Millions of peaches, peaches for me. No, really. My sweet dad and step-mom brought us a whole box of Fay Elberta peaches. I can't get enough of how good they smell. That's summer, right there.
Peaches = peach crisp.
And here we have the Vespa boyz. Bo and his friend Jordan got to meet and hang out with Clay Enos. He's a photographer who is doing a cross-country Vespa ride to photograph small-town America.
He even jumped in our sidecar for a bit. Follow Clay's Local Time Vespa Tour here, on his blog, or on Flickr. Very cool stuff, indeed.
Date night around here looks like this. We get lots of smiles and waves when we're out with the sidecar.
Last week, Bo did a leg of RAGBRAI, riding 77 miles from Greenfield to Indianola and then an extra 25 or so, biking from Indianola back to Des Moines. (RAGBRAI is an annual seven-day bicycle ride across Iowa. This is its 37th year, and it's the longest, largest and oldest touring bicycle ride in the world.)
Meanwhile, this little girly and I headed up north for a visit to see my family.
I'm still in awe of all of the wind turbines that have been put up along the highways on my route home. They're going up everywhere; fields of them.
I'm sure they're not a big deal at all to the locals, but I love watching them. Lo and I agree that they make the drive much more fun.
My hometown.
The gravel road and cornfield at my dad's house. There's definitely something kind of special about going home to visit the parents and the house I (mostly) grew up in ... but with my kid. It made me smile as I was laying in my old room in those familiar surroundings with my little girly snuggled close; something I never could have imagined when I lived in that same room during high school.
Waking up to Lo making blueberry muffins with grandma. With real blueberries. And my dad and brother drinking coffee and reading the paper in the kitchen.
Coloring with grandpa. Just like I used to do.
The fam. In front of little brother's corn.
A parade that Lo wasn't quite sure about at first.
Swing time and uncle Chris.
At the park with grandma. On a day that seemed much too cold for July. Reminiscing about the time that my brother hit the little orange bouncy animal in the lower left corner on his snowmobile. Not exactly sure what kind of animal it is, either.
So we rode the cute little blue horse instead.
We visited a real farm.
With pretty flowers.
And two our favorite people, Phyllis and Jim.
A pretty sunset. Reminds me of summer nights when my friend Jane and I would sit on my driveway and sip on cherry slushes from Casey's. (If only I had a picture of that!)
And any good road trip usually ends like this. With songs playing on the radio and more summer memories made. Happy summer to you.