letter to trinity: 73 months

Dear Trinity,

We're halfway through another summer already, and although its been a lot of fun already, I am already starting to dread the return to school. Even though I am at work a lot while you and your Mom are off together, it feels like we're all on vacation. I come home, we go swimming, we make a later dinner, we play outside for awhile, and it doesn't get dark for what feels like forever.

In the last month, we've done a few road trips, and tried to have fun along the way. We went down to Toronto on one trip and we fit in a bunch in the one trip. We went and stayed with friends of ours for an afternoon and a night, and you spent the entire day, evening and next morning in the pool. They keep it at an almost ludicrous 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about the same as a nice warm bath. So its no wonder that you didn't want to get out. I'm surprised you didn't ask for bubble bath.

You also had a really good time on their backyard swing, and have repeatedly asked since for one in our backyard. 

On the same trip, we had a family reunion (mine, not your Mom's). Most of your Grandpa's family came, with a few notable exceptions. We had it at my cousin's house, on a nice sunny afternoon. It was hot, and they have a large, sloping backyard. So it seemed to make sense that they would put down plastic sheeting all the way down the hill, and then have the adults taking turns spraying the hose on it to make a homemade waterslide. You had almost as much fun sliding as you did hosing me down when it was my turn to water the slide. 

Our next stop on this particular trip was to the zoo. And we got to do the coolest thing; petting sharks and sting rays. They've had it there for a few years, but we've never thought to check it out before. This was the right year to do it, because I think that you could have been scared earlier, but this year you loved touching them, watching for them, feeding them. Getting splashed by them. That was pretty cool too. 

Not all we did was travel this past month. We managed to have a 6th birthday party for a certain little girl. This year, we let you pick who was coming to your party, and we had a separate party for just family the next day. So your party was populated by kids from your class, their siblings, and some of their parents. It was quite the crowd, but it was a gorgeous day, and we had a great time. I had a few very anxious moments, because someone (I think it was me) had suggested we take the kids swimming at the lake across the road. So we did, but I ended up being the only adult in the water. With 16 splashing, screaming kids. It was utterly exhausting. But you had a good time, and that's all that ever matters.

I am looking forward to another month of nice weather, hanging out with my girls before its back to another school year.

Love,

Daddy