Memorial Weekend

Here we are, a week later and who still wants to hear about Memorial weekend?  With the craziness of last week and the internet being out, it's my first chance to really sit down and catch up about my life activities.

On Friday, the 22nd, M and I headed up after work to Isle, MN to M's parent's house where they have fun family and friends 3-day weekend get-togethers.   We arrived right around 7 pm.  A good group of people were already there but there would still be more arriving that night and the next day.  Our friends Tanya and Chris met us up there around 9:30 pm.  Friday night is usually a little low-key and most hang around the fire and enjoy some drinks.  The newest addition to the festivities is playing "Tippy Cup", a drinking game.  I don't even know what time I went to bed but the four of us and their dog Cosmo slept in the camper.  

The bonfire

Tanya and Chris

Part of the group relaxing by the fire

Playing Tippy Cup

Saturday: We woke up to a beautiful sunny day.  We rode our bicycles to the bar for breakfast. M and I considered it a dry run for Tanya and Chris as we would be riding our bikes on the same route later that night.  Once we got back, we walked around going to all the garage sales on the street as many Mille Lacs houses have one going on during this weekend.  M ended up buying a Vikings Ragnar doll for $1.  Since there are so many people that come and camp out on M's parent's property, there is a biffy on the side of the garage.  Tanya had really small pockets and when we went to the bathroom, her keys fell out right into the...well, you know.  She said she sat there for a second and almost reached in to get them.  After some wires and magnets that didn't work to retrieve them, M's Dad put a garbage bag over his arm and went get them...and was successful too!  After that ordeal, we headed into town to buy some food to grill later.  Tanya drove and her keys were still wet from washing them and we discovered  her alarm wasn't working properly.  There we sat in the grocery store parking lot with the alarm going off over and over again until Chris was able to dry them off enough to fix it.  We went on Greg and Kim's boat for early evening ride on Mille Lacs and then came back very hungry. We cooked up some brat patties and mixed up some drinks.  My drink of choice that night was UV Grape Vodka and Diet 7 Up.  I'm not a big drinker and all of you probably know that already but wow, I caught more than a buzz that night.  It's fun to do that every once in awhile.  We headed up to the bar on our bicycles, probably 20 of us in the dark streets around the lake.  There is hardly a car around so it's relatively safe but it definitely gets dark up there.  We drank, danced and some sang karaoke until we closed the bar down.  My lowlight of the night was when I walked out of the bathroom with toilet paper hanging out of my jeans.  I don't know how long it was there but I think M's niece got it off of me.  I was so embarrassed.  Enough for me to cry about it.  (Hey, I told you I had enough to drink, remember?)  Anyways, it was one of those funny things that totally made me feel embarrassed.  But a week or more has passed and I can laugh about it now.  I ended up going to sleep around 2:30 I think and didn't even wake up with a hangover.  Yay!

In the camper

Heading to breakfast

Lake Mille Lacs

Ragnar and Michael

Yuck!

Mission Accomplished

Cosmo drove us around for the afternoon

Dorks!

Out on Greg and Kim's boat

The start of Saturday night

Hopping on our bikes getting ready to go to the bar

Karaoke

Not really sure...I have no recollection of this guy

Brandon and Lisa, "Summer Lovin', had me a blast..."

If you look down Tanya's shirt, you might avoid seeing my "lazy" eyes!

There's those lazy eyes again.  I just must have been tired.

Michael and Tiana and Chad, his niece and nephew

Make your own caption for this one

Big Ray and Little Ray

Back from the bar...roasted corn and s'mores-What a great combination!

1 minute later...see?!  I was tired. :)

Sunday: We left M's parents around 12:45 pm to get home so we could go to a BBQ my parent's were having later in the afternoon.  I was so exhausted and was dragging through the day.  M didn't come with because he crashed soon after we got home.  He joined us later in the evening after a few hours of napping.  We had burgers and hot dogs, chips and tuna salad at my parents and hung around talking and having a fire.  

Another beautiful day!

My parents backyard

This is the fight I get when I try to take pictures of my nephew

I have to surprise him to take his picture

Keith helping his grandpa

Monday:  M and I went on the motorcycle to The Uptowner, a greasy spoon on Grand Avenue in St. Paul for lunch. The food was really good.  We then went to an appliance sale on the State Fair grounds.  We didn't really see much we were interested in.  It was mostly scratch and dent merchandise.  From there, we went to the cemetery where my grandparents are buried and visited them.  We went to Cherrie's cemetery after that.  I don't remember what we did for the rest of the day but it was a great, long weekend!