Early morning book time.

This morning actually went smoothly! It helped that I had taken a vacation day. I loved this scene of everybody stuffed into the same chair reading together.

A Happy Hiking Trip!

Woah, last weekend we managed to get through a family hike without fussing! It was SO lovely!

This is on the Turtle Rock Trail, about 25 minutes from our house. We went to see the beaver dam!

Giants have been playing with blocks again!

It is clear that William LOVES climbing on rocks!

For Craig

This picture is for Craig, who finds Margaret's fancy camping and hiking outfits amusing! This outfit I find perfectly color-coordinated and even mostly practical!

Letter #8: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics: How Mama WINS!!!!!

Dear Margaret, Eric, and William!

Remember how Dada beat Mama's time in the race he ran last week? Remember how Mama was mad because Dada had trained by running three times in the last three months, yet Mama exercises nearly every day? WELL. Your mother is a competitive runner! By this, I do not mean to imply that I am very fast! I am *only* competitive! This means I like to beat what I can. This includes: snails, people resting on benches, sleeping people, telephone poles, people going the wrong way, people who aren't actually in the race, the people at the drink station, palm trees, people jumping rope, imaginary people, and *usually*, people who train only once per month. LIKE YOUR DADA.

So I thought to myself - hey! I'll run a 5K and I will beat Dada's 8K time to smithereens!!! (This is a math problem! )Is that fair? No, Dada ran a longer distance than Mama, so it is not a fair comparison. So I decided to compare PACE, which is time per mile. I *did* run the first mile at Dada's pace - but I could not sustain it because I couldn't breathe!! I was like "GAAASSSSPPPPP!" GAASSSPP!" "MUST.....BEAT.....DADA!!!!" After I gave up on that idea, I remembered that because of my short height and relative lack of natural talent, I had asked Dada for a handicap of 1 minute per mile. PHEW. I missed that mark by only 47 seconds, but in the wrong direction! Adjusting also for the fact that it was the temperature and humidity level of a sauna ( -48 seconds)...according to my math, it looks like I beat Dada by just one second!!! WOOP WOOP, DADA.

Love,Mama

P.S. I will need you three to help me train in the park when I get home!

P.P.S. Do you like the picture of me after the race? I was so tired I could only grimace!

Letter # 7: Good bye Florida!

Dear The Child Formerly Known as Spiderman, Spidergirl, and Spidermaniac:

Tomorrow I probably won't write you a letter because I will be travelling home to see you! I will take a taxi to the airport, then take an airplane to Denver, and then drive home. I will get home about 1 or 2 hours after you fall asleep tomorrow night and I will come in to kiss you and tuck you in like always. Maybe you'll notice! Maybe I'll give you an extra-loud zerbert so you know I'm home!! Sunday morning when you wake up you can wake me up too!

Florida is so different from Wyoming. The plants are different. Our summer is like their winter! Their winter is warm! Their summer is super-duper HOT. I am not sure I would like summer in Florida. The other three seasons seem pretty nice, though! There are no mountains and no skiing! How is this possible?

But there are palm trees and oceans!

There are things to like about every single place and I think I could be happy living just about anywhere. Things I liked about Florida: the ocean! the warm evenings! the big city! the restaurants! the amazing Zumba and Latin beat dance classes! My doctor classes! How I had to remember some of my Spanish! Things I like about Wyoming: YOU GUYS! Our house! The mountains! Skiing! Our friends! My job! Extra kale!

I am looking forward to travelling home to see you!

Love, Mama

P.S. I am planning to redecorate. I will be needing new art work from you for my office, if you have a moment!

Letter #6: Doctor School

Dear Peeps,

I came to Florida to see my Dad and my friend Elizabeth, but for the rest of the time I am here, I am in doctor school. I am here for a conference, which means a whole lot of other doctors are here and we are all going to classes. You thought I was done with school? NOPE! I'm a 31st grader!!! HA! I get to keep learning. And the tricky part is, as soon as you learn it real well, the rules change and suddenly, your information, even how you find that information, even how your write that information down - is "old-fashioned."

This is a picture of one of the lobbies - this is a very large conference and a very large conference center building. Teachers come here, but so do companies who want to advertise their products. Like Coca-Cola, who is now advertising their line of "healthy products". Do you find anything strange about that?

I think the technology that they have at this conference is cool. How do you placate thousands of doctors who are dependant on their cell phones? A charging station with every single type of plug known to man! This is where I get power in my cell phone so I can call you!

Look! An escalator! Isn't it strange to think that there aren't ANY escalators in Wyoming, yet in this building there are at least 20? When I said to somebody that I needed to take a picture of the escalator, they looked at me like I am from Mars! But really, we just live on top of the moon.

This conference center is SO BIG that in order to get around it quickly, they put the helper people on segways! These guys LOVE jetting around the place, and because getting to you is such a joy for them, they are very helpful. Tom was pleased to show off his wheels for you!

So many people come here that they have these huge buses which leave every 15 minutes to take doctors to and from their hotels. The hotel I am in is within walking distance, so I don't have to take the bus.

This is how the people who work at the conference center deliver things. Somebody is about to take all these drinks to stock a vending machine. Doctors drink a lot of coffee and coke because they don't sleep as much as they should. Then, they need water to counteract their caffiene products later in the day. Geez, sounds like they should see a doctor!

The huge building, the fancy gadgets, the hotels and the buses - they have all that so doctors can go to lectures and learn the newest information and refresh their skills. I am going to about 6 hours of lectures a day. This lecture was about arthritis, or painful joints - how to figure out what is causing a person pain and what can be done about it. Sometimes, I get to help a person feel better and that makes me feel good! I want to learn more so I can be a better helper to my patients.

Speaking of wanting to learn more - my next class is about to begin! It is on something called "metabolic syndrome". So I'd better stop writing a letter to you and I'd better get to class!

Love, Mama

Letter #5: Jellyfish!

Dear Big-guy, Marga-loo, and Spidermanic:
Look at this calm, lovely beach! Doesn't it look really nice to swim in? I wonder what those little bumps are, all over the beach. Oh, no big deal. Let's just go in. Wait a minute! Those bumps are squishy! They are see-through! They are riding the waves! They are everywhere!

They are jellyfish! They can sting you! Instead of taking a swim with them, we just looked and looked at them. What a very interesting creature. Elizabeth loves sea creatures and she taught me a lot of things about jellyfish that I can tell you when I get home.

Love, Mama

P.S. Elizabeth told me that some people eat jellyfish ( not the stinging parts)! Do you think your teachers would like it if you came to school with jellyfish and peanut butter powder sandwiches? If you would like me to, I can get on-line and order the supplies. I wouldn't want your lunches to get too boring!

Letter 4: An IKEA on the horizon!

Dear Margaret, Spiderman-ic, and William,

Elizabeth and I were driving to the ocean when we Ebee saw something out of the corner of her eye! I didn't see the sign. But once Ebee said the word "IKEA", we quickly decided to turn around! Yay to innovative European design at affordable prices!

We tried out a lot of new ideas for our living spaces.

I rested on a couch just like the one in our basement, only newer and red! I confirmed that the Ektorp is still my most favorite couch in all of Sweden.

TEXTILES. Textiles is a word that refers to different types of fabric and cloth - like pillow cases, curtains, and rugs! I may have a genetic tendency to love textiles because of your Beeba Nola. Elizabeth loved this room, too!

I want this rug! It is the same color scheme as our new paint!

Elizabeth liked the cookie monster bath mat. It was very soft.

So many decorating ideas, so little time! We were thinking that Temporary Librarian would like this store. And this store had a lot of cool options for kid's rooms, too! I think it would be fun to go there together and buy decorations and fun furniture for your bedrooms. Would you like to go with me one day? There is an IKEA store that we could go to near Denver.

Something about the shower curtain display was amusing to me at the time. We started to get a little giggly, you know, like how you guys get every single day from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.

Oh! I have an idea! Let's buy lightbulbs and get out of this store and go to the beach!

My next letter will have pictures of jellyfish in it.

Love, Mama

P.S. Would you rather go to an IKEA or would you rather see a thousand jellyfish? Your Mama loves both!

Letter #3 :Sushi Pop!

Dear Eric, William, and Margaret,

This is a picture of the restaurant that Elizabeth ( Ebee) and I went to. It was called "Sushi Pop". They didn't serve pop. Maybe they meant "pop culture". Maybe they meant that the food went "POP!", which some of it actually did!
Here is a picure of the restaurant. We started off sitting in the booths, but the seats were so squishy and low that my chin nearly rested on the table and I could barely see Elizabeth over my silverware. Out of compassion, Ebee suggested that we sit at a table so I could reach my food.

This is our waitress! Tell your dad that she has a degree in Psychology! She looks like Pippi Longstockings. She was really smart and nice. Can you believe she is "cooking" for us here? She is using the same really cold stuff that Dr. Hannifan used to freeze off your various warts on your feet - liquid nitrogen. She is using liquid nitrogen to turn a juice into a sorbet!

Here is a close-up. It got really "COOL"!

This is Ebee's dessert. Berry-flavored sorbet with a marshmallow fluff and peanut butter powder. Peanut butter POWDER? This restaurant likes to use food in new ways. But, she basically had a new-age take on a peanut butter and jelly fluffernutter sandwich. Ask your dad what a fluffernutter sandwich is. He was still eating them in graduate school, as a dessert after his bologna and hummus sandwich. You may have to ask your dad what bologna is and what marshmallow fluff is, too! They don't have that in our farm share. I am sorry.

Here it is!

And here is how happy Elizabeth is to see it - and me, I think!

Here is my fancy dessert! It is called "PMS", and I found it curative! It is a molten chocolate cake with peanut butter powder and salted caramel ice cream. I was extremely happy to see Ebee and I LOVED my PMS.

Love, Mama

P.S. When I get home, let's have fluffernutters!

Letter #2

Dear Margaret, Eric, and William,




I am sorry to report that the computer connection in my hotel room is too slow for me to put pictures on the blog tonight. I will put pictures on the blog tomorrow morning because my doctor conference has much fancier computer technology than the Rosen Inn.




I wanted to tell you a few cool things!



I got to see my friend Elizabeth! She has been my friend since she was born, 12 days after me! We have been friends for 37 years. Sometimes I still call her Ebee because her little brother called her that instead of Elizabeth. Just like how Eric calls you guys Mimi and WiiWii! Ebee and I went out to dinner one night and a waitress made us a dessert out of a science experiment! There was gas all around and then poof! She made a sorbet, which is like an ice cream. I'll put pictures on tomorrow.



The next day, Ebee and I went to a store called IKEA. I got so many good decorating ideas for your bedrooms. Would you like some giant jungle leaves in the playroom? I thought so! But they won't fit in my suitcase. We'll get some as soon as possible!!!




After that, Ebee and I drove out to see the ocean! Florida is a skinny state so it only took about an hour to drive all the way to the edge of the ocean. Ebee walked out into the waves and then slowly backed right back out of the water. "Why are you out already?", I asked? Then I looked! There were thousands of jellyfish everywhere! The stinging kind! Some were small, like the size of plates in Margaret's play kitchen. But some were BIG, the size of Mama's dinner plates - and bigger! They were everywhere! In the water, and all up and down the beach! Elizabeth read that jellyfish aren't very good swimmers. They just float around in a squiggly little way. They float in big groups. Sometimes, a storm will come along and bring a whole lot of them to shore all at once. Needless to say, we thought they were EXTREMELY cool to look at. But we didn't touch them and we decided it wasn't a good day for swimming at Cocoa Beech!




Today, I learned at my doctor conference all about knees and shoulders. You'd think I would already know everything there is to know about knees and shoulders. But it turns out that there is always more and more to learn about any given thing, no matter how much you already know. Today what I learned was pretty cool- how to figure out which part of the joint has a problem *without* using xray vision! Xray vision is still probably better, though.




Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow. Thank you for being such wonderful children for your Dada and your grandparents! I can't wait to see you!

Love, Mama

P.S. Did you know that at my conference there are people who work in the building who zip all around in segways? I feel like I am on the Jetson's! "The Jetson's" is an ancient television show from my childhood that has predicted the future in an uncanny way. Have Dada show you a picture of a segway and tell you about how he toured Hamburg, Germany on one! Tell Dada that you can now rent segways on the canals in Indianapolis near where Mama went to medical school. And that the person I talked to about this had fallen in the canal! Woops!

Letter #1: Magic Kingdom

Dear William, Margaret, and Eric,

I am in Florida. In a big city called Orlando. You should see all the shops and people here! Soon, I will go to a conference - a five day school for doctors. My letters to you might become less interesting. But last night and today I got to visit with my dad and his girlfriend, Bonnie. We went to a super-huge theme park called Magic Kingdom, which is part of Disney World. We saw this very famous castle:

But you have already seen the castle it is modeled after! The castle in Neuschwanstein, Germany, built by the crazy King Ludwig. Years later, a man named Walt Disney used some of his ideas.

There were shows with song and dance, boat rides, roller coaster rides, and all kinds of shops and food. The weather was super hot, like more than 90 degrees!

Look, there's Goofy, Minnie Mouse, and Donald Duck dancing together! And a lot of princesses and princes dancing. Walt was into that.

Your Grandpa Tom is a fun-loving guy and this theme park was fun to go to with him because he was having a good time the whole day! He likes to make silly jokes just like you do! And I do!

There was a street parade with the Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. They threw multi-colored streamers in the street. Because you guys weren't there to put the streamers on your head, we had to do it! So here is a picture of your family members with streamers on their heads. This is what you have to look forward to turning into as you age! I can tell you that it might not look so good to you now, but it'll be fun once you get there!

This is a picture of Grandpa Tom with Bonnie. They are a happy couple and they laugh a lot.

What?? This looks like where we used to live! But it isn't in South Germany, it is in central Florida! A lot of the Magic Kingdom reminds me of South Germany and Switzerland - but with a distinctly American use of commercialism. Speaking of commercialism, which means "trying to get people to buy stuff", I bought some stuff! I bought some stuff for you, after looking in 15 shops, I finally decided on a present for each of you....I wonder what Mama is going to bring you?!

It was really nice for me to get to see my Dada. But I was thinking about you three the whole time as well!

Have a good sleep. I'll write you another letter tomorrow.

Love, Mama

P.S. Can you believe that this trash can is a robot?? I asked Grandpa Tom to throw something away for me and he had to chase the trash can!

Rocky Mountain National Park

Inspired by our perfect 10 year wedding anniversary backpacking trip in the Snowies, Sean and I suddenly couldn't understand why we don't go camping every single weekend! So, with the power of forgetfulness, we decided to take the family camping again at the very next opportunity!

Rocky Mountain National Park's beauty is obscured only by a small pouting face, made artistic with an accidental camera setting.

This is the dorkiest picture of Sean I've ever seen. If he ever gets religion, I'm going to enlarge and frame it for him.

Can we make it on a 1 mile hike together? The answer for this day was a resounding "no!"

But Margaret finished the one mile hike with her Dada as I took the balking boys back to the car.

Margaret, the hiker!

Later in the afternoon, we retired to the KOA Kampground.

"Tell me again why we are here with these fussy people?"

Oh, they were good on and off! Here they are working on their Junior Ranger badges. This summer, William and Margaret earned Junior Ranger badges at Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain!

"I don't know, dear. We won't camp again until next year, mosquito season- I promise!"

We did manage to go on a fantastic hike the next morning, when 3/5's of us were well rested and ready to go.

On the trail. Eric doesn't want to be in the backpack anymore.

My men.

My daughter...

The views!

Just this picture was worth the whole "family vacation" ordeal!

Thank you, nature!