A bit of August

At last... our computer is fixed! After we got it semi-working, we moved it and it stopped turning on again. I ended up taking it to a small computer repair company, and they replaced the power supply (it was indeed fried from power surges) but the part was only $50 and they had it replaced and the computer all cleaned of viruses and problems by that afternoon. And the bill was a fraction of what Best Buy was going to charge (they tried to make it sound like I should just buy a new computer for what it would take to fix it). So poo-poo on the Geek Squad. Anyway, now I can blog more effectively and actually upload some pictures from our jam-packed August of adventures! We tried to take advantage of our last few weeks with a cushy schedule and nice weather. Brad is now in the ICU so he is on-call every third night. His first day was a call day so he went in at 630am and didn't get home until noon the NEXT day. Then he slept a bit and had to be back at the hospital at 630am for at least a 12 hour shift. Same thing the next day. Then the next is call again so repeat the overnight thing... and so on. He will have Saturday off this weekend though.

We had a fun "date night" with the ward this month - ballroom dancing! We learned swing, the cha-cha, and tango. The babysitter didn't show up at the church so Eli ended up running around in the gym and trying to trip us the entire time, but it was fun. He liked to stand up by the instructor as well and show him a few moves.

On one Sunday afternoon we headed up to Bennington, VT to see some covered bridges. It is SO beautiful and green in Vermont! Crazy that we are only about 45 minutes from Bennington, but it is even more "woodsy" up there than it is here!


Another quick weekend adventure was up to Northampton, MA (about an hour from here). The downtown area was FILLED with quirky people - seriously - dreadlocks, tattoos, tattered clothing, big dogs, musicians on every corner. I just wanted to take pictures of everyone, but I didn't want to upset anybody, lol. We finally found a place that serves decent fresh Mexican food and had some delicious burritos. Then we shopped til we dropped at Whole Foods Market (a seriously awesome store!) and Trader Joe's. On the way home we drove through historic Deerfield, MA - this OLD town section that has been preserved. Many people still live there, but most of the homes are now part of a historic tour. They were even equipped with the old lantern "streetlights" - it seriously made me want to watch Little Women again. In fact, I think I will have to go unpack it.



Well that's it for this post. We went blueberry picking again as a family this time and got some more of the good stuff. I also took Eli to another farm/petting zoo as a part of a community playgroup (so we got in free) and he had a ball seeing kittens, and various farm birds (his favorite). I think this post has enough pictures though. Our other adventures this month deserve their own posts, so I'm stopping here! =)