a major purchase

Hey all! It's been a very busy couple of weeks. When I wrote to you last we were gearing up for our trip to the Grand Canyon. As I may have mentioned previously, the trip was Brenda's gift to her father for his most recent birthday. They had a great time photographing the Grand Canyon over a few days, and one day they even hiked down into it a bit. Brenda helped out some fellow hikers along the trail who had run out of water and were looking a little parched. They happened to be German and were very surprised when Brenda started speaking their native tongue. Meanwhile, back in Williams, AZ, Joanne, Rowan, and I explored all the playgrounds and kid-friendly attractions the town had to offer. Rowan skinned both of his knees while we were there, which was more traumatic for me, but don't worry, I'm recovering well.

After driving back to Santa Fe we had just a couple of days left before we had to pack up and hit the road. Brenda's last performance was the night before we left, and Justice Ginsburg, her family, and accompanying U.S. Marshals were all in attendance. Justice Ginsburg is a big opera fan, and she attends the Santa Fe Opera every summer. At a dinner in the Justice's honor the night before, I had the opportunity to get to know Justice Ginsburg's daughter-in-law who also happened to be Brenda's voice teacher during her freshman year of college. Small world!

On Friday night we arrived in Minneapolis and descended upon Drew and his tidy apartment. We quickly turned his home into a disaster zone, but in spite of that he has been a kind and generous host. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, we are interested in buying a home in Minneapolis, so on Saturday we looked at houses for the first time. We toured seven houses, found one we really liked, and made an offer on Sunday. Later that day the offer was accepted. Buying a house is easy! (Just kidding.) We're super excited. Please keep your fingers crossed for us that everything works out with the sale.

So that's what we've been up to more or less. I hope all is well with you, and we'll talk to you next time!