1. The boys and I really enjoyed our trip to Iowa over the past week. I felt good about keeping my promise to them that we'd go back to visit this summer. Done! It was so nice to be back again and to see our wonderful friends and our old familiar places (plus some new ones, namely a trampoline park that opened a few months after we moved that I brought the boys and their friends to three different times during our six-day stay!). I loved being back and part of me really wishes we'd never left and were still living our lives there. But another part of me was glad to come home to Massachusetts. It's weird to wish you lived in two different places, both of which you love dearly, but I'd have to say overall that MA wins. It's my original and ancestral home, after all. But Iowa comes close, and we'll definitely be back to visit. This may turn into an annual summer trip for us!
2. From Iowa to Paris, I saw this pretty picture of the Eiffel Tower with noctilucent clouds in the sky above it that was taken last Friday. How beautiful! I want to go to Paris!
3. Back to Iowa. While we were waiting in the airport in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday morning I got an email from Sonnet James, a dress company that was on Shark Tank that was started by a single LDS mom (at least I think she is, or at least was, LDS). They make super-comfortable and cute mom-friendly dresses, and there was this dress that I saw on their website over the winter that mysteriously disappeared, much to my disappointment. I've been thinking about that dress ever since and checking back on the site for it. Well, the good news this email brought was that the dress was back! Having learned my lesson, I wasted no time and bought it right there in the airport over my phone. 🙌 Hopefully it will turn out to be as cute and comfortable as I think it will be. Wouldn't it be kind of funny if after all that it turned out not to be? I don't think that will happen though. I mean, look at it, it's so cute!
4. I made a summer bucket list while I watched a new Hallmark movie last night (The Last Bridesmaid; it was pretty good). Here are the items on my list, which is pretty Cape-centric:
Go on a whale watch
Go on the haunted history walking tour in Barnstable with my sister who's never done it before
Visit a psychic for fun (Yup! Don't judge!)
Get a pedicure
Go to the Brewster Ladies Library book sale (I'm supposed to be on a book-buying ban for myself but I can't resist this amazing book sale every summer)
Go to a National Seashore beach (barring shark sightings)
Do yoga on the beach. At least once.
Swim in the ocean. Actually swim in the ocean.
Spend a day in Chatham shopping and doing an island tour to see the seals.
Find something cool to get from an antique shop.
Read all of the books that I picked out for my summer reading list.
Use my pool more. Especially with the kids.
Not exactly a ground-breaking summer bucket list, but if all these things happen then it will have been a very fine summer indeed!
5. Speaking of summer, I'm taking July off from blogging and will be back in August to continue documenting the saga of my life. I hope you have a wonderful summer!
