Ten on Tuesday.

1. We are just back from a lovely road trip to Dayton, Ohio to see our dear friends The Derenzos.

2. The kids did awesome in the car, especially considering they hadn't really ever taken a road trip longer than 3 hours.

3. At one point Fisher asked me what could we do [in the car] and that made me panic just a little, but we all settled in with snacks and scenery and audio books.

4. Audio books! Our family is no stranger to them, but holy cow are they essential on a road trip. I highly recommend listening to The BFG and Gregor the Overlander. Both awesome.

5. My lovely mother reminded me when we got back that they are taking the kids for a night this weekend so Ron and I can have date night! Also awesome.

6. After visiting the Madison, Wisconsin Farmer's Market this weekend with their four long city blocks of produce and plants and meat and honey and really anything you can imagine a market might have, I was delighted to see that our own market had much more produce today than 2 weeks ago when last we were there. Fisher was excited to see the purple string beans, although we walked out with plain old green. We also got pea pods and zucchini, one cucumber and, for one dollar, one perfect pink peony.

7. I love soccer nights. I love sitting there amongst friends watching our kids run around and have fun. It is the essence of summer.

8. Alla and I get to pick up our wedding dresses tomorrow!

9. While traveling back to Minnesota we stopped in Indianapolis and surprised the kids that their Aunt Renee was there visiting her fiancé, their Uncle Will! That was fun.

10. Alla is taking a two-part art class starting Thursday at our library (free!) with local artist Michael Birawer. Last Christmas I bought Ron a canvas of his, and now I'm wondering if Ron thinks that after two sessions with the guy, she'll be able to come home and duplicate it?