July -- iphones, kamp and vacation

Hello everyone. Well, I say everyone, but I'm not sure how much this thing gets read...so please leave a comment if you do read it :)

I'll start with the new iphone. I love it, but don't like the battery drain. I wasn't planning on get it until after we return from our vacation because the 3G network isn't available where we are going and I did not want to stand in line for it. I already had the iphone, but the plan was that I would give it to Bill (who had lost his phone) and get the new one. My sister-in-law had spent about 7 hours at the Apple store on Launch Day (Friday) and was unsuccessful in activation and left empty-handed. She was back up there on Saturday and after several hours they still coulldn't get her activated. I was on the phone with her as she asked about their stock levels in case her sister-in-law (me!) wanted to get one over the weekend and they told her if I came up there right then they would put one on hold for me and I could get in the line. I impulsively dashed over there. It was kind of cool getting in the store. I went up past the line, to the 'bouncer' and gave him my name. He nodded knowingly and had someone escort me to the back of the store. I think this is the closest I will ever come to VIP treatment!! The guy in the back working with my SIL told me he could hold it for me but I couldn't jump the line. I said "of course" (I hate line-jumpers). He then looked at me and said, "but if you want, I can activate it right now." I said "of course" and I became a line-jumper! They apparently saw it as some sort of benefit to my SIL for the way-over-the-top trouble she'd had in activating her phone. Anyway, I now have the 3G phone, and Bill has my 'old' phone. It's been fun playing with it! The photo above shows all the applications I've added to it...most of them are free.


Kelly is at Kanakuk in Colorado. She is our only camper this year...helpful for the checkbook, but kind of sad nonetheless. I counted it up yesterday and over the years with the 3 kids, this is our 20th term at kamp! We haven't heard one word from Kelly. I hope she likes it. K-CO is a lot different than the Missouri camps and this is her first year to go to it. She did take a 3 day horse trip, which hopefully went well. Nick went to K-CO last summer and loved it (actually liked it much better than Missouri) and was planning on going back this summer. That is why Kelly decided to go to there instead of her standard 25-day term (this one is only 13 days :), but then we had to cancel Nick because he was supposed to go on a 10 day road trip with a bunch of guys he graduated with, up to the All-Star game, and that ended up falling through. So Kelly ended up in CO without Nick! Some have asked why Connor didn't go to camp... I don't know what to say except he's 16 :)

We pick up Kelly on Friday and will go to Keystone for a mini-vacation of 2 days before getting to our cabin up in Estes Park. The guys will play both golf courses, and Kelly and I will shop and hang out. We are driving up to the cabin from the west side of the mountians which means we will drive over Trail Ridge to get there. I have this thing about HEIGHTS and am not looking forward to driving over the top. We will have 2 cars (we are actually meeting in Keystone) and that means I need to drive one of them, or maybe I'll ride with Bill or Nick over Trail Ridge. I need to get over this heights thing, but really...the road is very exposed in some places and cars have been known to, well, you know...

Hope your summer is going well!