Summer Fun

So, it's been a little while, but I guess that's how it goes.

Since school got out, I've been working pretty hard to get my summer checklist taken care of. So far that's included cleaning a bit of our house, cutting out the pieces of Little Guy's quilt, painting his room, picking up little things for his room, teaching a week of Chemistry Camp down in Mass, and now being on vacation for a week (with another week to go!). When we get back, I'll have either one or two weeks before I'm supposed to have another week of Chemistry Camp (I should find out about that...) and I really want to get cooking on the quilt. So, we'll see how it goes.

Like I said, Matt and I have been gone for a week, and will be gone this week also. It's been so nice. We left New Hampshire for Chicago and spent a couple of days with Matt's family before we headed to the Wisconsin Dells--one of my favorite childhood places. We rode a Duck, took an Old Tyme picture, went shopping, and just generally took in the Dells. Then we took off for South Dakota and the Black Hills. It's been probably 10 years since I've been there, and Matt has never visited. So, we started in Wall at Wall Drug and drove through the Badlands, then went out to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and all that other stuff. We took some amazing cave tours (we highly recommend Wind Cave, if you're out there), did some shopping, and went panning for gold. The wildlife and scenery was so amazing. We're always amazed at the variety that exists in our little country (although, we were 2000 miles away from home). Once I load up some pictures, I'll post them on here. Matt got a camcorder for his birthday, so we may even have some video (I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed for that one, though).

So, this week, we're doing the Chicago thing. Matt's folks want to take us shopping for Little Guy (who is thusfar named Little Guy), we're hoping to run into some college friends, we're headed downtown one day (yeah!), and mostly we're just generally enjoying our time with his family.