We recently spent a weekend celebrating the marriage of a mutual college friend, while joining in the ten year college reunion that accompanied the wedding.  Turns out we do still have a few things in common with our friends from ten years ago, with one glaring exception…we don’t have four kids.

Mom and two of my sisters just spent a few days with us, visiting Chicago for a little relaxation and shopping.  I’m so glad we’re in a location where people stop by!  Sadly, I’m so behind on everything, that I never actually cooked for them while they were here.  Well, I did make a salad to go with the pizza I ordered for dinner one night, but I burnt the homemade croutons.  Oh well, my family is good about not caring about burnt croutons.

So with all our fun activities and my work schedule, which has included a bit of weird travel lately, Dave and I are looking forward to a vacation from all our summer vacations.

I am happy to announce that for the foreseeable future, I get to sleep in my very own bed.  That’s right.  That’s what makes me happy.

Uh oh, having just typed the last several sentences, I can feel the jinx that I have placed upon myself.  Well, let’s hope things are quieter for a little while!

Yay Chicago!

We should invest in a proper kite.  This free one is pretty to look at, but a real challenge to fly.

One more stormy summer night in Chicago.

And one more rainbow.  This time from our back deck.

Are these things good luck?  Because we could use a little good luck.

We kept ourselves out of trouble in June by working too much, traveling a lot and spending a horrible amount of money.

This picture is of our nieces Miriam and Katie playing in the sprinkler in California.  Pretty darn cute, no?

We traveled to California at the end of June for a wedding and stayed a few extra days for a mini vacation.  There was lots of visiting with family, although the whirlwind nature of the whole weekend left us feeling that we didn’t have enough of a chance to visit with anyone.  There was a baby shower.  There was a trip to the beach where I went swimming in a rip tide.  There was a really hilarious story of the hotel we stayed at also hosting a 150 member biker gang.  There was Michael Jackson music.

It was awesome.  We were exhausted.

So far July has consisted of staying at home for a major holiday and not much else.  Perfect.