A funeral and some footie

We tried the other side of Sugarloaf this week. So now we have done the green trail (stairs) and the orange trail (very steep rock scramble. Kiernan went up and down with a gusto and told me that he is now training for American Ninja Warrior. Megan scrambled well beyond what I expected her too, and well beyond what most other hikes thought she should/could be doing. They had fun and were quite proud of themselves.

After a well deserved and happily rain free snack break on the top we got back down in time for Megan's nap. For snacks we found CapriSun's and m&m trail mix at Walmart for about 4 bucks each! Yay! Kiernan has been insisting that I try CapriSun because I badmouth it so much. It was better than I remembered but still kinda meh.

 I really like g with the kids and want to do as much of Sugarloaf this summer with the kids as they are up to.I know the longer trails are 7ish miles and they are not quite up to that. Especially my tiny endurance champion of a girl...but more hiking is in our future for sure.

Next Friday if the weather holds we are going to go fossil hunting at Calvert cliffs. Stay tuned.

The next day Aunt Carolyn and Grandpa came up to watch the kids while David and I went to his Aunt Theresa's funeral service.

It was up in Hagerstown so we got a chance to meet up with Lore and check out her place finally.

I saw lots of people I haven't seen since long ago dinners at his parents house in Beltsville. I was so pleased to see that Davids aunt Hilda made it from CA.

I really like is Aunt Hilda. I wish we were in better contact with her. She is not on the internets for all intents and purposes and I am a lousy letter writer.

I have been working on the letter writing thing, mostly to stay in touch with my Grandma Dix in KS. I need to do that more though.

We got together with her and with Ruthie and Lore at Chris and Pammy's place. While the kids played in the pool and the grown-ups caught up I soaked up the warm family feelings and felt very peaceful.

Hilda reminds me so much of my Mother-in-Law. I miss my Mother-in-Law so much. So much of the time.

It was good to be Hilda and be reminded. I wish I could have talked to her more but between watching small Kuehnert's in a pool and other people wanting some time with her, people with a lot more seniority than me on that missing Hilda front, I mostly just hung out near her and thought about family and death and distance and how happy I was to see her.

We have 11 flowers on the tomato plants on the deck and I am so ready for some fresh tomatoes.

I went on a real run for the first time in ages as well. It was only a mile but it was a real run. I had some chest pains and that scared me but not into a panic attack. Kiernan ran the last bit with me. It is part of his American Ninja Warrior training. lol

Also he wants to play Zombies! Run. with me and kept asking for a play by play of the game going on in my earphones.

We rounded the day out by watching the USA vs Portugal World Cup game. Megan got a nasty burn on her finger about 1/3 or the way through the game. She has a blister on her index finger and she cried alot but both kids wound up loving the viewing because Daddy went "GGGOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL"!