From Number Two's blog

These busy days it is truly wonderful to have a resident daughter and blogger who so kindly allows me to borrow her descriptive, photo-rich posts! 


Friday, July 24, 2015

Small town summer

Last week big brother Patrick came to visit from Chicago sporting a beard. I guess he's finally embracing his inner hipster.





Invariably when he's here we go out to eat. A lot.




We were all sad to say bye, but happy he'll be here for our Henebry family reunion next week!



Although he left, his amazing housewarming gift stayed behind:




Talk about one amazing puzzle. The wooden pieces are incredibly intricate and fit together so well. It was finished soon after it arrived due to lots of collaborative work, but we all already want to do it again!




Along with puzzling, I've been reading an incredible amount—I'm almost done with my 8th book since arriving in the US! And with places like this to read, what else would I want to do?





I also did a bit of crafting with my lil sis Tessie the other day. We made some cute magnets which involved inordinate amounts of glue and glitter, so naturally we were happy campers.





My dear friend Alli also came up to Brookings to visit! We had a nice walk around downtown and then met my mom and Maria for lunch. (Restaurant pics are always awkward, right?) Later that day we helped my mom with a Brazilian cooking class she gave, watched live music downtown, margaritas in hand, laid in our hammock and watched some amazing lightning from a nearby summer storm, and caught up on the last six months. Talk about a perfect summer day.





In addition all that other stuff, I've been going on daily walks—often accompanied by Maria or Tessie—generally between 2 and 3 miles long! I've been just loving the greenness of the streets I walk down, and how quiet and peaceful it is. Gotta soak up the highlights of small town America while I can.





Plus with skies like these, where else could you want to be??




I've always loved the big midwestern sky. It has a feel to it that I haven't experienced anywhere else in the world.





To me, it feels like home.