Now THIS is Summer!

Renting our house out for the Sturgis rally turned out to be one of the BEST things to happen to us this summer! It forced us to SLOW down - stop everything, in fact - and just finally RELAX, like people are supposed to do in the summer! My mom and dad have been kind enough to share their "refuge" with us here in the hills in Spearfish. They have a wonderful house in the forest, and it is so calming and peaceful being here! We even cancelled (regrettably) our camping trip last weekend - mainly because Jack came down with a nasty cold, but also because we felt the overwhelming need to rest. The kids have spent every day doing fun things with who I call "their other brother" - Grandpa - he has just as much energy as they do, and the three of them have had a blast fishing, riding the 4-wheeler, and shooting BB guns. As for me, I've read a book - front to back - for the first time in months(!); spent lots of fun time with the kids going to the farmer's market, hanging out at our favorite coffee shops here, school shopping, playing games, looking at old photo albums, and going to the pool. Yesterday my mom and I went and had a pedicure together (my first one!), which was AWESOME and could become a habit (expensive one, though!) and she taught me how to knit, which I already love - it's so relaxing! We've also been eating the best food from the farmer's market, which I will really miss once we head back to Rapid.

We are also very lucky to have the bikers we have at our house - they are great people (there's only 3 of them!) and are VERY neat - one of the guys said he likes renting from us (this is their 2nd year with us) because I am obsessive-compulsive just like him. :) Too funny.

We have two more nights here in Spearfish, and then we get our house back on Thursday morning. I will spend Thurs. and part of Fri. frantically unpacking and re-packing before we head to MN on Friday afternoon for a 9-day vacation. The Horak family is gathering at the Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, MN for a week, and then we'll hit the Roisums in Willmar on the way back home. We are very much looking forward to continuing this relaxation streak we've been having - it will be so fun to spend a week on a Minnesota lake - something we haven't done in many years.

So, we are really savoring these last few weeks of summer and we hope you are too!!