Countdown: 15 days

We're down to four fingers (in binary).

This morning, Rachel came to wake me up a little after seven, because she wanted to go for a bike ride. I had been dragging my feet on this because my bike needs a tune-up: the rear derailleur was acting up on the ride home after bike to work day. After we had breakfast, Lydia woke up too, and also wanted to go, so I eventually settled on a plan to take the girls' bikes in the car to Frick Park and let them ride on the Nine Mile Run trail, while I walked. Nicole decided to join us with Colin. We had a good time there, and saw three deer in a stand of trees just off the trail.

This afternoon, we went back to the park for a hike. It was the birthday party of one of Rachel's classmates. We met at a neighborhood park (really just a grassy area that neighbors have added plastic playground equipment too) adjacent to Frick Park, and walked onto the trail from there, doing a loop in about an hour. We saw multitudes of tent worms, and one black snake. Back at the park, we had food and birthday cake.

I hope this is not our last time on those trails, which have been a favorite destination over the last few years, but I don't know what we'll have time for in the next two weeks.

Back home, we went immediately to the neighbors' (uphill) for a barbecue. The girls donned swimsuits to play in the wading pool. Several other neighbors joined us, and we ate and socialized until after 9pm. Nicole brought over some sparklers and glow sticks for the kids to play with. They've been sitting around our house for ages, and we weren't taking them with us.