Seattle Here We Come

Today we drove to the Twin Cities to catch our plane to Seattle. My brother Jerry is getting married so we decided to make a mini-vacation with a mini-family (we left Jordan and Austen home with some dear friends of ours :( We flew with Sun Country airline and were very pleased. They were friendly, helpful, and actually seemed like they enjoyed their jobs, not bad for an airline. Megan and Jaden were very excited for the plane ride and thought the take off and landing were awesome. My parents and my niece Mandy were also on the same flight. Jerry and his wife to be, Jenny, met us at the airport and we all went out to Red Robin for supper. It was the first time we had met Jenny and enjoyed the visiting time with her. She is a very nice and we think she will fit into the family just fine (She might not want to with our nutty family). We then journeyed down to Lacy, WA to stay with my Aunt who is a Nun. We stayed at the Sister's Retreat House which is located next to the Convent. The accommodations were very nice.

What goes on when Dad is not around?

To find out what went on at the lake over the 4th of July I thought I would use the pictures on the camera for some detective work:

• It looks like Megan went fishing off the dock and had some luck.

• It looks like a band of Gypsies dressed my youngest son.

• God Father teaches God Son how to be "cool" for the ladies!

• Jordan longs to be outside
  

• Not all fun, some work had to get done.
  

• Some more relaxing

Bachelor Biker

Janelle and the kids left for the lake this afternoon leaving me a bachelor for the next couple of days. I have to work on Thur. and Fri. (the joy of the 4th of July on a Wednesday). So, I did what most men would do when their wife and four children leave them, I went for a bike ride.

Yes, I jumped on my road bike and peddled my way to Casselton. Three hours and 50 miles later I was back in my driveway. Why Casselton? The wind was out of the NW and every cyclist knows you always start out against the wind so you have it at your back on the way home(Casselton is west, close enough).

I did something I never have done before, I stopped for a beer at the Governors' Inn in Casselton. I have never been in a bar all by myself so I was little unsure how I would be welcomed walking in with by biking gear on. The bar was pretty empty with just two local men sitting at the bar engaged in a conversation and another man on the other end of the bar. I decided to "belly up" to the bar and sat in the middle. The two men questioned me on what I was doing and then questioned my sanity after I told them. They were friendly locals who I believe were farmers. I finished my beer and headed back out for my journey back. As I was mounting my bike a bartender came out and talked about her dad who was a serious cyclist. We talked for a few minutes and I was off. On the way home, I was to pass through Mapleton and thought since I had fun having "one" in Casselton why not try "one" in Mapleton. I pulled up to the only bar I found in town and it was closed (on the Fourth of July??). I guess I wasn't meant to have two beers today since that would double my beer intake for the last month. It was a good workout.

"Whats your vector Victor at Vector Control"

(Can you tell that I saw part of the movie Airplane today.)

As you have read below, last weekend we spent the evenings outside enjoying the nice weather in both South Fargo and Colfax. I never mentioned the "world famous" North Dakota mosquitoes because they were not a problem. How come we come home to Harwood and the mosquitoes are so bad we can not stand to be outside? It hit a final straw when Janelle sprayed Jordan down with mosquitoes spray and put a citronella patch on his back and within 7 minutes he came back begging to come in because he had 25 mosquitoe bites, yes, 25. Janelle had had enough and got on the phone with Vector Control and explained the situation. They were very helpful and said they were going to send someone out to "check things out." I don't know if they sent someone out but I did see them spraying tonight so hopeful things will improve.

Thank you for listening, I just needed to get that off my chest.

Saturday "Colfaxing"

Saturday afternoon we headed to Colfax to visit our friends Tony and Mary. They have three children, Caleb, Kiersten, and Kallie(to whom Janelle and I are Godparents). Kaleb is about Megan's age, Kiersten is about Jaden's age and Austen and Cally are 3 days apart in age. Megan and Kaleb played video games most of the day which has led to the question, "Can I get a game cube?" all day Sunday. Jaden and Kiersten played well together while Jordan would tag along on occasion. Austen and Cally hung out with us grownups mainly because, well, their dependence on nourishment.

The main reason we went there is because Tony and Mary will be taking care of Jordan and Austen while we are in Seattle. It breaks our heart to think about leaving them for a week but we know they will be in good hands.

We ended the evening by watching Tony light fireworks.

Friday's Food, Fun, and Ice Cream

Friday night we headed over to my sister Tammy and her husband Curt's house for a family gathering. Our brother Curt and his wife Marti and their three children, Michael, Morgan, and Matthew were passing through on their way to Seattle (Our other brother Jerry is getting married in a couple of weeks so we will all be there soon). Our Mom and Dad also joined us for a wonderful night of visiting and pizza outside on the patio. The evening was beautiful and the kids had a blast while the grown ups visited. The kids played soccer, bounced in a inflatable bouncer (Aunt Tammy and Uncle Curt had given our children as a gift last year), and tossed the Frisbee. Curt Z and I even took the kids on in soccer( I think they won.)

The most fun part of the evening was when we heard "circus?" music being played out by the street. We all ran over to see what was causing such a noise and found an old fashion ice cream truck coming down the street. We waved him down and found a nice teenager selling the frozen goods. He said his dad and him started the business. They had about 2 dozen different kinds of frozen novelties priced between $1 to $3. I'm sure we were his best stop that night $$$$. I will say Tammy treated us all, she is so generous.









"I didn't get into the ranch dressing. No, not me."









Aunti Marti and Austen (hey, who is stealing the Gatorade)










Grandma and Austen

More Lake Fun

This weekend we did a spontaneous thing, which is not easy to do with four kids. Since the weather was going to be hot we decided to pack up the kids and head to the lake. We had been to the lake last weekend and since it is 2 ½ hours away we were not planning on it for back to back weekends. We decided to leave early Saturday morning. Here are some of our happenings:

The weekend started when we couldn't find Jaden's glasses. After about a half hour of searching we found them on top of the piano right where Megan had put them (Thanks Megan for waiting a half hour while we searched before you told us).

We stopped in Bemidji and had lunch by the lake where all the rides use to be. We were sad to see they were all gone except for the train ride and the miniature golf. We decided to take a train ride since we tried to stop there at least ones a summer.

Our neighbors at the lake had 4 of 5 of their girls visiting. One of the girls has three children and the other has two so there were 9 children 8 yrs old and younger at the lake. The kids had a blast. Megan went tubing and I went water skiing. This 40 yr old body is sure feeling it today. I got up on my first try but didn't even attempt to drop one ski like I could do years ago.

Megan and Jaden were able to ride in the boat while I was skiing and Megan got bit on her knee by a deer fly or a horse fly. Her knee swelled up so we gave her some Benadryl. She complained that her breathing wasn't right. We listened and could tell that her breathing was raspy. We went next door (did I mention that 3 of them are nurses) and Stephanie came over and listened and looked Megan over. We ended giving her some ibuprofen and were told to monitor her for a while. Megan fell asleep as we continued to monitor her. When she awoke she was feeling better and her breathing was close to normal. The breathing scared Megan which in turned worried us.
On the way home Jaden was complaining about not feeling well so Janelle suggested that he stop watching the mini DVD player and put his head up (stop looking down is what she meant). A few miles down the road and I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Jaden with his head looking straight up at the ceiling. We told him he could stop looking up.