An Afternoon with Mr. Laettner

When David and I saw that Christian Laettner was coming to Aberdeen to put on a basketball camp, we were kinda excited.

When we told our kids that Christian Laettner was coming to Aberdeen to put on a basketball camp, they had only one question--"Who?"

Here we go again-back to the 90's!  Can I help it that the 90's were such a fabulous decade??

Nathan attended the afternoon camp with his friend Lincoln and learned basketball skills from not only Christian Laettner, but other talented former players as well.  They actually made them work pretty hard for the time they were there. Afterward, Laettner took the time to take a photo with each player after their sessions and signed photos for them as well. 

I remember Laettner playing for Duke and I saw him play once or twice for the Timberwolves. It was obvious that some of the parents were more excited than I was in seeing him there (e.g. Christian Laettner was their Garth Brooks). :)  And all of us were more starstruck than the players--most of whom weren't even born until at least a decade after Laettner's Duke days.

We appreciate his coming to South Dakota to teach these young players a thing or two about working hard and playing basketball!

Snow Queen princess

It was Rachel's turn to be a kindergarten Princess for Snow Queen on Saturday night!

They were all so cute and did a great job. :)

Happy 12th Birthday, Nathan!

Happy 12th Birthday, Nathan!

It was a good day with Battlebots to play with and knepfla for supper. :)

A Slice of History

Yesterday the kids went off to school and David was preparing to leave for the day. I didn't have to make dinner for the harvest crew, so I was seriously tempted to go to Aberdeen. However, I told myself it would be more responsible to stay home and catch up on things around here that had gotten out of hand. 

A few minutes later, I flipped the calendar to November and saw--oops!--I had an eye appointment at 9:15 a.m.!  I had scheduled it so many weeks ago--and didn't check my voice mail if I had a reminder call.  (Side note--if you need to tell me something urgent, don't leave a voice mail.) So, I got my day in Aberdeen after all, and now had a reason to go besides just getting off the farm for a few hours. I arrived there in time for my eye appointment, got some other errands done, visited my grandparents, found spectacular deals on bread and milk at Kessler's, and then headed home.

I was about 10 miles south of Aberdeen when I remembered that my car's oil life was at 0% and my tires were a bit low. I could still return to Pit Crew Row and get back home in time, so rather than schedule another trip on another day, it was back to Aberdeen AGAIN.

While I was waiting for the oil change, I read the Aberdeen Magazine, like I usually do when I'm there. There are always fun articles about local people, and since Aberdeen is a small city, I usually know at least someone in an issue. (As a side note--I was one of four people waiting there. The three others were men probably 10 or more years older than me. They all started at their phones the entire time. So don't tell me my generation and younger are the only ones who stare at our phones!) :)  Anyway, I found a wonderful article on Lu Griess and Lu's Pizza in Aberdeen. Nearly every trip to Aberdeen as a child included a visit to Lu's Pizza. I still remember how wonderful the restaurant smelled, how delicious and one-of-a-kind the pizza was, and even getting to play the Pac Man video game in the front. If you're interested, I've included the link below. :)

A Slice of History

And now. . . to get to that stuff I didn't do yesterday!

A Boo-tiful Birthday!

Birthdays always start early at our house with opening presents. When harvest is going on, there's early morning candle blowing, too!

We always stop at Grandma & Grandpa Melius' house for pizza and cake after school. Teresa's friend Bella came to celebrate, too.

Here are the girls after a fun night of trick-or-treating in Cresbard!  Nathan joined us, too, but just wore a mask. He said it was his last year--we'll see! :)

Teresa decorated this beach cake all by herself. See the bear on the upper right diving into the water?