I just returned on Monday from Minnesota. The trip was for the graduation of Jamie Jo Symens from High School.. Jamie is the youngest daughter of Gregs brother Gale and his wife Patty.. Great family and the first graduation of the five nieces and nephews in the Midwest so far that I've attended to represent our family... but, it was the only time frame that ever worked for us to try.. Now Greg was going to go, but, a nephew of his Adam became engaged recently and the wedding is just after Christmas in Brookings SD., and so Greg needed to move this vacation to that one.
oops out of order but this is Jamie at her party.. couldn't move it and so it stays
Jamie graduated with recognition for being on the Honor Roll and in the National Honor Society. She and Jacob Johnson were the Class Speakers and spoke on how technology has changed their lives and changed during the time they began school. Hard to believe but even THEY have seen changes and have had to adjust to them, Internet and email became, texting, Facebook, Twitter, Facetime, Skype, etc. (that's as much as I know about) and the list was longer of what it is that they do..
I flew in on Tuesday to Omaha, NE, rented a car and drove the 3.5 hours to my parents in Luverne.. Stayed there until Thursday morning,. You might ask what do you do in Luverne? Well, that is a good question, and what we did was walk through Shopko, something like a bigger Walgreens really.. and then we went downtown, walked into a few stores, went up a couple of blocks and went through the Vandenberg gallery and the War museum in the courthouse building.. And that my friends is what there is to do in Luverne, so then we went home. My mom invited relatives over Uncle Alvin, Aunt Gladys and my cousin Rhonda on Wednesday night for dessert and light lunch.. It was also very nice to squeeze in a time of breakfast and coffee with Rhonda the next day before I left Luverne, always a joy to connect with her. I then headed to Windom and spent a few days of "things". Attended a community womens afternoon salad and dessert luncheon at Marlys church in Heron Lake. From there it was a quick change of pace to see Jamies first softball game of a double header against the rival Jackson.. home for a delicious crock pot roast dinner with Gregs parents, his two sisters Kim and Char and Chars son Adam who lives there while he works in Jackson. That was just one day..
So then we laid low on Friday and watched the weather kind of change in the afternoon into a severe thunderstorm warning and then into a tornado warning after we had hard rain, hail for about 20 minutes, and then the warning and a phone call to get into the basement from Kim whose neighbor is a policewoman and a EMS so she has a full scanner and was giving her updates.. Kim had been at the parents house for pizza dinner and she and Gabriella headed home to get there car out of the hail storm. My rental car I pulled behind the garage and the hail with the wind really bounced off the garage roof for the most part. The hail was anything from the size of a dime to the size of a coke can lid.
watching the skies as the rain started to fall lightly
Jamie stopped to get dressed for graduation and the rain was pouring down and hail was starting so she hung out with us for a little bit.
Here the rain and hail are coming down in sheets, that is my car parked in a not so usual parking spot
This is the family sitting down in the basement during the tornado warning, Philip and Gale showed up just in time to hit the basement, Philip grabbed the leftover pizza and brought it with him
The tornado touched down a few miles from us in Wilder and Lakefield, but not much other than tree damage, We headed right out the door for the school gym where the graduation was being held after the storm passed by.
Saturday several of us drove down to Cherokee Iowa for the graduation of the son of a cousin of the Gregs. Had a good time seeing them. Sunday was the graduation party for Jamie out at the farm.. had a little bit of drizzle which just kept everyone in the garage for a short amount of time, otherwise it was just cloudy.. But what was expected to be about 150 people must have been 350 as we had to send a body for a mad dash to double up on the groceries we were making the Chicken Alfredo from.. Patty's sisters Karen, Kathy, and Andrea, and the sister's inlaw of Patty, Myself, Char and Kim manned the kitchen and kept the food tables filled.. amazing the amount of food we went through. 5 fruit Salads, 4 flats of cake, 25 boxes or so of penne pasta, oodles of Alfredo sauce and Chicken... but we kept ourselves entertained in the kitchen sneaking out occasionally to visit with the family that came from Iowa or Mankato. Fun time.
Gales family
Well, there are more pictures but it's my bedtime and so I have to quit. and hit the sack.. more another day,.
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