ND Summer Vacation

Summer vacation featured a trip to North Dakota. Brief itinerary and highlights below.

• Saturday, Sunday: Grandma and Grandpa's farm
• Four wheeling, trains, BMX 2000, fish spawning
  
• Prairie Village Museum, Steve & Andrea's presentation
  
• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Jimmy and Kelly's farm
• Horse camp and Fritel Farm
• Golf, Medora show, cats/chickens
  
• Thursday, Friday, Saturday: Bismark
• German's from Russia conference
• Science museum, swimming pool, Grandpa's 80th birthday, bounce park
  
• Sunday: Minot
• State fair
  
• Monday, Tuesday
• Bonus days in Buffalo, MN at Anna's due to Delta Airlines fiasco

Grandma and Grandpa's Farm

Plenty of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's farm. 4-wheeling, trains, touring the fields, visiting the new house in Rugby, and visiting the Prairie Village Museum for a great talk on the Friedel/Fritel family history. 

 

As a special treat we went to "Horse and Animal Camp" and the Brossart Farm.

Trains parked near (but not on!) Grandpa's farm

One of the hopper cars with a sweater on top was 'open' so Doug ventured in

After Andrea and Steve presented Friedel/Fritel history, we toured the Prairie Village Museum

Doug pretends to be the milk car worker on the trains

While 'in town' we stopped - kids climbed the monument

Canola field with windmills in background

 

Fritel horse camp made everybody a cowboy

Out on the trail/road

There were cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits, and horses. The dog in the background was detained for eating baby rabbits.

Next Up - Killdeer

Stop #2 was Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Kelly's farm. Kids loved hanging out with their cousins, collecting eggs, driving the golf cart, playing golf, and going to the show at Madora.

Stopped at the Garrison Dam Fish Hatchery - Julia is 'eating' fish food (we fed fish by cleaning up the floor)

Golfing with Grace ... and oil fields in the background

Show at Medora ... always entertaining!

Medora - TR was the host

On to Mandan

Grandpa and Grandma (and Aunt Anna) attended the German's from Russia conference in Mandan (near Bismark). We hung out with cousins Claire, Lydia, and Cecilia at the Science Museum, trampoline park, and spent hours in the swimming pool.

Julia got the determination award at the Science Museum and the trampoline park.

We learned the economics of farming in different ND zones

Doug and Sara lit the full set of lights using the generator

Julia persisted, but finally gave up. Lucky Lidia got her helicopter in the basket on the 2nd try

Kids (and Doug) spent a lot of time at the pool. We managed to break literally EVERY rule that was posted in the pool area.

Pool rules. Or should I say guidelines.

Awesome 2-story slide went outside and back in (RJ ran up about 100 stories worth of steps)

An early celebration of Grandpa's 80th birthday

Dancing at the Germans from Russia event

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Before leaving, we hung out at the ND State Fair with Grandma and Grandpa

Got our picture taken with Daryl before the pig race

Julia persisted again - and casted her lure through the fish target ... Doug was not so lucky.

Bonus Vacation

Due to the Delta Airlines debacle caused by the CrowdStrike outage, our flight from Minneapolis to DCA was cancelled 10 minutes before delayed boarding. So ... we rented a really expensive car, drove to Aunt Anna's house (cousins were not there), and stayed in Buffalo, MN for 2 more days.

Doug worked at Anna's for most of the 2 days, but we got out for some Kayaking on the lake

Doug and Julia prepare to launch, RJ had to paddle the 4 miles by himself