A Busy Holiday Weekend

Abigail’s been in a cast for two weeks, and we aren’t sure it

will hold up another week as she has already walked a hole

in the heel. She was content to sit and watch the game on

Sunday and take a few photos, but on Monday she was not

happy that she couldn’t play with the rest of the kids.

A Busy Holiday Weekend

By Allan Olson

The final weekend of the month of May sure flew by in a hurry but even though it departed fast we were still able to get some work done and have some fun.

The weekend started on Friday which was the only night all week that I left work behind at a much earlier time than the preceding four days. That evening, the kids and I went home, we had some supper and then Nikolai and I departed for 

a geocaching event in Bemidji. The event was focused on learning how to create a specific type of geocache and even though the attendance was very low the information was good, now I just have to learn how to put it all together. 

On Saturday, it was time to get some cleaning done, that seems to be the theme of many weekends –clean, clean, clean. Of course the kids were so helpful and quickly got their assignments done – not. It was actually quite the opposite, they were given the projects and a timeline and failed by a long shot to the point where we took the remotes away from all the electronics in the house and we had a long conversation about chores and cleaning.

That afternoon we also had a phone call from my sister-in-law asking if they would be able to stay this weekend as there plans had been changed and my brother had to work in his store in Bemidji. We said, yes and with that bit of news the kids worked marginally faster to help get the house in order.

Sunday morning, I got up early and started making banana muffins since I promised my niece I would make them for her. I got a little carried away and quadrupled t

he batch, I made two pans of large and mini muffins and put the last bit in a bread pan and told Nikolai to watch it and some of us headed to town. The first order of business was to find a geocache, I had one in mind that I had yet to make the effort to find, but at arrival I discovered it was a half mile walk – in the wet grass of course. My sister-in-law and niece joined me on the trek, I made the discovery and we headed back to the vehicle where my wife and Abigail were waiting – our shoes and socks were completely soaked.

I dropped all but Abigail off at the store and her and I went in search of a rummage sale. We managed to find one a few miles out of town and she picked up some items she wanted and I found a couple items also. I checked in with the shoppers and they were still looking at some things, so I got some coffee and some fresh socks to change into –which felt great. A short time later my passengers let me know they were ready for pickup and after one more stop we were headed back home.

At home, I changed socks again and put on some dry shoes and headed to the lawn mower, after just over a week my lawn was already looking like a hay field and it was time to get it knocked down so around and around I went – until I ran out of gas. I went to get the gas jug in the garage, dumped the remaining contents into the tank and took off again, knowing full well I would be very lucky if I could finish the lawn with what gas I had left. Of course I wasn’t able to, so once again I took a break from mowing and Alivia and I headed to the store for gas. I was finally mowing again about 30 minutes later and we were able to get the project finished. The only thing that’s left now is to get the trimming done – still.

That evening, the kids were playing some baseball and I decided to join them. I started out as full time pitcher, but than my brother joined in the action and took a turn at the plate. I decided that if he got to bat, then so did I.

On Monday, I went to the Memorial Day services at the Pine Grove Cemetery and then headed back home. At home, I found kids playing games or watching something and decided that this was not for me, with a little assistance from a couple of the kids, I loaded my grill up to get fixed and Abigail and I headed to town. The only way I could convince her to go with was the promise of stopping at a rummage sale if we saw one. I had hopes that because it was a Monday and a holiday that maybe everyone was too busy to host a sale, but of course we ended up finding one and she finagled a couple more dollars out of me for a game and a ceramic bear. At home, she set the game up, her and Alivia figured out the rules and played for at least 30 minutes with no fighting, in my opinion the game paid for itself, but hopefully it will last a little longer before it goes the way the majority of the games go in my house – to the garbage.

We cooked hot dogs and brats over a fire; I tried to make burgers on a couple of my small grills, but one refused to even light up and the other fell apart half-way through. I then took them to the fire and tried to grill them over the open flames, but they were mostly charred and just didn’t look at that appealing when I was done.

In all it was a fun and busy weekend, the plans for this weekend remain undecided, but we really need to pull our camping stuff together and do an inventory of what we need as our first trip is coming up in about three weeks, it should be a great time!

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.