Our week minus 4th of July

Kathryn humored me on girls day out and went to the local civil war museum. I have been going to the Monocacy Battle Field sites ever since my lab moved up to Frederick. I have been hoping to devote a full blog post to it as I have some cool pictures. Especially now, as it is the 150th Anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg ,  it feels particularly appropriate to be at civil war sites.

Also to one of the battle field sites. This is one of the barns at Best Farm.

It seems that since 2nd grade we have not matured much (parenthood notwithstanding).

We went hiking at Cunningham Falls and even did a little rock scrambling.

This was a very peaceful girls day out. I have three planned this one was the indulge Missy version. We did lots of things that I like to do, like eat at Family Meal and hike in the woods and various historical explorations. Next week we will go to a big festival concert thing and the week after to a spa. This is a classic list of things I am decreasingly comfortable with and the inverse graph of things Kathryn is increasingly comfortable with. 

So much of friendship is shared experience. We met in 2nd grade and have been best friends ever since but we are so different in many ways. Kathryn is much more social than I am and enjoys more girly things (ie. the spa trip). She is a very driven type A.

We are both book worms and were for various reasons social misfits (more like outcast in my case), because we grew up in such strict (and odd to most people) religious conditions we rebelled about the same types of things and have may of the same odd fears.

It is lovely having her here. It is lovely seeing our crazy kids play together. I worry about how the trip is going from her end but am proud of all we have packed into it so far.

In other news.

We were visited by several super heroes, many of whom featured some lovely tie-dye.

On Saturday morning we got up very early and drove across the Bay Bridge to Chestertown for Kathryn and Aunt Licia to run a Half Marathon. Please check out the link for Licia's triumph and poor Kathryn's suffering.

The area was beautiful and I am happy to report that the language barrier was no problem for Erena and me and our Chestertown adventures.

Once home it was back to the slip n' slide and the sprinkler and a fun visit from Uncle Chris and Aunt Pammy.

Finally Sunday we did a crazy amount of yard work. By we I once again, mean my dad, did an amazing amount. This is vaguely disingenuous as David mowed and assisted with tree removal and Mary and mom did lots of hauling and clean up as well.

Behold the tree that in a bad storm would go right through Kiernan's window.

Behold my father up said tree.

Now for a little mommy peace of mind.

There is a definite need for some privacy screening here but I am so glad to have that tree down. I love trees. I sleep better when they are around. I find them more than soothing...almost essential. I have grown to fear their impact on my children's well being however, after some horrible news stories.

There are a lot of trees left around the property that need to come down because they are too close to the house or they have dead wood or they are leaning our way. I plan on replacing them with new trees. The one that was just cut down is being replaced by a Japanese Persimmon tree tomorrow. Hopefully all the trees we cut down will be replaced by flowering fruit trees. 

I have heard that once you start inquiring about tree cutting costs your insurance company wont cover you for any tree damage that might have been avoided by the tree removal under speculation. That both scares me and frustrates me. I wish I could reasonably pursue safety and improvement without endangering my family's financial security. That seems like the opposite of the comfort insurance is purported to engender.