We're taking a huge detour in our Summer Tour of Northern Europe through Wisconsin. Our detour is through Texas! (How is that for a contrast?) We'll be back to our "European" tour in a week or two--with a stop in Norway and maybe even Sweden and Iceland. But, for now, we're in the Lone Star State. Ready for a quick tour of our detour so far?
Last Thursday (over a week ago), the kids and I left for Texas. Greg stayed behind to take finals, do research, study for his qualifying exam, and stain the deck. Sounds like fun. But even more fun was driving 1000 miles with two kids!
Actually, driving with David and Mary isn't bad at all. They have put in some serious miles the past few summers, so they're well-trained. Rather, their mom is well-trained and has given up on trying to make them look out the window at the countryside and instead turns on the DVD player and passes back the iPod and Nintendo DS. You can see from the pictures that they also love their books.
You can also see from the above picture the rain pouring outside. It was torrential rain. So much so that the highway in Iowa was flooded out. Detour! Grrr. (We have since traded in the Midwestern flooding for some good old-fashioned Texan heat and drought.)
Normal people can make the drive from Madison to Dallas in one long, 16-hour day. But I guess I am not normal. Because we stopped halfway for some swimming, sleeping, and fluffy pillows.
Soon enough we arrived at Grammy's house. The downstairs was getting re-tiled and re-carpeted, so the kids made a beeline for the upstairs. Actually, they would have made a beeline for the upstairs no matter what--that's where Grammy's famous stash of super fun toys is.
Besides spending plenty of time in Grammy's pool, we went bowling.
Here is David in action.
Mary's method is to push the ball (very slowly)...
Watch it creep down the lane (very slowly)...
And then cheer!
We all know the best part of bowling is the shoes.
Once the workers had finished up in Grammy's house, out came the quilting frames. I have an old original Strawberry Shortcake sheet that Mary loves. (I suppose that I should say it's a "vintage" sheet--but it was mine when I was young, and I'm not sure I'm ready to think of myself as "vintage" age quite yet.) Vicky (also known as "Grammy") was happy to help me tie the sheet into a quilt.
Here is Mary taking some measurements of her quilt.
Uncle Daniel (Greg's brother) and Aunt Brittany were visiting, which was fortuitous because Brittany ended up tying almost the whole quilt for me. (Thank you!!) It turned out so cute. I love it. It's so sweet. And super soft--like any good vintage sheet. (For the record, this isn't the first time Vicky has come to my rescue with her experience and sewing machine. Sometimes my ideas far exceed my abilities.)
After a few days visiting Grammy and Grandpa, we headed down good old Highway 121 to my parent's house for some more Texas fun.
