take a moment and be jealous

Today: Partly Cloudy - High: 102
Partly sunny skies will help push temperatures over 100 this afternoon. It will be our 67 day of 100+ degree temperatures this year. A cold front drifting south out of north Texas will be the focus for a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms.

I also heard that there is chance that next week's temperatures will hover in the low 90's and I stopped to wonder if I should break out my sweaters yet.

first

I am not sure what is harder to believe: that the summer is over or that JT is in first grade.
Our first day of first went off with little fanfare. JT is excited about his teacher and class mainly because Mrs. Ramirez has a snake in her room. His best buddy William is in a different class but JT said he was okay with that because he knows that they can meet up on the playground.

Zachy's school closed in the spring and we didn't find a new school. Zachy is going to start some golf lessons and we are looking in to music classes to help keep him busy.

dollhouse

During our visit, I spent time with Nana in the basement going through some boxes of my old stuff. One of the boxes had my Fischer-Price dollhouse. Zachy wanted to see the dollhouse so we set it up for him. Once it was up, he spent hours in the basement playing with "his" dollhouse. He made a few adjustments to the layout that Nana and I weren't too sure about including the addition of some horse (one was named Gusto) to the living space.

The Coolest People in Muncie

We were sad to leave Nana Juju's and Grandpa Pete's house but we figured we had imposed on our dog and cat caretakers a little too long and there is that pesky little thing callled school starting this week that JT needed to be home for.
Unlike our ride out we decided we'd do three days of straight driving but we couldn't miss a chance to stop in Muncie, Indiana to visit our old grad school buddies Todd and Jackie and their boys. We had a fabulous visit, although it was a bit short, and hope that we can get together again soon.

Buffalo

What would a trip to NY be without a few days in Buffalo? Having spent many of my childhood summers in Buffalo, I was excited for the boys to see and experience some of the things that I had has a child.
Two days was too short but we are thankful that we were able to spend the time with Paula and Ed. Of course, the boys loved being at Paula's house with all the animals especially her horse Melody Ellen. Zachy has taken to renaming Mama Horsey (note that Paula is the one that originally sent Mama Horsey as a gift) Melody Ellen.
I took over a hundred photos of our few days, many are of the boys on the horse but I won't bore you all with those. I've picked a few of my favorites.

Serendipity

About a month prior to our vacation, Michelle and I had one of those rare special moments where we got to talk on the phone for more than 10 minutes without any sort of interruption. After catching up on recent family activities we discussed our vacation plans and learned that our paths were going to cross in the lovely state of NY. The Nguyens were heading back to Minnesota after a week long vacation in Boston at the same time that we were in Oswego. Since they were planning on going to Niagara Falls on their way home, Oswego was a perfect resting point.
Our visit was brief and included a trip to the Urgent Care after Owen broke his collar bone but we enjoyed every minute and were thankful that we got to hang out. Hopefully the Nguyens will be back in Texas soon.

Corning Glass Museum

Our first venture out of Oswego was to the Corning Glass Museum. We weren't allowed to take photos at the Corning Glass Museum which is sad because they had some of the most amazing pieces of glass artwork that I've ever seen. The museum is huge and we didn't even get to see half of their exhibit. Truly amazing was the special exhibit, the Heineman Collection, which was a private collection of a Chicago couple. I think we got up to the Early European glass in our tour of the History of Glass before we had to break for lunch and then go to the boy's class.
The museum offers several classes including glass blowing. The boys took a sandblasting class because it allowed them to take their item home that same day.