Vacation

Well, school is over. I celebrated all of that by: finishing a grad class, volunteering to become a new teacher trainer and work part of my summer break, and completing a grant project at my school.

The first couple of weeks of vacation weren't really vacation.

Then the fun stuff started. DH, Mark, and I took a little jaunt up to Pittsburg to see a ball game. (Vijay Singh sat in front of us as we watched the Pirates beat up on the White Sox during the U.S. Open weekend.)

My parents flew out from WY, and we started their time out here by... immediately driving to the GM U.S. Nationals up in Pennsylvania. I did it for my dad. He's restoring a '66 Chevy Bel Air and was looking for parts. So we went to this gigantic swap meet, and he found a couple of manuals and a die-cast replica. (i.e. It was a bust.) The upside was that we introduced my father to ebay. The only problem is that he refuses to touch computer keys. Thanks to ebay and his computer-literate daughter, he's got three more parts for his restoration. Then we went to Lancaster, PA to go to 'Amish country.' This is funny because my parents have Amish friends in MN-- so I knew that they would understand the absurdity of the area that boasts three outlet malls and the Dutch Wonderland theme park (yes, an Amish theme park).

We then brought my parents down to where we live. My dad completely transformed our garage, which is a very happy thing. DH and my dad insulated our garage and put up organizers to hold all of our garage clutter. (Clutter that we really do NEED, mind you-- we do have two acres of land.) Anyway, I won't trip things as I haul Mark under one arm and groceries in the other hand. They also helped clear some of the forest of weeds that is my garden. (They were rewarded with garden-fresh grilled veggies and zucchini chocolate chip cookies.)

After two short days of home-based fun, it was up to Maine to see my sister and her fiance. We went to L.L. Bean, Camden, and Acadia, which were fun. There was also two days of spa-stuff. (It was HOT in Maine, though! I was really surprised by the temperatures!)

I knew that Mark would have trouble re-adjusting to life without people laughing at his antics, snuggling with his parents every night, and having one nap instead of two, daily.

Anyway, Mark was very vocal as we attempted to put him to sleep tonight. We'll see how the adjustment goes.