Summer Blur

Greetings, dear ones!

My jaw dropped in amazement when I noticed that our last blog entry was more than two months ago. The summer months brought us the most sunshine of the year, and we seem to have let the light and warmth distract us from our family musings. Nevertheless, here I am, and behold - I bring to you the lightning round of The Hayes Family Summer '09.

JUNE

It's Dairy Month here in WI, and we celebrated by visiting the Cows on the Concourse during the Farmer's Market on June 6th. Olivia received sweet kisses from a baby holstein, baby guernesey, and baby swiss brown. It was precious!

I started my worker share at Vermont Valley Farm, a CSA operation in Blue Mounds, just west of Madison. Every Wednesday through October, Olivia heads to Jane's house for the day, and I head to the fields. In exchange for my work, our family receives a box of fresh produce each week. Favorites so far include strawberries, salad mix, kohlrabi, and new potatoes.

I made it to American Player's Theatre in picturesque Spring Green, WI, with Mumsy and Sal for a roaring performance of Shaw's "The Philanderer". We enjoyed a picnic dinner beforehand and toasted Mom's friend (and fellow theatregoer), Bonnie Reinke, for winning the 2009 Governor's Business Plan Contest. The show was witty, satirical, biting, basically everything that makes me love Shaw's work.

Father's Day - Sean's second! Also the day of cousin Holly's wedding. The three of us traveled to the Milwaukee War Memorial, site of the beautiful event. We celebrated Holly and Erik, caught up with family, and enjoyed cheesecake lollipops!

We ended the month in seasonal style and headed to a Brewer's game with old high school buddies of mine. Me, Sean, Bodo (her first pro baseball game!), Allen and Harpo tailgated, picked up bobbleheads on our way in, sat next to Bernie's dugout, and groaned as the Brewer's lost the game after hitting the ball maybe half a dozen times. Ah, well - here's to the peanuts and crackerjacks! (Or lemon ice and ice cream sundaes, as the case may be...)

Logfest '09: On the Road! I roadtripped with Mumsy and Sal to Ohio for Sal's second round of chemo, which had been agonizingly postponed a week due to her low white blood cell count. Fortunately, after a super duper booster shot, Sal's blood counts were high enough to protect all of us from harm that week, and she went ahead with round two. I was so glad to be there with her, to be able to support her in that way. Ben, the conquering hero, ordered us all road trip t-shirts afterward, and I love the memories mine conjures! (A special thanks to Therese and Jane for being with O during the day while I was gone and making this trip possible for me.)

JULY

Happy Independence Day! We celebrated the 4th of July in Verona with Mumsy, Sal, Ben and his parents. We had a wonderful picnic feast and ended the afternoon's festivities with fireworks. (Yes, the men took a fieldtrip - yes, the ladies stayed home cackling and gossiping.) It also happened to be O's first experience with fireworks! She was all over the sparklers, poppers ("Pop!"), and various incendiary creations - that is, until the Crop Circle. For those of you familiar with homegrown fireworks, this one looks like a turtle, spins really fast, makes a high-pitched squeal and is projected into the air with a whizbangboom. Hands over her ears, O hollered and looked at the men disapprovingly before making her exit.

Olivia reached the 18-month milestone this month. Folks, we have a toddler! Our little baby is growing up fast. Her 18-month checkup proved that. O is running, climbing, talking, inventing and oh, is she a blur of energy and laughter. :) She can climb the junglegym at the playground by herself. She is learning more and more words every day (my favorite thing to hear her say: "scratch").

On Saturday we went to a march and rally for health care downtown. We road our bikes to State Street, locked them up, and joined the hundreds of people marching to the tunes of Mama Digdown's Brass Bane and waving "Healthcare for All" placards, among other homemade slogans. Olivia road in her chariot, sign in one hand, cell phone in the other. She was a posterchild for the next generation, let me tell you! It was exhilirating to be out there with everyone and show our support for Obama's health care reforms. Our Representative, Tammy Baldwin, spoke, as well as a couple of doctors and a few citizens with their personal stories to share. We took to the streets and marched for what we believe in!

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Happy summer to all, and to all a good night!