Off to camp!

Amazingly, Sylvia’s camp in New Hampshire wasn’t cancelled this summer. Her time there was cut from 4 weeks to 2, but that’s okay with us...we’re going to miss her!

Drop-off was also a bit different. She had her temperature taken and a COVID test nasal swap while we were in the car, and then we said our goodbyes through the window (I wasn’t allowed to get out of the car). Fortunately Syl is an experienced camp-goer and was fine with me taking off! 

Hazy Days

July has closed out HOT in New England. Syl was supposed to be in strict quarantine this week, so she didn't complain too much when we said Kaileigh could come over, but they had to stay outside. They set up a pop-up studio in the trampoline (and got eaten alive by the bugs!).

Soph doesn't mind the heat. We think she kinda likes it.

Due to the quarantine and the weather, we have not done our full-blown QuaranTeam gathering for a while. We've missed it! So when the Holsts came by for a quick dog romp, we pulled Brendan over with Tucker. We'll resume when Syl gets back from camp!

Hot weather also means thunder storms. Bruschi gets more and more nervous about those, so we got him this "Thunder Shirt." It zonks him right out (though it doesn't totally alleviate his anxiety). I call it his "hug shirt." We could also call it his "wuss shirt." He's a big baby when it comes to the boomers.

Come evening, the dogs like to "share" the couch with Melissa.

Rapunzel?

Covid hair is a thing. Sylvie has that thing.

More and more art!

Syl is pretty humble about her drawings. She has a "tell," though. She signs the ones she is particularly pleased with. Here are a few she generated in the week before camp, while she was (mostly) quarantined.

This first one is Noodle, from Gorillaz - one of her favorite groups (that just happens to be way into Manga). 

A lot of what Syl produces these days is in response to various prompts from a community of artists she is a part of on the social site, Pinterest. This is her take on a portrait someone teed up. She thinks she isn't good at realistic faces. I beg to differ!

Here's another Pinterest challenge. She was given a set of random characteristics and had to generate a character. This is an athletic, whimsical Orc.

Escape to normalcy

It is always a treat to visit the Greens' lake house at Winnie, but never more than this year! Of course two family members were deeply displeased to find no room in the car for them...

Restrictions being what they are, this was a smaller crowd than in most years: we and the Duffys were fortunate to make the cut.

We had some unexpected dinner entertainment on night one. Syl has quite the little uke routine going for her!

We handled dinner night two.

Sunday featured a gorgeous hike - UP!

Syl is surprisingly good at the "king of the float" competition. Must be the leg muscles from all our bike riding!

And of course I did my jet ski duty.

All my photos of the trip are linked here!