July 4th Weekend (Better late than never!)

I was off work all of July 4th weekend and it was wonderful! I was able to see my brother and his family and we all hung out at my parents’ and played on the lake. The weekend started out a little iffy. I swear Mother Nature has it in for our family and doesn’t want us to get together! There was the blizzard in December, and tornadoes on July 1st!

Brian had been in Iowa all week and wasn’t getting home until late Friday night, so I decided to head out to my parents’ to see Adam (he had been staying with them since Brian was gone and I was working evening shifts) and to welcome Seth and his family. All was going well until just before I reached Glencoe. I looked off to my right and it looked pretty ‘swirly.’ Then all of a sudden the wind picked up and it was SO STRONG! Debris and trash were flying everywhere. I was terrified. It was like a scene out of a movie. I came upon a weather spotter truck that was pulled over and gathering info, so I knew this was definitely something. All I could think of to do was to just keep driving as fast as I could and get past it! I started to hear a really weird noise from my car. I couldn’t tell if it was the wind or if I had a flat tire or what. So I pulled over to check it out. Luckily, I didn’t blow away! The tires looked fine, so I kept going. I finally got past the awful wind and made it into Glencoe. I continued to hear the weird noise from my car, so I pulled into the DQ parking lot to have a closer look. Tires still ok, so I looked underneath the car and found part of my car was falling off! I must’ve run over some debris or something to knock it loose. Great. 6 PM on Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend, husband still in Iowa. I called Brian and sent him a picture over my phone. I was able to pull off part of what was hanging, and looked to be a cover of some kind so we decided it would be fine for me to finish my drive to my parents’.

Meanwhile, my brother and his family were making their way from Omaha and ran into some storms in SW MN. They weren’t allowed to drive through Redwood Falls because the storm damage was so bad! Eek!! Eventually, I made it to my parents’ and I was greeted by a super excited and surprised Adam! So sweet!! Then Seth arrived a short while later and we were all safe and sound. From then on, the weather was gorgeous for the rest of the weekend!

Brian came out to my parents’ Saturday morning and brought the boat.Â My uncle brought his jet skis and we tried out my parents’ new Aqua Cycle. We were able to play on the lake all day! We grilled up a yummy supper and had a bon fire to make s’mores. What a wonderful day!!

Adam and I heading out on the Aquacycle

My dad on his 2nd full day of retirement. He's lovin' life!

Seth and Taylor on the jet ski

Grandpa & the girls on the aquacycle

Grandma made pancakes for all her grandkids!

Sunday was spent playing more outside and hanging out at my parents’. We went home Sunday night and the 3 of us played more on Monday the 4th. We took Adam fishing off the dock in Chaska where he caught a ton of sunnies!