Home At Last

Well, we survived our first major "family" vacation. I say "family" because Carolyn probably won't remember any of it... so its really just for us parents, I suppose.

First we went to Turtle River State Park just outside of Grand Forks. I had seen the sign, driving past, my whole life and never really thought twice about it. The park was FABULOUS! One of the nicest places to camp I've ever been to. Some of our family came with (Mike, Sara, Emily and Jake). There were supposed to be some more of us, but great grandpa Hall was busy recovering from back surgery in Fargo, so Al and Naomi didn't make it.

Here are Emily and Jake making some signs with charcoal and our firewood (Please disregard the "leaves of three" inches behind Emily):

Next we went to Powers Lake; it is my "hometown" or at least the place where my father's family is from and I was born. My aunt Cindy was in town, and my brother, sister and her boyfriend Ryan were visiting, as well. We rode horse, "Boomed" some rocks in the lake and ate until we burst at the seams. It was a lot of fun! I will probably have to go back to the store and have a CD made of those pictures, because apparently I forgot to tell Bryan that we needed one. Oh well, you'll just have to imagine.

Next, we went to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We stayed at the North unit the first night and it was pretty neat. We saw a beaver, an enormous mule deer buck, some buffalo, and a LOT of turkeys. Here is Carolyn with her turkey feather that is as big as she is:

The next day we went down to the south unit and explored the trails for a couple of days. There was a huge snake that lived in our campsite that was really neat (I don't think he was poisonous, anyhow). We saw a very large herd of pronghorn and an even bigger herd of Buffalo. There were several bands of wild horses and we heard a bunch of elk cows calling in a valley we hiked through. We also explored Medora and did some "tourist-y" things, but the most fun is always getting out and hiking. Carolyn kept going to the car door and trying to get in while yelling "bye" at us whenever we were just sitting around. Apparently she likes going on hikes and playing at new parks. Here she is exploring a baby-sized cave:

Well now we're home and its time to think about doing all those things we've put off all summer. This week I hope I get our dining room table refinished and Bryan is going to shampoo our carpets. The very best thing, however, is that my mother gets back from Kenya tomorrow; I am so EXCITED to have her back and hear her stories!

Babble Baby

Carolyn is starting to do some fake-talk sounds, and what she wants most is to talk on the phone. Here she is trying to call Gramma:

On a more serious note, last night we were awakened shortly after 1 am to the sound of multiple sirens rushing by. I didn't think it was anything until they kept coming for another 20 minutes. When I looked out our window, there were flames shooting over a hundred feet in the air and totally engulfing the apartment across the road from us. Within an hour, two very large apartment buildings and their surroundings had entirely burned to the ground. It took all of the resources of Fargo, West Fargo and Horace just to keep the burn under control. They had to evacuate hundreds of apartments from the surrounding buildings. Some of you might know that we have a problem with our neighbors starting fires in our building (accidentally, but still!) and I don't really think anyone takes it seriously. I hope that next time they actually realize the damage they could have caused.

Don't play with matches, don't smoke in bed, don't overload your outlets, etc.; but most of all, be safe!