End of summer

 The end of summer has been quite busy for us.  I feel like I always say something like that.  Last weekend we went to Grasslands National Park.  We stayed in a structure that is a cross between a tent and a cabin, and didn't have to bring a whole lot in the way of camping supplies – we had  beds with mattresses, and a propane barbeque to cook on.  We saw bison, prairie dogs, open prairie, and more stars than I have seen in a very long time.  It was unfortunately quite hot, so we didn't enjoy our afternoons as much as we otherwise would have, since open prairie means no trees and no shade.  But we otherwise had a very good time. The prairie dog colonies are  pretty amazing – I tried to take a video, but it doesn't do the actual experience justice.  The video makes it look like we are really far away, but actually we were able to get very close to some of the prairie dogs.

 Maren is doing a lot with language these days.  She has been using the wrong pronouns as long as she has been talking,  but yesterday she had a bit of a breakthrough with the phrase "I want."  She has been trying it out ever since, and I captured one of the more hilarious uses of the phrase on video: 

 Last night Jeff and I went on our first date where we had a babysitter put Maren to bed. It went totally fine last night – as smooth as we could have hoped. But unfortunately she woke up around 4 AM and stayed up for the day.  We are all a bit tired and at least Maren is cranky today. Unsure whether the early wake up is related to going to bed with a babysitter, but maybe. I don't think it will deter us from having future dates though, as it was pretty amazing to  have dinner and a movie alone with Jeff :-)