This year our family had the biggest family Thanksgiving ever.  We usually have Thanksgiving attended by most of the family members and this year we had some extra people.  Compared with last year’s Thanksgiving dinner (just six of us) it was an afternoon full of food and fun. Everyone was able to gather on Thanksgiving …

Read more

How are you doing with your Christmas shopping?  Mine is in the usual state of doneness at this point in the season.  Meaning I buy what I know I want to give early and then keep adding to the stash as other things catch my fancy.  We don’t really do much Christmas shopping and we …

Read more

I first noticed the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit on Facebook when some of my friends attended the one in Cleveland.  Curious, I checked it out and thought it sounded like something interesting to do with my parents.  I wondered, however, about the logistics of getting us all to Cleveland and back.  So I was very …

Read more

On one of our adventure days, when Dad chose the adventure, we went to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary in Mansfield, Ohio.  None of us had ever been there so we didn’t know what to expect, but it was very interesting and impressive. The Ohio Bird Sanctuary was founded in 1988.  The Sanctuary originally operated from …

Read more

The first week Tom and I were back in Ohio, we had a Holmes County Adventure Day – just the two of us.  But we had so much fun, that we got Mom and Dad and went back to two of the same places for another Holmes County Adventure Day with them. Tom learned how …

Read more

Tom and I have been back in Ohio for about a month now.  We have been trying to do our usual catching up with everything and everybody.  We are now through most of the doctors’ appointments and have spent a lot of time with Mom and Dad and John and Jackie.  For some reason, it …

Read more

Tom and I love meeting new rangers at every park we work.  We work with full-time and seasonal rangers and like it best when we can find some time to hang out after work.  At Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Park we enjoyed some after-work dinners and some fun-filled game nights. Ranger Lisa was …

Read more

North Dakota’s history and development is inevitably tied to the Northern Pacific Railway.  Although North Dakota is “midwestern,” it was one of the last places to become a state in the contiguous US.  It only had enough population to become a state because of the Northern Pacific Railway. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave settlers …

Read more

Last week Tom and I drove north to see Writing Rock State Historic Site.  We had planned on going to Canada, driving up to Regina, but we ran out of time and didn’t want to deal with the proof of vaccination thing.  We are vaccinated but you have to register online and then Tom was …

Read more

I have been fascinated by the history of the Three Affiliated Tribes and the Fort Berthold Reservation ever since we came to North Dakota.  Fort Berthold Reservation is the closest reservation to us in North Dakota and I have been reading about its history all summer. The Three Affiliated Tribes are the Mandan, Hidatsa and …

Read more