Ho Hum

Our former exchange student, Juan, has left the building. He spent two weeks lounging with us - I'm afraid we didn't do anything terribly exciting. It was fun catching up with him. We did manage to take hime to the beach one weekend and out to Skinny Dip Falls (on the Blue Ridge Parkway) one day. Other than that, he was just like another family member, fending for himself. He has an international driver's license, so he says, but I had no plans to let him drive - after all he is twenty two and his frontal lobe isn't done yet. My husband thought differently, and while I was gone last weekend he let him drive the mini van to the grocery store to buy some Cheetos for his friends back in Bogota. His reson for driving should have been enough to just say no, but DH gave Juan the keys. Turns out he made it there and back safely. But when he tried to pull the van in our very tight garage, he made intimate contact with the side of the garage. Judging from the 6 foot scrape down the side of my van, he was going at top speed. My husband said that Juan felt "really bad". Yeah, but what about you, honey, for giving him the keys? Oh well, the new scrape goes with the old ones on the front bumper where I have hit the garage on a few occasions.

Exchange Student

Our exchange student from 5 years ago, Juan, is visiting for two weeks. The DH was working on Saturday, so the boys and I went to greet him. He arrived safely, even a little early. A lot different than 5 years ago. This was three weeks before 9/11 so we waited as the passengers filed off the plane and into the terminal. I was ther with out DH again. The boys were acting like 4 and 1 year old, because they were and I was ready to get them back into a controlled environment - the car. But as the last passengers rolled past us, it became clear that Juan wasn't on this flight. After a few calls at a pay phone (this was pre-cell phone for me), while my boys played on the luggage roller, we headed back home. Later that night, I returned to bring Juan home. In his broken English he explained he had missed his flight in Atlanta. I felt for him, being in a foreign country, trying to navigate the flight schedules and the sprawling, frenetic Atlanta airport. It's unnerving enough for a native, at least the first time you encounter it. Many months later, we learned the truth. He was in Atlanta with time to spare to catch his connecting flight, but spent too much time browsing the duty free store, arriving at his gate too late.

We're Back

We arrived late Sunday night, after an 11 hour drive from Columbia, MO, dropping DH at the Lincoln, NE airport the previous day (where he was delayed for two hours and late for his connecting flight). We intended to spend one more night on the road but I bribed the boys with a promise of seeing Ratatouille this week; we hardly ever go to the movies.
The vacation was fantastic but nothing spectacular to report. Yellowstone was fun for us all, although we did the mainstream stuff with the rest of the travelers. I had visions of hikes to less popular places, but we trudged along with the masses to see Old Faithful, waterfalls, geysers and hot springs. Seeing the wildlife was a treat too. We had plans to spend a couple of days in the Grand Teton National Park, but ended up spending time in and around Driggs, Idaho. It was a break we all needed from the crowds of Yellowstone. Two of our evenings in Driggs were spent at a local baseball field playing baseball with the boys, at WC's insistence. Of course, the wrangling with the field mouse provided entertainment (we caught another before we left). We drove all day Friday through WY, which was a treat in itself, the landscape was beautiful to behold.
Our first day back, the WC asked, "Mom, what are we going to do today?" "Nothing," I replied. The entertainment portion of your summer is over. Of course I have things to "do" (including watching Wimbledon) and I am determined to make them "do" a chore every day. I started on Tuesday but missed yesterday. Oh, well, it was a holiday yesterday. We'll start again today.
More from the river later but Nadal is making his comeback.