Jennifer Briggs

This week we had the famed Camp Anna, which got its start due to the pandemic and has continued and expanded every summer since then. Our phenomenal sitter Anna runs the camp at our house, blending all sorts of activities so the days are somehow relaxed and packed with fun at the same time. Two… Read more »

It was like something out of a movie as we saw a man doing a handstand on a metal boat tie-up post at a vaporetto stop in Venice. He was clearly trying to impress the woman in a red evening gown standing next to him. I’m sure that part was going swimmingly well, until he… Read more »

Amy had exactly forty-eight hours between the end of sleep-away camp and when Tom, Sarah’s favorite taxi driver, drove us to the airport to fly to Venice. One thing we did well was to arrange things so we could check in to our Airbnb right away. Fortunately, it has air conditioning since we are in… Read more »

A week ago, Sarah and I dropped Amy off for a week of sleep-away camp with her bestie. They were going to be counselors-in-training for the first time. This was also Amy’s first sleep-away camp experience without wearing a scoliosis brace, without worrying about it getting wet or when to take it off before activities…. Read more »

With a couple of days at home to do many loads of laundry (and order progressive glasses for me because I suddenly started needing to wear my glasses half-way down my nose in the morning before I got my contacts in), we got ourselves unpacked and repacked, ready to enjoy some days at our mountain… Read more »

After the 1p36 conference, we enjoyed some days of glorious weather in Bellevue and Seattle, seeing friends, eating pizza and ice cream, taking the ferry to Bainbridge island, and going to the top of the Space Needle. As I told Amy, my amusement park rides are the monorail and the Space Needle. I don’t need… Read more »

After driving to Detroit for some Detroit-style pizza at Grandma Bob’s and some pancakes the size of dinner plates at the Hudson cafe, we flew to Seattle to be ready for the 1p36 conference. This was the first year we arrived the day before the conference started, and it was glorious to be so relaxed… Read more »

One night at bedtime, Sarah said, “I love you, Granddad in spirit.” I responded, “I love you, Sarah in the flesh.” That tickled her funny bone and has become the theme for the week. She often tells me, “I love you, mom in the flesh.” Speaking of bedtime, I successfully shifted to sleeping on a… Read more »

A week ago, Sarah and I dropped Amy off for an hour of kitten snuggles at Cats N’At while Sarah checked in for her sleep-away music camp at the Woodlands. Amy was in absolute heaven with a tiny black kitten on her lap and countless cats and kittens roaming around. Sarah was excited to settle… Read more »

Lately, I have had times of feeling unmotivated, unenthused, and as if there is nothing I can think of that I want to do with my time. I think this is my grief or sensory overload speaking so I’m holding it gently. Riding the bus to and from Sarah’s camp for two weeks was an… Read more »