4th of July 2013

We had the best 4th of July in Gackle.  Last summer we stayed for the parade and then headed off for the weekend, so we didn't get to experience a full Gackle fourth of July.  For being such a small town, Gackle does a really good job with all the festivities.  

The night before my mom and I painted our finger and toenails patriotic colors.

My nails weren't pretty, but if you didn't look too closely it was fine. 

Mom did a good job on her toes.

We took lots of patriotic pictures with our flag.  I totally bribed my boys for this picture, but look how cute it turned out.

Family picture.

I just love my mom, she is the best.

We started our day doing kids crafts at the Lutheran church across the street from our house.  They colored beach balls and crowns, and made necklaces.

I love coloring too, so I made a crown.

 My kids love papa's scooter, the "red devil".

After crafts we headed to the American Legion Hall for a dinner (lunch) of BBQ (sloppy joes).  Along the way we stopped at the new Gackle library.  The library was having a grand re opening that day since the old library was torn down last summer.  I love the Gackle library.  We went there weekly last year, so I have been anxiously awaiting the grand opening.

After that we headed home and put the kids down for naps.  They don't usually nap anymore, but I knew they would be up late watching fireworks so we made it happen.  They both slept for close to two hours.  When they woke up we hurried them to the childrens parade.  In Gackle they do a children's parade before the town parade.  The boys rode their bikes.  They were introduced as the Miller Honey boys.   

After the kid parade, Jason took them over to the Miller Honey jeep where they got to be in the big parade and throw candy.  

The parade had 37 entries this year.  Since the go down main street and then back again it is more like 74 entries :)  Willie and Dolly were the grand marshals.  

 The parade.  I think that tractor could run over me standing up. 

 Jason and Ryan.  Jason wearing a bee veil and Ryan wearing a bee hat.  

This was an interesting entry.  

The honey hub has been hopping the last couple of weeks.  We had a couple guys who stayed two nights and took the 4th as their rest day.  They spent the day enjoying all of Gackle's festivities.  Later, three more cyclist showed up and joined in the fun.  Our garage has been full of bikes.

We take pictures with almost everyone who stays with us.  This was the crew on the 4th.

Later on there was a free supper in the park for the whole town.  They had a band "Raw Sugar" (back by popular demand) playing country music.  Supper was hot dogs (with toppings like sauerkraut, due to the German influence in the area), baked beans, potato chips, pop, water and ice cream cups.  

Next to me in the picture below is Konrad.  He is 16 years old, visiting us from Germany.  His family keeps bees as a hobby (although they have 200-300 hives).  He saw the documentary "More Than Honey" which followed Miller Honey for a couple years and wanted to see beekeeping on a larger scale.  He is spending his summer holiday (4 weeks) in Gackle working in the bees.  He is staying in one of the houses that Miller Honey owns, but hangs out with us most nights.  We have really enjoyed getting to know him more.  

Ollie's newest trick on the swing.

After supper we came home and lit off a few fireworks of our own.  Our boys don't like loud noises, haha.

Then we had birthday cake for my mom (her birthday is actually the 5th but we were going to be driving a lot of that day).  With the cyclist there it felt like she was having a party.

 Later on we headed to the baseball diamond.  John signed Jason and my dad up to help light the fireworks.  They weren't too sure about it at first, but my mom snuck down to get their picture later and I think their grins say it all.  They thought it was pretty cool.  My dad just kept saying he could never do that in CA, which is totally true.  

They had all their fingers before the show :)

We parked on the hill above the baseball field.

The fireworks really surprised me.  I think because we were sitting so close, they were HUGE!  The show was awesome.  It was just such a nice day.  Having my parents there with us made it so fun.  Jason said to me as we were going to bed that it was the best 4th of July he can remember.  It was so nice to just walk everywhere (instead of packing up the car and kids, driving, finding parking etc) and come home in between each event.  I don't think we will ever plan to be anywhere else on the 4th.  

Gackle with Mom and Dad

We rolled into Gackle Sunday evening.  I didn't have much planned for the week because I wanted my parents to see how laid back it is here.  

My parents got a picture of the Gackle sign on the hill coming into town.  It is made of old tires.  

My dad was pretty excited to golf at the Gackle Country Club.  He went and checked it out right away.    On Tuesday he paid $20 for the day and golfed in the morning, the afternoon and again in the evening with a couple of guys he met.  He was a happy camper.

I usually try to make treats to take to the honey plant at least once a week for everyone.  On Monday morning before it got to hot we made banana bars and knoephla soup (a German soup my friend here taught me to make).   When we took the treats to the plant, Jason gave my parents a tour of the whole operation.  Next time they visit, we are going to plan it around extraction time.  We ate lunch at the Tastee Freeze.  It was a little underwhelming because we didn't get our tried and true favorite of fried chicken.  We went back a couple more times for dessert and that never disappoints.  

Monday and Tuesday afternoon we went to the Gackle pool.  My boys LOVE swimming this year and so it has been a lot of fun.  Ollie can touch at the 3ft end of the pool and he has been working on all his jumps.  So far he can do cannon balls, belly flops, helicopter, a spin jump etc.  I love it.  In these pictures he has pretty good form. 

 Monday evening we went out to Dennis and Brenda Mayer's farm.  They use to live next door to Jason when he was a kid here in the summers.  Dennis has tons of cool tractors.  It seems like he has some new gadget to show us each summer.  The boys love playing on all the tractors and I was happy my parents got to meet Dennis and Brenda. We brought out a Kugen pie (another German favorite) for dessert.  It was a lot of fun.

One morning we found some cherries that Jason's dad left on our table for us.  We gobbled them right up, we love cherries.  

 Tuesday afternoon Jason took my parents out into the bees.  I love going in the bees and I get excited when others get to see how it works.  My parents loved it and found it really fascinating.

Tuesday night we ate dinner at Dani's Place, the bar in town.  Lori, the owner, has pizza available every night and on Wednesdays she makes dinner (that isn't pizza).  The Tastee Freeze is closed on Wednesdays so it is nice to have another option.

After dinner, we took the boys to get an ice cream cone.  As you can see by their faces, they were pretty excited.

Every Wednesday I go to Jamestown.  We did all our normal errands, starting with Ollie's gymnastics.  I signed him up for the 'boys only', two hour class this next month.  

Max watching Ollie.  He is a good sport since he is a little too young for the tykes class at this gym.  

After gymnastics we went to the library.  The lady there knows us now and I don't even have to give her my library card anymore.  I really love the Jamestown library.  I had a quick chiropractor appointment and then we picked up some Taco Bell and headed to Frontier Village to see the worlds largest buffalo statue and the only albino buffalo.  Two things that Jamestown is "famous" for.  

Picture by Ollie.

Max trying on hats at the general store. 

After frontier village, we headed to the mall and watched Monsters University.  It was a really cute movie.  Max fell asleep at the beginning of the movie and slept through the majority of it.  Jason met us after the movie and we did our grocery shopping.  They had this huge cart that my mom just HAD to sit in.  

After grocery shopping, my parents took the boys back to Gackle and Jason and I headed over to Walmart to get a few things and then to the Buffalo City Rotisserie Grill.  We ate there last summer and really enjoyed it.  It was nice to get a little alone time in. 

We find lots of these selfies on our camera these days.  It is pretty entertaining.

Thursday was the 4th of July (which I will post about separately).  It was a great day. Friday morning we left to go to Medora (which I will also post about).  Before we left Gackle, my parents went around and took pictures.  

Miller Honey Farms.

Main street.

This church is no longer used as a church, but a duck hunters lodge.

Our little compound.

We always laugh about the $10 reward.