Chicago, Des Moines, Omaha.....

Hi all!

We are now in Mitchell, SD. But I'll get to that. Maybe tomorrow. But, it might still be a couple of days before I get caught up. MAN have we been busy.

Soooooooooo......Chicago....busy, busy, busy.

First - one of the Dinette chairs fell off the wall en route....apparently it's a common problem, and not completely due to us having it over packed. Although - my guess is that it was a contributing factor. NEXT time we move we are having a huge party. Noone will be allowed to bring any alcohol, they will have to make due with what we have. It is amazing the number of bottles we have - some I'm not even sure where (or when) they came from. I'm sure at least a couple of them made the trip with us from OR to VA 10 years ago...

So, to the closest Keystone dealer the camper went - just over an hour away....and OF COURSE....we didn't bring suitcases, so we had to unload the camper the same we loaded it. A million trips later, Matt's parents didn't recognized their own home. Just to hit the highlights, while we were there, we celebrated Faith's birthday, went to Cypress Cove Water Park, the Kane County Cougars baseball game (on Father's day), played at the Clarendon Hill's pool, tested a couple of new restaurants, watched Ryan's Little League and Hannah's softball games, visited Michelle's Aunt Flo, cousin Lisa and her kids - and, of course, did our "not camping" day. All in all....the boys are thinking that cousins are where it is at. They are once again over tired, over stimulated, but having the time of their lives. This is the first year that they have been able too, or wanted too, venture out a bit. And with all these older cousins, are starting to feel a bit more grown up. Although, a couple of SHORT separations have resulted in little boys who make sure they know where we are...

So....Des Moines. Saw it. We were supposed to camp there. We didn't. We were on schedule to leave at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. Instead, 9 a.m. found Michelle (that would be me - Matt might actually post here sometime, but I doubt it) in the dentist chair getting her first (and hopefully LAST) root canal. ooooohhhhhhh - fun times. So, we skipped Des Moines, and left Chicago at 3 a.m.. Sunday morning for Omaha.

Omaha, LOTS of fun. We had dinner with Michelle's cousin and his family we spent alot of time with Scott and Kristi when we were first married (and we lived closer to each other) so it was a lot of fun to see each other again. It's been 10 years, their kids were not quite 4 and 15 months the last time we saw them! Their son is wonderful with children, he gets right down and talks to them, and was very comfortable holding Miss Steph. And, their daughter, well, let's just say that at least one of the boys would not let her out of his sight. The boys loved their pool, trampoline, and the waterslide park we visited on Tuesday.

I think this is where I will stop for today. As much fun as we had with S&K - at least for now, Omaha has left a hole in our hearts. I'm giving it 24 more hours.

We have 3 days at Mt. Rushmore - I hope to be able to find the time to post some pictures soon.

nite!