An evening at the pond

 

Friendly waters

We were able to enjoy the company of our faithful friend Anand, his lovely bride, & beautiful baby this weekend.  His return drew quite the crowd of old friends to the lake! 

 

Fishing, feasting, running after kiddos, boating, hiking, & enormous amounts of chatting filled the gorgeous evening.  Still waiting for the fun big group picture.  It was so nice to see you all! 

Thanks for the visit, Bheemars!

Memorial Day

 In celebration of Memorial Day, we went up to the cemetery where one of Darren's grandpas is buried.  We hadn't been there in a long time & it was good to go.

 Fr. S celebrated Mass & it was very nice despite the crazy wind.  I've never seen an acolyte have the main duty of holding the ciborium & chalice so they don't fly away!  My brother Fr. Jon joined us as well & concelebrated.  It was beautiful.

 There were at least 100 people there, which was really impressive.  The crowd grew afterwards as the military service began.

 Lots of flags, veterans, American Legion Band, roll calls of those buried there, patriotic singing, Taps, & even a 21 gun salute followed.  (I had neglected to give Rebecca a heads up on the shooting... oops!... slight freak out.)

 Darren's dad also took us to see the graves of Great Grandma & Grandpa.

After a simple but tasty lunch with other family members at Grandma's, we headed out to the pond for some fun. 

Teresa caught her first fish! It was the first of three little bluegill that she caught that afternoon.

 We enjoyed birds, fish, frogs, & turtles who kept popping up their heads out of the water.

Rebecca: "Ooh.  Shiny but slimy!"

 Everyone caught a few fish (except for poor Rebecca... ZERO) but Andrew was on some sort of crazy roll.  We lost official count, but it was definitely over 20!  Most were just little guys, but this big one was bending his little rod.  Such a thrill!

 After a couple hours of fishing, we hopped in the back of Grandpa's pick-up for a ride through "the forest".  We've had a small cruise through there before on the hayrack, but they went crazy & cleared out a huge path through the whole game reserve on their farm.  It was very pretty with some huge cottonwood trees.  The kids were simply giddy to ride in the back of the pick-up!

 This little archway was already there, but it looks like it was just aching for a path under it.  Such a beautiful, prayerful, & peaceful day!

Memories revisited & made

Memorial Day weekend was a weekend spent remembering those who have gone before us & savoring the time we have with each other while we're here.Our first stop was the cemetery to visit the graves of Darren's Grandma Rose & Grandpa Joseph along with many other relatives. (Though it was part of his namesake from the start, it was a little odd seeing a tomb with Andrew's exact full name on it.) We prayed that their souls are happy with God in Heaven. The girls didn't really get it & there was a crazy cold wind, but I'm glad we made the stop. Grandma Rose held a special place in my heart... she was the first to know we were going to get engaged!
Then it was out to Green Grandpa's pond for some fishing. Andrew & Darren had no luck. After about 20 minutes of *patiently* waiting for a bite as they almost blew off the dock, they decided to call it quits for the day. Rebecca wanted to give it a try, so she cast out once... & caught her first fish ever! She was very excited. : )Teresa & I enjoyed watching all of the fishing, bug hunting, flower picking, & bird chasing.Then we dropped in at Darren's brother's home for a visit & to meet the new pony.Alaina generously let each of the kiddos take a couple of rides. Thanks, Alaina!
Andrea & I hung out in the warm house with our cutie pies. Can you tell they are only three weeks apart?
We finished off the day with some tasty Cici's pizza & an amusing game of air hockey.

Hooray for memories!

A Big Day

This Sunday was a big family day. We all went to 9:00 Mass together, ate at the KC pancake feed, played at home, & then headed up north for some more fun. First we went fishing at Green Grandpa's pond.
We didn't catch much... but weeds. Here's Andrew showing off his cricket lure.

Rebecca loved being out by the water. Teresa mainly snoozed.

Then we went to see our newest niece Abigail. What a doll! Here are the two cousins side by side.

Afterwards Daddy, Andrew, & Rebecca took a ride in the combine with Grandpa. Andrew had just spent two hours in there the day before but still loved it. Rebecca was on her first ride. She was fascinated! I hung out in the van with Teresa & chatted with Uncle Ron.

Finally we headed up to see Green Grandma for a while & pick up a cooler of meat. Ah, meat. It was so exciting to fill up the bottom of our deep freeze with it! (Wow, do I need to get out more?)