Vacation Week

We were on "vacation" in Melrose this last week. We started out the vacation with a birthday party for Fred's godson, Jesse. The next day we had Fred's mom's birthday party at his sister Jill's. I headed back to Melrose early so I could help Alyssa get ready for Mom and Dad's anniversary party. She was pretty much on top of everything and we got to go shopping in St Cloud instead of cleaning or whatever else needed to be done.

On Sunday the 27th we took pictures of our family with help from Lori Braegelmann. We got some good photos of the whole Jeske family and a couple sweet ones of our family. Then we had mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary at Alyssa and Joe's. It was a little warm in the garage for a while, but there were lots of friends and family there along with awesome food and scrumptious cakes. Alyssa did an awesome job at organizing the party and I think it was very impressive and a lot of fun.

Then the "vacation" began. Well, actually Fred spent Monday with his brother Joel and some nephews starting work on a shed in Gene and Mary Ann's backyard. They got it all framed up and mostly "sheeted" (with plywood) by the end of day one. The next day we hit the lake. First Fred had to rake up a bunch of weeds that had blown in from the storm the night before and then we enjoyed a nice warm day in the water and in the shade. Fred and Jacob have so much fun in the water and Gavin is starting to enjoy it too. I got to go see Mama Mia with mom and Alyssa in Sauk on Tuesday night. It was a fun girly show.

On Wednesday Becky, Jake and Ben came to visit us at the cabin. Lori and Aubrey joined us when Lori was done with work. Jacob and Jake played so nicely all day long. Floating in their life jackets, pushing around and swimming with the trucks and working in the sand. After Jake left, Jacob declared him his best friend. Very fun to see the next generation of "best friends".

I got to go play Bingo on Thursday at the county fair. I won 3 times, I called Bingo another time, but ended up not having Bingo. Oops. That evening we went to the demolition derby. Jacob really sat nicely to watch the whole thing. We were back at the fair on Friday night so the kids could enjoy some rides. Gavin got his first ride on the Merry Go Round with Grandma Nancy.

We were going to get one more day of lake in yesterday, but the weather didn't cooperate. We did get out there to clean-up and Jacob played a little while. Then we headed back to Chaska to get back to "real life".

Gavin and Grandma Nancy on the Merry Go Round.

Jacob and Isaac on a ride.


Fred with his "cooler" haircut.

One of Gavin's 6 month pictures.