Visitors...and "The rest of the story" on the cakes...

It's getting late, so to make a long story-of-the-day short, I thought I'd post the pictures I took and just a little bit about each one...

Our hunter friends arrived in North Dakota last night and came over to rent one of our tractors for a few days. Here my dad is refreshing Gaylin, Tom and John's memories on how to use the tractor... John had brought his son, Alex along this time and so Andrew had to show him his new bike...

Then Andrew let Alex drive his old bike, which Alex enjoyed immensely!

Our good friend, Gaylin was telling us about the good old days when he and Tom used to drive powerful dirt bikes up very steep hills and other such dangerous things... After a bit of talking, we convinced Gaylin to get on the dirt-bike...

...and to go for a spin.

While the above was happening, I snapped this picture of Millie. I was amazed at how well she behaved herself today, as she usually gets very hyper when new people show up.

As Alex seemed to like Andrew's smaller dirt bike so well, Andrew informed John that it was for sale. They discussed a price and John said he'd think about it. Later this afternoon, John and Alex showed up and wanted to buy the bike! So, my dad and Andrew helped load it and, after paying for it, they were off--one happy father and one even happier young man!

We needed to get some eggs today, as I used the last ones up in my cakes (more about that later), so Mom called our neighbor, Tamera, to see if we cold buy some from her. (She has chickens and sells eggs to friends and neighbors.) It turned out that she had several dozen on hand, so I drove over to get 5 dozen. While there, I enjoyed seeing all of their Nubian goats and their new puppy and all of their various and assorted cats and kittens. The children all wanted to tell me about what this animal did, or why it was named what it was, or what happened when the kitten fell in the water, so it was a pleasant little visit. Thanks for the eggs, Tamera!

My cake project today was interesting... I baked another marbled cake this morning, (in a clean, well oiled pan) and let it cool for 10 minutes before tipping it over onto the cooling rack. I gently lifted up on the side of the pan------and it was sticking! Not again! This time, I dug out my notes from cake class and read about what to do. (It's always so helpful to read the directions!) "If cake sticks, put cake in freezer for an hour, then dip pan in hot water. Should pop out." So, that's what I did. Before trying to "Pop" it out, though, I went around the edges with a knife. Slowly, slowly it came out--all in one piece!!! I just had to get a picture (I took the picture after I had leveled the top--that's why it looks a little crumby)...

After 3+ hours work of mixing icing; refilling bags; smoothing edges; deciding on designs; etc...., here's what my finished cakes look like:

The confirmation cake...

...and the graduation cake:

On a totally different note, I'd appreciate if you'd pray for my brother, Jacob tonight--to be feeling much better soon. He got sick this morning and was really sad about it because he had been so looking forward to the Appleseed Shoot Project, and now he and Andrew aren't going (unless he's feeling back to normal in the very early morning...) We have a lot of work ahead of us this next week in preparing for Andrew's graduation (June 7th), so we really need everyone to be strong and healthy. We've even resisted the temptation to eat the cake crumbs from yesterdays' disaster, as we know that would not do anything to improve our health!