Long times…

Wow, it’s been a few days since I last posted… Quite a lot has happened and I have been surprisingly busy, not only at work, but outside of work as well… It has been great fun!

Like the picture below suggests; Chris, Heather, Becca, and I spent the Fourth of July weekend at my parent’s house in northern Minnesota. We had a great and relaxing time there. Lots of sitting in the sun during the day and watching movies into the night. Heather had to leave early so she wasn’t able to go, but Chris, Becca, and I went to the Park Rapids Rodeo while we were there. Even though I spent much of my life in Park Rapids, I had never been to a rodeo before. It was fun and I will probably find myself going to them here and there (In fact 2 more in the next 2 weeks)…

I got back to work on Thursday to a few things that I needed to finish up leftover from the big project upgrade that I have been working on for ever it seems. After work we had planned on going to the midnight showing of Pirates of the Carribbean Dead Man’s Chest, but both of the close theaters were sold out. We ended up going back to my house to watch the first one to prepare for the next.

Friday was spent working down some more of the minor issues from the upgrade. For the most part, it has gone well. I got home from work and took a nap because I knew that I was going to be out late and I still had to get up and be awake to drive to Wisconsin Dells the next morning. The reason that I was out late was that Becca and I went to the Hamel rodeo. It was not as good as the Park Rapids rodeo, but that could be partly because the location we were sitting, the people felt kinda snooty or something… The other side of the ring seemed like they were having much more fun. But of course, this could be a “Grass is greener” thing too…

We got back to my house about midnight to a bonfire that Solly was throwing. It was pretty quiet so Becca left and I went off to bed after a while.

Saturday morning I got up and packed the things I would need for the day at Mount Olympus and the evening and next morning at Solly’s parent’s house in Wisconsin Rapids. There were seven of us that went; Becca, Casey, Heather, Kristin, Chris, myself, and Solly. (alphabetical even!) It was way cooler than Valley Fair! So cool in fact, we are thinking that it will become an annual trip…

We ate dinner at a new “pub” in town. The steak and Shrimp were really good! We left the Dells and got to Solly’s parent’s house sometime around midnight. Solly’s mom offered us banana splits. Only Chris wanted one. After hanging out with his family (minus two sisters), I took my place in the camper with ear plugs in. At some point during the night, I woke up and noticed that one of my ear plugs had come out. I was surprised to realize that there was no snoring going on. That was nice!

We woke up and went to church with Solly’s family. After church we were treated to a huge breakfast smorgasboard. It too was great! They even had home made maple syrup (of which I got a few jars to take home). After brunch, Solly opened his birthday presents; did I mention that it was his birthday? There was a really great card that I will have to scan in and post sometime…

We ended up leaving a couple hours later and made our way back to Mounds View. As we were travelling, we decided that we were going to try to see Dead Man’s Chest when we got back, so Solly, Chris, Heather, Kristin, Becca, and I went to the movie. It was pretty good! I don’t understand why Becca’s sister said she didn’t like the movie… Oh well, to each their own.