The Sabbatical is Over

After my brief, but lingering, sabbatical
Its time to once again become fanatical
And resume my role as family record keeper,
Instead of lazy journal sleeper.
So in that vein I commence to log
Our summer adventures on this family blog.......



So we last left off at Jane's 9th birthday and while that certainly was a highlight in our summer our adventures did not by any means end there. No, we went on to have many excursions including a trip to Yellowstone on the 4th of July. Now you might wonder why we went to Yellowstone instead of staying in town and watching the parade (which, by the way, I participated in by helping to build a float) or barbecuing or taking in the local fare on our first July 4th in this town where they take this holiday very seriously. Well, William was in need of a little more quiet and time away from our nice little town. So we headed off further into the tundra on a very chilly July 4th.



So chilly was our day that we encountered this:


But the hail (I know it looks like snow, but it really was only massive amounts of hail from a huge downpour) left us with few hiking options and even fewer animal viewing options. These large creatures were about the extent of what we saw:


But after a long day with lots of sitting in the car we did feel like we ought to return to warmer weather and get home in time for the fireworks display. And luckily William was able to catch a couple of pictures when Luke wasn't screaming like crazy and covering his ears because he was terrified of the fireworks because now we can remind Luke next year that he was actually outside of a car or building for a couple of minutes while the "explosions" were going off and maybe next year he'll be convinced to watch for a full minute before he screams and hides.

And with this first summer log on the family blog I must sign off to run Jane to an activity that surely will make it into the category of something we must record.