I am trying to write this now at the end of July, so we’ll see how much of May and June I remember. The last month of school is always a little manic, but this year was especially so because we were so busy preparing for our big family trip to France as well.

We started May off with a concert. We went to see Jack White play at the Moody Theater, and given the rainy weather and the over-scheduling, we nearly didn’t make it in time. Sean tolerated the show for me, and I truly do appreciate it. It’s fun to watch someone who honestly seems like they’re having so much fun performing. White even popped over to the keyboards briefly when his pedal board died, and it was impressive how quickly his crew got things fixed.

Maya participated in her spring beginner band concert at school. It was impressive to see just how much they had improved since the concert in the fall. Unlike the fall concert, for spring, each section (woodwinds, brass, and percussion) had their own piece to perform. The woodwinds got to perform a bit of Over the Rainbow.

Sean tried an experiment to make clear ice. He purchased a rig that employs the concept of “directional freezing.” There’s a big insulated tub (like an itty bitty styrofoam cooler) into which sits some silicon layers that allow the cubes, the water you want, to sit on top and the water you don’t want to collect in the most insulated part of the tub at the bottom. The freezing happens from top to bottom, sort of leaving the impurities that have sunk down in the water to freeze last. It took a very long time for the ice to set up, but once it had done so, we had lovely blocks of clear ice to use in our cocktails. Neat!

Mother’s Day was pretty quiet. I got some kolaches for breakfast, which I love. Sean and the kids gave me a few gifts. We’re trying out a Made-In pan to replace an anodized aluminum one that I had used to death over the course of probably 20 years. Ian made me a snake shaped jewelry holder in his art class, which I have lovingly filled with jewelry.

We had a couple of freak 100 degree days in mid-May. That in combination with our near complete lack of spring rain felt like a harbinger of a terrible summer. (Now at the end of July, I know that not to be true, at least not in the way I was expecting.) Everything was a little slow to bloom, but it eventually did, and we enjoyed a fairly colorful early summer.

Maya managed to borrow a clarinet from school so she could start learning to play it for jazz band next year. We even worked out a single clarinet lesson before school was out, though she had already been messing around with it even before that.

Ian planted a couple kinds of watermelons. We purchased a plant that would produce yellow watermelons. And then we planted seeds from a package of the regular red kind. Everything was growing really well, and I had watered them as regularly as I could before we jetted off to France for a couple weeks.

Sean and I celebrated our 25th anniversary on May 28th. Given all the trip prep and end of school things we were doing, we didn’t really have time to give it much attention, but we did manage to sneak out for lunch that day. We went to a breakfast / home cooking place called Phoebe’s Diner, and it was delightful.

We decided for this big, slightly-more-than-two-week trip to France that we were going to each carry a big backpack with our stuff rather than pack suitcases. This would allow us to not have to deal with checking our bags for the flights. Given that we’d largely be using public transportation and would be moving between locations several times during the trip, it also gave us more mobility when boarding trains, or going up and down stairs to the metro, or walking down cobblestone streets, or hoofing it up several flights of stairs in an elevator-less building.

There are downsides, of course. We had to pack lighter, so we would need to do our laundry a few times while on vacation. Also, it would limit the quantity and type of souvenirs we could purchase, because we had limited space and everything had to be carry-on-friendly. Plus, no matter how well-positioned the packs are on your body, eventually some part of you will feel the weight.

We also made a few changes to limit our carry-on liquids. We tried out laundry detergent sheets, which seemed to work well enough. We bought a couple bars of soap that could be used for body, hair, or to hand wash clothing, if needed. We tried out this “crystal” deodorant that was made of mineral salts. You moisten it and apply it to clean arm pits and it inhibits odor causing bacteria. It seems to be more or less effective, but I’m not sure I’d want to go that route day-to-day.

We tried out a handful of shirts and socks that were all or partially made of merino wool. The idea is that they can be worn for a few days before they actually smell bad, and then once you do have to wash them, they dry really fast. And this seemed to prove out. However, they are expensive and not particularly durable, so I am personally still on the hunt for a better all-around solution.

Sean had purchased some packing cubes that could be compressed. I wasn’t really a believer in them before this trip. From my perspective, I thought that I could pack my stuff much tighter without the added material of a packing cube. As it happens, 1 – I’m not sure that is actually true, and 2 – it was really nice having things organized into the packing cubes, especially during TSA checks and the like.

The kids weren’t crazy about this style of traveling. In the past, they’d only been responsible for little backpacks that held mostly their loveys and their tech. Maya, who has to haul all her stuff around with her at middle school (since they have no lockers), adapted fairly quickly. Ian griped and complained and then did a good job of carrying his stuff around anyway.

Just before we left, Maya had her first visit to the orthodontist. After some imaging, they explained to us that yes, she would benefit from corrective treatment. In deference to her oboe and clarinet playing, we’re going to try to let her try out clear aligners. All of this would start though with a palate expander, which wouldn’t be placed till after vacation.

We went on our big family vacation to France, departing Friday June 6th and returning home Sunday, June 22nd. We went to Paris, of course spent a couple days in the Disney parks there (Walt Disney Studios Park and Disneyland Paris), visited Mont St Michel, saw Nimes and Pont du Gard, and then ended our time with a few relatively relaxing days along the south coast in Nice. Other than driving to and from the airport, we entirely took public transportation (metro, train, bus, tram) except for our trip from the airport to the city when we arrived in Paris because they canceled our train, and to our Eiffel Tower sunrise photo shoot, because it was so early the metro wasn’t actually running yet.

We arrived back in Texas very jet lagged, and me with a nasty cold-like virus of some kind. Sean and I went back to work. The kids lounged around the house. And we slowly, slowly returned things to normal. We were delighted to find that Ian’s yellow watermelon had a fruit on it, a first for us! It looked like the red watermelon plant had tried to fruit but that some creature was nibbling away the fruits before they really had much chance to develop.

And that’s it! We now have a 5th grader and a 7th grader. They have now visited a country where English isn’t the primary language. We came back to a weedy yard but had fruiting plants. Our cats had missed us, so we got tons of interaction for that last week and a half. And since we purposely didn’t schedule any summer camps in June, our poor mistreated children finally got to relax.