Tom, Dixie and the girls left for Italy yesterday so now the house seems a little quiet this morning. It's even quieter because Henry is at a sleep over with his some of his friends. Now that it's summer time there are a lot of fun kid activities going on.

We are starting to feel the pressure of the impending 'summer split'. It's never a fun activity and each year it seems to get harder. This time next week Jess and the kids should be on a flight back to the US. Henry is really pushing for it, so he can have his birthday in the US (which is very important to him). but for Jess and Addi, they are more melancholy since they have good friends that are moving away this year and they will miss out on a lot of the 'going away' activities. Plus, we appreciate having some "down-time" as a family. The last day of school is the 19th and they are flying out on the 21st. That isn't much down-time. We have a big end of school year BBQ at our house on the 19th so we are feeling the need to start cooking and preparing already.

Additionally, Jess has yet to start packing for the summer. That in itself is typically a 10 hour job. It's more involved than just packing for a trip; it is actually a great logistical swap. In the summer, she buys new things for the kids (clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc); whatever they need for the upcoming year that we cannot (or cannot easily) get here in Spain. Plus there are many things that the kids have outgrown so all-in-all, it's a big packing job.

We're excited that they'll once again have closeness with our family in Iowa, but not so excited about the rest. Being separated is just not cool.

Last weekend Henry and I decided to go all "Bill Nye the Science Guy" and build a solar oven to cook dessert in. It worked pretty well (although it could've worked better). We're discussing building a v2.0 after summer.