A Taste of Home...not the cooking magazine...

We just got back from an AMAZING weekend in South Dakota...it was so hard to come back east! We headed back last Friday for Nate's mom's wedding on Saturday. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was great to finally meet Jim. Phyllis had done her best to describe him to us, but "ohhhhhh" and "*sigh*" and **big smile** don't really paint a very definitive picture. :) We got a wonderfully clear picture painted for us on Friday night, though, when his kids started sharing stories of him over dinner. Let's just say that when Jim gets excited, you'd better have on a helmet and at least a towel across your back, especially if there is any sort of gun (air, paintball, water, shot, etc.) within reach. ;) He is a wonderful guy, though, and we are thrilled to have him in the family. He and Phyllis are just like two kids on cloud nine but way more wise and mature. Photos of the bliss are at: http://photos.rcfirst.org


One other highlight of the trip home...my dad met us at the Minneapolis airport and rescued us from a four-hour layover by whisking us away to the Mall of America. After driving completely around the mall about 8 times, we finally figured out how to get in and we had a fabulous lunch at Rainforest Cafe. We tried really hard to remember where we parked...and did such a great job at it that I still remember we parked in P2East Georgia B10. Hey Dad, remember to not put your mug in the dishwasher. Wash by hand. :)

Another great part of the weekend was "just" hemming Nate's pants! Aunt Pat saved the day with a crash-course in hemming, and now Nate has three very wearable appropriate-length pants, and I have hemming skills! We also got to sneak in a couple games of disc golf, Balderdash with the Johnson clan (yes, all 80), and a night at the campground in Hill City, where all our craziness got started. We really packed stuff in and still feel like we didn't get to do everything we wanted to do.

So that was our weekend. :) Okay, so I wasn't going to say this, but it is Wednesday night, 9:30pm, which means another contestant from American Idol has just been sent home. All I'm going to say about this week's results is IT'S ABOUT TIME PARIS WENT HOME!!!!

:)