My summer vacation

Let's be honest: my whole life is basically one long vacation. But my summer break from blogging was so nice. Thought I'd give the highlights before resuming the feed.

First stop back from the land of Oz was Milwaukee for some really lovely family time over the 4th of July and beyond. 

My nieces and nephews continue to grow like weeds and I'm grateful for every second I get to spend with them.

Grateful, also, for the chance to spend a weekend with my sweet Grandma in central WI. In this picture, grandma, my aunt C, and niece R: four generations of the fam...and R in 7th heaven thanks to C giving her her first fishing experience as part of her birthday weekend adventure.

From Milwaukee I headed to Denver and caught up with as many friends there as I could in too-short a time. I was especially lucky to be taken to the Denver Botanic Gardens, which is hosting a Chihuly exhibit. This is actually a photo I took, believe it or not. There were so many scenes that looked totally unreal, it was hard to know where to start with the gaping and the pictures.

From Denver, up to the mountains for most of the month of August. Too many fabulous experiences there to even summarize. Suffice it to say we had an idyllic time going to the Avon rodeo (which my mom has been talking about doing for the past 20 years, but which we've never before done)...

...riding horses...

...being silly...

...going on hikes...

...visiting the Western CO ranch of family friends who were brave enough to host our group of 8 for 3 blissful days...

...riding the narrow gauge railroad from Durango to Silverton and back...

...catching up with sweet Peace Corps-Madagascar friend (and CO native) K (including a hike to Hanging Lake)...

...and revisiting, for the first time in many years, the gorgeous Piney Lake...

...which was during part of the time we got to enjoy a visit with my baby bro, C...

...and my mom got to see a bunch of those moose she so dearly loves and is willing to drive 45 minutes on bad gravel roads to see:

All in all, as golden as a summer can get.
Though I can't say I really got my fill of family time--with such a fun family, such a thing is not possible--the end of summer meant back to business as usual for everyone else, and so I boarded a plane to the East Coast to continue my own (non-)business along the Atlantic.