4th of July 2009

Dad took vacation the week after the 4th of July - which fell on a Saturday this year. We started off our week with a Friday night tractor Pull in Villard. Kari, Matt, Madison & Luke were there along with cousins Ryan and Randy. Ryan and Matt were to pull their tractors in this event. However, we didn't make it that long. We all got hungry so after about 2 hours we left to have supper. It was a fun time and hope next time to make it a little longer. The 4th rolled around with BIG plans. We started off our day by heading to Alexandria to try and get a few groceries.. big mistake! Crazy town! Bought a few fireworks, but because Dad was being CHEAP we didn't get too many. Went to Villard again for the big parade.. Probably about 30 floats this year.. Nothing too crazy for Villard.. Combines, tractors you know the usual. After the parade we sat at Grandma and Grandpa Rupp's house for a little bit and ate a lot of candy!! So yummy! And after all that sugar hit and we all got really hyper, we decided to bring the Hushagens back to our house for supper and a bon fire. Mom and Dayle decided that we needed more fireworks and headed to Sauk Centre for them. Came back with a bunch more and we sat up until past 10:00 watching them! We had so much fun! Mike, Dayle, Tyler and Aron spent the night with us and had breakfast with us as well. We love having them for sleep overs! The rest of the day on Sunday was a quiet day and we all took naps!

Monday started off with a trip to the eye doctor for Joe. Needed to get a check up and see how his glasses are working. One lense has to be replaced with a stronger perscription, but otherwise everything was great! Got home from there and made a last minute decision to head to the Wahpeton, ND Zoo. It was a great trip and had fun, it was HOT, but we had fun. On the way home from the zoo Dad decided to treat us to a dairy Queen dilly bar. It was so yummy! That with a small bottle of water leads to trouble when you are on a road trip. Pete got a little antsy and said he had to go potty. Mom kept driving.... He stated once again that he had to go potty, but since we use that excuse to stop all the time - Mom kept driving. It wasn't until he almost started to cry and rock back and forth that Mom listened. Only problem we had no rest stops, nothing with a bathroom to stop at. Mom took the first exit and we pulled over and had the experience of pee'ing along side the road. Good thing no one drove by!! After Joe stated he had to go too we decided to head to Alex where we all stopped at Menards to have another potty break. We were ever so joyed when Dad said there was one more surprise - we could all pick out a new toy!! Since Menards doesn't have a huge toy selection we all decided to buy nothing more than a new tape measure! We have been measuring everything!! We love them!

Mom and Dad also decided to start a few projects and installed some new kitchen cupboards. Uncle Jason took them out of a house that was doing a remodel and brought them to dad with the thoughts of his garage. Mom looked at them and decided it was a good opportunity to add more cupboards to the kitchen. A few coats of paint and they are in. Makes the kitchen look really big now!

Grandma and Grandpa Dietzmann also came to visit for 2 days while Dad was on vacation. It was fun having them around. We even got to go shopping with Grandma and she bought us new toys! Why do Grandma's spoil us too much?

We are having a quiet day today (Monday) Dad went back to work and we are playing ever so noisily today while Mom is trying to catch up on computer work.. She's been slacking since Dad was on vacation!