Sunday at the Orchard

We joined a group from St Andrew's to head out to County Line Orchard, for apple picking and more. Myrna found trouble as we waited for everyone to arrive, and tried hard to steal a staff cart (sadly it was empty, and not full of apple cider).


Then it was off into the orchard on a, as Myrna describes it, "really scary ride" (a tractor) "so scary that we needed to have a service man" (a priest). The big kids all got off for the corn maze, but we headed straight to the orchard to do some exploring. Immediately Myrna was picking apples off the ground to taste, and her parents finally gave into temptation and tasted a few off the trees (I needed to know what a Blushing Gold tasted like before we put some in our bag to buy). We didn't, however, break the rule "no climbing in trees," though we came fairly close, letting Myrna climb up on her dad.


We picked only 3 lbs of apples - 4 Jonagolds and 4 Blushing Gods - which set us back a good $5. Then it was into the Kid's Area for lots of playing in hay.


Chris and Myrna tried the hyped up apple donuts - and later that evening we enjoyed some apple pie (made by the orchard - not me). I think come lunch time, I'll be ready for another apple.

Indiana Dunes

We waited until a misty and cool Sunday to get ourselves to the giant Indiana Dunes on Lake Michigan. So, it wasn't a perfect weather day, but we had lots of fun. Myrna was a bit nervous at first

But in no time, she was frolicking in the water and stripped of her clothes (at which point our public sharing of photos stops). I guess it wasn't that cold, but we certainly were not looking forward to having to jump in the water to grab her.

And as an excuse for why we are so behind on the updates; after sitting through endless Myrna accounts, we're just tired:

White Dresses, Cakes, and Dancing Shoes

An added bonus of moving to Indiana was that we were able to attend my cousin Becky's wedding in Peoria, Illinois - something that certainly would've been more difficult had we still been in Sweden.

It had been over ten years since I'd been back to IL, and entirely too long since I'd caught up with all the good folks on my Dad's side of the family. And so, in addition to going to the wedding, we had a great opportunity to spend some time with my grandmother, catch up with aunts and uncles, and sort of meet my cousins all over again as adults. The wedding turned out to be a very thorough family reunion, and Myrna got the full Burkhalter introduction in one quick weekend. This was, in fact, even her first time meeting my grandmother. Here's four generations of the Burkhalters:

Here's Myrna with the adorable Martin girls, inspecting Aaron's camera.



And a nice shot of Aaron and Norah with my grandmother ("G.G.," she's called these days).

Meeting the full Burkhalter clan wasn't Myrna's only first that weekend, either. She pulled her first fire alarm - but let's pass over that story for now. This was also Myrna's first wedding. In the month leading up to Becky's wedding, Kelly helped form impressions of all that a wedding is, and Myrna definitely took in the ceremony and reception with keen interest. Dresses, cakes and dancing seem to be the salient points she walked away with. She talks about these things often and in detail, and also pretends to talk with Becky and her husband Toby on the phone. They are usually invited over for dinner.

As for the dancing, well...



Ben even caught a video on his iPhone:



Myrna was doing this til about 11:00. She even got in a request (Rihanna's "Umbrella," one of her car stereo favorites). A month later, she still dons her pink dress and starts bouncing around the livingroom every time she catches a danceable rhythm. And she was quite irritated to find that, with all the records I have crowding the walls of our new apartment, there's not a copy of "Boogie Shoes" to be found.

The whole weekend was a great time, and we were so happy to be there for the wedding. We took a couple pictures during the weekend, but Aaron's are way better, so I've stolen some of his for this post. Further documentation can be found here.

We've also finally put up a few photos for August, which you can see here. We'll try to catch the blog up as we settle into the new apartment, job, etc., u.s.w.