No, this isn’t an X-rated post.  It’s about how I have seemed to live perfectly well up until this moment without owning a laptop computer, but that since we’re on this road trip I can’t seem to do without one!!

Thank goodness for hotel lobbies with with communal computers for checking email.  And for the fact that I could remember a few passwords!

The trip is going very well — we’re having a great time and we’ve seen 2 Missions already — and I’ll be posting photos and more details next week. (Something I could be doing RIGHT NOW if I owned a laptop.  That’s all I’m saying.)

An original post by Sarah Auerswald.

Summer
vacation has begun, and we have Big Plans around here.

First
of all, we’re heading off this week on the California State School Curriculum
4th grade Mission Tour.  

 You see,
all 4th graders in California public schools study California History, and part
of that history is the story of the Spanish Missions that dot the coastline of
California from San Diego to San Francisco.  And since my oldest is entering 4th grade in the Fall, it’s Time.

 And part
of 4^th grade is the ritualized creation of the Mission Diorama.  It’s a Rite of Spring, and is marked by the careful transport of the dioramas, which are quite large and unwieldy, from home to school without dropping and breaking them (hopefully), although it
has been known to happen.  (Heartbreak.)

 It used
to be that families worked tirelessly to create their 4^th grader’s
diorama, using clay and plaster, tiny action figures for the Mission personnel,
little plastic animals to show the livestock, and lots of sphagnum moss.  Just to have.  Take a look.

 But now
there are kits.  KITS.  They are sold at Michael’s.  UGH.  So pre-fab.  So
cookie-cutter.  So it’s not for MY
kid.

 So we’re
off and photos and more information will follow.  I admit I don’t know that much about the Missions myself,
which is part of the reason we’re going. 
We never stop learning.

An original post by Sarah Auerswald.

Yes, it was the first official day of summer vacation for my oldest son, and we celebrated by having a little sushi lunch, seeing Indiana Jones and having a rousing game of balloon volleyball.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  

My son wants short, spiky hair, but he has long, flowing hair.  Isn’t that always the way?  Greener grass over there, and all that.  But everyone he knows has short hair that he can spike up and so he wants his own.

 Seriously, the washcloths at Motel Six don’t even RESEMBLE elephants.

An original post by Sarah Auerswald.

At least, Batman and Superman do.

I don’t want to make fun of IronMan, but he did sink, like a stone.

An original post by Sarah Auerswald.

It’s official: I’m going to the BlogHer conference in San Fran in July!  I’m so psyched!