Sunday, we again started with the breakfast buffet, but this time, the Husebys joined us. We swam with them again Sunday morning, and asked them to stick around for lunch and more swimming the afternoon! Sunday's lunch was wild rice soup. We just used Bear Creek mix and added some more wild rice. It took quite a while to get 16 cups of water to boil, but nobody seemed to mind too much. We also had some Pillsbury breadsticks, while the kids ate hotdogs and macaroni and cheese.

Sunday night we had Asian night, complete with cream cheese wontons and egg rolls (both the Asian Sensation brand found in the freezer section of your local grocer). We also made lettuce wraps (like the ones found at PF Changs), beef stir fry, and chicken stir fry. It was pretty simple stuff, just bags of frozen veggies, meat, and minute rice. I don't have an official lettuce wraps recipe; it's not so much a recipe as much as a bunch of stuff just thrown together. You quarter a head of lettuce and use the leaves to wrap up teriyaki marinated chicken with cashews, water chestnuts, and green onions.

The most important recipe of the weekend was this one: one dad/ grandpa, one mom/ grandma, six brothers and sisters, four grandkids (with another on the way), a brother-in-law, a future sister-in-law, and a niece of a friend of a sister (huh?). Mix them together in one big cabin with lots of games and food and enjoy. This recipe is guaranteed to relieve stress. I know it did for me.

Wyatt

The process of rounding up the nieces and nephews into the van, transporting them to the swimming pool, getting them changed into their swim suits, keeping an eye on them in the pool, getting them dried off, dressed and loaded back into the van, and returning to the cabin was only slightly less complicated than figuring out my taxes, and it took almost as long.

It may have been a sadistic thing to do, but in the midst of one of the child wrangling episodes, I looked at Shawn and said, "Nothing comes easy when kids are involved -- there is no such thing as 'hop in the car and go'!" Shawn looked at me and deadpanned, "Yeah, I know." I guess he has already given that topic some thought, with fatherhood looming in a few months.

It was a learning experience, providing insight into a world I have only seen in glimpses from the outside, although someday I suppose it will be me struggling to put socks and shoes on a wriggling toddler. The weekend also gave me an increased appreciation of the effort my parents went through when they brought us kids on vacation, or even just to the lake.

All in all, it was nice to spend the weekend with the whole family and, while I joke about the effort involved, having all of the kids around definitely added a lot of fun to the proceedings. I feel lucky to be part of a family that can have so much fun together!

Photos © Donna Johnson
Bailey Whitcomb ropes the Beaver, left. (This, way he doesn't have to pick it up when she tosses it.) Tim & Colette Huseby with Ashley, right. (Son Erik was too busy playing to pose for a picture.)

UPDATE -- Breezy Point weekend -- yes!
by Lori (Chap) Ostendorf
Rogers, MN

I had a great time (once again) with our family at the Breezy Point resort. Between the games, good food (thanks to Wyatt and Jolene), naps (yeah!) and good, old fashioned family time, I could not have asked for a better long weekend! It was also fun watching the kids swim, including watching the "big kids" (Wyatt and Shawn) do belly flops. I imagine that our group will never really "grow up" and I like that about us. :)

Photos © Donna Johnson
Lori Chap Ostendorf and Chris Chap share a chuckle, left. (Why work when you can relax?) No argument from Ben Johnson & Ashley Torgrimson, right.

Rotary exchange student Moa Lundgren from Sweden accompanied me for the excursion. (How many other exchange students will be able to claim to have gone "doodle hunting"?)

Earlier, I had called the town office, and asked for "The department of unusual requests, please."

"What is it this time, Earl ... it's too cold out for a water balloon fight."

It seems as though, even as the lights no longer boldly shone on the 40-foot Christmas tree by the rec centre (and department of public works personnel were two weeks late in removing the tree and lights attached thereto), for the asking, power could be reconnected, and for this solitary end-of-January night, the lights would blaze again. (No formal presentation to council was required.)

"You mean that's it, just plug them back in ... you don't want fireworks or anything?"

(Fireworks would have been a nice touch ... think I'll save that one for later.)

You can do these things in Fort Nelson. I like it.

After "doodle capturing procedures and strategies" were reviewed, and the proper "doodle hunting hardware" was dispensed (and in spite of a biting, cold, westerly wind) the quest commenced ... and a fine night for "doodle hunting" it was, too.

Moa employed some "Swedish doodle hunting" techniques that I had yet to become acquainted with ... the attached images are her handiwork.

Just think what a fine place this ol' planet could be if we all doodled together in friendship and peace.

Earl L. Brown
Doodle Hunter and Bear Photographer (not to be confused with bare photographer...)

First Responder Wheelchair

Photo © Dorothy Anderson
Don's evacuation wheelchair, with carrying handles attached.

No, no, no ... don't send Earl to Florida now ... he is onto something here! I absolutely love his doodling ways! My guess would be time exposure of some sort of lights ... but seems there must be another element to the equation. Could it be moving the camera during the time exposure? Is it safe to try this at home? Wouldn't be any danger of LYM (Losing Your Mind) here ... I lost mine long ago.

Ginny (Dake) McCorkell
Blaine, MN

Photo Editor's Note: Yeah, something like that -- I think.

Thanks for another great issue... I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was fun seeing those old guys jamming... I wonder what kind of guitar Dwight was playing in that photo?

Weston, no good writer ever got an interesting story by doing anything "normal"! Your story was moving and entertaining right down to the last syllable, so here is one reader that hopes you take it on the road again real soon.

Speaking of good writing, how about that Markie Johnson? He is a regular Henry David Thoreau! Thanks for the poem, Mark; it was just the way I like my poems ... short and sweet!

Miss Kitty ... no more boasting about how much snow you have, please. I haven't even been skiing yet this year ... because I don't like skiing on rocks and brown grass!

The peanut butter pie recipe looked delicious ... I am truly a sucker for anything with peanut butter in it ... best invention since water!

Thanks again!

Impressed in St. Cloud.

Douglas Anderson
St. Cloud, MN

Sure, most people, myself included, ooh and aah over that first picture, whether scenery, people, grandkids or Ginny's fancy photo manipulations. (That's supposed to be a compliment, Ditto!)

But last week's photo brought back warm memories of when my daughters were growing up -- pre-teens. Sunday was family day, stay at home and do things together. What we did most was play music. Ginny (MY Ginny) played organ and flute, both girls played flute and took piano lessons, and I, of course, played guitar, and tried playing banjo.

We would sit around the living room on Sunday afternoons and play. My girls still have fond memories of that. If I could find it, I'd include a picture of my daughter Jane, at around 6 or 7, sitting with me on the couch, her struggling with the big banjo, and me with a guitar.

For the folks who may be interested in my guitar pictures and stories {is HE still around?} I promise to submit something for next week.

Capt. Jack Adair
Coon Rapids, MN

I will never forget talking to you on the phone the day we all learned Coni had cancer. Lori had called me, wondering if I had heard anything from you that day. You guys had a volleyball game, and she was trying to get in touch with you to see if you were going to play. Knowing how unlike you it was to have not checked in with her, I started worrying. (Thank you very much, Mom, for making me a worrier.) I finally got you on the phone, and just as I was driving across Main Avenue in Moorhead, you told me.

When we went to Breezy Point last year, the day we arrived there was the day of Coni's surgery. I don't ever remember feeling so conflicted in my life. On one hand, I knew that you and Coni didn't want us to skip that fun time together, but on the other hand, I wanted to be there supporting my little brother. Since Mom was down there with you, it made me feel a little better about it. We were in touch with you off and on through the day, and finally learned that the surgery had been very successful about the time we arrived at Breezy Point. That helped, but there was definitely a shadow over the weekend, and we all missed you guys pretty badly.

There were quite a few times in the next months when Coni tried as hard as she could to put on her best smile and make us all feel better for her. That last weekend we spent with her at the farm, she had fought so hard and was so weak, I've never felt so sorry for someone.

As sorry as I felt for her during some of those times, that's definitely not the feeling that I have most of the times that I think of her. "Keep Smiling" is always what I'm left with. Once in a while, Rylie, out of the blue, will say, "I really miss Coni."

I'm so glad that we knew her for as long as we did, and it warms my heart that she had you to go through it with her. She needed you, and I think her entire family needed you. As painful as it was for you through it all, it was meant to be. Coni had her own angel riding shotgun with her through her trip.

Wyatt Johnson
Moorhead, MN

I started an e-mail last week, got side-tracked and didn't finish or send it.