Reunions Part 1 of 3

It was kind of difficult to finalize this post since I was waffling about how much I should respect the privacy of others.  What happened was I went on vacation for about ten days.  Here are the basic mechanics of the trip.  Started from home after work -- drove a few hours -- spent the night at a Formerly Anderson hotel in the cheesy state -- drove the next day to the home of Muggles and BIL-Dan -- hung out there a day or so -- went to Fargo -- hung out there a day or so with some old friends -- went to the 'rents and spent a few days there with the nieces and Ananias -- on to Wahpeton for a lovely family reunion -- home again for another lovely family reunion -- to MSP for the night with one of my cousins and his wife -- another long drive back home.

A sure sign you're in North Dakota - the word lefse on a T-shirt.

There were no major adventures, but it was still a great time.  I will break it up into three lists/posts.  There may be some crossover between topics, but that's OK.

Best things about the non-reunion time of my vacation:

1. Fresh food.  New potatoes, green beans from the garden, blueberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, and juneberries.
2. Home cooked and comfort food.  Fried potatoes, tater tot hotdish, and that five bean dish thing with hamburger and bacon.
3. Learning about steel cut oats (although I haven't tasted them yet).
4. Meeting the young child (also my cousin) at the Formerly Anderson hotel.  She even wanted to stow away for the trip to ND.  That would have been a good idea for about three minutes, and then she would have changed her mind.
5. Seeing some old friends from college (Alli, Suz, and Weeds).  My favorite magnet seen on a fridge at one person's place showed a bed upon which sat a plate holding some seaweed-and-rice rolls.  The caption was "Wake Up Little Sushi."  That totally cracks me up.
   
6. Playing Super Mario Brothers Nintendo DS with my nieces.
7. Herman suffered a minor injury in a bad wind storm.  He was lucky it was only minor.
8. Through observation, I have determined one of the big keys to being a parent is patience.  Your three year old wants to do it himself?  You sit on your hands while it takes three times as long as if you did it for him.  Your five year old wants to help you cook?  You bite your tongue and hold your criticism as they "help" you with some tasks.  Your two year old wants to watch you make pancakes?  You give her a chair to stand on within arm's reach of the hot pan and hope she remembers it's hot and she shouldn't touch while knowing if she does touch the pan she'll learn a lesson the hard way.
9. Good talks and discussion with a cousin on a drive of more than four hours.
10. A good long drive with some "thinking time" after a week of being around a whole lot of people.
11. A visit to the care center to see a dear lady who perks up when kids come to visit her.  She wonders why God hasn't taken her yet.
12. My bicycle needs a name.  I'm thinking Bjorn (nice and rugged), Bernard (Refined yet friendly), or maybe Baxter (sounds tenacious to me).  What do you think?  I drug him along on the trip and he suffered through at least three thunderstorms, but I only actually rode about two miles on him.  Oh well.
    
13. Of course the one day we had big plans to tube down the river, we had strong thunderstorms, cloudiness, and wind.  Thus, we cancelled that plan.
14. Except for that one day, lots of heat and sunshine.  That's a good thing in my opinion. 

Thunderstorm near St. Cloud.

Trying to avoid going stir-crazy by doing some yoga.

 

 

 

Herman's storm damage.

How high's the water mama?  Aftermath of big rain and wind storm.