broken record

       Jack turns four tomorrow. He's pretty great. I remember spending most of the summer after eighth grade mothering this child, and sometimes I miss that. Now, Gabe is in the same stage, but I am much more shallowly involved with him.

       I feel almost like we're living on a loop; Max is returning home in just 28 days, and he'll meet for only the second time his little brother Gabriel, who is now the same age that Jack was when he left two years ago.

       As the only kid too young to have a job and old enough to keep small children alive, I was Jack's foster mother pretty much. I maintain that this is the year Ash and Anna and I grew apart. Because I was bossing them around all the time. Because Mom was locked in the office making phone calls all the time. And as a final side note, my dad and I went to Target late one night recently, and he remarked that he "really doesn't like driving late at night in the summer." So I asked him why, and he said that it's because he "gets flashes of when he had to fix Mom's campaign signs. PTSD.")

       We're excited for Jack's birthday and the fireworks that always accompany it. Last year they made him cry; this year he cheers and wants them to be louder. 

       Have a great week!

       Love, Grace

Date with Tate. This one's kind of funny, because he asked me out for his birthday but he didn't know that he had a surprise party. It was kind of tricky to get him back home after dinner without sending up a red flag. But we made it alright:) whole thing was a blast overall.

awkward semi-candid

Youth conference at Snow ("Snoow much fun!")

 Gerald the water balloon

17 July 2015-18 July 2015

RIP

 I think the total dead rat count so far this season is three, and one time years ago Jens almost mowed up a live rattlesnake, but the crow is a first. We debated whether the crow's being dead doubles or cancels out the whole harbinger of death thing.

 These three photos are pretty typical Jack fare. I had a couple dozen of these. Especially the middle one. HE CANNOT SMILE. He thinks he's smiling, but he isn't.

 "Every picture that we have of Jack doing a real smile is a fluke." -Mom

She's right. This was the one good photo.

and a fireworks date with Carson!