Harvest time

I wanted to put a picture up of what we pulled out of our garden last week. I have been sharing the tomatoes and cucumbers with everyone at work. Traci has made 11 jars of salsa and is working on a batch of spaghetti sauce.

Hope all is well with you and yours!

Bill and Traci

... and the rockets red glare...

I have spent the 4th of July in many different places. Northern and Southern California, Arizona, Missouri, Kansas, Royals Stadium, foreign countries and now I can say I spent it in a very small Midwest town.

This past 4th of July, Traci and I spent it in South Dakota. We drove up on Thursday night to hang out with some friends in Centerville, population 910. Jeremy and Melissa invited us to come up a day early and attend the Centerville street dance. I had never experienced a street dance up to that point in my life and if you have not, I recommend you find one.

Where is all happens

We drove down the main street of Centerville to Don and Vonda's house. Don and Vonda are my BFF Jeremy's parents. Like most of the people we hang out with in the Midwest, they had a cooler full of beer waiting for us. We sat around and drank for about an hour before I began to wonder if we were going to head to the street dance. Jeremy said that most people stay at home until about 11pm and then walk down, after having grown up beverages.

Jeremy, Melissa, Traci and Me

So after a few beers, we started walking towards downtown Centerville. The event is open to everyone (even Melissa and Jeremy's 5 year old daughter Reagen) and is an area of downtown with a temporary fence built around it. There was a band playing some 50s,60s and 70s music and the volunteer fire department was transformed into a bar, complete with very affordable beer. I have never seen so many Miller Lite beers consumed in my life. We spent the next few hours, drinking, talking to everyone (Jeremy knew just about everyone) and dancing when the songs were good. By the end of the night, the ground was sea of empty Miller Lite cans.

The walk downtown

No small town would be complete without the General Lee

Traci and her BFF

Anyone want to dance

Looks like Melissa and Traci want to dance

As last call was sounded, the band wrapped up their last song, we made our way back onto the city's main street. We still had one more event to participate in to make the night complete. We headed to the only remaining place open, a cafe, and paid $8 for an all you can eat breakfast. The breakfast consisted of eggs, biscuits and gravy, orange juice, bacon and sausage. Once we finished our hearty meal, we made our way back to the house and crashed out as we had to get up early to go to a 4th of July parade in the city of Lennox.

Rock on

Morning came way too fast and my head was still foggy from the night before. We had breakfast (again) and headed to a city that was just a little bigger than Centerville where we met up with Traci's sister and her two daughters. I was really looking forward to the parade. I attended the 100th year celebration in Baltic, Traci's home town, a couple of years ago and was completely impressed with all of the huge tractors and fire trucks. I was hoping to see some of the same at this parade. Unfortunately, the only thing we saw were some older (antique) tractors, fire trucks from all of the surrounding community's volunteer fire departments and all of the people running for office in South Dakota. This parade was really made for kids as almost everyone who went by tossed candy.

At the Lennox Parade
The famous horned quad - the highlight of the 4th of July ParadeThe family

Once the parade was over, we headed North to Baltic to spend some quality time on the farm. The farm is in the middle of no where and has the Sioux River running right through the middle of their land. The weather was perfect and we were the only people around for miles. Nikki, Traci's sister, invited about 20 people to come over to eat, drink and shoot off fireworks. We had a full day playing Cornhole, drinking and hanging out. As night fell, the kids were getting restless and wanted to get down to business... FIREWORKS. The kids got their wish and lit off all the cool kiddie fireworks. Smoke bombs, tanks, firecrackers and several other bangy-boomy fireworks. Once the smaller fireworks were done, a couple of the adults went into the middle of one of the fields and shot off about 50 minutes of mortars and misc fireworks that blew up in the air. It was great, seeing everything up close and having our own little pyrotechnics display.

I enjoyed the display from the comfort of a chair with a drink in hand. Once everything was done, Dave, Nikki's husband, rode around on his quad to look for fires and ensure that we were clear to continue partying. While he was riding around, one of Nikki's friends let me know that she still had a big box of fireworks that needed to be set off. Needless to say, the fireworks crew didn't want any part of it. So, Rich, Dave's brother, and I volunteered to run the show. Did I mention that I had been drinking most of the night and had flip flops on or that the field that we were firing off of had just been plowed and was all uneven and soft? Now that you have that in mind, picture this: Two grown men in flip flops running out to the mortar tubes with punks (used to light the fireworks) and racing to see who could get theirs lit first. Once the fireworks were lit, we raced to the safety of the grass about 50 feet away. Repeat this about 20 times and you have a clear picture of the fun we experienced! I was a sweaty dirty mess by the time it was all said and done.

Once the fireworks were done, we lit a bonfire and sat around until the sun came up. I am not sure my liver can handle another 4th of July like that, but I am willing to give it a try.

You gotta love South Dakota!

Hope you had a great 4th!!

Bill and Traci

PARTY! PARTY! PARTY!

Yeah, that's right, I said Party!! The weekend of June 27th Traci experienced a birthday milestone. She turned 30 and we celebrated until the wee hours of the morning. As most of you already know, it is next to impossible to keep a secret from Traci so I didn't even try to keep the fact that I was throwing her a party from her. The party was supposed to be a dual-30's party but her partner in aging was unable to make it down from Rapid City, South Dakota. We poured a beer in B.J.'s honor.

B.J and Traci "Brain Brothers"

I managed to keep one small secret from her. Her Dad and Debbie were coming down with her sister and she had NO CLUE. I almost blew the secret when I told Traci that Nikki was about an hour away from the house. Once I said that detective Traci went to work: Where did she call from, how did she call, she doesn't have a cell phone, Dave wouldn't let her use his phone, was there someone with her her, what was the number she called from... She went on and on. I finally mumbled something about she might have borrowed a phone and walked out of the room. I am not a very good liar and she would have seen it in my face. :-)

Nikki and Traci

I invited a whole slew of people from all walks of life... School mates, family, friends, people she likes to hang out, ect. Jamie, her K.C. B.F.F, came over early on Saturday to help me decorate the house and ensure that there were some girly touches. I kept busy setting up the Bocce Ball court in the backyard, picking up the keg, food and birthday cake. It all came together nicely as the birthday guests started arriving around 2pm.

Hanging out on the deck

Jamie and I running the Bocce Ball court (I think)

As the night progressed, people milled about, drank beer, ate food and played games. Traci received one of the most unique gifts that night from Tommy and Craig. It was a chicken that hopped around and did the chicken dance. The only way to stop if from hopping around was to grab it by its neck and once you did this it did the most incredible thing. It gagged and choked until you let it go. I knew it was time to shut down the party after we were sitting around choking the chicken at 2am on the back porch. If you are wondering, yes, the chicken was just as funny the next day.

Evidence that she aged

Evidence that she still needs to grow up

She huffed and puffed

YEAH!! Cough Medicine

The chicken before we knew about the neck thinggy. 5 p.m

2 a.m. shutting down the dancing chicken


In honor of the brain brother who could not make it (B.J.)

For those of you who were able to make it out for the birthday celebration, we are thankful for you coming out. For those of you who could not, there will be many more.

Thanks and may your birthday celebrations be as memorable... without all the chicken choking.

To view all photos from the party, you can go here: Traci's Birthday

Bill and Traci

A reception made in Paradise

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Traci and I went back to California to celebrate our marriage with my family. My sister Cindy, Brenda, and my mother spent the past year planning to ensure that our visit would be memorable. The original plan was to have the reception at one of the local Indian Casinos; however, after some consideration, everyone agreed that it would be more intimate if we kept the guest list to about 50 and held it in Cindy and Jack's backyard. Several people contributed in many ways to make our special day unforgettable. Before I write anymore, I want to give a special thanks to the following people: Cindy, Jack, Brenda, My Mother, Liz, Christine and Aunt Belen.

The Vega Family

The Oberg's

Grandma Rose made it out for the event

Cindy did a heck of a job of keeping the guest list at around 50 people and had spent the last year getting in touch with friends that I hadn't seen in years (some as many as 15), close friends of the family and most importantly our relatives. It was great re-uniting with everyone and introducing them to my new bride... Even though the wedding was almost a year ago, I still consider us in the honeymoon phase. :-)

High school buddy Mike

As most of you know, I grew up not knowing my father. As a matter of fact, before the reception, I had only met him twice. Once when I was about 13 (I remember very little) and the other time was when I returned from Desert Storm where Cindy, Jack and I went bowling with him and had dinner. Since our visit, I have spoken with him about a 1/2 dozen on the phone. Cindy made contact with him and encouraged him to come up and see us. He came up a day early and we were able to spend a little quality time getting to know each other. I learned that I have 4 brothers and 1 sister somewhere in the Bay Area and that he is a very hardworking man who spent time as a police officer, beautician (he said he did this to meet chicks.. he met my mom) and has spent the better part of his life running his own janitorial business, Mr. Clean.

Me and my dad John

Mom, Me, Traci and John

In case any of you were wondering where I learned how to be a smart ass... well, I can now tell you that the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. He gave my mom the business his first night in town. :-)

On the day of the reception, Traci and I helped set up and readied ourselves for the exciting evening ahead. Everyone started arriving about 4pm and I had an incredible time getting re-acquainted and introducing Traci to all these special people. The night was perfect!! We had a catered BBQ dinner, Tiki lamps for ambiance, a keg of Dos XX and two beautiful cakes. Cindy had two cakes made, a carrot cake for me and a strawberry one for Traci.

Brenda testing the keg

Our cakes

Being very nice

The day following the reception, family members who had kids were invited back to and hang out with Traci and I and help eat the leftovers. We played some cards, opened gifts and lounged around trying to recover from the night before.

Jack cleaning up the last of the mess

We left Paradise a couple of days later with enough memories to last a life time!! Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us.

If you would like to see all of the photos, you can click on the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/traciandbill/ParadiseReception

Bill and Traci

Garden Update

I just wanted to throw up a few pictures of what the garden looks like now. The tomato plants are out of control. There are bunches of little green tomatoes on all of the plants and it is just a matter of time before they ripen and we can start to enjoy them.

The carrots

There is a cucumber in there if you look hard enough.

Our pride and joy :-)

It would appear that the rabbit got the better of the Peas and we will not have any this year. It might be worth it to plant them again next year to keep them from eating anything else.

Since we have already harvested all of the radish, we decided to plant a jalapeno plant and habenero.

Hope all is well with you.

Bill and Traci