This is it folks, the end of summer as we know it. I always start my summer with such big intentions… paint the house inside and out, build a garden gate, hike in a new place once a week, lose a thousand pounds, blog regularly… and somehow none of it happens. What happens with time that it always goes so fast during the awesome days of summer? Why do cold snowy winter days go so slowly? Does anyone have the answer??
Our school supplies are purchased and waiting to be organized into our backpacks. I love new school supplies… new notebooks with fresh pages inside waiting patiently to be written on, new pens and pencils and post-it notes. Its fun that I get to share this with Brandon, although I don't think he gets such a big kick out of it like I do. This year I decided to abandon Frank, my trusty Franklin Planner that I have religiously used for the last 10 years, and find a less bulky way to track my life. It was a tough decision… Frank and I have been through so much over the years! He has kept me organized and sane and I feel a little guilty dumping him only because he is taking up too much room in my backpack. Ah, change and progress; they go hand in hand. So, I have taken up a new relationship with Outlook 2007 and OneNote. I've been playing with it for a couple of days now and I think it will work out okay. It means bringing my laptop to school every day, buy hey, that's why I bought it last year, right? I get an awesome deal through St. Scholastica on software, so I bought the whole 2007 Microsoft package saving hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Wow, is it different! Word even has a blog post deal that I am trying out right now. If you haven't seen the 2007 Microsoft package, it looks nothing like what we are used to. They have completely overhauled it.
I just got back from vacation with Brandon, Jeff, and his boys, Ricky and Robbie. We took to the road and headed west with the end goal of Yellowstone. The 20 hours in the car there and back were tense at times, but all in all it was worth it! We shared a lot of laughs and many adventures. For most of the trip we stayed at the D and R Ranch between Cody and Yellowstone. It was an awesome place right in the Rocky Mountains with an old historic lodge and a corral filled with friendly horses. As we hiked our way up the hill to the lodge each morning, the ranch dogs ran out to greet us, the sound of old cowboy music filled our ears, and the smell of a hearty breakfast wafted into our noses. The lodge is where we had breakfast "family style" every morning with the other ranch guests.
I will write more once I have the photos organized (waiting for Jeff to upload his!), but here is a rundown of our adventures:
- Go-kart races in Sioux Falls, SD,
- The Mitchell Corn Palace,
- Horseback riding into the mountains with a cookout lunch,
- Two and a ½ days at Yellowstone including picnic lunches, hikes, photo ops, and plenty of wildlife,
- Whitewater rafting down the Shoshone river,
- Cookout BBQ dinner in the Lodge,
- Cody Rodeo,
- Hours of Monopoly,
- Football games in the field in front of our cabin,
- Mount Rushmore, and
- Whittling on the front porch.
