Adventures of Luck of a Fool: July 7-14, 2016 Aberdeen, SD and family reunion

Thursday, July 7
Dave and I headed to Aberdeen, SD after Alice made us a great breakfast. We made it to my sister’s by 5:30, Janice and Jim Moore. Our great niece and nephew, Claire and Garrett Crawford, surprised us there and spent the night. They LOVE their uncle Dave. OK, their aunt Mary is fun, too, but not like Dave.

Janice cleaning us up before the reunion

Now do you see why they love their uncle Dave?

Friday July 8
We all went to the R & R Pheasant Lodge for our family reunion. Garrett and Claire rode with us, and we planned a play to perform for everyone at the reunion. Since we started the idea the night before, we raided Janice’s costume closet before leaving Aberdeen.

After dinner, the Reunion Players performed “The Pirates of the Mermaid Sea”. Dave narrated the entire play, so we didn’t have to learn lines. But we could interject lines at any time. Garrett, Janice and I were pirates. The three of us started the play fishing off of our ship (a balcony in the lodge). Garrett caught a sea monster, my sister Beverly. She drug him down into the sea (down the open stairway). Then Claire, the mermaid princess, saved him and gave him magic powers to breathe underwater. Janice and I became part of the mermaid family and we all loved having the Garrett the pirate with us. But he missed his home and wanted to go back to the land. The mermaid princess was so upset that she threw herself onto the rocks to die (the stairway). But the pirate prince saved her. He started a sea water spa store so she could live with him in the the spa (she was behind a bar in the lodge with her arms up over the bar like the sides of a hot tub). Janice and I became customers looking at the spas. Then up out of the spa came the sea monster to attack the mermaid princess. This is where Dave was supposed to announce “to be continued at the next family reunion”. But Bev knocked 2 coffee cups off the bar and they shattered on the floor. After the shock by everyone, he made his announcement. I guess we “ended with a bang”. We think it went over pretty good. Everyone was very gracious with their applause.
Shortly after the play, our son, Pete arrived from Rapid City. He gave us a mini concert with his guitar and singing. Great evening!

Beverly, Garrett, Claire

Mary, Janice and the Sea Monster, Beverly

my generation of first cousin Shaefers present

Saturday, July 9
Today, some of the family went to the farm of our cousins, Ken and Pam Schaefer. They live on the farm of my grandparents, in the house where my mother grew up. They have made their home and yard into a museum with antiques. Pete and I took a side trip to the town of Polo to visit the cemetery. He was able to see the graves of my grandparents and great grandparents. He seemed to appreciate it more now than when he was 6 years old.

my siblings at my grandparent's house

Don, Janice, Beverly, Jerry in front and Me in back

Mary and son, Pete

Dave, Claire, Janice, Pete

Sunday, July 10
Pete had to go back to Rapid City and we were heading back to Aberdeen, SD. So we spent the morning visiting after everyone else left before we went our separate ways. Back in Aberdeen, we had a great ribeye steak dinner, my usual in Aberdeen. But we missed our BBQ chef, Jim. He went to Montana on his motorcycle with our nephew Glen Crawford. So we will have a “sister’s week” in Aberdeen.

Monday July 11-14 Aberdeen
We had a great week together in Aberdeen. Dave went back to MN to see his family again before heading back to the boat in GA.
My friend, Nancy Sundstrom, from Groton, SD stopped at Janice’s to visit in the afternoon. We’ve been friends since 1974.
We looked through Janice’s baby photo album to share some baby pictures with our niece. Katie Zeller Murphy had a baby girl in February. We thought we could see some resemblances.
We spent more time with our niece, Heidi and her children, Garrett and Claire. (Remember her husband Glen was in Montana with Jim.)
We enjoyed our “chick flicks”, playing triominoes, and visiting over adult beverages. Great week together!