Long time no update...

 I know it has been forever since I posted an update so this will be a long one!!

We had a really nice dinner with my aunt and uncle last time we were in St. Cloud.  It was kind of funny to have them making us dinner in our house!!  It was really special to have an evening to spend with them.  They left us a wonderful basket of goodies as  a thank you for the use of our house.  We were just glad that it worked out for them to stay and have a place to relax while they were in Minnesota.

We had a great dinner and visit with Mary and Jerry on Tuesday evening.  Jerry made a turkey so that Bill could have the carcass as he loves to make soup!  We took Minnow along when we met Bill’s mom and his brother for supper in Princeton on Wednesday night.  We had not seen Lorraine (Bill's Mom) since we moved up north so it was great to catch up with her and Lanny (Bill’s brother) on family news.   

We headed back up north on Thursday night and Mom and Dad came up on Friday afternoon.  I had not gotten to spend any extended one-on-one time with Mom and Dad in a long time and it was great to be able to do that over the weekend.  We went into Blackduck to a fabric shop.   Mom is going to make the banner for the Marriage Encounter Conference next summer and we had fun picking out the fabric for that.  I also found a quilt kit with fall leaves and colors that I loved so I bought it to make this winter.  I am looking forward to working on it with Mom.   Bill and Dad went fishing on Saturday afternoon so Mom and I got to spend a couple of hours just talking and reconnecting.  I have missed doing that and it was great to spend time with Mom.  

We were back in St. Cloud for a couple of days last week and had a bunch of people from our church over on Wednesday evening for dinner.  A friend of ours from church was part of the band (The Receders) that was playing at Lake George that evening so we had a Preceders party at our house!  It was great fun to see everyone and catch up a little.

We headed back up north on Friday and got to take Minnow back with us.  Since I had Friday off work, we decided to meander our way up north and we did that really well!  We picked up Minnow at 9 AM and arrived at the cabin at 5 PM!!  Needless to say, we stopped at a lot of garage sales, second hand shops, etc. on the way.  On Saturday morning, we stopped over at the resort and saw the first bear that was brought in (as bear hunting season opened on Sept 1).   Minnow was not too excited about touching the bear!

Haley (youngest daughter) and her friend, Katha (from Germany) came up on Saturday.  Katha had explained that they make "bread on a stick" rather than roast marshmallows so we gave that a try and it was very good.  Here are some pics of this.  Here is a link to a site with the recipe (http://www.paddlinglight.com/articles/tutorial/how-to-cook-bannock-on-a-stick-campfire-bread/).  We didn't have dried milk and we were not carrying the mix into a camp site so we just added enough milk to make it doughy.

After church on Sunday (where Bill sang again!), we headed over to a friennd's place to ride horses.  Katha had never ridden before and everyone had a blast!  After everyone rode the horses, the kids got to paint the horses.  Haley and Katha had a blast painting Big Bill with USA/Germany messages and hand prints.  

In late afternoon on Sunday, we tried our hand at fishing.  We did not have much luck at the dock at the resort so we dropped Bill off at the cabin and went over to the nearby bridge.  Katha managed to catch a northern and Haley caught a perch so they were both happy with that success!!

In the evening, we made bread on a stick (again!) and smores!  On Monday morning, we did a quick walk through the Lost Forty before Haley and Katha had to head back (as Haley had to work on Monday afternoon).  Bill, Minnow, and I headed for Princeton where we had a fish fry with his family.  We had not seen many of them for quite a while so it was great to see everyone and eat some good food!

We are now back in St. Cloud for a couple of days.  While Bill's birthday is on Thursday, we are celebrating tomorrow night with the kids (as that works best for their schedules).   As things are going well at the resort and with K's radiation, we are starting to transition back to life in St. Cloud.  I will be going back to full time work on October 1st (rather than November 1st) as the resort schedule is fairly light in October and K is able to do more things as time goes on.