I’ve started to retreat into my head — my mind is divided between here, Texas, and Abu Dhabi. It’s made harder by the fact that I can’t actually do anything to move ahead. Just like waiting for retirement. Lots of items on my list, but nothing that I can start working on.
Same with Josh. He’s had several days of his new job in-processing, but it hasn’t been work related. Instead it’s seminars on OSHA (workplace safety), health insurance benefits package information, HR paperwork (that still isn’t quite right), and all the important details that don’t apply to him like where employees can take a smoke break. (Interesting fact: they can’t. Not on company property. Smokers have to drive off-site during their lunch hour to smoke.) The point is there’s a lot of brain clutter that we are having to filter through, but between the two of us we’re hopefully latching on to the important bits and dropping the rest.
Before I get caught up in the future, what have we been doing the past few weeks? 
The girls created a spa and spend the morning giving foot massages, applying lotion to hands and feet, polishing nails of anyone willing to sit in their chairs (each chair offered a different service. Super cute — and all the cousins were great sports).
We visited The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. The mystery is why everything inside “the spot” leans weirdly and why water rolls uphill and other strange occurrences that seem to defy the laws of gravity and science. It was fun, but not for anyone who gets dizzy easily. Just walking through the crazy tilted cabin was enough to make me believe that the world really was spinning in this spot.
(I’m a skeptic and think it’s an optical illusion — but a very convincing one)
We headed to Oakland to watch the San Francisco Giants beat the A’s
I would have been happy with either team winning since they’re both my home teams.
And after the game we saw the best fireworks. They were so close that when the first ones exploded into the sky right in front of us, Camille clutched my arm and pressed back into her seat. 15 minutes of amazement and we had the perfect seats to enjoy it. 
Celebrating new clothes — hand me downs are the best!
An exciting visit to the Monterey Aquarium with the youngest cousins.
We celebrated Caleb’s 14th birthday with a salted caramel chocolate cake.
Chicken fun — feeding, petting, and daily entertainment
And more baseball. This time a trip to watch the San Jose Giants (minor league team) and eat the best churros on the planet. This is near the top of my list of things to do next summer. Both for the baseball and the churros. I don’t even love baseball, but there were side games and audience participation events going on every time I looked up from my knitting (the best of both worlds). And a final score of 12 – 5 means there was a ton of action to watch on the field as well.
Four more days of CA vacation for the kids and then they get to run off to South Carolina for another 2 weeks of grandparent fun on the east coast. They will be in for a rude awakening when they have to go back to school, homework, chores, and all of the un-fun of normal life.