Quick update

So, I don't actually have any new photos to display. It has been a wild time for us! The best I can do right now is a write-up. Hopefully I will get the pictures done sometime soon (before Monday, at least... that is when school starts up again!)

Summer school ended on Aug. 9 for me. (And not a day too early! It was a really hard semester.) We had approximately four days to catch up on all the housework, laundry and shopping that I neglected during finals and then we headed off south for an extended weekend. (Note: I didn't say vacation....) Although it was our anniversary, we actually didn't have time to do any celebrating other than a quick "Happy Anniversary." Hopefully we will get some time this week to go have dinner or do something recreational.

I dropped John and Tom off in Cedar City on Thursday night and headed on down to Las Vegas for the Nevada Library Conference and the IMLS Scholars Enrichment seminar. It was an interesting weekend and rather nice to see my professors and fellow students. Something about that face-to-face interaction is rather rewarding after semesters of online discussions and email. Between the conference and the seminar, we were kept really busy Thursday through Sunday. Sunday night I drove back to Cedar to join John and Tom.

John spent his weekend installing a sprinkler system for his mom - his first time. And I must say he did a great job. As usual, it wasn't just a sprinkler system, it had all the bells and whistles you could think of - including a seasonal timer that will let her set the system to water the lawn not only at certain times of the day but for certain lengths of time depending on the season of the year. It took a lot of work and was especially hard on his back and wrists, but he seemed rather proud of it when we left.

Tom spent the weekend with his cousin Michael - his favorite person. He has been talking about seeing him for quite a while, and ended up having a great time. I think he particularly enjoyed having someone around who had as much energy as himself. His old-fogey parents tend to lose steam too quickly. Unfortunately (for John and I, that is) he also found Michael's parents to be a whole lot more interesting than his own, too. So much so that now when he gets bored with us, he asks for Uncle Ean or Aunt Nicci to come play with him. When we finally left Cedar on Monday, he was one miffed little boy. He was intent on staying at his Grandma's house for forever. The good part of being gone for several days is that upon our return, Tom rediscovered the fact that he has toys in his house. He usually ignores them in favor of sticks that he can use as swords, but having been away he seems to have realized that there are actual toys to play with.

That about sums up things for us lately. The next couple of weeks will bring a new school semester for both John and I, several end of summer BBQs to attend and host, hopefully at least one trip down the Logan canal, and a heavy-duty peach bottling session (if we get around to it).