Summer Memory Stroll 2010

Fall is here in full force (nod to the full moon on the same day as the fall equinox)! While I anxiously await jumping into my first leaf-pile of the year, I thought I’d just give a little recap of some summer highlights.

• Summer began as any well-respecting Wisconsinite might wish: with snow!

• It did a number on my tomato plants, but my harvest is still plentiful. Here’s a look into my bag after a recent harvest from my community garden, and a photo I treasure of my cantaloupe babies. They are definitely adolescents now, but are still in need of the vine.

• Early this summer I was privileged to be present when my sister was called and set-apart as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She will spend the next year-and-a-half living on a small northern island in the Philippians, serving the people and teaching them about how the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring added happiness and peace to their lives. Here’s a picture from the last time I saw her, as well as one she just sent home:

• While the summer was still green and lush, I spend as many evening after work as possible roaming through the mountains:

• Here’s a shot from one hike with my friend Kelsey- just days before she took off on a mission to Florida:

• In June, my work flew me out to San Francisco to do some training at the nation’s oldest science museum, the Exploratorium. The PIE (Playful Inventive Exploration) training was hands-down some of the most inspiring  education I’ve ever received. More to come shortly on how we’ve been using that training to inspire more innovation and creativity from the middle-schoolers I work with. Here is a picture of me outside the museum, inside the workshop space, and beside some lovely sea lions down on pier 39:
  
• I flew on an overnight flight from CA to WI to spend a week in the great outdoors with my dear family. Here we all are under uncle Bob’s tarp. The thunderstorms helped us to get extra cozy!
• 
• I spent Independence Day with my brothers, sister-in-law, and nieces at the Bees Stadium. Nothing like thousands of people cuddled on blankets, watching small explosions in the sky:
• 

• I also spent some time exploring natural hotsprings:
• Discovered a new species of maple:
• (kidding about the maple….well maybe. Have you ever heard of a variegated maple?)
• Joined a group of daring souls on a search for the infamous kokanee:
• Saw some sunsets that literally brought me to my knees:
• Traveled through Utah wilderness with dear WI friends and family:
• 

• And just spent at much time as possible gleaning from the wisdom of dear Mother Earth:
•