VISITING MY AUNT

Since Darren wasn't going to be around for the 4th, I decided to gather up the girls and head to my grandmothers place in Devils Lake and meet up with the rest of the family as they got together to see my aunt from Aloha, Oregon that I haven't seen since 1999.

She and her family were coming home because there were two deaths in the family and the funerals were on the same day. One was held in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Since they were going to be busy all day that day, the only day they had to really spend with our side of the family was Tuesday.

I called my mother at 10:30 Tuesday morning to see if anyone had called and said where my aunt was. Mom hadn't heard anything so they were going to have lunch, take a motocycle ride, and then head in to Devils Lake. They weren't going to stay in Devils Lake too long because it was really hot and they wanted to go out to the lake cabin. Mom told me not to get into a hurry because my aunt was supposed to be around all day.

The girls and I didn't get to Devils Lake until 2 pm. We got to the manor that my grandmother lives in and every one was there except for my aunt from Oregon and her family. My uncle said that they had just called and were an hour out of town because they spent the night at the lake and in the morning they went boating and swimming and they would be heading to town soon.

I sat around for a while and talked to everyone, my younger cousins took Cassie outside to play to keep her busy, and it gave them something to do. My mom and dad left on the bike to get a little ride in. My uncles little boy and Jessie were both getting crabby because they were tired but it was kind of difficult to get them to take naps with everything that was going on. Eventually they did fall asleep.

The family was starting to get a little upset because Tracy said they would be there in the morning and would be around all day and the day was almost over. My aunt and uncle from Fargo left Fargo at 9 in the morning and had been waiting around since 11. My aunt from Oregon only called the one time so we thought they would be arriving soon but never called to say they were going to be much later.

5 pm rolled around and my aunt still wasn't there. Mom and dad were back from their ride and were starting to get a little testy because they knew by then that they weren't getting to the lake. My aunt and her family from Fargo were really ticked because they had been waiting in Devils Lake since 11 a.m. and if they knew they were going to be waiting that long they wouldn't have left Fargo at 9 a.m. I grabbed my cousin Ethan and we ran out to Wal-Mart and then stopped at Dairy Queen. We weren't gone all that long but it gave us something to do.

When Ethan and I got back to the manor, Tracy and her family were finally their. We took a lot of pictures right away because we didn't have a lot of time to spend together. We hung out for another hour or two and then around 8:30 my aunt and uncle from Manvel and the girls and I got ready to take off. Tracy was hoping that we all were going to be around longer but we were there all day and we all were getting tired.

There girls and I got to my parents around 9:30 and we watched the fireworks from town. We spent the night because it got really late, and Cassie fell asleep watching the fireworks.

All in all it was a fun day, it was just too bad that we didn't get to spend as much time with my aunt as we all hoped. Maybe in 2015.