Most Definitely Summer

After leaving my family in mosquito infested northern Wisconsin, we traveled to southern Wisconsin for the big wedding!!! Our niece, Alex, got married! She's the oldest and first Halldo grandkid to get hitched. (She and her new hubby are also going to be living in Texas! Everyone's doing it;)

It was a great excuse to all get together again. Wayne had aunts, uncles, and cousins come in from Saskatchewan. Fran flew in from Calgary. It was great to see everyone!!

Will and Erik were ushers.

The weather turned out to be gorgeous, thank goodness, since there was no air conditioning in the church. The reception was beautiful and lots of fun.

Zanna and Claire

Maid of Honor - niece Ana

We stayed in Kenosha. The day after the wedding we went to church and then for a walk along the beautiful waterfront. It was slightly windy!!

We met up with Wayne's Saskatchewan cousins and Aunt Noreen and Uncle Terry for lunch. We really enjoyed the extra time with them and the opportunity to reconnect. 

Our trip continued on from there to the great state of Kentucky where we spent time visiting the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. 

It was the first time EVER that our family spent a whole day in a museum. We did almost everything - the planetarium, the special speakers, the kids' programs, the 4D movie, the family movie, lunch, and the displays. It was amazing to finally be in a museum that gave glory to God as the Creator of this world! It also did a great job explaining the fall into sin, our need for a Savior, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, Jesus' life, death, and resurrection and what that means for mankind. 

The ark was also unbelievable in it's size, detail, and historical significance.  

We really had a great time! After leaving the Ark, we had one more overnight stop before heading home and this was really the cherry on top:)

We stayed in Memphis at the Jim and Janine's house. Janine and I have been friends since Prep days and have continued to maintain our friendship over the years. Our husbands are both pastors. Our boys are the same age and both just finished their first year at Martin Luther College in the pastor track. How cool!!!

Loved this short time with them but cherished this opportunity too. (She puts on a mean breakfast!) Hopefully we'll be back to check out Memphis as tourists but for this trip we had to head home right away.  

Definitely Summer

Here in Texas we have four seasons like the rest of the world. However, they've been renamed to kinda summer, definitely summer, sort of summer, and not summer. We are currently in definitely summer although lately it's felt more like sort of summer... or "Fall" as you might say. This means we've been in the upper 80's with relatively low humidity and it's been LOVELY. 

In other ways it's felt like kinda summer in that while we haven't had our normal school year routine, we've been busy pretty non stop - if we're even home. I have yet to take the homeschool room down from last grade's finish, go through papers to keep and throw, and overall tidy up the area. We had our last day of school some time mid June and then it was like we walked out and never looked back. 

That's not to say we're not having fun! We've have lots of fun and new experiences as we wrap up our first full year here in Texas. 

*Above 8 photos taken by Margaret Lake Photography*

Camp Shiloh Lutheran Camp is about 15 minutes from us and affiliated with our church. Every summer they host a kids' camp that brings youngun's from all over Texas and beyond. The first week was the teen camp and the second week the youth camp. 

I seriously should have kept a daily journal but because I didn't, looks like I'm going to have to rely on my sketchy memory.

Me - I pulled kitchen duty. I learned the art and work of managing an industrial kitchen, feeding 100 people, and wore a hat and closed toed shoes in the middle of definitely summer for sanitary purposes and not comfort. I shredded lettuce for salad like nobody's business and served it too. Rhoda was in charge of the kitchen and kept it running like a well oiled machine. She produced ranch dressing that was so good I wanted to put it on everything. Turns out so did the kids so that by the time we were down to the last of the Ranch, it was getting kind of ugly. We created monsters!!! 

There were some kids attending all the way from Wisconsin. Rhoda introduced them to things like "Frito Pie" and sweet tea and completely blew their minds. She'd take left over spaghetti and turn it into a cheesy spaghetti casserole a few days later. Wayne and I were going to sneak out one evening and go out to eat but after hearing we were going to have Mexican Night, we cancelled and ate at camp. It was my favourite meal. All that was missing was a margarita. 

Wayne was shadowing volunteers and getting the hang of how it was all managed. He did a devotion one evening with the teens and enjoyed participating that way. Next year is sure to be a different story as he fills a more active role in the camps. 

Meanwhile, Will was lifeguarding. He also was a part time camp counselor the second week which required him to stay the night chaperoning the boys. 

Zanna was along for the ride during teen camp. Not yet old enough to attend, she hung around while I worked the kitchen. She spent that week outside mainly. She did a lot of swimming in the lake and keeping her brother company when he was out there alone. It was pretty cute to see them one afternoon sitting side by side on the dock, their feet dangling over the edge into the water just the two of them. I wondered what they were talking about. 

It was the last day and a half of teen camp that it all really took a turn. We had been plagued by a few nasty storms that week and a real doozy hit that had some tornado qualities to it if there was actually one. It managed to knock out power in the area and it affected camp. Not having a generator to keep everything going, not only did the lights go out but the air conditioning and everything in the kitchen. This meant the kitchen staff found ourselves outdoors in definitely summer making lunch and supper on the grill and in a deep fryer. Actually some guys stepped up and did the real hot work and the rest of us "glistened" while serving up fried chicken sandwiches, french fries, and macaroni and cheese heated up on the grill. The kids were thrilled!!!! There was no fruit or vegetable (perishable) in sight. There was, however, ranch dressing. And this happens to pair well with fries and chicken sandwiches. 

All that to say, the dorm was smelling awfully sour by the end of it and we were more than happy to go back to our comfortable, air-conditioned home. 

Zanna went to the following week's youth camp. This was another new experience for her as she'd been to plenty of day camps but nothing overnight for 5 days! We'd be close by and often there during the day anyway, but this was 24/7 for her and a good precursor to Prep in a year. 

Girl was exhausted from not enough sleep and totally disgusted with those that wouldn't go to sleep at lights out and continued to talk. She complained her time was too managed and was envious of the free time she witnessed at teen camp. She's used to managing her time and working in a daily balance of work, rest, reading,  and play. Now somebody else was telling her what to do and when to do it! Just wait until high school, sweet girl.... In the end she had a good time and came home sick so we could start our vacation right;)

And then we were off! We piled into our vehicle and listened to Zanna hack all the way to Wisconsin. 

We spent part of the week up in the North Woods visiting my parents who were also hosting my brother and his family who currently lives in Germany! We had a blast on the lake with them and celebrating the 4th of July together too. We had sparklers and tanks (a Hanson family favourite) and Reid got those ones that look like turds. Brothers. 

The 4th of July also means we celebrated 21 years of wedded bliss and my parents celebrated 48. 

Final thoughts:
You're never too old to play with sparklers! 
Ranch dressing goes on almost anything. It's the new salsa. 
You can even mix ranch and salsa. Yum. 

Looks like I'm going to have to continue this in another post as we take our vacation to southern Wisconsin to celebrate the marriage of our oldest niece!! Time to party, Halldorson style. Yikes;)