Summer - Good to the Last Drop!

I haven't had a lot of time to write lately, but our family has been full of fun and adventure and chill-time in a nice mix. Speaking only for myself, the first part of the summer was really hectic, but it peaked at the end of July and August has been much more relaxed. I look forward to the turn of the seasons ahead of us and for our hectic pace to slow as it seems to do in nature at this time of year. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of our family trip to the Oshkosh Airshow (the biggest in the world), but we enjoyed ourselves and will try to plan it so we can fly in instead of the hellacious drive and stay 2 or 3 nights instead of 1. Leo enjoyed the airshows, especially the opening of the airshow each day which consisted of Duggey, a bright yellow DC-3 climbing up and having 10-15 jumpers get out with various flags and smoke and streamers. We had interesting conversations about what the flags meant, particularly the US flag and the MIA/POW flag and about why we hold our hands over our hearts and sing the national anthem. So here is a quick compilation of the airshow this year:
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It was very cool for me as a parent to start doing so many of the great things I remember from my childhood with Leo this summer and also some things I wish I could have done. It was my goal to do one cool trip each month of summer, even if that was all we could do for events. So in a previous post I reported about our trip to Whitewater state park in June. In July we went to the airshow. And last weekend, the last weekend in August, I took Leo to Baraboo, Wisconsin. What's in tiny Baraboo, you ask? Why, Circus World, of course - the traditional winter home in decades past of the Ringling Brothers Circus.



They have a bunch of restored circus cars for trains and also horse drawn wagons for performers. They had buildings where we could look at costumes and even try some on, they had an interactive children's circus in which the kids dressed as the animal acts and performed a short show, a park area for chill out time, and the highlight that is only there in the summer - a small circus including elephants, tigers, and aerial performers. I have to be honest and say that there were two things that were actually sad for me when we got there. One was that, due to Eric's work schedule, he couldn't be there with us. That was hard every time I saw a happy mom AND dad with the kids. But the other thing was that as we pulled up I realized that my Grandma had brought me there when I was 12 and I had totally forgotten. She's been gone for 6 years, now, and my missing her was very sharp when I made that connection. I got teary a couple times during the day and hoped I had been a good kid for her that day and not a whiny brat. I know she loved me either way, she was an awesome Grandma and I'm sad that Leo will never know her.

After all the events of the day, which included my favorite part - an elephant ride for both of us on the lovely African Elephant, Lulu - we chilled out in the park before heading to the campsite for the night for dinner and roasted marshmallows.



We had a great night in the tent, Leo's pretty used to camping now, and spent sunday at Devil's Lake beach. It was very hot and the beach was super fun. I tried out my new camera plenty and made sure to test it fully submerged and darn if it didn't work! :)



And then a very tired little boy who spent most of the ride home like this:

Then since Monday is our 'family' day, we packed our backpack and braved the blistering 95 degree temps to go to the Great Minnesota Get Together (the State Fair).
We played pinball, ate yummy food, looked at animals and generally had a great family day and pooped ourselves out.



I have been getting a lot of produce each time I go down to the farm. Here was my haul Friday the 27th of august. My CSA customers have been very happy and made it a point to tell me that. It's been very draining sometimes in addition to all the other things I'm doing, but I got so much out of doing this. I don't know what I will do for next year because a number of things will be really different, but thankfully I don't have to decide right now.

Wishing you all well...