Back from SoDak

Holy cow…I think this is probably the most time I’ve taken off in a long time that wasn’t completely guard related. Granted the first one this month was guard related a bit, and this most recent one was also a bit guard related, but mostly was a true vacation.

Jake had his 3^rd birthday on Saturday. It was also our hometown’s 125^th Anniversary, so of course there was a parade. Jake was super cute, running down the street yelling, “They’re having a parade for my birthday!” Yeah, you betcha kid. Just don’t expect this next year. And being a typical small town SD parade, of course we had firetrucks and horses and tractors. Quite exciting for us all. Art was the Grand Marshal for the parade. Very cool. After the parade it was time for lunch at the moe house. Lots of food – mamwich, chips, tuna noodle salad (not my favorite), watermelon, and strawberries. Oh and of course the relish tray. It wouldn’t be a Norwegian party without a relish tray. The only things we were missing were red jell-o with fruit cocktail, those cocktail party mints – multi-colored of course, and the nut bowl. :)

Presents were opened and Jake got his Thomas the Tank Engine cake. Jake turned blue after eating all that frosting. Not sickly blue or choking blue – just blue, and of course he rubbed it all over his head. We almost had a Smurf theme instead.

But we all played and played. It really was a good day. After everyone left but Emmy, Zach and mom and I, we played TrakBall – a game we’ve had for years around the house. (the link isn’t a picture of us but the only thing I could find on the ‘net showing trakball) It’s a really old game – with plastic rackets, which kind of look like scoops. The object, if you really think games need an object, is to pass the ball back and forth without dropping it. The plastic ball does hurt if you get hit with it though. Mom and I were playing Sunday night and it bounced off her racket right on her nose at one point. Eek. I thought she was really hurt but when I got to her she was laughing so hard it was hard to tell if the tears were from the pain or from the idiocy of it all. And what a trooper – we kept playing after she iced it for a bit. Crazy lady.

Other highlights from the weekend:

• Dinner Friday night with an awesome friend
• Seeing SuFuDu perform
• Going to Sioux City to see Mikey in Joseph – he played a pretty awesome Pharaoh, if I do say so myself
• Eating at Texas Roadhouse – oh the bread! Mmmm
• Hanging out at base watching the flyovers, taking photos of folks working on the holiday weekend – this is why we’re the best ANG in the country
• Spending lots of time with mom – walking!, talking, hanging out
• Seeing folks from the past I haven’t seen in a while – Eric, Steve, MaryAnn, Bobby, Shawn, etc.

It was definitely one of the best weekends. And now I’m back at work. Yep. Back to work.