High Five for Friday (7.7.17)

1. Though I have nothing but love for my mailman, I don't feel the same way about the post office. Two years ago they lost multiple packages of mine (both those I sent and those others sent to me) and when I went to the facility hoping to remedy the situation, I waited for nearly an hour while the staff yelled at Will and Hallie (Will for leaning over a line divider and Hallie for singing), couldn't locate my packages, and called me "Mama" multiple times. I haven't returned since.

Last Thursday a letter - written by and sent from Will while at camp - arrived in our mailbox. Will had forgotten, however, one absolutely essential aspect of mailing a letter...he neglected to affix a stamp to the envelope. The post office noticed Will's error and pointed it out via a "postage due" note where the stamp should have gone, but as if they knew how much I needed to receive all of my son's letters from camp, they delivered the letter anyway.

I have no plans to start using the post office again (I mail packages at UPS and buy stamps at the grocery store), but just this once they came through for me when I needed them most.

2. Every year it gets harder and harder to bid farewell to our friends in Texas when we embark on our summer vacation. I consider this a high five-worthy circumstance, however, because it means our lives have been graced with friends worth missing.

3. Speaking of summer vacation... We could not have imagined a more uneventful cross-country road trip. We left town on time, our stops were quick and easy, we found an affordable and comfortable hotel with a pool on our first try, we ate well for every meal, Will and Hallie loved their new Spy Kids movies, Tom and I became engrossed in our book on CD, our new car (on its first truly long drive) proved its worth, we made excellent time hitting very little accident/construction/holiday traffic, and perhaps most importantly, the kids hardly fought. After years of road tripping with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers and enduring all of the challenges traveling with this demographic presents, this year we reached the traveling-with-kids sweet spot. Hallelujah!

The highlight (?) of our trip was running into this road runner in OK.

4. Upon arriving in Madison last Saturday night, we quickly unloaded the car, grabbed our jackets (bonus high five for weather that prompted me to consider bringing jackets), and headed down to the Union. The kids enjoyed science experiments, fireworks demonstrations, face painting, and ice cream while the grown-ups enjoyed Wisconsin beer, plentiful snacks, and live music courtesy of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band. Oh, and we bought donuts on the way home (my favorite donut shop caters to the college crowd by staying open until 2am) which meant I had donuts for dessert that night and donuts for breakfast the following morning. I should probably fit in an extra workout or two this weekend...

 

5. It has been six years since Tom's entire family has come together at the Lodge. Our numbers were smaller then - we've added a spouse and a child since - and seeing the growing crowd (especially the three cousins) in one place brought out all the feels.

Happy Friday, Chasing Roots!

Linking up with High Five for Friday here: