My Old Man

Our company has left us and our house is so quiet!! :( So I figured it was time to get some pictures up of our last few adventures. Jason turned 25 on September 25! Josh and Trese were in town visiting so we celebrated with fondue. We had to get a little creative when it came to candles.

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April showers bring May flowers, but what do September showers bring?? flooding..and lots of it! 6.6 inches of rain were recorded at O'Hare yesterday with 2 more added today.  This is yet another time when living on the 19th floor comes in handy, our only flood damage is apparent on the windowsills and fairly easily controlled. The northern and western suburbs didn't get so lucky. Here are a couple pictures from the Chicago Tribune. 

Orders Received!!

Jason was given his tentative externship schedule for next year and we are very excited about  it! I am however glad that we still have 8 months left to finish exploring the city before we trek off on our cross-country adventures. 

Next spring and summer will find us in Juneau, AK!! I can not wait to show Jason around Southeast and a little bit of the area I grew up in. It will be a great time of year for hiking and fishing, so for us that is the perfect fit.

In August we will head back down to the "lower 48" and spend a few more months right here in the great city of Chicago. I love the fall time here and am very thankful the winter months will be spent elsewhere!

When that daunting winter comes we will jaunt a few hundred miles east and land in Wilmington, North Carolina. Neither of us have been to the east coast, and have heard rumors that the winters average about 45 degrees which sounds dandy!

Then last but not least...the 3 months before graduation will be spent in Mountain Home, Tennessee. This is just a few miles from our good friends the Burtons which is very exciting. It is also close to the Appalachian trail and we hope to put some time in treading the soil there. 

This is just a tentative schedule and will not be set in stone for about another month, but we are still very excited for the adventures to come! In the meantime we are counting down days until our visit from Josh and Trese...can't wait to have you two!

Summers Fleeting

September has come!..which means Labor day weekend has gone, flu season is right around the corner, and work is about to get crazy!  But enough about work! We had quite the weekend discovering a little of what Michigan adds to the United States. So far we are very impressed. We spent the long weekend on North Manitou Island...yeah, we hadn't heard of it either. Turns out, it's the place to be. Dana and Tyler invited us on a camping trip and since it involved 2 hours of private flying each way Jason couldn't resist.  We took off before sunrise on Saturday (4:30 am to be exact!) and landed at the sugar loaf runway with just enough time to hitch hike our way to the ferry terminal. 

Our ride..

...just kidding!  We did get to fly in a Cessna 182, so we didnt have much to complain about!

Dana and I getting ready to gear up for our hike to the ferry...

Jason and I in the adorable but tiny town of Leland, MI where we caught our ferry.

Approaching the island after our hour ferry ride. The buildings you can see now house the Park rangers.

Enjoying a day of hiking on the beach. 

The North Manitou Island had families living on it year round at one time, so there are quite a few old farms and houses still standing. It was fun to imagine what life was like on the island then.

We hiked into Lake Manitou and stopped for a relaxing lunch and swim before heading to the west side of the island.

There were tons of blackberry bushes and the occasional orchard along the way, so none of us were short on food..including the snake above! I thought it was crazy that you can see his last meal just hanging out.  Creepy!!

This was a beach on the west side. The sand here was hard to beat!

The boys in front of the old Swenson barn. 

They were so anxious to see the barn they figured we could just cut straight through the woods and get there faster than following the trail, needless to say we were quite excited when they FINALLY spotted it!!

Headed to the ferry dock, sad to leave the island...

A quick picture in front of the plane before we loaded up for the trip home.

Flying over Michigan..what a beautiful area!

Jason and I enjoying the jet set life of economy plus!

Bikes Beaches and Bolt Cutters

Sunday was a beautiful day, so we thought we'd get our bikes out and enjoy the weather.  Chicago was hosting the Air & Water show which was expecting to bring a couple million people to the lake front. Wanting to avoid the crowds we decided to head for Indiana....only this time we stayed away from Gary!  As I was making lunch Jason went down to our storage locker to grab his bike. He came back shortly after leaving to show me our lock...very nicely cut with bolt cutters and his mountain bike missing..what a lovely surprise!! 

We had called security the night before because we saw someone using bolt cutters on the outside bike racks, and then on Monday security found them in the grass next to another bike rack. It seems as if bikes are a hot item these days!

We decided to head to Indiana sans bikes and just enjoy the beach.

We stopped by McDonalds for their cheap iced coffees which were huge!!

We had heard great things about the Dunes State Park and wanted to investigate for ourselves.

The idea of leaving Chicago crowds behind didn't work out so well as the beach was much more crowded than our own!  We discovered that the sand is soo much nicer and the water quite a bit warmer than ours so the trip was deemed a success. 

We climbed to the top of the sand dunes and Jason decided to roll down the dunes.

All in all it was a very relaxing afternoon and we stayed until shortly before sunset.

Tractors, Babies, and Planes

A 10 day summer break from school took me to the great town of Waterville these past days. Spending time with family and friends (and working) was the main goal. 

On the clear beautiful flight to Seattle I snapped some pictures of Thompson Falls, Mt. If you look real close you might be able to see Sue's parents place in the top left edge of the picture.

After landing Monday morning I made a 1.5 hr 3 bus transfer bus ride up to Uncle Bruce's and hung out with him until he was done seeing patients and then headed over with him to tackle some farming. Let me tell you, I'm beginning to think that the Seattle buses are more exciting than those here in Chicago after my trip sitting next to a guy who's "brain was on fire!!" and after saying hi to a guy who informed me that I was the 1st of "50 or 60 people to say hi" to him that day. He thinks that the world is becoming "antisocial."

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning I spent some much needed mental relaxation time on the family's newly acquired CAT Challenger tractor plowing and chiseling the fields. 

The weather started to move in on Wednesday, but it lead to some great pictures.

Getting to see Justin & Pam Grillo's new daughter Dakota was one of the highlights of the trip. Being in the eye-care filed, we just had to present Dakota with her 1st pair of sunglasses! I don't think she appreciates them just yet as she just kept her eyes closed behind them the whole time. Wow! Do they change her appearance.

After Convention in Olympia I headed back to Waterville for a day of flying and birthdays. We celebrated Trese's, Josh's, and Joel's birthdays over the course of the week, but I failed to get any good pictures of the flying or the birthday parties. I do have an older picture of me with the Piper Supercub though.

Convention!

We all know that there is no better way to spend a weekend than at convention! Jason has been visiting family in Waterville so I flew to Seattle to meet him for the weekend of Olympia. It was so wonderful and encouraging. I just have a few pictures to post from my camera, but Jason will be home soon and maybe I'll be lucky enough to get him to share tales of his travels. 

My dad has been working in Longview for the last couple of weeks, so he drove up for the weekend and mom came over as well. 

We enjoyed time with grandma and grandpa and wish we could have had more..

It was so much fun to see Beth! She will be in Cheyenne, WY this year so we hope to make it out sometime this winter.

A few Buckinghams...

My favorite man!

and of course, the coolest roommates ever.