The Long Weekend

We hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend :)! We sure did! We headed out to my parents house on Friday at around 1:30 p.m. We arrived at their place at about 8:15 p.m. It was a very uneventful drive down there (thank goodness)..however traffic was horrible and it really makes you realize how crazy some of those drivers out there are!! But nevertheless we made it there.

On Saturday we hung around Mom and Dad's house in the morning and that afternoon we headed out to Hawkeye Downs (race track). They were having a dog show in a building out there. When we got there we heard race cars driving around the race track so we had to check it out :)! This race track is a cement track and the cars kind of look like the NASCAR cars. They were super fast and really loud! We watched them doing hot laps for about 10 to 15 minutes. It was really neat. My Dad talked about maybe heading out to the races later that night but changed his mind when he asked a guy what time they typically get over. The guy said "Oh I'm usually out of here by 1 a.m." My Dad decided that was WAY TOO LATE for him...especially since he's a pastor and has to be at church early in the morning :)! After the hot laps were done we went into the dog show. Boy was it hot in there! We started walking around and this guy with this beautiful bulldog started talking to Jeff. He asked him if we were going to be there for awhile and Jeff looked and me and I said Yes. So that guy asks us if we can hold his bulldog while he goes to fix his hair before he shows the dog. So here I sit with this purebred bulldog who is probably worth around $1,800.00 or more! I can't believe how trusting this guy was with complete strangers...especially with such an expensive dog! This dog was great...he just stood there. I pet him a bit...never had pet a bulldog before. People were coming up and looking at him so we had to tell them he wasn't ours and that some guy asked us to hold on to him for a minute or two. It was nuts. Did I take a picture of Ham-bone (that's the dogs name)...nope sure didn't. I wish I would have though (I did have my camera with me)! Ham-bone ended up taking 2nd place in his class at the dog show..YEA HAM-BONE! We watched the dog show for awhile and then headed out to...yup you guessed it...RED LOBSTER! Boy that sure tasted yummy! That night we pretty much just vegged out!

On Sunday we went to church and then had dinner. After dinner we headed out to the Cedar River to kinda bum around out there. We drove though the park first and then found some hiking trails. The one we picked pretty much just followed the road so we decided to hop back in the car and drive to another place in the park. We got to where we could see the water pretty clearly and snap some pictures (I'll post a slide show later today). Jeff took some really good pictures and I took a few also. The water was really flowing due to all the rain they have had down there in the past few weeks. My Mom and Dad said that a few weeks ago you could see all the sandbars and there was hardly any flowing water in this river. It was amazing! After we went to the park we headed back to their house and Dad grilled steaks. We were fed very well over the weekend :)!

On Monday we all hung out until it was time for us to leave at around 1:00. Again the traffic was horrible until we got past Albert Lea. The last 2 hours of the trip were nice because you didn't have to watch out for all the crazies driving on the Interstate with you! I guess the days we traveled were probably the most popular traveling days of the weekend! We got back to our house at around 8:00 p.m. and checked things out. The ducks were all still alive and well. I kid you not our baby duck grew a TON while we were gone. It's kind of in it's "Gawky Teenage" faze right now (not very cute but not ugly either..he he)! I'll have to snap a few recent pictures and then post the picture of it when it was only a day old also. I can't believe how they grow in 3 weeks time!

Jeff went to get Jake on Tuesday from the "doggie hotel". He did just fine there and was happy to be at home again. Last night Jeff baled hay and also mowed some. I have a feeling he'll be mowing again tonight too. I picked about 50 tomatoes...so guess what I'll be doing tonight and tomorrow. CANNING!! I think that'll be about it. I'm about ready to tell Jeff to take the rest of it out. I am running out of room and am kinda getting sick of it. That usually happens at the end of the summer..he he!

So that's our Labor Day weekend in a nutshell! Glad it's already Wednesday. We have one last tractor pull this weekend in Tripp, SD. It starts at 1:00 so we need to leave here pretty early to get there on time. Sounds like the weather is suppose to be cooler so that'll be nice. We hope everyone has a great day! God's Blessings to everyone. I'll post pictures very soon! :)