Watermelon Day

The girls and I headed down to Watermelon Day bright and early Saturday morning, but quickly ran into terrible weather.  It was so stormy near Faribault that I took the first exit.  We ended up taking shelter in a Snap Fitness for a few minutes after getting drenched running inside.  We crept our way toward Owatonna after realizing that it wasn't going to get much better throughout the morning.  After pulling over there to check the radar again (and realizing once more that it wasn't going to improve soon), we slowly made our way to Albert Lea.  It was a scary drive...Albert Lea had been hit earlier and we saw a semi tipped over on the side of the road.  It made me thankful that we hadn't left earlier and that we had stopped, thus missing the bad winds that hit Albert Lea.  After dropping Sadie off with Dave's mom, we continued (uneventfully) to Iowa, but missed the first half of the parade.  No worries, though--the girls still got PLENTY of parade candy!  A little front came through after the parade with some winds, but then it cooled things off and it turned out to be a perfect day at the park.  We had all of the great-grandkids there, so we were able to snap a picture (plus one with Erin, who is expecting a baby in January!).  The girls really enjoyed hanging out at the park and helping with the pop toss.  

We left the park a little earlier than we usually do, so we could celebrate my mom and dad's 40th anniversary up at the hotel in Webster City.  After a takeout dinner, we surprised them with cupcakes and a gift of matching Twins jerseys.  My dad had made a trivia game about their wedding.  My grandma hung out for a little bit and a few of my cousins came up to swim and play games.  

Summer Stretch

Abby had a fun time at Summer Stretch this summer!  I was asked to chaperone again in July for the Feed My Starving Children/Twins game event.  Norah joined us, too.  We had a great time volunteering in the morning at Feed My Starving Children and had a fun afternoon at the Twins game, even though they ended up losing 14-4. 

DeSmet

The girls and I continued our Little House on the Prairie adventures with a trip back to DeSmet with the Clarks.  We stopped for lunch at the state park we picnicked at the last time we visited DeSmet.  When we arrived at the Ingalls Homestead, we set up our tent and explored the homestead before dinner.  The kids especially enjoyed the horse rides and kittens! 

After dinner in town, we attended the pageant, which is something we hadn't known about the last time we visited DeSmet.  It was a beautiful night, and we all enjoyed the play. 

That night was a rough one on the prairie--we got back and settled into our tent for the night, but spent a couple of hours listening to the wind and having the tent blow in on us (Norah and Henry were the only ones who got any sleep...).  Around 11:30ish, Tiffany and I decided we had had enough, so we called the local hotel and got a room.  We packed up everything quickly, including the tent, and enjoyed a much better night's sleep at the hotel room (even though it wasn't the nicest hotel, it was better than our camping situation!). 

The next morning, we had breakfast and spent a little more time at the homestead before making our way back to Minnesota.  Our adventures with the Clarks are always memorable, and this is a trip I don't think we will forget!