Aune Family Reunion 2018

My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Aune. She and two of her sisters all had large families, meaning my dad had a lot of cousins on the Aune side, and I have a lot of second cousins, and my kids have a lot of third cousins!

Every since 1997, our Aune family members have been gathering for reunions every four years or so, each time a different branch of the family taking a turn to serve as hosts. The Wilsons (my grandma's sister Bea and her family) hosted the first one, followed by the Clarks (my grandma's sister June and her family), and then by the Mobergs (my grandma Olga and her family).

Up until this weekend, each family except the Mobergs had hosted two reunions--so it was our turn to step up and get the Aunes together again. And we chose to do it in Medora, ND! It doesn't have a particular meaning to our family--it's just a great tourism spot where we could do fun activities together in addition to visiting and eating.

Everybody got a bright green T-shirt to wear so that we could be identified as a group while out and about in Medora all weekend. On the front is this image of Yggdrasil, the tree of life from Norse mythology (the Aunes are a very Scandinavian bunch). At the trunk are my great-grandparents; and in the branches are my grandma and her siblings.

The Aunes are not particularly ranch-y/cowboy-ish people, although there are plenty of farmers and ranchers among us. This just seemed like a fitting image for the back of the T-shirts, considering the distinctive Old West flavor of Medora.

And here are a bunch of Aunes (in the bright green T-shirts) seated in the Burning Hills Amphitheater Friday evening, awaiting the start of the Medora Musical, our first reunion activity of the weekend. Just over 100 Aunes were able to attend the reunion festivities.

It just so happens that "family reunion" was a theme of this year's Medora Musical! How fitting.

Most of our activities yesterday and today were held in the Medora Community Center. Saturday started with early-morning golf at the acclaimed Bully Pulpit Golf Course before meeting at the community center for dinner at noon. In the afternoon, we had a scavenger hunt around town, requiring us to look for objects that had been hidden at various spots outdoors as well as for items on the shelves and walls of various shops around town. In the evening, we had supper at the community center followed by entertainment and games.

None of my grandma's generation are alive anymore. But here are "the Aune cousins": my dad (seated) and the other members of his generation who were able to attend. Three of my grandma Olga's children are still living: Alden (in the purple shirt), Rose (in the white sweater), and Arlo (my dad). Four of my great-aunt June's children attended: JoAnn (seated), Vickie (behind JoAnn), John (in the yellow hat), and Jay (next to John). None of my great-aunt Bea's children were able to attend this year.

Saturday night's entertainment included some games, such as competitive Nordic cross-country skiing (on felt-bottomed skis from one side of the community center to the other). Here are Hillary, Suzanna, and Abigail warming up to beat the team of Clarks getting ready behind them.

This morning some Aunes returned to the golf course before we all gathered for brunch in the community center and then said our goodbyes. And now we look forward to the next reunion!

Bible Campers

At church today, Suzanna was taking "worship notes" (about the church service; it's required as part of her confirmation class work) and came to a question about what was notable during the past week.  She wrote something to the effect of, "I went to Badlands Ministries for Bible camp and left my voice there."  Yep, she came back hoarse from a week at Bible camp.

Which reminds me that I haven't written about the girls' week at Bible camp!

Two Holidays for the Price of One

Faithful Reader, you will recall that we spent Father's Day in a vehicle driving home from Missoula, MT--almost 12 hours, what with stops for food and gasoline and restroom breaks.  I got some great gifts in the morning and enjoyed spending the entire day with my four blondes, but we didn't find a day's worth of driving to be an especially fun thing to do for Father's Day.  So we had a "re-do" today!

Norske Stew

It was a pretty quiet house for most of the day. Susan and the girls went to Badlands Ministries south of Medora for its Fall Family Day . . . and left me behind! Some family event, huh? No, really, that was at my request so that I could catch up on some work. While they were painting pumpkins and roasting hot dogs and singing songs and having a worship service, I was at the computer and then at the grocery store and then at the stove. Yes, it was time for another Scandinavian Saturday, and today I was on my own in the kitchen.

It has been cold and windy and rainy the last several days, and today was chilly and overcast. I decided it was a good day for lapskaus ["stew"]. We had lapskaus at Norwegian camp this past summer (remember?), so I recalled generally what should go into it. I also found several recipes online and in a Scandinavian cookbook that I have. I took the best from each and made up my own recipe! When the ladies returned home, they reported that the smell in the house was heavenly--and I must admit: it did smell good. Here's what I served for supper:


It's always a Scandinavian touch to serve fish, so here in the bowl is shrimp-'n'-crab salad sprinkled with Danish bleu cheese. We ate it as an appetizer on celery sticks and rye knekkebrød ["crispbread" or hardtack]. And those are my mom's dill pickles in the bowl on the plate.


The lapskaus was an enormous hit. I fried pepper-bacon and onions to which I added chicken, pork, more onions, leeks, garlic, celery, carrots, rutabaga, and potatoes. I added seasonings and fresh thyme and bay leaves and turkey stock and then let it sit on the burner for a long time to stew. It's safe to say that I made enough to have plenty for leftovers; I filled a 1.5-gallon container with what remained after we gobbled up our supper portions! But it's so good that I'm already looking forward to having it again for dinner tomorrow.


For dessert I sliced some fresh strawberries and macerated them in sugar and kirschwasser (a German cherry brandy). I whipped some cream with sugar and vanilla extract and served slices of angel food cake covered in the fluffy whipped cream over which we spooned the strawberries. It was my version of bløtkake ["cream cake"], which really should have several layers with whipped cream and fruit between them . . . and then over the whole thing. But this was a delicious substitute nevertheless.

No Cooking for Us Today!

Immediately after church this morning, we zipped out to the vehicle and jetted off to Medora, braving the ridonculously strong winds while maintaining a brisk pace because we had to get the girls to the Medora Community Center on time for them to sing. Badlands Ministries, which runs the summer Bible camps that our girls attend (remember?) at its site on the Little Missouri River south of Medora, holds an annual fundraiser dinner and auction each fall preceded by a community church service. The camp director asked the children's choir from our church to sing at this year's service, so we had to get the girls (and a couple other kids whom we gave a ride) there straightaway after Sunday school.

There were a few choir members who didn't make it, but the small group did a fine job. The music overall was terrific. The pianist played every hymn at an appropriately vibrant tempo (not the funereal dirge-like tempo preferred by so many church organists); and for her prelude and postlude, she played "old time" hymns and religious songs from memory, rolling her nimble fingers up and down the keyboard in dramatic glissandi and arpeggios that made me think she would be an ideal addition to an office party, stationed at an upright piano in the corner with a brandy snifter on top stuffed with greenbacks from appreciative partygoers.

Can you spot the Mobergs? (Hint: They're blondes.)

After church we got in line for the dinner that followed, admiring the Community Center's facilities as we waited (and thinking more and more that Medora might just make for an idea site for a family reunion the next time that it's our branch's turn to host--family, whaddya think?). We entered the de Mores Hall to enjoy chicken made by the men of First Lutheran Church in Beach. It was served with potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, buns, and ice cream cups for dessert. We were greasy-fingered and -faced little piggies, but it was a delicious meal. We didn't stay for the fundraising auction that followed, though, because we had to get back to Dickinson for our next meal--I mean, event.

Our Sons of Norway lodge served its annual lutefisk ["lye fish"] supper this afternoon/evening at the Elks Lodge in Dickinson. Faithful readers will recall that our attending last year's lutefisk supper is what prompted me to sign our family up for membership in the Sons of Norway (remember?). So this marks one year of membership for the Mobergs! I don't know how we got out of having to do any duties at this year's supper (e.g., serving, cleaning, refilling beverages), but we did.

However, Susan and the girls did volunteer to be part of the cultural skills demonstrations done at the membership booth throughout the event (so that attendees could see some of the cultural skills taught by the lodge and perhaps be enticed to sign up for membership themselves). At Norwegian camp this past summer (remember?), Susan and Suzanna learned to knit, and they have attended weekly cultural skills meetings ever since at which they learn new knitting skills progressively from a mentor (one of our lodge members who is truly multi-talented). Hillary and Abigail have attended those meetings intermittently, so they, too, know the basics of knitting.

Susan, however, has achieved special recognition for her knitting abilities. The Sons of Norway has a Cultural Skills Program with guidelines for how to demonstrate competency in several areas of Norwegian culture (e.g., cooking, needlework, woodwork, music), and Susan earned a pin for showing that she can do the knitting skills required for Level 1 of the Hand Knitting category (remember the afghan that she knitted for our nephew Davis?).

The round metal pin (made to look as though it has been rosemaled) is the indicator of participation in the Cultural Skills Program. Each cultural area has its own bar, and you see that Susan has one now for "Knitting." Under that is a bar indicating the level of achievement for that cultural skill, so under "Knitting" is a bar with one white line for Level 1. When she reaches Level 2, she will get another bar that has two white lines on it. Should she try another cultural area, she will get a bar with the name of that cultural skill on it and start hanging level bars underneath it; but they will all hang from this one round metal pin, forming perhaps a rather lengthy column of metal hanging from Susan's chest someday!

So the Moberg ladies spent some time at the membership booth, their knitting needles click-clacking away while patrons came in to eat lutefisk. When their time at the booth was up, we went in to eat. Before last year's supper, the girls had never eaten lutefisk, and Susan and I took perverse delight in keeping them in the dark and letting them experience "eating lutefisk" for themselves without any preconceptions to color their reactions. It was priceless (remember?). However, there can be only one "first time" with lutefisk, and the girls went in today knowing full well what they were in for.

They were willing to fulfill their ethnic duty to take some lutefisk along with the other items being served, but they were not about to repeat last year's mistake of assuming that lutefisk was real fish and, thus, leaving it for last to "enjoy" after all the potatoes and meatballs were already gone from their plates. This year they screwed their courage to the sticking place and faced the lutefisk head-on right away, pushing it down into their cups of melted butter to soak while they buttered their lefse. After a few minutes of marination, out came the lutefisk and into their mouths and down their hatches, and they were done and ready to start the real meal of cooked vegetables, boiled potatoes, meatballs and gravy, lefse, pickles and crudités, and riskrem ["rice cream"].

Cooked peas and carrots, boiled potatoes, meatballs in gravy, and . . . lutefisk!!

You know, it doesn't really look all that gross here, does it? Until you have to dig into that heap of gelatinous blobs and try to get some portion to stop wobbling long enough to stay on the spoon and then transport it precariously to your plate and find a spot to set it and watch it start to decompose and ooze into the nooks and crannies of your other food items, spreading like goo instead of sitting where you put it as a real chunk of fish ought to. That's when you know that something just ain't right about lutefisk.

Guess what Suzanna has stuffed into her cheeks?!

Their riskrem looks pretty good, but it really wasn't. We have had good riskrem (remember?), and this did not compare. The rice was undercooked, and the cream did not seem real. It was a nice thought, though. And the lefse was truly delicious (made just two days earlier by members of our lodge)!!

It was a busy day, but it was busy with fun activities. And we had two meals that others cooked for us, so we felt very pampered!

Restaurant Makes Headlines After Mobergs Dine There

Remember our having dined at Theodore's, the Rough Riders Hotel's restaurant last Sunday? The Dickinson Press today features an article on the hotel's remodeling (and expansion--adding a convention center) project. Check it out!

End-of-Summer Jaunt to Medora

After church today, it was too early to go out for dinner, yet the girls were dropping unsubtle hints (e.g., "I wonder if [insert name of restaurant here] is open today") that showed they were just as in the mood to go out to eat as I was. So, without responding to their hints or revealing my plan, I took them on a drive that would pass some time, show us some sights, and put us at a restaurant right around dinnertime.

Highway 10 connects Dickinson to South Heart to Belfield with a hilly, winding, scenic route roughly parallel to Interstate 94. I pulled over a few times to snap some pics, listen to the wind's rustling of the crops and tree leaves, and smell the terrific scents of prairie flowers and wild grasses carried upon the hot, persistent wind.

West of Belfield, we turned south off Highway 10 to drive into Fryburg, a sleepy town of just a few streets--not all of them paved--and perhaps an equal number of houses. On the south edge of town sits an elementary school that closed nine years ago but whose gym is still used for sports events by Billings County Public Schools. (Interesting tidbit: The production crew for the movie Wooly Boys--starring Keith Carradine, Peter Fonda, and Kris Kristofferson--used the school as production headquarters and built a set in the gymnasium during filming of portions of the movie!) We turned around and went north again out of Fryburg to get onto Interstate 94 and drive west into Medora.

In the middle of a cluster of trees just north of Fryburg is this curving path, which just looks so inviting! But I think it's private property, so we looked but didn't touch.

Here's the view of Medora from the highway that leads into town from the north (after exiting south off the Interstate). Can you see the rooftops in the center of the photo? How awesome it must be to have the surrounding Badlands as one's view whenever one leaves the house!

Once in Medora, we ate dinner at Theodore's, the restaurant in the Rough Rider Hotel. It has undergone extensive renovations since the last time we ate there (for Father's Day last year) and looks just awesome with dark stain on the wood trim, a patterned tin ceiling, stained glass windows, a big brick fireplace, light fixtures designed to suggest the 1800s but clearly new, rich carpet, beautiful tile in the restrooms . . . oh, and the food is good, too (we had bison hamburger, turkey press sandwich, hot pastrami, and grilled chicken fettucine alfredo). The Rough Rider Hotel redid the dining room after last summer and is currently building an attached convention center. Take a moment to read a brief history of the hotel and enjoy a slideshow of photos of the hotel and its restaurant.

The Badlands form the backdrop for the hotel and convention center.

Suzanna, Abigail, Susan, and Hillary posed on the stairway in the north entrance to Theodore's. This room will serve as the foyer for guests checking in once the hotel completes construction of its convention center.

The girls and I posed on the veranda just outside the foyer with the grand staircase (from the photo above).

After dinner we walked around town a little bit, stopping in several shops to look around and see what they had to offer. All the shops were offering big discounts; Labor Day weekend marks the end of Medora's tourist season, so the stores are trying to reduce inventory before closing--or limiting their hours--for the fall. Each of the girls got an embroidered "Medora" baseball cap at one store, and Susan bought a "thank you" gift at another. Even the Fudge and Ice Cream Depot was trying to get rid of its product. We stopped there for a little ice cream, each of us ordering a single scoop in a bowl, which is what they charged us for; however, they piled the ice cream up so high that we easily could have shared one heaping bowl amongst the five of us!

Pretty flowers all around town.

We saw this little train chugging on by no matter where we happened to be around town!

It was 92° in Medora, which, frankly, is cooler than it has been during previous trips to the town. Still we were happy to get into the vehicle with its air conditioning as we drove on the Interstate to one final stop: the Painted Canyon Visitor Center a few miles east of Medora. The view is stunning, and the visitor center offers guide books and history books and biographies and park-related toys (e.g., hand puppets of local wildlife) and photographs and kid-friendly "you're welcome to touch these" artifacts that could easily have kept us occupied for hours had we not needed to get home and tend to other obligations. It was a fun little spur-of-the-moment trip that served as a welcome break on this Labor Day weekend. Now, it's back to work . . .

The view of the Badlands from the Painted Canyon Overlook just east of Medora. (Remember my writing about/sharing photos from this locale two years ago?)

P.S. Here are some gems from the mouths of our babes today:

• Once Hillary's fettucine arrived, she dug right in, made the "yummm" sound, and said, "It warms up my soul."
• Not too long afterward, she slowed down her pace of eating and said, "I'm really full." That's pretty typical of her, so I put my hand against my cheek and opened my mouth as though to register my faux astonishment. She responded, "It's not a shocking thing."
• Toward the end of the meal, Hillary asked if we could go to the playground, and I said that we weren't there for fun; we were there for photographs. She replied, "No trip is made without having fun."
• On the drive to Medora, we heard a radio show that had invited listeners to write and mail in their original haiku related to the program's topics. Since we had haiku on our minds, we tried our hand at creating one of the five-syllable, seven-syllable, five-syllable three-line poems while we were seated at the restaurant. Here's what we came up with: "We're in Medora / Land of trains and horse manure / Love this scenic town."
• When we were shopping for baseball caps, Suzanna selected a pink one, and it was immediately clear from the expression on Hillary's face that she felt she ought to have the pink hat (since her bedroom is pink, much of her clothing is pink, etc.). In explaining that to Suzanna, Hillary said, "Pink's my go-to color."
• As we walked with our ice cream bowls back toward our parking spot, Susan gave the girls directions, telling Suzanna, "Turn left at the corner." Abigail added, "Then straight on 'til morning." (Do you recognize that allusion to Peter Pan?)

Guess Who Came to Dinner

Friday night when the phone rang, the caller ID showed a Dickinson number, so I certainly wasn't expecting to hear the voice of my aunt Rose on the other end of the line! She and my uncle Elton live in Colorado Springs, CO, but they happened to be calling from their hotel room here in Dickinson! They had decided at the last minute to accept an invitation to attend the wedding of one of Elton's relatives here. After checking into their hotel, they phoned us to find out if we'd be free to see them while they were in town. What a terrific surprise!

Rose laid out their plans: my aunt Penny (her sister) would drive down from McGregor Saturday (yesterday) to accompany them to the wedding in the afternoon and reception in the evening. She would stay overnight and then go with them to the Medora musical Sunday evening (tonight). That meant that they'd have this morning and early afternoon free, and Rose wondered if they could come to church with us and afterwards stop by our house to see our home and visit. We happily agreed!

As it turned out, our family was already scheduled to provide "special music" at both church services this morning, so I suggested that Rose, Elton, and Penny come to the second service, after which we could lead them to our house. They got to hear the five of us singing an arrangement of "Hymn of Promise" (melody: the daughters; harmony: the parents), which went very well. Afterwards I gave them a brief tour of the church and then hopped into their vehicle with them so that I could talk them through a little driving tour of Dickinson, showing them points of interest related to us (the girls' schools, the university, etc.). Susan and the girls took our vehicle home, and the girls were waiting patiently at the end of the driveway when Rose, Elton, Penny, and I finally got home.

When we stepped into the foyer, a wonderful aroma washed over us, and it was clear to them that Susan had prepared dinner for them. Rose, Elton, and Penny had planned to look around our house and then ask us to join them for brunch at a restaurant, so they were pleasantly surprised to learn that we wanted them to join us for a home-cooked Sunday dinner. (On the phone Friday, I hadn't mentioned that we would cook for them today, but I thought that that just went without saying. After all, we're Mobergs; that's how we roll.)

But first, the girls and I gave Rose, Elton, and Penny a very detailed tour of the house, narrating extensively as we walked from room to room. They seemed to like our home, complimenting us on our decorating choices and remarking how fortunate we were to find a house so perfect for us in size, in proximity to our schools and workplaces, and in terms of the quality of our neighbors. (And we concur!)

Then we sat down to eat. Susan planned the menu, bought the groceries, and started preliminary food prep yesterday afternoon; and last night, Hillary and I set the table with a white tablecloth and cloth napkins with napkin rings and china from Susan's mom and silver flatware from my mom and candles and stemware and a crystal water pitcher. For dinner today Susan served chicken baked in a garlic cream sauce, mashed potatoes with the cream sauce as gravy, steamed fresh asparagus, wheat bread with butter, and a fresh fruit salad. She baked a lemon meringue pie this morning and served it for dessert with coffee. (It was her first lemon meringue pie, and it turned out great! Juice and zest from fresh lemons in the filling with a splash of limoncello to boost the flavor, and a sweet and fluffy meringue on top.)

It was so wonderful to have my aunts and uncle as dinner guests! It brought back many great memories from my childhood of meals with extended family during gatherings for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and holidays. It was nice to visit with them over a leisurely meal with phenomenal food. The time came too soon when they had to leave for Medora (in order to take in a few sights before the musical), so we whipped out the multiple cameras for the multiple poses in multiple configurations--just the little girls, just the aunts and uncle, now the girls with the aunts and uncle, now me with them all, now Susan with them all, now just the girls with Susan and me, etc. (again, we're Mobergs; that's how we roll).

For the indoor set of photos, Elton was the photographer. Left to right: Rose, Suzanna, Penny, Abigail, me, Hillary, and Susan. (I think Rose looks a lot like my grandma [her mom] in this photo. Family, do you agree?)

Before they left, Rose thanked us for the opportunity to see our home. She said that, from now on when she hears family news about us, it will be fun for her to be able to picture our house in her mind and imagine the girls' playing in their bedrooms or our making food in our kitchen, and so forth. Then it was time for hugs, kisses, a few more photos, and lots of waves from our front steps as they backed out of the driveway and drove off. Their visit totally made our weekend! Thank you, Rose, Elton, and Penny!

For the outdoor set of photos, Susan was the photographer. Left to right: Elton, Rose, and Penny. The weather is beautiful today with a comfortable breeze, so I'm sure they're enjoying their time outdoors in Medora.

Three generations of Mobergs! (Rose and Penny are my dad's sisters.)

Abigail's 10th Birthday!

Our "middlest" daughter (as Abigail refers to herself, since her sisters get the labels "oldest" and "youngest"--remember?) awoke yesterday, came upstairs, and told us, "I'm a decade old today!" The day's weather report predicted another blisteringly hot day (it has been in the high 90s for several days), so I had been out early to water the lawn to fortify it against the heat blast yet to come. All the girls were awake by the time I was ready to shut off the water, so I called them outside to see what I discovered in the flower bed after the sprinklers had died down:

That's Suzanna holding a little frog, which Abigail named "Spots, my birthday frog." The girls rode with me when I went to drop off lawn clippings to be composted, and Spots came along in a yellow bucket (see photo above) in Abigail's lap so that she could pet him and visit with him as we drove. When we got back home, we returned him to the flower bed, and he soon hopped out of sight.

After dinner (Suzanna helped Susan by making the meatballs--similar to this--for Italian meatball sub sandwiches) Abigail opened some gifts: an adorable outfit from her new cousin Davis (well, and his parents, Uncle Nick and Aunt Cassie); from Hillary, baby clothes for Abigail's doll Lillian; from Suzanna, a Lil' Kinz stuffed animal (golden retriever) and carrier for it; and from Susan and me, a CD rack (that stands vertically and has a slight S shape), a CD, and . . . a pogo stick!

The Flybar Foam Master pogo stick! When Abigail had unwrapped enough of the box to read what was inside, she started jumping up and down in place, an action that confirmed for Susan and me the appropriateness of this particular gift for Abigail.

Abigail had invited two friends to come over for her birthday, and they arrived midafternoon. We had planned to take all the girls to Medora: play at the Medora Children's Park, eat at the Badlands Pizza Parlor, and attend the Medora musical. However, past experience has taught us that a 98° day in Dickinson is usually a 138° day in Medora; so, in light of yesterday's heat, Susan and I altered the plans slightly: run through the sprinkler in our own back yard, open gifts from the guests, eat pizza and bing cherries on the veranda, eat cake and ice cream, and then drive to Medora for the musical (which starts at 8:30 P.M., allowing the temperature to start dropping with the sun).

Left to right: Aspen, Suzanna, Hannah, and Abigail. Hillary was playing with them, too; but at this moment, she was in the front yard filling a bucket to dump over the head of one of these girls. Before they were through, the girls had filled every plastic bucket and Frisbee and other outdoor toy they could find that would hold water, and they were using them all to keep one another soaked.

Abigail requested a brownie cake, so Susan baked a gigantic brownie on a baking stone and frosted it using my mom's recipe for chocolate frosting. Susan recreated the recipe perfectly: thick, buttery, sugary, chocolatey frosting so wonderful that, as children, my sisters and I would cut it away from the cake and eat the cake first, saving the slab of frosting for last. Delicious!

When blowing out her candles, Abigail extinguished all but one on the first try, which her friends interpreted to mean that Abigail has one boyfriend. Who that guy is Abigail wouldn't say.

Aspen, Abigail, and Hannah

As we drove to (and from) Medora, the girls played word games and sang songs from Bible camp to pass the time. Once we got to the amphitheater, Hannah and Aspen distracted Abigail while Suzanna and Hillary asked an employee to have it announced, during the show, that it was Abigail's birthday (which they did announce midway through the show, much to Abigail's delight!). Our seats were right in the center of the second row, so we saw every blessed detail extremely well throughout the show! Our friend Job is in the musical and knew that we'd be attending last night (remember?), so as soon as he spotted where we were sitting, he made sure to give the girls knowing glances and winks occasionally during the rest of the show.

Aspen, Abigail, Suzanna, Hannah, and Hillary pose before walking down the path to the amphitheater. Gotta tell ya, Aspen and Hannah are really nice kids; it was fun to have them around and a joy to have such well behaved children accompany us out in public.

Here's Job. Because of the proximity of our seats to the stage, there isn't even much zooming going on with the camera here.

Each year, at one point during the second half of the Medora musical, there is always a break during which some featured artist performs: a comic, a musician, a magician, etc. It never has anything whatsoever to do with the plot or theme of the musical itself. For example, the Old West-themed musical last night paused so that the Peking Acrobats could perform! A bizarre juxtaposition, but the Peking Acrobats were some mighty talented performers just the same. Here are two pairs of men--each pair in a dragon costume--using their feet, their balance, and their coordination to roll a large red ball up and down a seesaw. The females in the troupe did some amazing feats of balance and gymnastics, too, involving spinning plates, parasols, and a large ceramic urn.

Down center there is a part of the stage that juts out toward the first row; and, with our awesome seats, it was just three or four feet from us. The acrobats moved to that part of the stage for this demonstration: They set a table on the stage and four empty wine bottles on top of the table. Then they put a wooden chair atop the bottles, each chair leg resting on one bottle neck. Then one man climbed up to the chair while another handed him another chair, which the man stacked atop the first chair and then climbed up. This continued until the man was dangerously high in the air . . . at which time he started doing things such as standing on his hands. I could just imagine the wind picking up and toppling those chairs like a house of playing cards, and where would that unfortunate acrobat have wound up? In our laps!

The girls had one pen to share amongst the five of them; and when it started to run low on ink, they abandoned their quest to get all the cast members' autographs after the show and made a beeline directly for Job for him to sign their programs. It was an extra-special part of Abigail's birthday to be able to introduce her friends to Job and say that she knows someone starring in the Medora musical!

It's not surprising that, after a busy afternoon and a late-night drive home, the girls slept in very late this morning. By the time they awoke, they were eager to devour the ice cream caramel rolls that Susan made them for breakfast (this despite their having filled up during the show on candy, crackers, and bottled water that Susan had brought along so that we could avoid the lines at the concession stand). Each girl received a colorful foam visor as a party favor, and they spent part of this morning decorating their visors with markers and glittery stickers. And then Susan shuttled the guests back to their homes.

Our 1o-year-old daughter had a great birthday thanks to her organized mother, her cooperative sisters, her delightful friends, and her thoughtful relatives (she got birthday greetings in telephone calls from Grandpa Gustafson, Aunt Cassie, Aunt Sandy, Aunt Cathy, and Grandpa and Grandma Moberg). Now it's about time to strap on a helmet and take that pogo stick outside for an inaugural ride . . .