4th of July Again!

I returned home yesterday after being "home", as I refer to the area where I grew up, for almost one week. It was a very fun 4th of July weekend. On Friday Justin and I went to Upper Cormorant Lake to his parents' lake cabin that they purchased recently (well, almost two years ago, but that is recent in cabin years, I guess). It was pretty hot out so it was a good place to be. I spent most of Saturday sitting in a lawn chair reading and looking at the water.

What a nice view! They have a huge stretch of beach. I got out of my chair to play with my nephew who had a new inflateable turtle. I pulled him around, cringing at the weeds under my feet that increased with depth (I have always been mildly uncomfortable with aquatic plants in lakes and rivers but just suck it up because I am also uncomfortable with people who whine about things like that and let it ruin the fun. I also overcame my issues to an extent after swimming in Golden Lake, the greenest lake in America, as a child). He kept "tricking" me by pointing off into the distance and saying "what's that?" and sliding off the turtle when I looked away. Sneaky, sneaky! This went on until he got bored with me and went to play with the neighbor girls.

That turtle was pretty sweet until it got a hole in it and only the middle chamber would hold air!

On Saturday evening we went to Hatton to attend the annual street dance, parade and demolition derby. This has always been a favorite weekend of mine, and I have enjoyed it more over the years since I have reached the age of majority and my relatives have started joining us for the weekend. It was still in the 90's with about 99% humidity when we arrived and the house I grew up in isn't air conditioned due to the age of the house. It is heated by a boiler and big, metal radiators so it is not possible to install central air without prohibitive cost as it is in some other old houses. It felt like a sauna in that place! It even got to my brother and sister and myself, and we are used to it!

We had a dance to get ready for, and we ladies were completely wilted! Getting "fixed up" was a huge drag because as bad as it felt downstairs, upstairs is usually much hotter. As you can see, Andrea and I went with the natural look and our hair was taking over the whole room. (Behind Andrea you can see a window air conditioner. . .we have two and one is in my brother's room because he is there during the summer. We chose our sunroom to cool and that is where everyone sat for most of the evening.)

Fortunately, while the dance was in progress, the "front" finally moved behind some violent weather in Minnesota and the house had cooled considerably by the time we went home to sleep.

The next morning we watched the parade in town. We sat across from the newly finished and opened swimming pool that I wrote about a few weeks ago!

It looks very good and inviting, I think! The sight makes me so happy! I love seeing kids in town riding their bikes or walking in that direction with their towels once again!

It is hard to see, but that plane is pulling a banner that says Happy 4th HMC. (HMC stands for Hatton Men's Club). The same pilot flew around above the derby later that afternoon and did some pretty crazy stunts!

This was a funny float! It is a bar on wheels.

Hopefully there weren't any fires in the area that morning because all of the fire trucks were in the parade!

YEAHHHH!

After the parade, we went home to eat lunch and get ready to go the the demolition derby. I've heard people speak of events like a demolition derby with distain, as something that is "red-neck" or "trashy". Well, I don't think of myself or my town that way (I think the swimming pool efforts prove that). The derby raises around $10,000 every year and the money all goes to community improvement and good causes involving youth. I can think of countless fundraisers that don't do nearly as much good or are anywhere close to as fun so I guess I don't think that is trashy either. However, it can be fun to embrace the stereotypes and my cousin brought a pack of cheap fake tatoos for us to wear!

We snuck up to a guest room to get inked! My aunt decided to highlight her bicep. I put some weird goth looking cat on my ankle.

Getting parked is pretty intense, and they don't let people park until 7 am on the 4th. Well, maybe HMC members might be allowed to sneak in early ;) We had two pickups and they ended up being "boys" and "girls".

"Boys"

"Girls"

In the photo above, the two black cars are stuck together! They couldn't get unstuck and had to remove themselves from the action before they even had a chance to hit anyone! They were not too happy about the decision, but they had another chance. There are 6 heats, then several "last chance" heats for any driver who can get their smashed up pile of crap to still run after losing their original heat, and the championship. There is a professional referee to keep things under control, and the fire department is on the premises. There are HMC members standing around the ring with fire extinguishers and flags to stop the action. Drivers can't hit each other on the drivers side. The concept of a demolition derby seems dangerous, but I have been watching it for about 15 years and have never seen an injury or a serious fire that wasn't contained in seconds.

That is my brother in law and my cousin trying to squeeze between the pickups! It was pretty tight!

This is my mom and myself with David, my brothers best friend from childhood. His family lived near us and he and his younger brother used to have sleeping bags at our house because they slept over so often. He was a distinguished member of the fire department and decided to really play it up! (This was after it was over, so he was off duty! Haha.)

Awww, reunited. . .

This is me and my dad after the derby having a quick happy hour cocktail.

We went home and hung out in the yard. Justin got down to business building the fire. My dad gathered logs, while he doused them in flamable liquid.

Soon the logs went up in flames!

What do you call this game? Monkey balls? Norwegian Golf? Indian Golf? Polish Golf? Any kind of ethic slur combined with golf? I call it Monkey Balls.

Jake loves coming to the farm and might have had the best weekend of his life. He loves being around alot of people who play with him.

Wallace had fun too, but was still his usually clingy self. As you can see, the heat got to him and he was swimming and rolling in dirt.

We did some fireworks when it got dark. I love sparklers. When we moved to ND when I was 7 I had never had a 4th of July where I didn't watch a professional fireworks display. I didn't know what we would do when I found out the town didn't have one. My mom told me we could buy our own, which seemed crazy. I had never even done a sparkler! That first night on the farm we children just stood there with our sparklers and my dad thought we didn't "get it" so he grabbed two sparklers and went running across the yard, flailing his arms around and making sparks fly. I was hilarious and I remember it with clarity.

It looks like my sparkler decided to quit early! Sad!

I have a "Fireworks" setting on my camera so I had to try it. It didn't work that great for the airborn fireworks, but this one looks OK. . .

We were all tired and wrapped up the weekend soon after the display ended. Swilling beer all day in the hot sun can lead to such a result, I have learned! Every room of our 6 bedroom house was full of people, and my cousin even slept in the hallway on a mattress. I think the house, if it had feelings, would be very happy on weekends like this! Old houses, with there many bedrooms, were built that way! Although, it seems that huge families in "the old days" didn't wake up having to piss really bad in the morning because one bathroom for five bedrooms (the other bedroom is downstairs, and the bathroom is attached to it) isn't the most enjoyable way to live. Ugh. Trying to use a bathroom this weekend was like trying to speak to a living person at the Wells Fargo Student Loan call center. For anyone who hasn't experience it, it takes forever.

Happy birthday America! Even with all the problems we have (the wretched mess of an oil spill, to name one) I still feel that the 4th is a day filled with optimism.

4th of July

Grrrr. . .I was just in the middle of posting and somehow hit a wrong key and the whole thing, including about 15 photos, dissapeared! I am going to stop and try again tomorrow, because uploading photos is kind of time consuming. Very annoying.

3rd Anniversary

It's our 3rd anniversary today! As I mentioned a few days ago when commemorating my parents' 30th, the traditional gift for a 3rd anniversary is leather. If you need some ideas on how to interpret the tradition I have a few suggestions. . .

These beautiful equestrian style boots are by Frye, and can be found at the Frye website or at Zappos.com. They are only around $400.00! I think they would be a perfectly reasonable anniversary gift. Sure, they would be worn only by me, but Justin thinks I look really good in expensive clothes and shoes, especially $400 boots, so it would benefit him as well.

If you want to get something that we would both really enjoy, this leather sectional is availabe from Crate and Barrel. It is only around$2,997.oo or something like that. It would work very well in our basement. Ok thanks! (I hope everyone knows me well enough to know that this is all a joke...)

Anyway, I'll take you back to that day in 2007. . .we don't look much different. I never had my dress preserved the archival way because I thought I would want to try it on on our anniversary, but for the 3rd year in a row we don't have it! It is in Justin's mom's basement in a closet in its bag from the cleaners.

This was taken at the farm. Alot of people complimented this photo on Facebook when it was first revealed, and we look fine, but I always notice that old light fixture behind us!

This is the wedding party. They were a great time! Thanks again, all of you!

I always liked this photo. It is easier to see in the larger version, but Michelle is giving me bunny ears.

There we are, getting married!

Born to Rock

Justin is nearing the end of the landscaping project. Last night he finished securing the fabric over the soil. This afternoon he brought home two loads of rock, borrowed the neighbor's wheelbarrow, and spread the rock! It looks so pristine and clean. I appologize for the photo being sideways. . .tilt your head to the left!

The flowers we planted over Memorial Day weekend one month ago are flourishing in the planters. I love this one! It is perfect for 4th of July!

I love bright geraniums!

These lillies are so beautiful! More blooms open every day and they smell very good! I sit on the front step at night just to smell them. You can even smell them when coming out the side door! The scent reminds me of our wedding because there were similar lillies in the bouquets.

I love the orange-y tones of this pot.

When I planted these Impatiens they were spindly little things. They have filled out quite a bit.

Marigolds never disappoint! They are huge in this pot! Well, I shouldn't say they never disappoint. . .I put some in the ground to fill in the flower bed in front of the house and they are not doing very well at all. They are not dead, but they aren't growing or blooming. Maybe the soil isn't the same as the "valley" soil I am accustomed to.

Once again, tilt your head to the left!

OK, last one, I promise!

The vegetable garden is doing OK. The potatoes, peas and carrots are flourishing. The onions look horrible and the leaves are flopped over. I pulled one out and it was soft and squishy. Hmmmm...at least we tried. The string beans that actually grew are doing well, but only about half of them grew! I thought beans would grow no matter what! The zucchini and cucumbers look small, but I've been told they really start to grow later in the summer. The tomatoes and peppers look fine, but of course they came from a greenhouse, already growing! I really don't enjoy weeding. I didn't mind weeding when I was growing up because the weeds were "field" weeds like mustard and marsh elders that were large and easily discernible. It is a huge pain to pull countless little blades of grass, dandelions, and this very annoying weed that grows out and not up and spreads over the ground. After being around farming for so long, it is hard for me to accept that there is not a chemical solution to this problem. I wish we could just spray it and be done with weeding! Unfortunately, there is no herbicide that won't kill all the vegetables. Come on, Monsanto, when will you invent a round-up ready garden assortment? An organic garden was never my goal...

Happy Anniversary!

Tomorrow, June 28th, is my parents' 30th anniversary. I looked up the "traditional" anniversary gift for a 30th. . .I have been mildly intrigued by the traditional gifts since I read the list in a calender when I was in elementary school. I thought the gifts were so strange, especially a gift of paper for a 1st anniversary and wood, wool, or various metals for later anniversaries. I looked up the gift for a 30th, and the website I found lists the "traditional" gift as pearls and the "modern" gift as diamonds. Well, sorry parents, you will have to settle for a chronological blog of scanned photos instead. . .

First, I must share this wedding photo. . .I'm glad that photography trends have changed since the 1970s and 80s. . .I have seen many other wedding photos like this in other relatives' wedding albums so I know there are many out there. It is pretty cheesy!

OK, I will go back to the late 1970's when these two became aquainted while attending NDSU. They were both members of Greek houses and met for the first time when Tim was a freshman and Cindy was a sophomore. My mom thought he and his buddies were kind of obnoxious. One day she was walking to her dorm after class and Tim pulled up next to her in a car and offered her a ride. She answere that her dorm was "right there", in their sight. At a later date she got a phone call from "Tim", or so she thought. . .she mentioned that he sounded different and the guy on the phone said "I have a cold". Tim was anxious about calling so the person on the phone on his behalf was actually one of his fraternity brothers. I can imagine my dad giggling in the background. That's very mature, guys. . .

They started dating after that. They both were majoring in engineering so they studied together, or so they said. . .

Yes, it appears they were very serious students. . .

I believe this photo was taken at Gale and Barb's (my uncle and aunt) wedding.

Awww, so nice. I don't know what was happening here, but they are wearing flowers so it must have been some occasion. I love the clothes. Mother, where are all of these lovely, now vintage clothes anyway?

Anyway, the college years continued and soon they were engaged!

This photo was taken at the rehearsal dinner.

Here are some wedding photos. . .

This is a photo of the groom with the ushers. The one with glasses is my uncle Tim, my mom's brother. The one on the right is Dad's cousin David and the other two are friends.

The typical manly groomsman pose. . .The groomsmen are my mom's brother Steve, Todd, a high school classmate, my uncle Gale, and David, a cousin. I love how David is wearing different shoes!

I don't really know why the bridesmaids were told to look down in that demure fashion. . .it is kind of dated, but then it was 30 years ago! The bridesmaids' dresses were sewn by my mom. I can't imagine such an undertaking! The two on the left are my mom's sisters, the one on the far left is my dad's sister Karen and the other is a friend.

The whole crew, minus ushers.

All done, time to party!

A few details about the party. . .

I scanned this page from my mom's wedding scrapbook. There was an announcement about the wedding in the local newspaper and they had a live band there! The handwriting says that there was a reception at the church, and an open house at my grandparents' house before the dance. I love those personalized cocktail napkins! I haven't seen those at a wedding for quite awhile!

After the wedding they moved to Iowa where Cindy put her degree to work at John Deere and Tim finished his degree at Iowa State. I don't really know the order the next photos should be. . .I am guessing based on the size of my dad's hair. . .the smaller it gets the later the year. . .

I think this picture might have been taken the weekend of my Aunt Kris's wedding

They had a few dogs in their early years. There was a black lab-ish dog that they found as a puppy and adopted that they called Dennis. The dog pictured above was named Bunting. He was a border collie who they adopted after his mother, a neigbor's dog, gave birth under a shrub in their yard. I think my mom might be pregnant in this photo but I'm not sure.

Awwww. . .their first child! It's me! I was born in April of 1983, followed by Andrea in January of 1985 and Peder in January of 1987. After we children entered the scene pictures of the two of them together became rare but I have a few. . .there are others but not that I have on my computer at the moment. I realized that I don't even have a professional photo of our family of 5 from my youth! We didn't have many taken to begin with and I don't have any of them scanned. The reason is that I think they are generally pretty bad and I don't like the way my hair looks in any of them.

This was taken on our family ski trip a few years ago at the top of the "Peak" at Big Sky before we started our annual descent.

Here they are at my wedding in 2007! (P.S. our anniversary is June 30, two days later! The traditional gift for the 3rd anniversary is leather and the modern gift is crystal! Hint hint! Haha just joking, the last thing we need is crystal!)

Here they are at the illustrious occasion of my being sworn in a licensed attorney after multiple bar exam attempts. Yay.

They have had a marriage filled with adventures. They never hesitated to live their own lives and moved far from "home" in thier early years and eventually to the Middle East while my dad was working as a petroleum engineer. They still like to travel and I wish I had some photos scanned from the many trips to Mexico with their friends over the years. There are still indications of those toga wearing engineering students! I'm sure they will have many more anniversaries filled with grandchildren and such, but for now all they have is a crazy, thrashing dog named Jake and cat named Allan who puts his toys on their bed whenever they visit our house. They are so lucky!

Happy "Pearl" Anniversary!