Mini vacation

I'm terrible about taking pictures this summer! Sorry there's no pics to go with this long post.

We took off for the day Wednesday and went down to Yankton to stay overnight at Mom & Jim's. We picked an absolutely perfect day for it. Matt got up and on his bike at 5:30 am, and rode the 87.6 miles to Mom's place. I got the kids up and out the door by 7:30 and we were there by 9. Mom took the morning off both Wednesday and Thursday (she had meetings she couldn't miss Wednesday afternoon), so we had some time with her before she left for work.

She showed me through all her flowers, walked me through the waist-high wildflowers and grasses that constitute her front yard, then took a shower and went to work.

I did not take a shower at that point, because we were going out on the boat that afternoon... BIG MISTAKE! We'll come back to that later...

So Grampa Jim took us out on the boat and we anchored and just paddled around in the water for several hours. I sunblocked everybody up good, the wind was virtually non-existant (a strange anomoly for South Dakota), and it was a beautiful, sunny 90 degrees. Just right for bumping around in the lake all afternoon.

Nobody got sunburned, I am proud to report.

Xander's favorite activity aboard the boat is to jump off, climb up, jump off, climb up, jump off, climb up (etc.). We wore that kid out! This has been his favorite thing to do aboard Grandma's boat for years! He's finally to the age where he can do it without help and without inhaling a bunch of water every time and barfing up after each jump. (ahh.... the good old days)

Maia, as usual, was a little less adventurous. She did discover that sitting inside one of the tubes (the kind with a mesh bottom that you pull behind a motorboat), is like having her very own little swimming pool. Once she figured that out, she was happy as a clam.

I layed in the sun and soaked up the rays. I know, you're not supposed to do that, but I didn't get that much sun, my tan looks so much healthier than my pasty white skin I've sported all these years (literally 2 decades), and ah, it was so relaxing!

Matt swam around with us for a while, then got on the boat under the canopy and hung out with Jim (who does NOT swim), until weariness from the morning's ride overtook him and he zonked out for a while.

Mom called after she was done with her meetings, so we went and met her for supper at the Marina, then went back out in the boat for a little while before heading in for the evening.

One of Matt's favorite things about going to Mom's is that she gets the channel that shows Tour de France coverage, so he got to watch 2 stages during our stay, which made him really happy. Don't get him started on this topic, by the way. He's really passionate about cycling...

After bathing both kids, we had a fire in the chiminea on the deck (no marshmellows to roast), then we put them to bed.

About this time, I started to discover that I had a problem... Remember my little visit to Mom's flowers? Apparently, I was visited by a rabid crop of chiggers, but the bites didn't manifest themselves until about bedtime that night.

I have not had chiggers this bad since I was about 14 or so, and went picking chokecherries a day or two before leaving for summer camp. I remember being quite miserable then, but this was worse. Because this is now.

(If you are unfamiliar with either chiggers or chokecherries, you might not be from South Dakota)

Now, I have learned a few things about chiggers in the past few days. I'll just link you to the web page that I found about them. I was thankful to learn that they do not acutally crawl into your skin and live there as is the common understanding around here. But they are seriously ferocious.

Sadly, I am not looking so good in my bikini swimsuit as I was just a week ago. I look like I have chicken pox. That should go over well at the public swimming pool! :)

But chigger itching aside, we had a great time, and will have to try to get out there again before the summer is over and gone.