Mapleton, ND

Well, actually we are still in West Fargo, but since a large portion of this entry is concerned with Rachel's graduation party (see later), I thought I'd give it Russ and Melinda's town name.

You all probably know this already, but it’s interesting how the Schlosser clan and Stames clan mesh together in ages (in both cases, Vi and I are the middle children):

 Mary Ann (my sister), Marjorie (Vi’s sister), Violet, Tom Jr (me), Ed (Vi’s brother), Paul (my brother). 

Then the next generation is similar:

    Char, Melinda, Tom III, Melanie, Michelle, Tim, Melissa

I'm not even going to try with the next younger generation :-).  Now that you all have that straight (there will be a test sometime in the future), let's continue with our visit to North Dakota.  The weather has been beautiful and there are no mosquitos - yet.  Clear blue skies and moderate temperatures (moderate in North Dakota means you're not freezing).  Friday was a day for errands -  I went over to Costco and had the tires rotated on Snowflake while Michelle and Vi went shopping.  The shopping trip was interrupted because we wanted to go over to Melanie and Ken's to give Carley her quilt.  They were getting ready for Connor and Carley's party on Sunday and kind of had a limited period of time when Carley was going to be around.  So out to Christine, ND to visit the Knudsen's. 

Unwrapped and delivered the quilt to assorted oohs and aah's - it really is a beautiful piece of work done by my favorite seamstress!  After some conversation, we headed back to town.  Around five, we headed out to Mapleton for Rachel's graduation party.  They were holding it in Russ's shop which is huge.  I think when I wrote about Reilee's graduation party, I mentioned that calling Russ's shop a garage is like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch - still applies.  Rachel (with perhaps some help from other members of the family) had really decorated the shop beautifully.  She had poster boards with family pictures from birth to graduation, memorabilia, sports awards, etc. 

They had the buffet dinner set up along one wall which is where Russ had all his tools neatly arranged.  I think Vi may have made some comment about why wasn't my work area as neatly organized, but I could be mistaken.  To give you some idea of the size of the shop, Russ can work on his combine and tractor inside the building without being cramped.  It has its' own kitchen, bathroom, and room for several hundred people.  It was impossible to estimate the number of people because they were constantly coming and going, as you can imagine because of all the other graduation parties going on.

It was a great opportunity to catch up on friends and family - as someone mentioned, it's much better to have graduations and weddings than funerals for family gatherings.  Much more joyous occasion.  Rachel looked beautiful and Russ and Melinda were the very proud parents (as they were two years ago when Reilee had a similar party).   We've been coming back to North Dakota for a long time and it was fun have an opportunity to see everyone again.  We get to see family all the time when we come back, but the opportunity to see  all the people we met at weddings and other occasions are few and far between. 

I still haven't posted any pictures on the cloud yet, but I promise to get around to that today.  I think we're headed back out to Christine today to help Melanie and Ken with their arrangements.  There's talk of a 10 by 40 tent which needs to be set up.  Sounds more like a circus, perhaps we need a couple of elephants to help like the Ringling Brothers. 

Enough for now.  We may have to spend some time praying that the rain forecast for Sunday when Connor and Carley are having their party doesn't come until after midnight.