Family and KFC

The lovely Johnson sisters pictured here are Delores Rybak and Marian Anderson. Marian is Bob's mother. Delores is his aunt; when our kids were little, Delores and Chuck, her deceased husband, would invite us to visit at their house on Pelican Lake. What pleasant memories they gave our young family of days fishing and swimming and watching boat parades and fireworks over the water! Today we had a family gathering in the party room at River Oaks in Anoka, where Marian lives. Delores and her son Les flew from the Tallahasse area to visit her son and daughter-in-law Dave and Heidi in Wisconsin. Today the four of them and Les and Dave's cousin Judy Rybak and her husband Alan Yarwood drove from Wisconsin to visit family in Minnesota. We were fortunate to spend a few hours with them and Bob's sister Gaynelle and her husband Mike Erickson for a late lunch and a fun visit.I made the cousins pose together for posterity. From left to right are Bob, Les, Gaynelle, and Dave. (Sorry I don't know how to crop pictures on the blog. Somebody able to give me a lesson?)
Pictured left to right below are Heidi, Judy, and Alan. You might notice Bob in the background for a second or third trip to reload his plate. In addition to the KFC chicken and coleslaw, we had three salads, two desserts, and soda pop. Thanks to all who brought food. BURP!! (Excuse me. Sorry.)
After the get-together, I made a trip to St Paul to bring some of the leftovers to Ginger's family, and so say so long for a few days. I just had to see how Janice has changed in the past few days and to see if I could get some pictures of her with her eyes open. SUCCESS! Being an evening, Gerald was home, so I snapped some pictures of him with the girls. Kayla is always happy to be in pictures, and loves to be with her new little sister.
I LOVE the smile on Gerald's face in this last picture. Every baby should have a father who feels this way about him or her. Perhaps Janice looks a little punchy, but hey, I was glad to finally get pictures of her with her eyes open.
All in all, it was a successful picture day, as I was able to avoid being in any of the pictures myself. I DID have my hair in order and some (not a full complement of) makeup, so it's okay with me if Les and Judy got pictures of me. I only hope they were simply head shots, since makeup can't do anything for any other part of me.


Bob and I are taking four days to go to Nauvoo, IL, to visit some LDS historical sights. In its time, Nauvoo was larger than Chicago, its citizens mostly members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed and the body of the church was driven out by persecutors in the 1840s, one of the many valuable things they left behind was a newly completed temple. It was burned by enemies of the church and eventually, most of the stonework from the original temple was carried off. Today, the LDS Church owns many restored buildings from that era and the temple has been rebuilt, and functions again as a House of the Lord. We plan to attend a couple of endowment sessions.


After our return, we look forward to being at the Halloween parades in Anoka. Friday will be the parade of the elementary school children. Seems like such a short time ago our kids were marching with their schoolmates in their costumes! Now we get to see some of our grandchildren doing the same thing. Ah, the circle of life! Then Saturday afternoon will be the big parade, complete with floats, horses, clowns (the freakiest part, if you ask me), Tootsie Rolls flung to the crowd, visiting community royalty, police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, Shriners, Vulcans from the St Paul Winter Carnival, Minneapolis Aquatennial royalty, Scout groups, and BANDS. MARCHING BANDS!! The best part for me.