The BIG Summer Roadtrip

We awoke in a nice downtown hotel and enjoyed a delicious breakfast. Bailey, Troy, and I set out for the short walk to the Minnesota Children's Museum while Amyrlin opted to remain in the hotel for some extra rest. The walk turned out to be about 3 times longer than we expected, but we made it to our destination ready to play and explore.  The museum featured a multi-story climbing area with a huge slide, a car wash with real soap, water and bubbles, and an atrium full of spinny chairs. Bailey's favorite was a model town on the 4th floor where she and a new friend served me and the friend's mom a hilarious meal of pretend tacos. Troy played in the fire station putting out fires and driving the truck. After a morning of pretend and play, we made the walk back to the hotel, stopping by a Walgreens to pick up some things we needed and still arriving by our 2pm checkout time. We piled into the car and set out for the drive to Montana.

I grew up a Cowboys fan. My dad was a Cowboys fan, my mom was a Cowboys fan, my Grandma June was a cowboys fan, my aunts and uncles were Cowboys fans. We watched the games on TV, had football pots for the playoffs, wore Cowboys t-shirts, and listened to the games on the radio after church on Sundays. My parents company helped build the stadium in Irving. We had season tickets at one point. My childhood memories feature reselling tickets in the parking lot and bundling up for a playoff game. We won Superbowls and lost heartbreaking games. America's Team was our team.  I loved watching football and followed teams and stories from around the NFL. Second to my love of the Cowboys, a tiny town in Wisconsin held my attention. I loved how they built through the draft and how the community owned the team. They felt like the 'classic classy' team when free agency began. First and foremost among them, Brett Favre, their quarterback. While I wasn't a fan of the end of his career a...

 Breakfast this morning added scrambled eggs, biscuits, and gravy to the selection of sweet snacks and we eagerly started the day with oatmeal cream pies*, granola bars, and some bagels. Grabbing fruit and fruit snacks for the road we headed back out to camp. After only 20 minutes of travel, we returned and were greeted with a campfire, a volleyball net, and the sounds of laughter everywhere. While most of the details of the day are lost in a jumble of fun, I know there was waterskiing on a neighbor's boat, walking the Indian Trail down to the water, swimming, fishing, a hot sauna, games, doing some laundry, Erich's amazing BBQ chicken for dinner with my dad's jalapeño poppers, s'mores, calling little echo, and more Head of the Family. The part I remember best was sneaking into the hammock when no one was looking and passing a few glorious minutes reading a book from the library that I have hauled across the country and not opened until today. All in all, it was a glori...

Breakfast proved to be unusual, but satisfying. Imagine if a 9 year old rampantly filled a shopping cart in the snack aisle of the grocery store. Then take those items and arrange them neatly on glass platters accompanied by some breakfast staples. A coffee/hot chocolate machine, a refrigerator filled with fruit cups, yogurt, string cheese, and those juice cups that accompany school breakfasts set alongside the platters of ho-hos, ding-dongs, hostess cupcakes, Belvita bars, granola bars, packs of fruit snacks, and oatmeal cream pies. A bowl of fresh fruit boasts apples, oranges, and bananas. To top it off there is a popcorn maker with every flavor of popcorn seasoning known to mankind. While unique, the experience left us full and ready for our next adventure. We piled into the car set on finally seeing the Camp that Erich (my sister's husband) has talked about for years. He's told countless stories of summers spent there as a kid and his own children talk about swimming, campf...

When I was a young teacher in about 2003 in Weatherford, Texas at Tison Middle School, we celebrated the holiday season with a Secret Santa gift exchange. Sheila Richardson drew my name. She was a beautiful lady, an amazing teacher, and the wife of a newly injured veteran navigating a whole lot of changes to her situation and a lot going on. She chose some of the most thoughtful and wonderful gifts I have ever received making me, as a shy first year teacher, feel extra special. If you see me in winter wearing the red hat, scarf, and gloves set, thank Sheila. She gifted me a book called "Michigan" that contained four short romance stories set in beautiful Michigan settings. Not my normal type of reading material, but I love that book and have read it hundreds of times since then. It perfectly captures the feelings that filled my young heart while igniting a wonder about the beautiful places described in each story. In one instance the characters take a day trip to Mackinac Isl...

We spent the day on the road following an early start and a delicious breakfast of hotel waffles. Our first stop of the day introduced us to a family from Bedford, Texas. They recognized my Grapevine t-shirt and we struck up a conversation about how we ended up in Ohio. A touch of home brightened my day. For lunch, Amyrlin requested Noodles and Co . While notherners are likely familiar, my Texas kiddos have never sampled it. A friend of hers from Wisconsin constantly talks about it so she wanted to see what the hype is all about. She located one right along our route so we dropped in. We ordered a variety of items from Japanese udon to spaghetti and meat balls to mac and cheese. The food and service did not disappoint!  After our meal we realized that we had stopped in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Any college football fan knows what that means . .  . I could not pass up a chance to see that iconic stadium in person. We drove the 3 miles to the Michigan campus and I regaled the (not en...