Summer Summer

It's been a long time since we've updated the blog - and two big events have happened since. First - we got new phones! OK, it's not really that exciting, but we can now send/receive texts and we started some Twitter accounts (here is Alison's and here is David's).

The other exciting news is that Nicholas started at GCDC (Goddard Child Development Center) at David's work. He started near the end of June after the end of the school year. The first day was a bit stressful; the new acting Director of the center didn't want to accept the way our doctor filled out Nico's health inventory form. We did some research and found we were in the right, but they still made us obtain our doctor's initials to "prove it was her signature". It took 15 minutes to drive there, 30 seconds in the doctor's office, and then 15 minutes back to the school, and finally Nico was able to start his first day. He's been doing great so far; he was the first kid to start during the summer, so right now his classmates are 3 years old (or close to it) before they transition to their class next year. Of course, he's the biggest kid in the class. We have a really great lead teacher and it's been nice to see all of our favorite teachers from when Sarah went there. Speaking of favorite teachers, we were a little sad when Nico had his last day at Miss Beth's. She'll be moving out-of-state, but hope we'll still see her from time to time.

Sarah has been having a fun summer too after finishing 1st grade. So far, she's been to a camp in Annapolis (Quiet Waters) and went to a gymnastics camp at the Univ. of MD. She's also had swimming lessons and spent some time with her friends, including a couple sleepovers. Next week, she'll been going to a Girl Scout sleep-away camp.

David's softball team is having a .500 season so far. He has a summer student working with him on the NLDAS drought project. The project is getting close to having all 30 years of hourly data online on a new server as well as a new NLDAS webpage.

Alison's been going to the gym just about every day; she's trying to "Reach the Beach". The challenge is to do enough miles on the treadmill, elliptical, and bike before the end of the summer. She's been doing great and has just a few miles miles to go!