Celeste and our two oldest kids are at Laurel Ridge this week for summer camp which means that our youngest has had to endure a week alone with me.  I had business in DC late last week and early this week so on Thursday we drove up and I dropped Justin with our good friends the Nevins.  He spent the night with them on Thursday and then after I was done working on Friday he and I spent the weekend with the Nevins.  We went boating on Saturday with Ted (Nevins patriarch), his two boys Eddie and Daniel and Ted’s parents.  The picture is of Eddie, me and Justin (hand up) tubing on the Potomac River.  We also went to see Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday and just kind of hung out on Sunday, which allowed us to spend some time with Jane (matriarch of the Nevins family) and the Nevins’ girls, Delia and Tess.

On Monday and Tuesday I was working all day in Bethesda, MD so we moved to a hotel in Chevy Chase on Sunday night and my Mom and Bert (her significant other) came up and stayed in the same hotel as me and Justin.  They took him to the International Spy Museum and the newly reopened Smithsonian American Art Museum on Monday and shopping on Tuesday.  Since Mom loaded him up with books I don’t think he minded the shopping at all.  Sunday evening Justin and I ordered room service and then watched a pay-per-view movie and on Monday we had dinner at Clydes with Mom and Bert and then ordered another movie in our room.  Justin is now under the impression that business trips are all about figuring out where to eat and then watching movies in your room.

Last night, after having dinner with Mom, Bert, my brother and his family we drove home and listened to the CD of spy movie theme music that Mom bought him at the Spy Museum which was a hoot.  We have two days at home before Celeste and the other kids get home so I’ll be bouncing between working and doing some more fun stuff with Justin. This is the first significant amount of time that Justin and I have ever had just the two of us.  We’ve always done lots of stuff with his siblings and I’ve coached one of his soccer teams when he was little, but this has been a unique experience and it’s been an absolute blessing for me.  He’s a great kid, I’ve always known that, but the one-on-one time has allowed us to do more uninterrupted talking in one week than we probably get in the normal course of one or two months.  My new goal is to do something like this with each of the kids as much as possible and I’m hoping that Celeste will get the chance to do it too. 

What a great week.