miscellaneous photos

Man, I feel like it's just been forever since I last blogged! I guess it's been awhile since I've had some time to slow down and organize my thoughts. Gotta love a three-day weekend!! And, I suppose our six-month trial with an alternate (and horrible) internet service provider probably also played a role. So now we're back to the devil we know. Sigh. But at least it actually works. ANYWAY, here are a couple random photos from the past few weeks:

Mike and Rose each started back at school last week. Mike was in teacher training and his students all start tomorrow. Rose had one last week in preschool and tomorrow will be starting "young pre-k." In other words, she'll have this school year, then next year in "older pre-K," and then will start kindergarten in the fall of 2017! Wow.

We tried out a new grocery store this weekend, since Target (my favorite) has been out of eggs and/or milk each time we've gone for the past few months. Rose LOVED the carts at this store, but sadly it was too expensive to make it a part of our regular routine. Next week it's back to Target for us!

Finally, I've been spending a lot of time beginning to think about next summer. Now that we know she can camp (pictures still pending from our 4th of July trip, I promise!) and we know she does pretty well in the car, I think it's time we start chipping away at our goal to visit as many National Parks as possible before she graduates from high school! Assuming I can actually take a full two weeks off from work, our tentative plan is:
Day 1 (Sat): drive to Badlands NP
Day 2 (Sun): explore (hike) in the Badlands
Day 3 (Mon): explore the Black Hills (including Wind Cave NP)
Day 4 (Tues):    "
Day 5 (Wed): drive through Wyoming
Day 6 (Thurs): explore Grand Tetons NP
Day 7 (Fri):      "
Day 8 (Sat): explore Yellowstone
Day 9 (Sun):    "
Day 10 (Mon): drive north through Montana
Day 11 (Tues): explore Glacier NP
Day 12 (Wed):     "
Day 13 (Thurs): drive east through Montana to ND
Day 14 (Fri): explore Teddy Roosevelt NP
Day 15 (Sat): drive home
Day 16 (Sun):  relax at home for a day before returning to work

Any thoughts on the rough outline? Recommendations on what to see/do at any of these places? I've never done a "great American road trip" like this before, so I'm super excited to see if this is a model we can continue in future years or not.