Taste of Freedom!

Yay!! M4 has finally conquered his fears and started riding his bike without training wheels!! He has gone round the block several times without stopping and has gotten only a few scrapes. He is very determined. Not only is it freedom for him, but it is freedom for me!! He was getting darn heavy on the Trail-A-Bike!

Camping!

After we left Madtown and our friends, we made our way to one of our most favorite places to camp, Wyalusing State Park, where the Wisconsin river meets the Mississippi (official term: confluence). Since we are forgoing our usual big summer camping trip for California this summer (whee!!), we got in two quick nights during this Wisconsin visit. At Wyalusing, we lucked into a bluff campsite and got to watch fireworks go off in the distance on Saturday night.

Here are M and M at a scenic spot overlooking the rivers.

On the way to Treasure Cave.

There is a big storm just to the left of M4 in this pic. We left just in time and drove home through some torrential downpours.

A short trip, but sweet. Maybe we can get in some camping weekends this fall. We did discover that one of our air mattresses has a leak. Boo!! And also that one must have s'mores even if it takes two hours to get your wet firewood going!!

Friends...

The subject of friends has been on my mind a lot this summer, so it was particularly great to meet Pete and Paula and the girls in Madison last weekend. Let's just say I am missing my old friends, particularly with Jenn's move to Carlisle. So we spent a gorgeous summer evening on the Terrace (of which I only got a few, terrible pictures--just go see Paula's beautiful pics here and here):
Then we met up again the next day for Art Fair on the Square, African food, the Capitol, the Zoo, and of course, Babcock ice cream! Geez, we did a lot!

Kids cooling off and checking out the capitol dome.

A fine looking quartet. S and N were particularly awesome about hanging out with M and M, keeping an eye on them, and letting the parents catch up and reminisce. Thanks, ladies...Oh, and M and M got a picture with this high school girl who had made her prom dress out of duct/duck tape. She and her date are among the top finishers in the nation in a Duck Tape sponsored contest!

Talent in the family

I always look forward to summer laziness...and then summer always ends up being busy! Mostly because we take time to visit people or they take time to visit us. And that is the best kind of busy-ness, but it doesn't lend itself to spending time on the computer (not such a bad thing, in my case!!). So herewith, I will take a few days to try to get up-to-date with some of our summer highlights.

Up first, our first trip to Music in the Park all summer was to see cousin Aaron play!! How cool is that? He played acoustic guitar in a an Irish (Scottish?) music trio. It was possibly the first rain-free, truly beautiful Thursday night we've had, so it was extra special to be able to sit with Gina and Mitch and listen to Aaron. The kids had fun running amok with their friends, and then we all went to La Cabana for dinner. We rode the bikes home after dark trying not to get fireflies in our teeth.
Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Aaron playing because he was behind the music stand. I didn't want to make him nervous by stalking around the gazebo trying to get a good shot!

Ring around the rosy!
M4's hair's a-flyin'!!