On Sunday we had our Horizon Milling/Cargil Summer Family Picnic. This year our hole group spent the day at Valley Fair. We gathered for a buffet lunch at 2:00 and then spent the rest of the day enjoying the park. We played games and rode all the rides even the ones that went up really high. One of Dad's employee's wives t-boned Dad during bumper cars and Tabor won a big stuffed turtle playing a shooting game.

This weekend our small town Nicollet grows with the annual Friendship Days celebration. Tabor got to umpire 3 games to pick up some nice spending $. What are the odds the 2ND game he ump's was his father's team from Horizon Milling- Cargill. There was a little chatter toward the ump but Tabor did a great job and I'm sure he'll see more games in the future. As for Darin he smacked the ball pretty hard, it rolled under the fence and out of play so he only could advance to 2ND base. Tabor also got to work in the pits for the Demo Durby and Tanner and Dalton enjoyed the carnival rides and we ended the weekend with a great fireworks show.

When we were at Island of Adventure Mom decided we were going to have our character drawn just like Dad and Uncle John & Jason did back in the day. So does anyone see any resemblance?

The day we went to Sea World it was in the high 90's and very crowded. We tried our best to sit in the front rows hoping to get wet. It's changed a lot over the past 25 years we all agreed we didn't need to go back. Island of Adventure and Busch Gardens were our favorites.

Oh my goodness! I don't know how but this summer seems to be more busy than a school week during tournament time. 4 Baseball games, 2 basketball games and 1 football game each week makes for one tired set of parents. And to top it off for good measure we hosted a paint ball war for Tanner & friends which by the way turned into a sleepover. Sunday nights Tabor plays 2 back to back games at Adolphus Gustavus College in St.Peter. This is one fancy football stadium with great turf. During the half time Dalton and a buddy would go out on the field and try to make field goals. We hope to get the blog up to date over the next few days. Next week Tanner & Dalton are headed to U of M-Morris campus for wrestling camp. Coach Johnson just told us tonight he will be rooming with both the boys. Neither Tanner or Dalton seemed all that excited and just so you know Coach Johnson has 3 daughters and no boys. We should have some funny stories to share.

Wednesday evening we spent the night with our Cargil Family at a Butler Event. Butler is the company that Darin traveled to Switzerland to train with a couple of years back. Butler reps always bring us chocolate to take home. This year they took us to see Arabian Nights which is a dinner theater horse show. It was a fun evening away from the theme parks. Our friend Doug who is the facility manager in Texas needed to have his photo taken with the girl I meant HORSE.

Back to the vacation..... We found this awesome roller coaster call the HULK and it turned you GREEN doing loop after loop. We reached speeds of over 60 mph and your feet would dangle over the edge of the ride. This was one of our favorite rides at Universal Island Adventure Parks. And then Mom made us take our picture with every character that we would walk by. I guess Woody Woodpecker was a popular cartoon when Mom & Dad were young.

Happy 13Th Birthday Tanner James Elliott! Tanner has had a very busy year. Last summer was spent boating, spending a week at the lake with the whole Elliott family, Vikings training camp and summer baseball. Tanner is a 3 sport athlete in school, playing football on the 8Th grade team, as well as, the 7Th grade team, wrestling JV and Varsity(which he earned a varsity letter) and baseball this spring. He was elected Snow Week prince and got to go to his 1st school dance. As tough as it was for Tanner to leave his old friends in Campbell, he has made new friends and gained new experiences. His new friends and football team gave him a nickname last fall and it seems to have stuck with him. "Sooner" Sooner was the name of a football drill which involved hard hitting and everyone enjoyed the "big" man wanting to get physical. In wrestling it was a major challenge for the 83 pounder to put on 7 lbs for weigh in, because for varsity the minimum weight is 90 lbs. After a very "educational" winter, Tanner got his first victory in his last match of the year. School is not all about sports though, Tanner was also a member of the JH Knowledge bowl team, which comprised 7th, 8th and 9th graders. The team qualified for regionals, but missed advancing to state. Tanner was also on the B-Honor Roll. On the family hunting front, Tanner shot his 1st Canadian goose last fall and it was also his 1st year deer hunting, where he bagged a nice doe. Tanner had a wonderful 12th year and things are stacking up to make year 13 even more exciting. Happy B-Day Sooner!!!