Hunting, Birthday, Thanksgiving

We spent 10 days in South Dakota around Thanksgiving. I prefer not to post where we aren't (home) when we aren't there. So, this is a "back post" of sorts.

A few people were commenting about how nice it was for us to make it home for Thanksgiving. The honest truth of the matter - we were home for Darren to hunt. The truth hurts. Sorry guys - you are important to us, but it takes 3 tags to make the trip worth it. (Just kidding, of course we came home to see family!!!)

Darren's hunting was a big reason we did pick Thanksgiving as our "vacation" home. He was getting three deer one way or another, even if they were just fawns. He went hunting with Roy, a friend of his family's, one day and came home with a Whitetail doe. The next hunting trips were with his brother, Brad. He shot one Muley buck, then turned and shot a Muley doe. THREE TAGS - FILLED! The buck was his biggest yet. He is having it mounted. I think we shall consider that his birthday gift from me. Don't you agree?? We spent his 35th birthday evening cleaning deer. It was the first time I had ever helped anyone clean a deer. I was afraid the smell would get to me, but I did just fine. I think I am a bit more thorough than Darren is though. Thanksgiving morning we cleaned up the last deer, with Roy's help. Thanksgiving was also our 10th anniversary. Darren gave me 4 bags of Dove Chocolate and 2 rolls of Mentos. Couldn't have gotten a better gift. The boys watched the parade in the morning, we ate a HUGE lunch with Darren's family (minus his sister Sally and niece Emma), then vegged the rest of the afternoon.Friday morning we drove up to my parents' house for a late Thanksgiving get together. Everyone in my family was present with good spirits. It was a great day. We ate and played games and teased each other. Wonderful memories!! We also had the "Second Annual Bestgen Family Dart Tournament". We drew numbers and paired up for some GREAT games. There are some serious dart throwers in our family! I was teamed with Andrew. We named our team "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb". For those of you who are curious - I was Dumb. Dirk had to sub for me on one of the games, so we included him on our medals.
For both tournaments I have made medals for everyone who played. This year we had 7 teams. We came up with cute names for the different places. First place - braggin' rights, second place - So close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, etc.. I liked 4th place which was "Stuck in the middle with you." Obviously from the picture, Andrew and I took 5th place. Not last, but not in the upper teams. Last year I was partners with Darren and we took 1st, undefeated. This year Darren was paired up with Paul. They took 1st, undefeated. Needless to say - Darren is the sought after teammate for next time!

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Saturday we played more darts, just for fun, and ate leftovers. We emptied the totes full of gifts we brought and filled back up with gifts from others. Then we ate leftovers. Darren did a bit of shopping for Christmas with Brech. Did I mention we ate leftovers? Then we played more darts. Most of the family headed to a wedding reception for a good friend of the family. We babysat Sarah and Rebecca, played darts and ate more leftovers.

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Sunday we went to church and headed back to Darren's parents' house. We loaded up the trailer and got on the road. Darren was determined to beat the freezing rain that was headed toward Minnesota. We drove from Mike and Linda's all the way to Albert Lea, MN that night. Of course it took us until Midnight. We missed the freezing rain and made decent time. We were home before dark on Monday and had time to unload, put away and organize most of the things out of the totes and coolers.

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The vacation was fill of fun, stress, food and family. I am actually glad we aren't going to South Dakota for Christmas. I'm ready to stay home with my own family, our own issues and not so much food! :)

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Happy LATE, late Thanksgiving!!!