We got up to my parent's house on Wednesday evening and just had a low key dinner with the seven of us. We spent the day on Thursday getting ready for camping over the weekend. 
That evening, however, the troops arrived. The pictures show some of the general goofiness that came about that evening. #1: Uncle James with Lydie.
#2: Piggy pack on Grandpa.
#3: Uncle Brian and I playing catch with Hans.
#4: Evan-copter.
so the 10+ kids could play while we visited. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. We ended up at Mall of America and went to Lego Land and the amusement park. The first picture is Evan and Hans playing with Hannah.
The second is Lydia Kay and Lydia Jane cruising together.
Next is Hans playing Lydia Jane.
And the last is Andrew taking a turn riding in the car with Lydia Jane.
We would have loved to have had more time with everyone and miss them greatly but are happy we at least got to see them for a little while.
The boys climbed on everything, ran all around, and Lydia is a champion slider who now slided unassisted. Yeah for Grandma! :)
This happen every four to six weeks (I think.) and is not overly exciting to those raised on KevMar Hog Farm. To those of us married in or attached to one of the boys, however, it's intriguing to say the least. Kristi, Tammy, Katie, and I all want to help ship one day. I'm not sure if they'll really let us. :) While we were back in Zumbrota for a day the kids and I got to watch. Hog shipping 101: Pigs ready to be shipped are marked with an orange mark and moved from their pens into the shipping room. The cattle truck backs up to the chute which connects the shipping room to the truck. The hogs then walk (willingly or unwillingly) from the shipping room, down the chute, into a room in the cattle truck. The cattle truck then takes them to a processor and we get bacon, ham, pork chops, roasts, sausage, ect... Yummo!
Watching was tons of fun and definitely something you don't see everyday. :)
We stopped at the rest stop (aka: wayside rest) in Chamberlain on the way back to MN. If you're ever traveling across the state of SD it is a neat stop. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day before 6pm, there is a Lewis and Clark museum complete with tents and a keel boat. Even if you miss that the view of the river and the trails are a great monotony breaker. We happened to miss the museum this time around but the kids loved running around and look for the Missouri River whenever we travel across the state. :)
After the week with the Smiths we came back home for a few graduations and confirmation at Abiding Word. One big reason was the young lady standing between us in the picture. Lauren was one of Nathan's 8th graders this year. Her dad is the pastor at Abiding Word, her mom is one of my best friends, and the four kids are superstars around our house. A few weeks earlier her dad announced that he was accepting a call to serve as Dean at Great Plains LHS in Watertown, SD. Since our time with their family is running out we really wanted to be at her confirmation. We managed to celebrate with 4 former students at either graduations or confirmations in less than 44 hours. Busy but completely worth it; they are all pretty special to us. Then we were back on the road heading east again. :)
After being kicked out by the aforementioned camp host, we headed to the picnic grounds. Nathan located a cache about 1/2 mile away. We thought we'd head to it after lunch. There was thunder in the distance but while we were picnicking it began to boom closer and closer. Since we had a geocoin (ask Nathan about it sometime or check it out on www.geocaching.com) to drop off Nathan decided he'd make a run for it and I'd finish lunch with the kids. When the rain started coming through the trees we got back in the van. Sometime after I had to turn on the wipers and the defrost Nathan returned, successful. He had taken off his glasses to run in the rain but had been caught and soaked anyway. Here's the proof. :)
For as long as we've had kids Nathan has wanted to take them to Oxbow Park. It is in Byron, MN and is the nicest county park I've ever visited. Not only a park but also a historic site, nature center, camping area, and native animal zoo. The kids loved it. In the pictures you see us at the otter, goat, and bear cages but there was also deer, elk, turkey, foxes, coyotes, wolves, prairies dogs, and on and on. 
If anyone is looking for something to do just outside of Rochester here is something for everyone and it's free.
The only thing I'll tell you to watch out for is the grumpy campground host. We tried doing a geocache in the campground but were abruptly kicked out. Nathan kindly tried to explain what we were doing but to no avail. We just found a different cache further in the park to hunt. Ha, grumpy monkey.
There is an undeniable draw to front porches. The Smith house is no exception. It's a favorite place of us all. There's no better place to watch kids play, read a book, listen to a storm blow by, 
feel a cool breeze, relax while drinking a favorite beverage, or just visit.
Ahh, hmm, get the picture?
Here are a few snapshots of us on the front porch.
Since Mary's piano is in the 
living room/dining room the kids all love to play it. Lydia proved no exception. She did also enjoy teaming up for a few duets. Amazingly, she can make any piece dissonant and completely transpose a melody without much effort. We'll see how lessons actually go in a few years. :)
The Sunday of Memorial Day
Weekend we were in big cahoots with Mary, our Pastor's wife, and pulled of a great surprise birthday party for Pastor Free. What began as an open house for their son Joel, who had just graduated from MLC, became a birthday bash complete with goofy gifts and entertainment.
Picture 1: Pastor sporting his new Nebraska Huskers robe. (He even wore it for Bible class the following week!)
Picture 2: Jim, Kayla, Pastor Maertz, Lynn, Nathan, and I singing spoof songs for the crowd of nearly 150.
Picture 3: Jon (another of Pastor's sons) posing as David Letterman in a hilarious skit poking just a little fun at his Dad.
Picture 4: Jason (the youngest Free) as a younger version of Pastor reading the "Top Ten List of Saying by Pastor".
Not only was Pastor surprised but also a great sport. You never know who we might get next. :)
This is what happens when the coordinator of the last day picnic happens to be married to a former firefighter who happens to have friends at the fire station which happens to be across the street from school who happen to be willing to come spray some kids for half an hour.
(Note:Evan is just left of center in the top picture wearing Viking gold. He was soaked and loving it.)
The last Wednesday of school we teamed up for an all day field trip. Since I'm the art teacher I did the am and Nathan the pm. For the morning we went on an art scavenger hunt around the downtown galleries. There isn't as much to work with as in a big city but there were seven destinations all within walking distance.
The top picture is my group in art alley where anyone can display art so it ranges from graffiti to huge canvas paintings to a cruddy old couch. The second picture is one the the students getting fresh one of the nearly 20 statues of Presidents that are scattered downtown. 
After a picnic lunch at the Berlin Wall exhibit we headed back to Cowboy Hill. The third picture is of my group along with Denise Smith's group finding one of the geocaches we were hunting for on the hill. The second was just for fun. We came across an abandoned accident and the kids posed as if they'd been in the terrible wreck.
Thankfully we had a cool calm day and ended the year on a great note.
:)
