Jiving in June

It's been a while since we've blogged so I thought I'd catch everyone up with a photo journey of the past few weeks.

Shady Camping
First of all, camping! Despite mighty rainfall and rampant flooding in the midwest, we gathered up enough courage to go camping at Indiana's Shades State Park, close to Turkey Run. The park was beautiful--we highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new spot to explore. We had tons of fun with Jason's siblings, and felt fortunate to draw upon Justin's brilliance when he used the battery powered mattress pump to blow air on the fire when the dry wood wouldn't light. Med school must be paying off!

As far as the wildlife goes, we were glad to avert any additional battles with the ticks. Even so, we did have some more interesting experiences with a brazen raccoon that had the audacity to literally hang around the campsite in broad daylight. It was hard to get mad at the little bugger because it was so darn little and cute. I guess that's how my own kids must get away with so much!

Jason's Adventures in Modeling
For Jason, the laid-back, relaxed pace of camping quickly gave way to super-intense days of architectural design and modeling when he began his summer studio class. The following pictures show one of the latest concept models his group has designed. As you can see, when it comes to architecture, he eats it up...










































Fat Man's Squeeze
Later in June, we were really fortunate to have both my sister and father come visit. It was fabulous to see Callie before she takes the big plunge on July 19th and gets married to the man of her dreams, Adam Wilhoit. Thanks Adam, for sharing her!

We used the daddy-daughter time to revisit some family haunts from our growing up childhood years in southern Illinois. The most hilarious venture was trying to work our way through "Fat Man's Squeeze"--an eighteen-inch crack that ascends up a rock cliff for about two hundred feet in Giant City State Park. As young girls, we used to shimmy our way through Fat Man's Squeeze with no trouble at all. I have vivid elementary-school memories of snickering at all of the adults who got stuck, with oversized adventurers occasionally having to be rescued by the fire department. Well, this latest revisiting of Fat Man's Squeeze definitely offered a different perspective. Let's just say that my 4'10" ninety-something pound sister really had to suck it in to make her way through. I survived the ordeal, but barely! In our supersize society, you don't have to be very hefty to get trapped by Fat Man's Squeeze!

Here are a couple pictures of us in Giant City State Park. In one of them, Papa Kay is helping Brooklyn with a makeshift potty. Grandfatherly love is defined by the moments where you hunch over for ten minutes, waiting for your granddaughter to relax enough to relieve herself...





Our trip to Southern Illinois would not have been complete without a trip to the Dairy Queen that we regularly frequented in Carterville, Illinois. It's still there and looks remarkably unchanged from the first time I visited it 25 years ago. The Dilly Bars are still in a freezer at the front, you still order fries to the side, and the saloon style swinging doors into the bathroom corridor seem to still have the same stick that I left on them two decades ago...





And of course, my sister is still as annoying and obnoxious as ever. Isn't it nice to know that some things never change? :)