Well, our vacation is wrapping up. It was a good time. Stephen turned two. Different members of our extended family came and went. We took Stephen fishing in a pond stocked with rainbow trout. We're at a fairly secluded cabin on the top of a mountain (the drive up here is harrowing). It's a ski resort, so the summer prices are actually the cheapest.

When we walked into the house, we immediately said "the pictures of this place on the website do not do it justice." That's the same thing we said about our last vacation home. This place has all brand new appliances/furniture. There are even high-efficiency washer/dryer units.

Throughout the course of the week, seventeen people came and went, with a staple of about ten of us. At one point, Stephen was sleeping in a room with my aunt and cousin. Everything went very well considering all the chaos that could have ensued. My cousin's daughter was here for a couple of days (she turns three in July) and she and Stephen played very nicely together. It's funny that even at the top of a mountain, we expect internet and they provide it.

The weather has been perfect every second of every day. We saw the greatest lightning the other night. I saw a doe cross about 30 yards behind the house at dusk today.

Good times. Another successful vacation.

Well, I scheduled some photos to post during my vacation, thinking that I would return home and resume posting. I haven't even transferred the images off my memory card yet. I came home only to have a three-day coughing fit (otherwise known as a cold) and now our router has died. It makes a buzzing/grinding sound every once in a while. After Stephen wakes up from his nap, we will head down to Best Buy to pick up a new wireless router. The cost isn't a problem; populating the MAC address list is the hard part (my alternative to using a password-enabled WEP or WPA network). For now I'm just typing up a draft in word processing software. A computer is pretty worthless without the internet, but at least you can still do word processing.

We had a great Christmas trip. We made both drives (600 miles each way) in one day each. No staying in hotels. It took ten hours each way. I learned something on this trip. The most important factor when driving long distances is traffic. I have always had the mentality of driving "straight through," only stopping to get gas. Well, this trip was different. with a 19-month old son and a pregnant wife in the car, we made several more stops than I normally would have. We ate inside McDonald's and we stopped at several rest areas to stretch our legs. Even still, the trip to my parents' house (which normally takes ten or ten-and-a-half hours) only took ten hours. We did not hit any traffic in either direction; it was really nice. Even if you stop a lot, a stop can only take 45 minutes or an hour at the most, but traffic can hold you up for much longer than that.

We did a lot of visiting and relaxing at my parents' house. We even went to see the Coen Brothers' remake of True Grit (which was excellent). We all made out like bandits regarding gift-getting. My highlight was an iPod Touch 4. It is a ton of fun and I have put six screens full of free apps on it. Someday I might even load some mp3s on to the thing.

Okay, I'm going to wrap this up and resume posting pictures.