In May, I threw a Neighborhood Chalk Party again. 2 years without rain. I'm due.....
First place, Mr. Jungling.
Poor-man's trophy's
Marie, Luke and Eva's creation for Mother's Day
Aimee Mitchell turned 40. So much fun!
I guess the Easter Bunny thinks we need to know more about world geography?
I think I squeezed enough things into the month of June? Fishing at Mobridge with Adam, Halle, Gerry, Luke and Marie. At least I think there was fishing. I was reading "The Nightengale" and had a very difficult time paying attention to anything else.
Spring Break, Cancun, 1999:
Jen Hohn, Erika Buckhouse, Ingrid Moore.
Summer Break, 20 years later, Overland Park, Kansas:
Jen Hoffmann, Ingrid Kemp, Erika Hanson.
Partying with a bunch of kids we don't know.
Partying with a bunch of kids we birthed.
Marie and Ingrid's daughter, Svea, are only 21 days apart in age: Both currently 9. I'm guessing it was the last year of "let's pretend I'm a mermaid and you're a dolphin and we're trying to escape capture...." But maybe not? So fun to eavesdrop on their play.
Then to a Buckhouse weekend in Hankinson.
Tetherball: the newest game at the Buckhouse Olympics.
(see video)
And Grandpa Gerry taught Travis to drive the boat. Complete with stories of what a bad driver I was as a kid.
Speaking of poor decisions while operating a transportation device, I purchased a road bike this summer. I was heading south for about 30-40 minutes and I noticed the clouds rolling in. But until I turned back north, and the sky became so dark at NOON that headlights were actually required, did I realize that I was in trouble. Something coming in is NEVER just a little rain shower when the sky looks like that at noon. The storm hit me, and I had to hit the ditch for fear of debris flying and hitting me, or just being blown off the road. I finally reached a development and people waved me into the house. But I was too embarrassed, as these people had seen me walking in the ditch. About 5 minutes later, another person invited me in, someone who hadn't seen me walking in the ditch, and then I went in and waited out the storm. Whoops.
We headed to Chateau St. Zak near Detroit Lakes for pre-4th of July fun. Eva Hanson even took a day off work from life guarding to hang out with us!?!?!
Because after her first paycheck, and this posting on Luke's board, she would rarely miss any hours of work=money.
No one took a picture of us, but the grownups had way more fun in this the night before playing hot-tub time machine.
Marie and Svea paddle-boarded their hearts out. Eva, Marie and I were all sore after we got home. But we couldn't stop. Look at this beauty to paddle board in!
OF COURSE we saw the Evens family for the 4th of July: TRADITION!
OF COURSE we sang Happy Birthday to America: TRADITION! But I did not make a flag cake, and so 4th of July tradition was ruined. I'll just pull a Luke and say "I forgot" and then do it when I get asked for the 100th time next year.
We toured the new Radio FM Media building.
Pedicures for the ladies.
Golfing and a night out with the ladies for these two.
After the 4th, Lois came back from Florida and rented a lake place for a week. Relaxing as could be. I don't have photos, because it was COMPLETELY DARK, of Eva and Travis taking off in kayaks without lifejackets or phones and heading across the lake. And there were many boats WITH LIGHTS out fishing. I was just waiting for a fishing boat to take off across the lake at full speed and run them over. Ugh!
Lois and Marie playing Tenzi, and Luke and myself playing the game Travis and he invented called "Jumbo Maverick."
And Luke joined the big kids more often than joining
Marie and Chris and I. Shocking.
And then it was time for the road trip that I planned one year prior. Retired Grandpa Gerry, unemployed teenager Travis, "little kids" and myself in the minivan.
We didn't even need the bag on top; It's amazing how much more room is available with 5 people versus 6.
Our first of many picnics. As Travis says "this is the day I became sick of sandwiches." Oops! 11 days to go! Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the time I made sandwiches on my lap sitting on the edge of a cliff; that was a first.
Custer State Park: Blue Bell Lodge.
First two nights.
Travis and Luke making sure their ability to complain about hiking was in full-force.
But I did pay for them to do the coolest ropes course I've ever seen. Marie wasn't old enough to go on this when we were here two years ago, and Travis was sick. I said "we can do things like rope courses that cost a lot of money and have fun, and we can do things like hiking that cost no money and....." Travis interrupts with "and have no fun."
Had to take a photo to remember how far along Crazy Horse was when we were there in July 2019.
We then headed to Rocky Mountain National Park for a night. We set up our tent just in time to take-off for a quick hike, while it hailed on our tents.
It rained the entire drive from our tents to the trail, and then we had a beautiful hike to Emerald Lake with a clear sky. Lucky timing!
The scenery didn't even look real around us for the hike. Some of the most beautiful hiking I've ever seen. The drive from Custer to Estes Park took about 2 hours longer than expected, so we didn't have nearly as much time as I would've liked in Rocky Mountain National Park.
And then we got back to the tents and it was dark and we ate burgers in the dark while trying to get everything into the bear safe container while being freezing cold. And then I froze all night long in the tent and took turns stealing heat by sliding onto Marie and Luke's cots with them.
From Rocky Mountain National Park, we drove to Arches National Park. The drive took 2-3 hours longer than expected. Due in part to being at a dead stop on the interstate due to construction. So this was a second day of much more driving than anticipated, following a night of very little sleep...
We arrived to our campground, Devil's Garden, in Arches National Park. It truly was beautiful.
And the opposite temperature of Rocky Mountain. However, the night we stayed was actually quite cool (upper 70's?)
It rains 25x/year in the desert. So we left the rain flies off and slept under the stars, which were AMAZING. But then the tent had no support, and it made this awful sound, and I couldn't sleep again, and so I tried to sleep in the van, but it was too hot, so I went and woke grandpa to help me with the rain fly at midnight. Just as we got it on, it started to rain. Not enough to measure probably, but enough to make things wet. But I still heard this super annoying "tent noise," and so I slept in Luke's noise cancelling headphones all night. And I told Travis in the middle of the night "we're getting a hotel room tomorrow night."
Which I sort of regretted, because it was so beautiful here and I could just walk to the best hiking trails in the park. But it was hot hot hot. This would be a perfect spot with an RV, although there are no hook-ups and no generators allowed. But at least you wouldn't have "tent noise" keeping you up all night.
And this is the 11 year old's stamina for hiking, so there wasn't a lot of hiking happening.
Landscape arch. What will it look like next time he's here?
Delicate Arch. We loved talking about what would happen to the park, and their license plates, when the big arches collapsed.
I gave up on tenting and we got a hotel in Moab. With a pool and AC and showers and no tent noise. And ate at a restaurant for our one and only meal.
All smiles before heading to the hotel! Ha!
And Moab is such a cute little town with a good grocery store, so we loaded up the cooler and snacks and the kids even got name-brand, pre-packaged lunches in place of sandwiches for one day.
So if I hate tent camping so much, and I don’t own an RV, how am I camping so much? CAMPER CABINS. It is like tent camping (cook outside, shared bathrooms, everyone much too close together, no TV’s, etc), but you have walls and mattresses and roofs and porches. Some yurts are similar to camper cabins as well. Many places have air conditioning (SD); MN ones I’ve visited have screened-in porches. The one we stayed in Escalante UT even had bedding and towels. Custer state park in the Black Hills has many of cabins and it might be one place where you don’t have to plan a year in advance. If you hate tent camping like me, don’t plan on purchasing a RV, or don’t plan on driving your RV >1500 miles, but still want to camp and/or take a mostly-camping road trip, you must try camper cabins. Book in advance and eat the $20 it costs to cancel it if you don’t go. Oh yeah, and they only cost around $75/$85 per night. We tent camped on this trip only because I wanted to stay in the national parks, and they didn’t all have camper cabins. Never again. Oh the space we would've had in the van without 5 cots and 2 tents.
Hoo-doo's in Bryce Canyon.
While watching our 4th, 22 minute video of the trip in a visitor center, we learned that the trees in Bryce smell like caramel and vanilla. They really do!
From Tree Huggers, to tree smellers.
Many many many switchbacks to climb out of the canyon.
And then we drove from Bryce Canyon to Springdale Utah, on the scariest road ever through Grand Staircase National Monument. I said to the kids "look out the windows, because I certainly cannot take my eyes off this road for one second." Luke says "NO!?!?! Don't look! So scary!" I think this photo shows the least-cliffy moments of the top of this road.
Camper cabin again, but a fancy campground at Zion River Resort. Pool, no bugs, nice outdoor kitchen. But very, very little booze to be found in Utah. Getting a bottle of wine was quite an adventure, after finally finding the one, closet-sized liquor store in Springdale in the back of a restaurant/gift shop, but showing up on a Sunday when they are closed.
Gerry was the cook, I was the organizer/planner of the meals.
He got used to eating late at night, because we had to wait until at least after 7pm when we could tolerate being outside or out of the pool to cook.
I didn't realize this, but Zion is only 2 hours from Vegas. And the Lodge at Zion is one of the prettiest locations I've ever seen. People need to fly to Vegas, rent a car, stay at the Zion Lodge for a night or two, hike a bunch and have a great meal(s) in their pretty restaurant, and then head back to Vegas.
Personal vehicles are only allowed into the main road of the park for guests of the lodge. And vehicles are not allowed anywhere else in the park on this main road. It is just so easy to get around, with shuttles coming < every 5 minutes.
I have to capture this moment, because the elusive teenager talked to me. For an extended period of time. I think it was the non-bootleg snacks I had purchased that made him talk to me briefly.
A game of chess for Grandpa and Luke while
Marie and I shopped.
I’m thinking of starting a National Park camp after seeing one at Zion. Reserve your child’s spot now and insert your child’s tired-of-hiking-and-being-away-from-home face into the shadowed figures.
Sadly, I left my backpack and phone with grandpa to hike the Narrows. This is the only photo we have. The Narrows is another reason Zion is so amazing, You are so hot and tired and then you get to hike in a beautiful river. THE HIKE IS IN A RIVER!?!? In a beautiful canyon. Amazing. Luke hiked the same 50' over and over again and just floated down repeatedly. Loads of fun.
Everyone earned ice cream for hiking the Narrows.
She gets me every time. Want to know what I said to her in March in Arizona? “Until you can go on rides yourself, I’m done paying to ride along so that you can go.” Well, I still paid, just sent grandpa in my place. So I held to half of my threat? But she paid for herself. I told her “I’m serious! Last time!” She just smiled... It was good that grandpa went and not me, because she got to gallop on this ride for the first time ever. She loved it, of course.
Zion is paradise. Dare I say prettier than the Grand Canyon??? Oh how I loved it.
The last day in Zion, Luke and Travis wanted to have "bump on a log" day. So grandpa and Marie went horseback riding, and I hiked Angel's Landing by myself. Signs all over telling of deaths that occur on the trail, cliffs on each side of you near the top. But it really wasn't scary, just beautiful. This California condor took off and landed about 20' away from me. 2 of them were soaring above and below us. Breathtaking. The trail was packed with visitors, due to two other main trails being closed due to rock slides. But everyone was simultaneously quiet as the condors soared near.
Last meal in Utah!
We took two days of travel to get home, staying in KOA's in Lyman Wyoming and Spearfish South Dakota, again in camper cabins. Unfortunately, we didn't get home in time for dad to have his appendix removed and Tree had to help him.
Travis said this was his favorite "national park" of the trip in Cheyenne Wyoming. We took him here after watching the final 22 minute video "about rocks", as he says, in a visitor's center.
And we arrived home to take care of appendixless Chris, clocking in just over 3500 miles. Control-freak Erika drove almost 3000 of those miles.
And we got back just in time for Chris not to go to WeFest (no appendix) and to celebrate Sue's 40th. Look how many times I hung out with Sue this summer!? Fun, fun! Her super-fun, 40th party was in their backyard and made Marie say two things when she saw the highlights from the party: #1- Do you call that dancing? #2- We need to up our backyard-party game.
And Marie was home for 2 days and then headed off to camp Cormorant with her BFF/neighbor Norah.
