A couple of Saturdays ago we headed up to the cabin to spend some time with Eric's brothers family. They have been visiting from Oregon. It's always good to see them. The visit started off with a game of Jarts...I think it's Jarts.....yard darts, the newer safe kind, not the poke it through someones foot old fun kind. This is Brian jumping out of the way of Billy's throw while Shelly, Eric and Hannah look on. Chris was hiding behind the trees. Good plan.
It was nice to have a full table at the cabin. Billy, Hannah, Brian, Eric and his brother Chris.
The hostesses with the mostesses....Eric's parents Barb and Bill.
They always graciously invite my mom to be a part of the fun. Somehow I missed Chris' wife Shelly in the around the table shot. Sorry Shelly!
In the evening we decided to venture up the hill to see if we could catch a sunset...it didn't seem likely, it was pretty cloudy......but boy were we surprised to see this. Something about a beautiful sunset that makes me feel like we've just seen God today.
Sunday morning we left the cabin and headed back to the city for my great-niece's baptism. Baby Avery was baptised with 3 other little ones in a special service of their own.
My mom took this picture, it's better than mine....she gets some pretty nice shots with her little digital Kodak! Such a pretty baptismal fount in the big church.
Four generations...my mom, my brother, my niece and her daughter. Special day.
We took a quick shot before the hot baptism gown came off! So cute.
After the baptism we drove back to the country to spend some more time with Chris' family. We made a quick stop at the farm to check on the horses. Czar was checking with Billy to see if he had any text messages.
There are a couple of new boarders at the farm, Billy was saying hi to Breezy.
Penny loves the country life. Me too.
The neddles, or itch weed, were in full bloom. Nasty plants but pretty with the sun shining on them.
Lots of wild yarrow was blooming too.
Brian and Chris went for an evening canoe ride....
...what better spot to catch the setting sun than the river?
Isn't it beautiful?
I should have mentioned that Eric, my mom, Shelly and I were in the boat.
We caught up to these two upstream.
Sunset on the water in front of us....
....pink clouds over the water behind us.
It was a nice way to end our busy weekend.
I tried to get a canoeing silhouette...but the boys were speeding across the river too fast to get a good angle....it would have been better if their heads showed don't you think??
Brian got out of the canoe and onto the raft to do some river surfing....or something.
I stepped into the river to get one last shot....the colors were yummy. I think we saw God again that day.
We got home late Sunday night, Eric had to work on Monday morning and I had to get the slide show ready for Billy's baseball party. Monday was the first day in over 1.5 years that I forgot to take a picture of the day....but I did do some art work for the slide show and created a .jpg from it...so I'm counting this as the photo of the day for Monday.
Worked on slide show on Monday, softball Monday night, worked on slide show Tuesday...finished at around 3:30...couldn't get the DVD burner to work on my computer. Tried and tried...the party was that night...tried some more....still no luck. Eric got home from work, I left for my softball game, Eric tried burning it (after transferring all the files) on a different computer...and it worked. Just in time for the party. Eric texted me that it worked while I was at my game. I snapped this picture of the sky after our softball game....had a cold beverage with the girls and then raced off to the party. Sheesh...too much stress for me.
Wednesday was a busy, busy work day. I did take the time to snap a picture of this lily in my garden.
Thursday we met Eric's family at the Twins game. It is really tough to get tickets at the new Target Field, it is even tougher to get them for a big group. The 11 of us sat in the very last row of the top tier of the field....as high as you could get.
But the view was good. The breeze at our backs was a welcome relief from the heat. Chris' older children flew to Minnesota the night before to join their family. This picture is of Hannah and Hayley...Nathan is hidden behind his sister....Billy and Shelly are in the background.
Billy and Nathan....baseball loving cousins.
The sunset behind us was a nice bonus with our seats so high in the sky.
A self portrait of Eric and I....just to prove that we were there too!!
A bad picture of the whole family...taken by me.....note to self......take pictures of people from above, not below.
It was Brian's first game at Target Field...he said he liked it. :-)
Chris' family stayed over night at our house after the game....in the morning we all went to Valley Fair for a day of rides and fun in the hot sun. I left the camera at home...but snapped a picture of the moon at the end of the day.
Saturday we headed back to Taylors Falls for more time with the family and the local town celebration....Wannigan Days. One of the newer events is a tug of war between Taylors Falls and the town across the river, St. Croix Falls. They have different groups that compete...some how Billy got asked to pull for the local Tavern. So serious waiting for the cannon to shoot to start the competition.
Pull Billy! I thought that the contrast between Billy and his fellow team mate was pretty funny. How did Billy get in with that crowd?? :-)
Pull Billy!!
Rumor has it that the wet rope weighs 1000 lbs. 25 people were pulling on each side. I didn't get a good shot of the rope stretching across the river, but you can kind of see it here.
They worked hard, but didn't quite find their rhythm....the cheese heads won. I mean the fine folks from Wisconsin won. They actually won 3 of the 5 events. Bummer. Maybe next year.
After a Lion's Club lunch at the rope pull we headed to the cabin. The weather got a little rainy, it was a good day to be inside. Here cousin Logan is playing with a classic cabin game...I don't remember what it's called, but you can create shapes with colored tiles. The old games are the best.
The other cousin's were playing a board game of some kind.
The rain stopped in time for the evening parade. Some more cousin's of Eric's came to visit. Mary Jane, Roger, cousin Sally from Texas, Eric, my mom, Shelly and Chris lined up to watch the parade.
The other generation of cousins hung out on the street to score some candy.
And to wave at Barb and Bill as they drove past.
It was dark, my pictures were blurry...but they were driving a car with the "Lady of the Village" and her husband in back.
As the parade went on the sky got interesting....
....very interesting.
About the time the parade was ending the severe storm sirens went off. People sort of sat around and looked at each other. Eventually the town cleared out. I went to my mom's, Eric went to his folks house and called to tell us the radar looked bad....so we hit the basement for a while. No damage was done around us. We drove home late on Saturday after the storm, a lot of the stop lights were out because of no power. It was a long day.
We had come home on Saturday so Eric and Billy could leave on Sunday morning for a mission trip with our church. I was supposed to go back to Taylors Falls that day for my class reunion...but I was just plain too tired to go.
Too tired and too sad. My uncle passed away on Saturday after a short battle with cancer. My mom's youngest brother. Only 64....and the kindest man you'd ever want to know. He will be missed. I know too well the pain his family is feeling.
Busy times, stressful times, good times, sad times.....it's been an eventful 11 days.
Today I'm hoping to get back into some sort of routine. Starting with blogging....and then laundry, and weeding, and lazy summer days. School supplies are in the stores, summer will be over before we know it....but it's here today and I'm going to enjoy it. I hope you do too.
No comments:
Post a Comment