little bit of time. I already have the beginnings of a couple songs (well, some really cool chord progressions). I had a revise and resubmit on a paper (my master's thesis, essentially). I just finished that and I'm waiting for the result. I had an outright rejection (fun!), and a professor and I have finished two papers we're submitting right now. So, busy summer from that perspective.
But by far the coolest thing I've done this summer was starting to play rugby. Yes, rugby. It's a blast. I caught a replay of the college national championship between BYU and Cal a while back and just loved it. I started looking around on the internet and found out that Penn State has a team, and that there is a local rugby club for grad students and non-students. I contacted them and they said that they're always looking for new players. So, I started practicing with them over the summer (well, just touch rugby with a mix of girls, high school students, college students, and so on). We just started our real practices and our first match is on the 29th. It's still a bit overwhelming, but the guys have been really supportive and helpful when I mess up or have questions. Great sport, rugby. Very under-appreciated in the U.S. I love the emphasis on teamwork, equal participation, camaraderie, sportsmanship, and respect. Of course, it's brutal and rough, but not in an American football kind of way. More like in a wrestling with your brothers in the back yard kind of way. And it looks chaotic and crazy when you don't know what's going on, but it's actually very organized and controlled. And it definitely requires a lot of teamwork to score.
