Along the Way

I spent over half of June going to and staying in Michigan.  I had a fun drive out to Michigan, stopping along the way to visit friends.
６月に半分以上ミシガン州に行くと泊まることです。行く途中で、友達の家に尋ねました。楽しい旅だった。

Iowa has some cool rest areas!
This one was dedicated to Iowa authors.

Illinois has some nice rest areas, too.
This is the view from...

...here!  Very cool lookout tower.

I went a little out of my way to go to Springfield, IL, where I saw Pres. Lincoln's home.

This is where Abe Lincoln was sitting when the message came  that he had been chosen to run for president.

The front hall where he would have hung his hat.

The 'family' room where Abe played with his boys and his wife sewed.

The bedroom, with a cute little heating stove.

The house as it was probably situated when Abe lived there.

After seeing Lincoln's home, I rushed on to Champaign
where I went to a Sidewalk Prophets concert with Dan and Molly.

A models the Peruvian tablecloth.

Z had a different look.

Coco helped Donna with some electrical work.

This indoor park is inside a church.

Z and his friend with Coco.

Selfie of the girls

Me and my friend-sister

The big kids being blinded by the sun!

Dad's Check-up

After flying all over the country, I arrived back in South Dakota just in time to hop in the car with my parents to go to Minnesota.  Dad's 12 week study had come to an end and the doctors needed to do some tests to see how his body had responded to the treatments.  All of the tests went well.  His doctor called him the star student because his body was responding so well to the treatment.  Praise God!
アメリカのあちら、こちらへ飛行機で移動した後、SDに戻りました。そして、帰ってすぐに両親とミネソタ州に行った。父のチェックのためだった。その結果はよかったです！お医者さんはすごく嬉しかったです。私たちも嬉しかったです！神様に感謝しています！

We had some fun with the statues in front of the clinic.

The Mayo brothers

Mom sat on the cat bench to share the good news!

Going West

 After a fun weekend with friends and a week with my Colorado Springs relatives, I got on another plane and went farther west.  It was a lovely day for a flight over the Rocky Mountains.  I took a bunch of pictures out the window, trying different angles to get better pictures without glare, etc.

I was ready for a little snack when I arrived in Salt Lake City.  Auntie Anne's hit the spot!  I have loved big, soft pretzels since high school when our marching band went to New York City for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and I got my first taste from a pretzel vendor in Battery Park.  Pretzels were always one of my favorite snacks, and the giant soft kind did not disappoint me!

My aunt took me to the Asian market because she wanted me to make a Japanese dinner.  I was so thrilled to find some of my favorite treats!  We had curry rice, which everyone seemed to really enjoy.  I loved it!  It was nice to get a taste of home.
We had a lovely meal in the backyard.  My aunt is a wonderful hostess.  My cousin and her boyfriend joined us after the baseball game where my cousin was heckled.  Oakland was playing Chicago.  She is a White Sox fan.  Enough said!

Enjoying the beautiful weather and yard.

Some Japanese snacks to go with dessert.

We took in an afternoon game on Sunday where we learned why my cousin was heckled.  She appears to be a quiet person as she sits knitting from her seat in the third balcony, but put her team up to bat, and there seems to be a different person with you!  It was fun, though!  Oakland has a player named Coco, so I took a picture of Flat Coco with the sign when Coco was up.

We went out for Burmese food with my cousin and her roommate.

Daphne taught me how to make jewelry

On Friday we took the bike trail into a cute little town for brunch.
It was much warmer than we had anticipated!

The dog tried to beat the heat by laying (lying?) on the cool tile floor in the kitchen!

Going back in Time

I was going in some kind of chronological order when I started blogging about Flat Coco.  Then I got distracted by all of my travels and visiting with friends.  It's not that I have forgotten about Flat Coco, I have hundreds of pictures with her.  I have just not taken the time to blog!
Flat Cocoについてブロッグを始まった時、順番でポストにしようと思った。でも、沢山の移動、沢山の友達や親戚に会うことがあって、できなかった。Flat Cocoについて忘れることをしなかったよ！ココちゃんと沢山の写真を写ったけど、まだブロッグを書かなかった。

So, today, I thought we'd have a Flashback Friday and check out some of what happened at the beginning of the summer.
今日夏の始まりのことについて書こうと思った。

Over Memorial Day weekend I went back to Colorado for a Girls' Weekend with friends I met here.  We had such a great time reconnecting and exploring.
５月の終わり、ペルーに行った時の友達に会うために行きました。すごく楽しかった！

We started the weekend at Compassion International's office where they have all of these amazing bronze statues everywhere.  I loved them!

Then we headed to Garden of the Gods where I got to climb onto and into the rocks!

We were quite hungry after all of that climbing and hiking, but we stopped for a picture before leaving the park.  Then we headed downtown Colorado Springs for some delicious pizza!

The next day found us forming a new band in Manitou Springs before heading up Pike's Peak!

Brenda, Coco, and I were ready for the ride!

We topped off the evening with dinner at Brenda's and origami fun!

We also spent some time at some waterfalls hiking and climbing lots of stairs!

After we dropped Heather and Kelly at the airport, Robyn and I spent some time in downtown Denver where Coco and I played piano on the street!