How I spent my summer vacation.

A lot has happened since I last updated. That last post was written Friday July 16 at about noon, and a couple of hours later, Rachel showed up with Maddy and some boxes of books and announced that she was going to have a book sale on our front lawn!

We spread a quilt on the lawn and set up a couple of long tables that she got from the church, and while I played with Maddy on the quilt, Rachel spread out the books. She brought out a box or two from our garage, but there were some boxes in the garage that she couldn't get to easily, so she didn't bring them all out.

Judy, our next door neighbor, came over and sat with us for a while. She brought her camera and took pictures of Maddy on the blanket, and I'll post one or two of them tomorrow. Dan from across the street came over to talk for a while, too. That was the most neighbor-interaction we've had in a while.

Kim's friend Phil showed up to hang out with Kim, so they took over the living room to play video games and watch Ghost Hunter shows far into the night. Phil slept in the yarn room, and since their friend Catsy slept up there a couple of weeks ago, I had to change the sheets. Catsy didn't mind sleeping on the bed knowing Phil had used it last, but I told him he didn't have to sleep in Catsy's cooties. I am such a good hostess.

Rachel came back Saturday morning and set up her tables again, and Maddy and I spent another day on the quilt. It was a beautiful day, and Maddy loves to roll around outside, looking at the leaves and feeling the grass with her toes.

Rachel's friend Kat came over in the afternoon and sat on the quilt with us, so that was fun. Kim and Phil stayed in the house to continue the video game they started on Friday.

Rich brought more boxes of books from the garage, so there was more to sell, but altogether Rachel only sold about 50 books. We had fun looking through the books ourselves and decided to keep quite a few of them.

We closed down the sale by dinnertime, and Ash grilled hamburgers for us, Kat went home, and Phil finally left. Kim was pretty tired of his company by then! She was ready to start packing to leave on our drive to Utah, and she told him it was time for him to go so she could get to work.

While Rich was putting the borrowed tables in the back of the van to take them back to the church, he noticed a big crack in the rear axle! I told him I kept hearing a big noise back there, but he doesn't drive that car much, and he wasn't worried about it.

That changed our plans for our vacation! We were going to have to stay home and get the car fixed! I called Scott to tell him, and he was so disappointed, that he offered to buy our tickets to fly to Utah to visit them!

I couldn't let him buy the tickets, but I booked a flight for myself, and when I called him back to tell him about it, Carolyn said they still wanted to help pay for the trip, so I let her buy a ticket for Kim to come with me. Rich had to stay home to take care of the car.

So Kim and I left on Monday and flew to Utah. We stayed in the basement apartment at Scott and Carolyn's house and had a nice time playing with the kids and visiting Temple Square. We didn't do a whole lot of sightseeing because I really just wanted to see the kids, so that's what I did. We spent a lot of time sitting in the backyard drawing things on the patio with sidewalk chalk, and reading out loud to Soren and Carl. It was a nice trip.

We left at 5:30 in the morning on Friday, and traveled all day, arriving home in Freeport almost exactly 12 hours later. Apparently there was a lot of heavy rain while we were out of town, and parts of town are so flooded that no one can drive on the roads in those areas! Some people have flooded basements, but for once it isn't us, and I'm grateful for that, although my basement smells like cat pee, thanks to Patsy, who is mad about getting a dose of medicine every day!

No matter how nice your vacation is, it's good to get home. Ahh, my own bed! Ahh, my own kitchen! Ahhh.