Our cousin's visit...

This post is way overdue, but better late than never, right?


On the evening of July 5th, my mom drove up to Steele and met her uncle and aunt there and picked up her cousin, Kristi and her son Hristiyan. We were so glad that Kristi got to come and have a bit of a vacation, as she's a very busy wife and home schooling mother.



But back to the 5th... I had to work that day, so I missed out on some of the campfire, but was able to visit a few minutes there when I got home, while our boys and Hristiyan shot off the fireworks they'd bought. Mother took a lot of the following pictures, but said she didn't mind if I posted them. :)



My brothers making music around the campfire...


The following day found me needing to go to work again; Dad and Andrew needing to work on hay; and the rest went down to Eureka to work on getting ready for Grandpa's auction sale. They got much accomplished and we didn't have to go down again until the day of the sale!



That was a hard day for me as, while working at the nursing home, one of the residents suddenly passed away during supper. Rosa was 98 years old and was one of the residents I enjoyed visiting with in my spare time. She used to sing with her sister (she said they were privileged to have been able to have voice lessons, as there weren't many music teachers back then.) As I said, that was a hard day...



July 7th dawned bright and beautiful. Jacob and Hristiyan washed the car quick before they and our mothers headed for Bismarck for a full day of appointments, thrift-shopping, Sams' clubbing, and spending time at the library.

Also, while in town, they decided to all pitch in and buy me a very thoughtful present to cheer me up! Can you guess what it was?

Yes, they bought me 5 more fish for my aquarium! :) Wasn't that thoughtful of them?

Kristi, cheerfully washing dishes... :)

She helped in other ways too... Here Mom and Kristi are heading down to milk the goats.

By the time she left us, cousin Kristi had milking pretty much figured out...

We had plenty of kids for her to play with too...

Success!

The following day, Thursday, found all of us in the hayfield at one time or another. We ladies packed a picnic lunch and then enjoyed a quick meal in the shade of the van.

Left to right in the van are: Jacob (14), Hristiyan (11), and Andrew (19)

Kristi and I are on the blanket visiting...

The two youngest of our group had to go check out the bales for jumpability... :)

My dad and Andrew moved onto the next field, and Mother and Kristi had things to do at home, but Hristiyan wanted to stay with Jacob and I and help stack and move bales. He is in the truck here with Jacob, although for most of the day, I was the one in the truck, so he was with me. We played some guessing games and just visited. He wanted to learn how to drive the truck, so I taught him. He'd never driven a vehicle, let alone a stick-shift, so it was a lot to learn, but he did really well and kept asking through the day to drive for a while. What better place to learn than in the great outdoors--in the middle of a field, right? :) Hristiyan did ride with Jacob some of the time also, but the tractor cab isn't designed for 2 people to be in there and it wasn't very comfortable.

One of those evenings found Mother and Kristi on the swings... (It was getting dark already, so this picture didn't turn out the best, Kristi, but I know you'd want to see this anyway. :) )

Then, Kristi and I went for a wild merry-go-round ride. Weeeee.... Neither of us could walk straight by the time we were done!

Friday morning was sad, as it was time to say goodbye... My dad drove our cousins back up to Steele to meet Kristi's parents there again for the long trip back to WI.

It was great having you here, friends! Please come see us again sometime!