June wrap up (and first couple days of July)

Isabel had the incredible opportunity to attend Innovation Academy for two weeks in June, thanks to a nomination by her first grade teacher and then being chosen by a district selection committee; the first week was held at IBM in Boulder, the second was at Skyline High School. She was in the Smarter Water group, and worked on design challenges, watched videos about water problems in underdeveloped countries, had a conference call with an IBM executive in New York City, met one of the 70-some worldwide IBM fellows who did some amazing science experiments, toured the IBM water treatment plant, and more. She absolutely loved it, made some new friends (there were 80 kids from around the district in IA this year), learned a lot, had some great experiences, put her creativity to work, and more. She also developed a huge crush on one of the STEM high school student helpers (there were four teen boys who helped out, and she and her friend were crazy for this boy Tanner. They were so giddy around him and would shriek and giggle when they saw him, etc. On the last day of IA they gave him a love note which he shared on FB (I learned the last part after IA ended). Oy.

Crush aside, she did get a lot of great things out of IA and loved the experience-

Poor Mason got a nasty pneumonia that triggered some really bad asthma problems; this is him waiting for a chest x-ray, sad little guy. He literally had a runny nose on a Wednesday and by Friday it was pneumonia. It took almost an entire day of albuterol treatments and oral steroids to get his lungs under control; I was fearing for an ER visit but thankfully we managed to avoid. Seriously, what is it with my boys getting pneumonia in the spring and summer? This is at least our 5th bout between the 3 of them-

We've had some fabulous pool outings, and one day tried out a recipe for frozen Nutella pops. Oh my word. Amazingly good.-

My friends Erica, Micaela and I went to a Khaled Hosseini book signing and talk. He is one of my favorite authors; The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns rank up there with my favorite books. His new one, And the Mountains Echoed was good, but not as good as the first two. When I heard Hosseini was coming to Boulder, I had to go. It was held in a neat, old church near Pearl Street. Beautiful, but scorchingly hot. I felt like a drowned rat. Aside from that, it was great. There was a Q&A with Hosseini, first with a woman who had prepared questions, and then they opened it up to the audience; he also read a few pages from ATME. Loved it! He is very well spoken, told interesting stories about how he choose his book titles, what is was like as a physician after Kite Runner was published, when his patients would come in sobbing b/c he had killed off a character, or asking him to sign copies, etc., and growing up in Afghanistan. Really, really enjoyed it. The book signing part was a bit business-like and rushed, and we got a terrible picture of us next to Hosseini, oh well. After the signing we hit The Med for hummus, margherita pizza and some amazing desserts. Fantastic night!!!

We attended the grand opening of a local TCBY (our little community is growing!), and won $30 in TCBY gift cards. Yum!

Brian's sister Kelley and her husband Leo had a baby girl, Cesaleigh Elizabeth. She is a beautiful, sweet baby girl. We are so excited to have her in the family! We all headed to the hospital and I loved holding her, and the kids loved meeting and holding their new cousin-

We cooked and delivered a bunch of food to my brother in Boulder who has gone back to CU for an engineering degree (he graduated from law school two years ago and has struggled finding permanent work in this economy), and then we gave him a much-needed break/distraction by going with him on a fantastic hike outside of Boulder. It was so pretty - we saw a gecko, two mule deer, several hummingbirds, tons of wildflowers and amazing views-