Every year I see the Scoutmaster from Buffalo, the city next to my home town, at this rest stop. This year he wasn't there. I hope he's just gotten slower. This is a picture of my in-laws - apparently you're never too old or too sweaty to get all romantic behind a tree.
Then again, maybe you're just eating trail mix. This was where their bikes tipped over, spilling my father in law's expensive SLR onto the ground, resulting in intermittent frame action. I've always said, "Don't trust kickstands." They're evil, and they're intent on damaging your bike and whatever you put on it.
Eryn being cute next to a tree at the rest stop. My father in law has some pictures as well, and some funny retro pictures of Eryn posing against the same tree. So his camera wasn't a loss.
My mother-in-law was not a fan of the hills. I welcomed them - I need a few more if I'm going to be ready for RAGBRAI. Biking the flats around the Hennepin County trails won't prepare me for any elevation changes.
A nice Fourth of July Watermelon Ride family photo. I didn't realize when I got dressed that I was supposed to be all red, white and blue. My bad.
Later, we had Cookie Queen, Dan'l and Conner over for swimming, movies, dinner on the grill, a fire, smores, and various fireworks, courtesy of the neighbors and one of those cheaper packs of fountains. The kids were more impressed with the smoke bombs than they were with anything else and ran back and forth through the colored sulfur, effectively killing off any body parasites they may have picked up.
Here's Conner cooking a marshmallow. Mmmm....that's going to be a tasty one!
And of course there were sparklers. Sparklers and smoke bombs are the glue that get your kids from just after bedtime to darkness, when you can set off shinier, explosive things. At a dollar or two for 36 of them, kids can play with them in the daylight inexpensively until the sun goes down, and it keeps them from crashing or getting all irritable that the grown ups are sitting around talking about things they don't care about, like work, relatives, blogging, Scooter Libby and who's attending the 20th high school reunion.
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