Likes: Traveling, being passed around to family members and friends, being tickled under the armpits
Dislikes: Lincoln Tunnel traffic

June was a busy month with some significant “family firsts.”  Marla celebrated Father’s Day for the first time, though that was a fairly low key affair.  Shortly after that, Marla got her first visit to a favorite Hirsch family vacation spot, Mohonk Mountain House.  (It was also Johan’s first visit.)  No intense rock scrambles for Marla, but she did get to go on some nice walks in the woods, get her feet wet at the beach, and get some time with her cousins and paternal grandparents.  Both kids also got to visit great-grandmother Ria on our southbound trip, bringing full circle in a way the tradition that Oren’s household had of visiting his great-grandmother in NYC when returning from Mohonk to DC.  

From Mohonk, it was off to Marla’s first Goodstein Family Reunion — Summer Edition, in “beautiful Linthicum Heights, MD.”  For approximately 80 years, Allison’s family would have a family reunion on Thanksgiving. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the plan shifted, and for the second time since then, the family gathered for a summer reunion (so this was Johan’s second reunion for those of you keeping track of such things.)  The family has maintained many of the traditions of the Thanksgiving reunion, so the children received bags of “Chanukah” presents from various family members – in June! Marla’s collection of stuffies approximately doubled from this haul! We feel so lucky that she was able to be held and snuggled by some of her fourth cousins, among many other relatives.