A Mostly Great Weekend

I'll get the bad news out of the way first so we can be angry, mourn and then move on... My Vikings are now 0-3. Ugh. After leading by double digits at the half, they let the Lions - THE LIONS! - come back to tie the game and then win in overtime. In case you aren't up on the news, they broke the NFL record for such outcomes - a record they held after last week's 2nd "leading by double digits at the half only to lose the game" loss. I think they've been outscored in the 2nd half by approximately 61-6 in 3 games. And don't get me started on the sudden-death rule in football... it stinks and should be rewritten. Here endith the Sunday afternoon pity party...


Saturday - typically a much better day of the week than Sunday anyway - was the highlight :)



Jeff, Grace and I drove up to Duluth this weekend to attend our 3rd kemem in the past 4 weeks. Maddy turned 1 year old and all the RMI families showed up to celebrate.

 

Happy Kemem, Maddy!

Maddy's mom and dad did an incredible job pulling together various Marshallese customs together with a good old American birthday party. I have to give a specially call out to the birthday cake. Decorated in a Marshallese theme (palm trees, flip flops, Marshallese handicrafts), it was maybe the best tasting cake I've ever had... ever!

 The top layer of the cake was made to look like a Marshallese basket filled with jewelry and flowers.

We cast off at 1:00 - yup, a boat ride on Lake Superior - and went, well, I don't really know. I was too busy chatting  with folks and trying to get some photos of the girls. All too soon we were back at the dock saying our goodbyes. A handful of us decided to walk around the area and finally went into Grandma's for a bite to eat. We were seated adjacent to the area where the band was set up. After their break, they returned to play a few more polkas and the two older girls were digging it. Esme was fascinated by the tuba. The tuba player noticed her standing directly in front of him staring so he'd occasionally bend over and blat right at her. Very funny! Here they're sitting with Janelle listening to some polka.

ooom-pah-pah! ooom-pah-pah!

While the drive up and back was long, it was well worth it. We look forward to many more celebrations and just regular old get togethers with the RMI families.