Summertime Reflections

It's Labor Day. The official end of the summer. Where did summer 2011 go? It flew by, with a few photos taken, many more memories made, and not enough blog posts written.

This summer, Olivia and I went to Gettysburg three times. Yes, the history nerd in me rejoiced. Our first trip was Memorial Day.

Now Olivia knows to say hi to Lincoln whenever we are in town. And I think I'm one more tour away from becoming a qualified Gettysburg tour guide.

We visited West Virginia, hiked a bit of the Appalachian Trail (saw two snakes that day) and ate three meals in three different states. It's a baby step when compared with Benny's friend Steve who ate three meals in three different European countries. Still I'm including this Volkmann goodie in the Christmas letter.

Benny ran a Warrior Dash (a mud and fire race) near Washington, D.C. Olivia and I cheered him on and kept our distance until after he showered.

Olivia and I planted a small garden. We forgot to water our garden. We killed our garden. (More on that later.)

We ate custard at the same ice cream shop as President Obama. We visited Washington, D.C., a handful of times. We attended a Fourth of July party. We attended a 40th birthday party. We ate more hot dogs and hamburgers in the last three months than we have in the last three years.

Colleen and Adam came to visit. (More on that later.) We visited the Volkmanns in Minnesota and the Kanns in Iowa. Olivia met her extended family on the Wille side.

Movie night with her Hoel cousins.



The whole Wille family.

 I baked more desserts this summer than I have in the last three years. I canned peaches with the help of Melinda and Andrea. (More on that later too.)

I bought a book about family trips to Civil War battlefields. We dragged Olivia to the Antietam battlefields with Jason and Melinda. History nerd rejoiced again.

Olivia licked her first ice cream cone. Olivia attended her first wedding. Benny went to his first Iowa State Fair. It was Olivia's first Iowa State Fair too. (more on that later.)

Summer 2011 may be gone, but it isn't forgotten.