Weekend Report

On Saturday, we explored a new park. It is only a couple of miles from where we live, but we've never been there before. The kids absolutely loved it. There were ponds with frogs (yes, already!), they found frog eggs that they ended up "transplanting" to our pond, there was a stream, and there were shiny rocks for their ever-expanding collections. The trails were somewhat neglected, with lots of trees down, so we had to climb over things, or detour, or make our way through the brush. From kids perspective - extra excitement. There was also a cave (that looked like it may collapse any moment, so kids were forbidden to go in), a few dilapidated structures (an old boy scout camp) in different stages of ruin, and random weird stuff, like an abandoned tent and shoe. My husband and I weren't so keen on the park - there was a giant power transmission station there that was giving off a rather off-putting vibration. The giant electric structures are kind of a "meh" sight during a hike. I  prefer my parks away from major roads, power plants, or electric transmission lines.

My husband's parents came for a visit on Sunday. We haven't seen them in months! The weather was beautiful, so we ended up going for a hike and were able to have lunch and dinner outside. After the sun went down, the air turned chilly, so we had the wood-burning stove going. Sitting around it and chatting was pretty awesome. Kids had a blast catching up and telling all about their recent interests, books, and adventures.

I got around to doing some cleaning while listening to a podcast about Hugo-winners in science fiction. Kids watched most of the Hobbit Part I movie. I started re-reading Ender's Game. I read is as a teenager and liked it back then, but I wasn't sure if it would still work for me now. I am semi-surprised to find that I like it very much! It is well-written, the world is interesting (even if I don't totally buy into it), and it's written with compassion. Initially, I got it for my son after he complained that yet another book I got him from the library (Legend by Marie Lu) had too much romance. He liked Ender's Game OK - he thought it was very sad because of all the harsh stuff Ender had to go through (interestingly, he hasn't said much about the ending).

In other news - I got my first dose of vaccine through our hospital system. My sister-in-law and her husband are getting vaccinated through their school districts. I feel like most people we know either already received at least 1 dose or are about to get vaccinated. This doesn't go along with the numbers - our county only has about 20% of population with 1st dose, so maybe it just feels like most people around us are getting vaccinated.