Cooking and Peeling

Yesterday and today we cooked for tomorrow's ice cream social at church. We got our 4 rhubarb custard pies done this morning. We peeled, cut and peeled some more to make 15 lbs. of potatoes into potato salad. We finished the last two lemon pies this evening. The girls are great help! M made meringues out of the spare egg whites for fun. They look like white Peeps.

Pretty Girls

L and M decided to do dress up pictures. Goodie. Now they can use some of these shots for school pictures this year. Of course, we had to have a few farm girl on the silo shots.

Vacation, cont: Through Chicago

As the kids said, "Now we can say we've been there," although Husband and I visited Chicago once before. Toll roads and booths were a new experience for the kids. At one point we got stuck behind a man who was trying to pay the toll with a hundred dollar bill. After too many minutes of waiting he/we learned you can't do that.



The "industrial chic" of drawbridges, old buildings and quirky advertising kept us entertained as we crawled along through town.


The traffic-not so entertaining. We got very familiar with the cars around us and observed the trains as another form of transportation. Not sure which is better. Started seeing a lot of motorcycles, then realized that it was getting to be time for the Sturgis, SD Motorcycle Rally, so the bikes were all headed that way.

Home of the White Sox.


After finally navigating past the long awaited downtown skyline, we headed to our last night of vacation.

Smooches

This is an example of what happens to our kids' faces when I smooch on Husband while we drive.

More Vacation-Sister Gianna Marie's Day

On Thursday, we woke up and got ready for church. We were going to our friend Melissa B.'s first vows ceremony to become a Sister. There was a beautiful service, and she took her first vows to become Sister Gianna Marie. She will be attending college and teaching.


The B. family. They are from CA now, but once lived and homeschooled near us. They are a very dear family. At the reception, Sister G.M.'s four handsome brothers attended her while she ate.
The dads.

We had a tour of the convent and saw some beautiful art and worship spaces.


Little sis thinks it is time to go. We all went back to the house and lake to enjoy one more night of great food, swimming and fellowship.

Day Two at the Lake

Our second day at the lake was filled with food and friends.
Our friends the B's and the D's were out for the day to swim, play and eat with us.


We went through the towels like crazy, and gave the floaties and swim dock a workout.