Prairie Home Bosens

It is a noisy Tuesday night at our house. The dogs are barking at each other, Asher is upset and crying instead of falling asleep, and I am really tired. Sarah is at a baby shower tonight. We did have a fun last couple of days, though. On Sunday morning, our church met at a "retreat"-type ranch out in Madison County, instead of at the usual place. The ranch is a beautiful spot, set up in some wooded hills. After the service, we all rode on a hayride to the swimming pool to watch several baptisms, then had burgers and hotdogs. After lunch, it was all about enjoying the beautiful, sunny afternoon. We spent a long time swimming, with Asher becoming more and more brave and comfortable in the water. He's no Michael Phelps yet, but he is starting to like the water, and didn't want to leave the pool. After swimming, the three of us rode a paddleboat around the lake for a while. There were all kinds of canoes and kayaks to paddle around, and even a waterslide! It was a very cool day at church! After leaving the ranch, we came home and Asher got to spend the evening with babysitter. Sarah and I had tickets to see Garrison Keillor at the last night of the State Fair. Sarah and I have been excited about that show for months. We both grew up listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio. We arrived at the fairgrounds in time for one last helping of fair food. I had a loosemeat Italian sausage sandwich (with a quirky local name I am pretty sure is an ethnic slur, to I'll leave it out of the blog). Sarah had a corndog. After dinner, we enjoyed the fair at sunset, just the two us. We rode a charlift to the top of the fairgrounds, through the treetops, then walked down to the grandstand for the show. The Garrison Keillor show was phenomenal. Since it wasn't for broadcast, it was much longer, a little bit more rambling (and a little bit edgier) than the radio show. Suzy Boggus was there, and she was great. The whole show was extremely sentimental, and Garrison Keillor talked a lot about the state fair, and the last moments of summer. Off to one side of the stage were the crazy, pulsating lights of the midway, which just added to the kind of sentimental, all-American feel. The music was amazing, and I never realized how many pretty songs there are about Iowa. At the end of the show, the sound-effects guy started doing firework sound effects, and suddenly the real fireworks show began. The fireworks were easily the best I've seen this summer (see previous posts, we've seen some fireworks this summer). Last night (Monday night), we were excited to have some houseguests! Sarah's brother Aaron and his wife Jenny were in town from Pennsylvania. They had been in Minneapolis (where Sarah, Aaron and Jenny used to live), and had also visited Jenny's family in Iowa. It was a very short visit, but we had fun catching up and eating grilled pork chops and corn. Asher was thrilled to see his Aunt and Uncle. It is great to see family, since we live so far away!