July 2017

July was a pretty explosive month for us--pun well and full intended. We finished up our summer travels by heading out to Wyoming to see the Galloways. We left at the end of June, actually, two days after the Calverts flew back to England. So it was sort of one family straight to another.

We landed in Utah kind of late and still had to get our rental. It was a budget rental place so it is off the Airport property and we had to get a shuttle, first we got on the wrong shuttle so then we had to get back to the airport and get the right shuttle to our rental place before it closed at midnight. We managed it; we got a Chevy Cruze; the first time we've been given a sedan even thought that's what I always book.

We still had to drive down to stay with our friend Jess from camp at her house just west of Salt Lake and didn't get there until about 1:30am, so grateful she waited up for us and had her guest room already for us. She gave Lawrence a trim the next morning and we were on our way after stopping by Barnes and Noble to pick up my youngest brother a birthday gift. After a relaxing 4-hour drive, we rolled into Star Valley and to my grandparents' house, where Lawrence met a few new (to him) members of the Galloway clan.

My teen sisters and brother were taking some of our cousins to go jump off a bridge--it's a thing Star Valley kids do (small town life), into an incredibly cold winter. So Lawrence and I suited up and took my youngest brother and joined them. I couldn't bring myself to get in the water. It was really very cold, still being fed by snow on the mountains. But Lawrence did it, two or three times.

The next day, Harrison and my mom asked if we wanted to go on a hike up to the star on the mountain. It was early, but we went. It was cold, Lawrence had to borrow a sweater from my sister, and we had some difficulty catching our breath given the altitude, but it was a lovely view from the top. The town was putting on a little street fair so we took a stroll around and ended up in the music store playing around on the instruments before we headed to the Red Baron Drive In for lunch, where the rest of Galloways were eating lunch (my mom is a prep cook there, so she was working).

Afterward was the annual Galloway cannon shoot up a canyon in the mountains. It was the first time Lawrence has ever seen the cannon, and met most of my cousins, aunts and uncles. Lawrence got to aim and light the cannon. He thought it was great, even though he missed the target watermelon, but he's now been initiated into the Galloway family I guess. It only took about 7 years.

My uncle Dan traditionally does a Dutch oven dinner with chicken and potatoes. He also made this killer chocolate dessert that could basically be only eaten in tiny spoonfuls because it was really rich. We had our fill and that night the town did fireworks, which we watched from my parents' roof.

The next day my brother Anthony and his wife Rachel came down from Idaho to spend the day with the family. My mom made BBQ ribs and steak and we played some games and took a little family hike up to the spring, as you do when you got to Afton.

The next day, we took Harrison and Rylee to Yellowstone. Rylee and I hadn't been in years, Lawrence and Harrison had never been. (I used to get quite car sick, so when my family would go, I would opt to stay home with Harrison, who was a baby at the time). It's about a three hour drive from Afton. Harrison was very excited, because he's pretty much a David Attenborough in the making. We had a fun day, especially everyone else since I ripped my pants twenty minutes into the park and they were laughing as more and more of my bottom was exposed through the day until I remembered we had sweaters in the trunk of the car. So I went from an idiot with my bum hanging out to one wearing a sweater around her waist in 85(40c) degree weather.

It was a beautiful and successful trip--the park is so big and isolated that there's no cell-service so none of us could get connected to the outside world, a little to the chagrin of the teenager in the group. We saw Old Faithful, some bison, antelope and elk, as well as smelly blue holes of acid and bubbling mud puddles.

Lawrence had bought some fireworks so when we got back into town that night, we lit them off with my brothers.

The next day we went out in the hills to go shooting. My little sister Nicole had gone to Nevada to stay with cousins, so we took out her little Jeep wrangler without doors or roof and had a blast with the wind whipping our hair and dust in our teeth. Lawrence (and I) got to brush up on his manual-shift driving skills. Mom packed us some sandwiches, we shot at cans and bottles and obliterated a microwave, good ol' Wyoming fun in the sun.

For a few years, my parents have wanted to take the two of us out to Jackson Hole to see the Bar J Wranglers show, so we finally got it done. It's a neat little place, set up like an old-fashioned chuckwagon dinner show. They sing country-western style songs and banter with each other. They ended it a little early because it was July 4th so they wanted everyone to be able to go watch fireworks.

We left early the next morning to catch a flight back to the hustle and bustle of Chicago and already missed the relaxed rural atmosphere before we even touched down in O'Hare. But it was back to city life and basically just being poor since I've had to start paying tuition for my last semester.

But we did get in one more big summer event in July. We got to go see Paul McCartney live in concert! We heard the advertisements on the radio for the concert and joked about going to it, thinking we'd never be able to afford tickets, but they actually weren't too bad if we sat on the lawn at the Hollywood Casino Ampitheater in Tinley Park, so we got them. It was in the middle of the week, but we decided it would be worth it since it's Paul McCartney, and all in all it was great. While Mr. MrCartney is 75 and his voice is a little weak at times now, his instrumental skills are still on par.

June 2017

June is set to pretty much always be a busy month for us, given it's the month in which both our birthdays and our anniversary fall. My birthday starts out the month, I think I am now officially in my late twenties: 27. Or can that still be counted as mid-twenties? Anyway, we did so much while my friend Stephanie was in town (she only left the day before my birthday), that we just stayed in. Lawrence brought home cupcakes, and there was still quite a bit of rum cake left.


A few months ago, Lawrence's coworker was selling a solid-wood desk for
cheap, so Lawrence picked it up and brought it home. It wasn't the most attractive piece of furniture, but I saw its potential. It's been in our place for months, and I finally had the time to re-finish it. It took about two days, and Lawrence kept trying to help and getting in the way, but ended up having a weekend out with "the boys" so I could finish it unencumbered. It turned out quite nice and I'm pretty proud of it. I hope this means I'll be more productive on my writing.

The Calverts arrived on the 13th, and they came to see our apartment before we all took a walk along the lake down to the neighborhood Giordano's for deep dish pizza. The next day was our anniversary and we just ordered delivery from a seafood restaurant in the neighborhood, we were intending to go out and have tapas, but it was raining so we were lazy and stayed in. Lawrence took the next day off from work and met up with his family. I met them after work and we all took a riverboat tour of Chicago before I took them to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Fed and watered, we strolled down to Millennium Park and sat on the lawn for a free concert.

Lawrence and i both took the next Friday and Monday off to go up near the Dells with the rest of the family. It was quite an enjoyable, quiet weekend away from the city, surrounded by woods. We had a big thunder storm the first night there. The next day we took some time to go around the area and see what there was. Lawrence I brought back some fireworks, and then we took Matthew and Tatiana  to a firework stand down the road and picked up even more. We built a fire and roasted marshmallows, and I introduced them all to good ol' American s'mores. They were a win that ended with fireflies and fireworks.

We took the next couple of days to explore the town of the Dells, took yet another riverboat tour and explored the Witches Gultch and the leaping German shepherd. We saw the upside-down white house and had giant burgers. We enjoyed sun and rain and fresh air before the two of us had to return back to the city to finish out the work week until we could meet up again in Appleton to visit the Seidls as well.  It was a short weekend in Appleton, but we got in a trip to the mall and a visit to the races.

All of us Calverts were back in Chicago on Sunday night and Lawrence and I back at work on Monday before having dinner downtown at a Brazilian restaurant all together and a nightcap at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was then farewell to the England Calverts.

Lawrence's birthday followed immediately after, and we had a lemon cake and another night in, since we were due to head out West within the next few days. So Farewell to June!