Memorial Day Weekend 2011

The Hansen family, yet again, had the pleasure of spending the holiday weekend with family - the Ruestman's.  An added bonus was that we were able to spend it with our friends, Chris and Jennifer Aswegan (and John!), as well! 

The holiday weekend started just after noon on Friday!  I got off work early and headed home to pack and settle all the deatils of the trip!  I had made arrangements for a friend from work to house/dog sit for the weekend so Oz wouldn't be alone!  It worked out great!  She loved him and he loved her!

We hit the road about 3:30 Friday evening and headed to Grove, OK.  We had the heartbreaking experience of traveling through Joplin, MO (it had been just 5 days since the tornado hit).  The images on TV are heartwrenching, but seeing the damage in person is very surreal.  Very quick way to ground oneself.

We arrived at the Ruestman Lake House about 7:00 and were welcomed by Dick, Marilyn and Zoe!  We ordered some pizzas for an easy, relaxing dinner and settled in for the evening with a few beverages and some good company!

The next morning, about 10:30, the Aswegan family arrived!  Jennifer has been my best friend since 7th grade and Graden and Chris (her husband) have known each other for about 15 years.  Having them both there was great for us both!  To make it an even better love story, they recently had their first baby, John, who is just six weeks old.  It was great having all THREE of them there to join us for the wonderful weekend!

The epitome of mornings at the lake.

Saturday afternoon the boys spent fishing and the girls spent sunnin' on the deck!  Dayne and Zoe wandered around the neighborhood, "swam" in the hot tub, played with the turtle that Dick rescued (then unknowingly held hostage in his truck for a full day!), walked down to the lake, made prank calls to boys, put on modeling shows, styled the creepy manequin head's hair ... just to name a few things!


Dayne, Zoe and John

Saturday night for dinner we feasted on hamburgers, chips and salad. Every meal was wonderful!  I am sure the cooking was good, but the company made it even better, no doubt!

Saturday evening was spent laying low and listening to some new stories offered by Dick & Marilyn. Their stories are the best, I tell you! Dick recited his experience of crashing his plane into a Florida swamp -- that may have been the best story of the weekend.  What makes it funny is the way he minimizes it.  Long story short, he is the only one to have survived a plane crash in this particular swamp and he insists that the media made a bigger deal out of it than it was.  He said, "they didn't know ....they weren't there."  Funny, funny man!

Sunday morning we made French Toast, fresh fruit and sausage for breakfast - so delicious!  The boys had gone out fishing so we had a late breakfast - well worth the wait!  After breakfast was settled we headed back to the deck for more sunnin' time.  It was a really rough weekend, I tell ya!

Sunday dinner was the pinnacle of our weekend feasts - Dick's famous smoked ribs!  Paired with corn on the cob, baked beans (which Marilyn and I prefer to be dry, but others prefer to be runny!), salad and baked bread!  I would guess that we all gained a few pounds this weekend! 

Graden and Dick preparing the ribs for our Sunday feast.

Sunday evening we all turned in kind of early .... we were beat from all the hard work we did that day (not!).  The boys had plans to get up early Monday morning, too, for one last morning of fishing. Up til this point, fishing hadn't been real good due to the high & muddy waters. 

Monday morning the women made a hearty breakfast - biscuits and gravy!  The boys came in from fishing about 10am (sadly, their fishing expedition didn't get much better!) and we all feasted until we thought we'd pop!  After breakfast settled in, the girls took Dayne, Zoe and John shopping to a few of the local shops - Factory Connection, STAGE and Cheapo Depo.  Cheapo Depo is one of those odd stores that you never know what you might find -- it's always an adventure!


The Hansen Tribe

After an afternoon of shopping, we packed up and headed back for home.  The lake is about three hours from home and we wanted to stop in Joplin to visit some family so we headed out about 3:30 Monday afternoon.

We waved our good byes and yelled out THANK YOUs to our wonderful host and hostess!  Always a great time and plenty

Needless say, the drive through Joplin was jaw-dropping.  The damage and devastation was very saddening.  And to know of some of the heart breaking stories behind some of the damage, and the lost lives of so many people -- so many young people! -- was enough to ground us all real quick.

We got to Rocky and Mindy's house about 5:00 and spent just over an hour and a half catching up with them and listening to some of the tornado stories.  Their son, Luke (who just graduated high school just hours before the tornado hit), is a volunteer Fire Fighter and had been out helping with search and rescue so they had a lot of stories ... many of them sad, but many of them about every day heros.

It was such a great feeling to hug our family this weekend.  We look forward to our next visit!