Summer Highlights

As our return approaches, I've been thinking about our three months here and what we enjoyed the most. If you ask the kids, they say, "Fishing, candy parades (meaning the fact that they walk away with a bucket of candy from each parade), playing with the dogs, and spending time with their friends Dawson, Abby, and Ben, in Colorado."

For me, the highlight was not just spending time with friends and family, but spending enough time with them that I have been able to learn lots of little things I can't learn over the phone, or from any amount of consistent communication. For example, a few weeks ago I took my sister to buy a new party dress. Having been with her, I knew exactly what kind of necklace would match the dress so I bought it for her birthday. It's this kind of personal knowledge that I will miss.

In addition, we particularly enjoyed: sliding down snowy hills in Colorado, Como Zoo, the Children's Museum, Stillwater bed and breakfast, the Ryghs, the Schmidts, Cordillera Reunion, visiting grandma and grandpa Brenna, mine, quarry and cave tours, waterskiing in upper Michigan, and of course relearning our Minnesota accents (dontcha knOw?)