Out to Vikings Training Camp!

And we are up early and out the door for the 1st day of Vikings training camp! The boyz have all there Sharpe markers and merchandise to be signed along with a couple of chairs to take with for the autograph lines. With the rumors of Farve coming to the Vikes the Mankato area is exploding with people. The street vendors have a big sale on the #4 jersey's! And then we still have all those nut jobs who show up wearing packer clothes and putting up cheese heads all over town. Stay tuned I'm sure we'll have a story or 2 to share.

And the End of the Season

This past weekend Dalton's dream team season came to an end. The boyz finished with a 2nd place trophy for the year. We were tied 1-1 until the bottom of the 8Th when Maple River pulled ahead. It was a hard loss to take but the boyz sure fought a good fight. We have officially moved on to FOOTBALL! The football cleats have been ordered and the Vikes will be in town in just a couple of days but.......no Farve! We should all say a prayer to the dog pound in the sky that we don't get VICK. The last thing we need on Mankato streets is P.E.T.A! Watch for next weeks posts from Vikings Training Camp as the ELLIOTT BOYZ will be reporting from each day of camp.

Smack ~n~Duck Golf Fundraiser

Today we had our fundraiser for Raider Wrestling. Amazing weather for a day at the golf course! Tabor and Darin won some drawings and Darin won a closest to the hole pin. All the boys worked for tips and helped load and unload clubs. So summer officially starts tomorrow after Dalton's baseball game. That means 2 weeks off before school starts. The boyz still have football practice 4 times a week but it will give us some time at the lake & training camp which starts on Thursday. Will we have Farve or Not?

Summer Harvest

The garden maybe short on Mother Natures rain but it is really starting to produce this week. We are getting a lot of broccoli & cabbage, peas, tomatoes and summer squash. We are still waiting for the sweet corn to ripen. It might be a bad sign that the mini pumpkins are already turning orange. Naturally all teenage boyz decide to joke around with the vegetables they just don't believe there mother will post the photo. Today we picked 8 head of broccoli & 4 heads of cabbage. Which we will use Grandma King's coleslaw recipe on! Friends of ours have a sweetcorn stand and they have invited the boyz to join them this year and sell veggies from our garden. The boyz will have plenty to sell with 60lbs of seed potatoes planted and 60 each of tomatoes,cabbage & pepper plants.

YaHOO!

Yahoo! Its back to normal at the ball park. Who knew how relaxing it would feel to be back at the ball diamond 4 nights a week. And this is the last week with playoffs and the tournament starting this weekend. Dalton had a hard time finding a ball to hit last night and they walk him. The boyz did a great job seeing some new pitches. We got rained out for tonight in Mankato but not a drop here at our house. I'm making everyone go outside and line up for a rain dance! The plants should not turn orange from the rust in the water from the sprinkler use!

A toast for you Great Grandma!

We gathered at the farm after the burial on Wednesday to raise our glass to honor Great Grandma Elliott. Around 47 family members toasted Grandma with stories and more stories. Some I had forgotten about but laugh every time I hear them. We had such a huge spread of food! Shorty you better email me that cowboy caviar recipe! She would have been so proud of seeing everyone all dressed up and looking good. And a big thank you and kiss to Becky & John and my wonderful husband who was able to get up and speak at the service. With Uncle John staying until Sunday that means Darin & the boyz will stay in ND for a few extra days. So that leaves me to do the running for the football fundraiser and the remote for the TV and Great Grandma's quilt.

Heading back to ND to celebrate Great Grandma

When we were getting ready to head back to ND for Great Grandma's funeral we made sure to pack her party favors from her 90Th birthday party. Everyone had to go give Great Grandma a kiss and in exchange you got a shot on Grandma. Well we had a few left overs from the party after Grandma took the brandy shots back to Bethany! We even found the shirts the boys made and wore to the party. Dalton will be wearing that on Wednesday in her honor.

My Great Grandma Elliott

Great Grandmother, A Beautiful Woman

Strong, beautiful woman, so peaceful and serene,You deserve to live in heaven and with Great Grandpa by your side. I can see him sitting at the table with the paper asking where have you been Evelyn? Life has dealt you plenty of cards, some winning, others bad. And my tides of tears have brought in waves of memories; both happy and funny most of them around the dining room table or on the phone, so wonderful and divine. Your speech is confident, your eyes are soft and your walk is hard and bold . Your laughter equals happiness, your heart contains love, and hides all those feelings some times you never told. Tired, beautiful woman, so patient and so calm, it's funny how you hold the family's members within your palm of your hand! For over 20 years it's one of the many thing you taught me how to do. The countless times you never told the boyz no and the numerous times you told me how proud you were of our family. With wrinkles, stress, and worn hands, tell me how your going to make me smile again? When you've traveled this long, endured all this pain, so collected and confident, I can't imagine a gift greater than you-your love is Heaven sent..Strong, courageous, gracious, blessed, and beautiful Great Grandma. And I can still hear you say countless times to me.......NOW Tamara you can do this.. it's up to you......Thank you Grandma for giving me your endless wisdom and I can't wait till my Grandma garden blooms again next spring.

Love Tamara

Well we thought Tamara was going to have the month of July off but it turns out she is needed back a school for a few more days. Besides a few days at school she has been getting some photo shoots in of family reunions, senior photos and kids. This week she has been up on round bales and in a pasture for dairy cows and in beautiful flower gardens. Next week she is photographing some hot rods and classic cars from someones personal collection. I think Tabor will want to go with that day. Here is just a couple of her snap shots.

Great Night at the BallPark!

The kids had a great game Tuesday night in Mankato. Both Tabor and Tanner hit some doubles and scored base runners a couple of times. We fell short 10-8 but the boys had a good time and made some great plays. We celebrated by going home and moving the sprinkler in the garden....Man do we need rain!

Behind the Plate!

With the heat and humidity returning this week Dalton has only been behind the plate for about 3 innings at a time. Last night he pitched the first 2 innings with 4 strike outs and then played 1st one inning and then went behind the plate to do his best work. Being the youngest brother helps you take a lot of flying baseballs. We return to the diamond tonight in Mankato for Tabor and Tanner's team hoping to find a win. The boys have busy days with all the work in the garden,painting and lifting weights for football practice keeps everyone pretty tired out.

3 YEARS AND COUNTING! Our new family tradition is a seafood boil on the 4th of July with Grandpa and Grandma Elliott. This year we feasted on shrimp, mussels, crab legs and crawfish. along with red potatoes, corn on the cob and artichokes. With over 10 bs of seafood alone it was absolutely amazing how quickly it disappeared. The meal was followed by a fireworks show, provided by Grandma E and the great state of ND. The boyz were busy for just over an hour putting together a fine fireworks display and at 11PM Grandma and the boys lit a "hot air ballon" lantern and set it free into the night sky in support of our troops. It was amazing to watch it float away into the sky and we lost sight of it when it was well over 2 miles away in the night sky. 3 weeks of baseball left, then summer begins. No sports from July 26th till Aug 17th. Better get the boat running.

Happy 4th of July !

We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 4th of July!

Big Bats

Well we are back at the ball park 4 nights a week. The boyz have finally found the sweet spot on the bat. Tabor just cranked one Tuesday night in Mankato. Tanner has been making good connects at his at bats too. Dalton had 2 nice triples last night in Lake Crystal and pitched 2 strike outs in 1 inning.