Zombies for Dessert

I realize that Halloween isn't a national holiday, but when it falls on a weekend day, shouldn't I have it off from work?  Nope, not today.  I was required to attend a meeting this evening from 6:00 to 7:30 P.M., and I went in ahead of time to do some grading and be "on call" in case I was needed to set up for the student presentations that were a part of the events.  While I was gone, Susan and the girls tended to the essential Halloween festivities.

Wanna know who these be-costumed beauties are?  Read on!

The Morey, the Merrier

Susan's uncle Frank and his son John are in town this weekend for hunting, so Susan's aunt and uncle Kathy and Pat invited all available members of the extended family to their house for supper and visiting.  Suzanna was out of town yesterday and today for a swim meet in Jamestown, but the rest of our family went over to Kathy and Pat's and enjoyed visiting and snacking (and our girls enjoyed playing with the little kids in the house: their third-cousins!) (and Suzanna got dropped off there when the swimmers returned to town, so she, too, got to see everyone).

Wanna see some photos?

Graduates and Graves

Today was graduation day for the local high schools. As a teacher at one of them, Susan attended its graduation ceremony in the afternoon. Our next-door neighbor Connor graduated from that school, so we went to his open house afterward and enjoyed delicious cake and watched a great video slideshow of photos of him, his family, and his friends throughout the years. We've known him for only four years, so it was interesting to see pictures of him as a little tyke. His younger sister is between Hillary and Abigail in age, so Connor is good with kids and has always been nice to our daughters (and whenever he sees Hillary, he says, "How's it going, Buddy?").

Connor with Abigail, Hillary ("Buddy"), and Suzanna

Later in the afternoon, Susan's cousin Robbie graduated from the parochial high school, and we went to his open house afterward. His parents just completed a remodeling project at their house, and the new kitchen and sunroom look great. Also, his mom laid out an impressive spread of food for everybody to eat; there was about ten times more food than needed, and that's exactly the approach that I'm used to from my upbringing--providing a huge feast for family get-togethers in the home (e.g., confirmations, graduations, birthday or anniversary parties, etc.). It was great to eat all the wonderful food and visit with relatives and play with all the little kids running around the house and yard.

Robbie with Abigail, Hillary, and Suzanna

Robbie with his proud parents, Terry (Susan's mom's brother) and Audrey

Terry and Audrey with their family: daughter Christie (behind Terry) and sons Brian (in the white), Michael (in the green), and Robbie (in the black). Christy and her husband Cody (behind Michael) have two kids: Matthew (behind Audrey) and Kate (in Christy's arms). Michael and his wife Lindsey (holding Matthew) have two kids: Cadence (in Michael's arms) and Madison (in Audrey's arms). Got that?!

We have planned a trip to the Tioga/McGregor/Battleview, ND area tomorrow to visit family members' graves for Memorial Day. Since we won't be here tomorrow, we made an early Memorial Day visit today to some of Susan's family members' graves here in town.

Abigail, Susan, Hillary, and Suzanna at the grave of Susan's mom Sue, who died 11 years ago. It wasn't easy for Susan to place flowers on her mom's grave and then go to a gathering of her mom's siblings and their extended family, imagining what it would be like to have her mom there.

Susan's maternal grandparents are buried in the same cemetery, so we visited their grave, too, and Susan shared fond memories of them (and of her mom) with the girls as we walked around and admired the pretty headstones and flowers. As Suzanna pointed out, cemeteries aren't really for the dead; they are for the living so that we can remember our departed loved ones, pay our respects, and recall stories about them to keep them "alive" in our minds and hearts. Wise young girl.

Morey Christmastime Get-Together

Susan's aunt and uncle Kathy and Pat are s' good to host the extended family at their lakeside home for special occasions, including holidays. They did so again tonight so that everyone could get together and see the out-of-state relatives who are here for Christmas visits: Susan's aunt Jake, her daughter Kelli, and Kelli's daughter Kynnedi; and Susan's sister Cassie, Cassie's husband Nick, and their son Davis.

There was a lot of terrific food (sausage and dumpling soup, cheese and broccoli dip with corn chips, crab dip with crackers, shrimp with cocktail sauce, crudités, and "holiday baking" galore) and conversation . . . and noise! There were LOTS of little kids running around--very fun! Here are some photographic highlights:

Morey great-grandchildren! Trae (sitting with his daddy Todd), Hillary holding Davis, Abigail holding Kynnedi, Kaden, Suzanna holding Kylan, and Jordan (sitting with his mommy Laura)

Kathy's daughter Tina's son Kylan (with his mommy)

Kathy's son Todd's son Trae (with his mommy Trista)

Susan's aunt Mary's daughter Laura's son Kaden

Laura's other son Jordan

Jake's daughter Kelli's daughter Kynnedi

Susan's mom Sue's daughter Cassie's son Davis (with me)

Nick and Cassie, the parents of Davis

Cassie and Kelli, cousins and best friends

Nick and his son Davis

Spooky in Southwest ND

Whew! I'm exhausted. Our Halloween was chock-full of activity. This morning I got some work done for school, and Susan got some work done for church (as Sunday school director, she was in charge of setting up for one of this afternoon's events at church; more on that in a bit). Then we joined the university president and his wife for a brunch at the Student Center on campus: an indoor tailgating event before the football game in the afternoon. Mrs. McCallum has been arranging these events throughout the fall and inviting various groups of people to each one to mingle with one another, visit with her and her husband, and enjoy the goodwill, school spirit, and delicious food. Early in the week before each pre-football brunch, she invites various people to taste-test all the menu items that she's considering for that weekend, and I was invited to one of those brunches to sample and recommend (remember?). Now, a few weeks later, I got invited to the weekend event itself!

Some other university faculty and staff were there, too, as were selected members of the community. We enjoyed visiting, of course, and Susan found the president and his wife to be very hospitable; but mostly we were all about the food. We started with appetizers: smoked salmon on garlic toast rounds with all the fixin's for lox (cream cheese, capers, red onions); quesadillas and salsa; sweet-'n'-sour meatballs; and deep-fried chicken nuggets and ranch dressing. Then the buffet line: pasta salad; potato salad; a variety of cheeses with a variety of crackers; bread bowls to fill with our choice of beef stew, cream of broccoli soup, or hearty chicken noodle soup; two egg bakes, one with meat and one vegetarian; and sour-dough buns, mustard, and mayo to make sandwiches out of the garlic-crusted roast beef and roast pork that was being sliced at the end of the buffet line. Then dessert: frosted sugar cookies decorated like pumpkins; slices of dessert breads (banana bread, cranberry bread, etc.); a huge slices of cheese cake. It was just delicious.

Then we headed home so that Susan could help the girls with their costumes. Our church has a "fall festival" each Halloween to which children come in their costumes and eat snacks and play games that are more Bible-themed and less monster-themed. Arranging that is one of Susan's duties as Sunday school director, so in addition to getting games and supplies and food ready over the past few days and this morning, she also had to be at church before the festival began to set up and had to stay late to clean up. So I took the girls to church when it was time and snapped some pics of them in their costumes there:

Suzanna dressed up as a grandma. She borrowed the walker from a friend, donned sensible hose and an '80s dress (complete with shoulder pads), packed her purse with facial tissue and cough drops (I suggested that she toss in some Bengay and a plastic rain bonnet, too), attached an eyeglasses chain to her spectacles, and wore curlers to bed last night and sprayed her hair gray today. She shuffled around a lot and used a pinched voice to give the other children grandmotherly lectures about not eating so much candy, being careful with their costumes pieces (e.g., "You could put an eye out with that sword"), and so on. Yep, she was truly "in character."

Abigail dressed up as a professional dancer from Dancing with the Stars, which we enjoy watching as a family and on which Abigail enjoys daydreaming about appearing someday. The pink jazz dress is from a past dance recital; it has glittery beads all over it. She matched it with glittery silver shoes that she bought for a quarter at a rummage sale last summer. (The white tights and long white sleeves aren't realistic considering all the skin shown by the professional dancers on the TV show, but they're more sensible for trick-or-treating in ND.) She wore curlers to bed, too, last night and had Mommy fix her hair in a super-fancy 'do. Her glamorous makeup includes glitter on her face and in her hair. I suppose that she was "in character," too, striking a pose at the drop of a hat, spinning around in impromptu dance routines, etc.--but that's really just Abigail, Halloween costume or not.

Hillary dressed up as a queen bee. She, too, made use of an old dance recital dress, pairing it with outdoor-trick-or-treat-friendly black tights and a long-sleeved shirt for the black-and-yellow bumblebee look. The fairy wings suggest bee wings, and the tiara (pink feathers and all) suggests her royalty. Thus, people who guessed that she was a fairy were first corrected that she was a queen bee; and then when they nodded and said something like, "Oh, yes, I see it now: a bumblebee!" they were again corrected: not just "a bee" but "the queen bee." Yep, Hillary, too, was both "in character" and perfectly herself.

Susan got in the spirit, too, donning kitty-cat ears and a tail (which she's holding in her left hand) for her afternoon with the children at the fall festival.

At the end of the fall festival, I took the girls and one of their friends around town to trick-or-treat. We hit the houses of their school teachers. Then we went to "Malloween" at the Prairie Hills Mall. Almost every store had employees in Halloween costumes sitting out front with buckets of candy so that children in their own costumes could go from store to store trick-or-treating indoors. It's ideal if you have little kids whom it's a hassle to haul around town; if the weather is cold; or if you like seeing other kids' costumes because they're all on parade as the kids tromp from store to store throughout the mall.

Then we went to "Treat Street" held at Days Hotel Grand Dakota Lodge and Convention Center. Various businesses rent suites there and decorate them according to various themes, stocking them with in-costume people to hand out candy and hide in the dark corners of the rooms and leap out screaming to scare the trick-or-treaters! The line just to get in snaked out the lobby doors, down the parking lot, and around two sides of the building! Thanks goodness the weather was just beautiful--no coats necessary. Inside there were lots of awesomely spooky lights and lit-up monsters and eerie music, and there were cobwebs and black lights and scratchy streamers and mummies and all sorts of creepy stuff in the hallways and each room. Hillary held onto my hand pretty tightly; and people in some of the rooms, seeing a young child entering, called out to their cohorts not to scare our group. When one monster leaped out of the darkness to scare Suzanna, she turned to him and, in character, held out a finger and said, "Stop that!" And he did! Hilarious.

Then we dropped off the girls' friend at her home and went trick-or-treating at our relatives' homes. Susan's uncle Terry and aunt Audrey were at their son Robbie's high school football game, but their daughter Christy happened to be at the house with her kids to let us in and give the girls some candy. We stopped at Susan's other in-town cousins' homes, too, but they must have been out and about with their own kids. We found Susan's aunt Mary and uncle Dale at home and made that our last stop before parking at home and hitting the streets to canvas our own neighborhood. One neighbor across the street always has special treat packages ready for the girls, and we made sure to stop at the homes of all the other neighbors whose lights were still on--including Chuck and Reba's house with its fog machine on the front step going off intermittently and creating an eerie haze on the block!

We didn't get home and sit down to eat supper until about 8:00 P.M.! We were very hungry for the mummies (hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls and baked), the bones in gore (French fries covered in chili and cheese), and the buttered bug eyes (green peas) that Susan had prepared. She had also roasted the pumpkin seeds from Thursday night's jack-o'-lantern carving spree. Once the traffic at our front door had stopped, we went for a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the beautiful weather and work off some of the calories from all the Halloween candy. Tonight: the girls and I are having a slumber party in the family room. (I have been spooking them with stories about all the goblins that are out tonight, so none of them wants to spend the night in her own room, wondering what this or that noise outdoors actually is.) After about six hours of trick-or-treating, they're ready to sleep . . . and so am I.

Susan's cousin Todd and his wife Trista stopped by with their son Trae in his cowboy gear, and Susan just had to snap a picture for us to see once we returned. Howdy, pardner!

Remember the girls' pumpkin carving the other night? Here's what the jack-o'-lanterns looked like tonight on our front step. Spooky, no?

Moreys: The Next Generation

Susan's aunt Jake and her kids are in town this weekend from CO, so Susan's aunt Kathy invited all the Moreys over for supper tonight. Susan, the girls, and I were there to eat up the sausage/dumplings/peas and to visit with the relatives:

• Kathy, her daughter Tina, and Tina's son Kylan
• Susan's aunt Mary and uncle Dale
• Susan's uncle Terry and aunt Audrey, their son Brian, and their son Mike and his wife Lindsey and their daughters Cadence and Madison
• Jake, her son Jon, and her daughter Kelli and her daughter Kynnedi

Family get-togethers are so awesome, and Kathy and Pat have a great house for accommodating everybody for such events. I got to hold the sweet little babies and play with Cadence, who took a little while to warm up, but who became my buddy over the course of 43 or 44 consecutive times putting together and then taking apart the same 12-piece wooden puzzle at the dining room table. The girls enjoyed playing with all their cute second-cousins, too. Wanna see the cuties?

Mike and Lindsey's older daugher Cadence concentrates on the puzzle.

Mike and Lindsey's younger daughter Madison models her adorable outer wear, perfect for an autumn evening.

Tina and Craig's son Kylan takes a break from playing with the girls.

Kelli and J.J.'s daughter Kynnedi smiles all the time! What a happy baby.

Davis Meets His Uncle Kevin (and Attends a Wedding)

Quick review:

1. In March Susan's sister Cassie and her husband Nick had a baby, whom they named Davis.
2. Susan and Cassie's cousin Traci invited us all to her wedding held just last weekend in Fargo.
3. Cassie and Nick planned to travel to Fargo from their home in SC so that they could attend the wedding and let the extended family meet Davis.
4. Because Nick's parents live not far from Fargo (Detroit Lakes, MN), Nick and Cassie arranged to arrive in Fargo a week early and spend that extra time at Nick's parents' lake home before the weekend of the wedding.
5. Cassie, Nick, and Nick's parents invited Cassie's family (Susan and Cassie's brother Jerrett, their dad Roger, and us) to the lake home for the week, too, for some extra time with Davis (and with Cassie and Nick, of course).

You probably knew that already from this, didn't you? You have figured out, then, that although Susan and our daughters spent the week at Detroit Lakes, I stayed behind in Dickinson. I had to work, attending workshops and meetings in preparation for the start of the fall semester at the university. However, as soon as I could leave work on Friday (August 21), I drove myself to Fargo and headed for the hotel where all the relatives were staying for Traci's wedding. So I missed out on time at the lake, but I knew that I would see Cassie, Nick, and Davis in Fargo instead--not to mention all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins' kids who gathered there for Traci's wedding.

It was very much past Davis' bedtime by the time I arrived in Fargo, so I didn't get to meet him until the next day. Our daughters were swimming Saturday (August 22) morning, and Susan and I were sitting poolside when Nick came in carrying Davis toward me. The moment I had been waiting for had arrived . . . and then Susan's aunt Audrey intercepted him! Dang it! I played with Davis' toes and talked to him as he sat on Audrey's lap, and Nick sat on Audrey's other side realizing that we had both been foiled. Then suddenly Nick got up and, without saying a word, picked Davis up out of Audrey's lap, walked around her, handed him to me, and then walked out of the pool area, leaving me to get to know my new nephew. Yay!

Davis is a great little guy--good-natured, not at all fussy, friendly, quick to smile, comfortable with strangers (or perhaps he could sense that I was his relative when he first came to me), cute as a button, cuddly . . . in short, he's so much like me that it was like looking in a mirror. (Ahem.)

Traci and Tori's wedding was at Gooseberry Mound Park in Moorhead, MN on Saturday afternoon. The weather was just perfect, and the park provided a beautiful setting for the ceremony. In this photo, the ring bearer is coming down the aisle. Nope, neither of the boys is the ring bearer; it's the dog! Not even kidding.

Traci's parents Pat and Kathy escorted her down the aisle. Kathy is Susan's mom Sue's sister.

After the ceremony, we all walked to another area of the park for supper: salads and barbecued meat sandwiches and cupcakes and sodas under a picnic shelter near a pretty fun play area for kids . . . something for everybody! Susan asked the girls and me to pose at one of the statues in the park.

The wedding dance was in the Fargo Civic Center just across the street from our hotel. Here are Tori and Traci having a first dance as a married couple. Awww! Suzanna had a neat opportunity after we returned to the hotel from the dance: she got to babysit Davis and another baby (Susan's cousin Kelli's new baby)! Cassie and Kelli got their babies to sleep and laid them down in Cassie and Nick's room, and Suzanna slept in there with the babes while Cassie and Kelli rejoined the festivities across the street. Suzanna was so honored to be asked to babysit!

The next day (Sunday, August 23) we helped get Cassie, Nick, and Davis to the airport for their return flight to SC. Before we were overcome with tears, we had to have some final photos. I love this one of Davis. We're going to miss you, Davis, until we get to see your cute little face again!

Little guy loves Aunt Susan! (Und ze feelink iz mutual, dahlink!)

Nick, Cassie, Davis, Susan, Hillary, Suzanna, me, and Abigail

At some point between my ladies' departure from Dickinson and my reunion with them in Fargo, they had acquired a large amount of extra cargo that wouldn't all fit in their vehicle (they had gone back-to-school shopping). Good thing I had the Explorer so that we could get all their purchases and their clothes back home! Susan and I both had to be at work the next morning (Monday, August 24), so we all crawled into bed at a pretty reasonable hour and left the unpacked Target bags and baskets full of dirty laundry to be dealt with in the next few days. It was great to see all the relatives at the wedding but most especially wonderful finally to meet Davis! Good job, Cassie and Nick. Keep up the excellent work.

P.S. The hotel where we all stayed for Traci and Tori's wedding just happens to be the same hotel at which Susan and I lived for a few months following The Flood of '97! The bank at which Susan worked back then relocated many of its Grand Forks staff to its Fargo office and housed them in that hotel until they were able to get back into their homes and return to some version of normalcy in Grand Forks. It was while we were living at that hotel, as a matter of fact, that we learned that Susan was pregnant with Suzanna!

Ladies' Week Out

Today's guest blogger is Susan:

The girls and I got up on Monday morning in time to have breakfast with Kevin before he and Sandy took Cathy to the airport and headed for Dickinson. The girls wanted a little more time to enjoy the hotel pool, so I let them swim for an hour after breakfast. While they showered, I packed, then we said our goodbyes to any relatives we found in the breakfast area of the hotel, checked out, and made our way to Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. I have many fond memories of Como Park Zoo: it wasn't terribly far from where my cousins lived, so we'd generally manage to work in a stop there when we came to St. Paul for a visit. My grandma LOVED the Conservatory, so no trip to The Cities was complete for her unless she got to go see the flowers.

Now, my cousin Anna works at the zoo, so we got to take advantage of her expertise for a while. We wandered through the primate exhibit (and came back past it several times--the girls were fascinated with the gorillas in the outside exhibit) then headed to meet up with Anna. She gave us a guided tour through the Tropical exhibit--the first exhibit at the Como Park Zoo to incorporate the skill of the gardeners and the zookeepers, and home to some very interesting animals. (If you'd like an explanation on the difference between "poisonous" and "venomous," just ask any one of our daughters.) Anna had to work for a while, so she gave us some suggestions for our next stops, and we made a plan to meet again later.

We got to see the new baby giraffe, a sea lion, tigers, lions, zebra--animals one would expect to see at a zoo. When it was time to meet Anna again, she took us into one of the zoo's classrooms, where she had a surprise for the girls. Anna was able to introduce us to Steffano, a two-toed sloth, and Turkey, an African parrot. We didn't get to hold or touch the animals--they are not tame--but we learned a lot about both animals. Turkey didn't like sharing the girls' attention with Steffano, so he'd whistle or talk to get their attention whenever they turned to watch the sloth. When the girls stopped watching Steffano in favor of watching Turkey, then the sloth would start making his way down his perch towards the floor--knowing that he wasn't supposed to get down, and therefore Anna would come over to entice him back up the tree with grapes or apples. This would upset Turkey, who would then try to get the attention back. After our session with the animals, we got to go out on a balcony that overlooks the tropical exhibit to get a view of it all from above. I've always loved visits to the zoo--and it was even more fun with Anna's help.

That sloth has some mighty luxurious hair!

We said goodbye to Anna because she had to go greet a batch of campers (yes, you can attend camp at the zoo!), and then we went out to finish seeing what we'd missed. After a quick lunch, we walked through the Conservatory (the flowers were BEAUTIFUL--Grandma would have loved it!) and the Japanese Garden, made a quick trip through the butterfly exhibit, rode ONE ride in the amusement park, and then made an uneventful drive back to ND and then back across the river to East Grand Forks.

The girls are s' good to pose while frolicking in the conservatory.

We stayed with the Almlies and had a great time. Erin and I spent all day on Tuesday scrapbooking--all-day scrapping fests were the norm when we lived in EGF, and I've missed spending that time with her. Tuesday night, Gabriel was playing an evening baseball game for "Parents' Night," so we all tagged along to watch. After the game, Jay took all of the kids back home (thank you, Jay!) while Erin and I got pedicures and did a little shopping. We picked up Nicole and headed to the Blue Moose for spinach queso and Long Island teas. Erin and I managed to stay up for a while after we got home for a bit more scrapbooking after we got all of the kids in bed.

That's Gabriel looking over his shoulder at the camera--cute!

Can you tell which foot is Erin's and which is Susan's?

Wednesday started off with a run/bike ride along the river. I hadn't ever been on the "wet" side of the dike, and the city has done a nice job of building a network of paths that take advantage of the lovely river view. In the afternoon, we met the Langeruds at the swimming pool. The kids had lots of fun on the slide and diving boards, Suzanna got reacquainted with a friend from elementary school whom she hadn't seen/talked to since we moved, and the adults even took a quick dip in the pool to cool off! After a yummy supper of barbequed ribs, asparagus, potato salad, and watermelon with the Almlies and Langeruds, we headed to Jay and Erin's volleyball game. They play on a sand volleyball team with the Jungs, and it was fun to see them in action. They play at a park where there are several sand volleyball pits and a large playground, so the kids were able to go back and forth between the game and the playground. In the end our friends were victorious! After the game, everyone came back to the Almlies for a fire in the fire pit and birthday cake for Michael (one of their team mates whom I just met that night).

Nicole and her daugher Mya were among the swimmers at the pool.

Erin serves while Jay checks out her backside--I mean, stands at the ready to help his team win.

Rob and Laurie confer while waiting for the ball--probably high-level strategizing about plays and such.

Thursday morning started out a bit rainy, which was a little disappointing because the girls and I had plans to meet Cathy Spicer at Caribou Coffee and then to head to a park for playing/visiting. Instead, we visited at the coffee shop, and by the time we were ready to leave, the sun was coming out for the day. Cathy was in Grand Forks to visit her mom, and she brought along Zoe, one of her fur babies. The girls enjoyed meeting Zoe, and we'd never seen a cat on a leash before!

Abigail, Cathy, Hillary, and Suzanna

After saying goodbye to Cathy and Zoe, we headed for Fargo. Hillary received a Target gift card for her birthday from Cheryl and Arron and HAD to find something to spend it on. I HAD to make a stop at Hobby Lobby (my new obsession = knitting, remember?), and then we were hungry so we had to stop at Qdoba, which is a place we enjoy but don't get to visit often. We our errands complete and our tummies full, we turned the van towards home. One quick stop in Bismarck to use the restroom and get gasoline, and we were home in time for supper, which Kevin was preparing as we arrived. It was a very relaxing vacation; visiting with friends is always enjoyable but too short, but it was really nice to be home!

P.S. Susan hadn't read or listened to the news to know about Wednesday night's tornadoes here in Dickinson, so the ladies were surprised to hear about it on the radio as they drove into town.