Captain’s Log – Family Trips, Mochamoolattes, and Mischief

I am in North Dakota this week, and it isn’t even THAT cold. 

Why is everything so relative? Let’s be clear: the wind is howling at this moment, and I’m in a huge sweatshirt and a thick pair of sweats my kid let me borrow. So, at least I’m not freezing, but spring in this neck of the woods is a different sort of animal than we’re used to in the Lahontan Valley. 

We could say that it’s a real pretty day and that would be accurate. North Dakota does have a lovely Little House on the Prairie charm about it.

But the best thing is being able to spend the week with my little grandson, my big son, and his sweet wife. My sister, number five, and her family also live here, so we’ve been going on long walks across the prairie every day, collecting amber and quartz as we go. 

So far, there have been no hilarious stories of granny going end over end through the snowbank during this trip, and there is no ice fishing. Rhett and I have plans to walk to the Dairy Queen when he gets off the bus today and get some Mochamoolatte for Granny and whatever concoction he likes. 

He’s been going with my sister and me on our long walks, and he’s very entertaining. He has the non-stop eight-year-old chatter and does laps around us as we cover our miles. He also loves rocks but he’s more focused on finding skipping rocks so when we get to the little ponds he can show us his skipping skills. 

At one point, this sharp crack-zing stopped Susan and I in our tracks as we jumped and looked only to find Rhett excited out of his mind – he had been throwing rocks at the power lines above us and had finally, actually connected. He was so satisfied. And then, because he had figured out the trajectory, he continued his successful, nerve-jarring target practice for another half mile, serenading us with his zing-popping. 

The next morning, his mom, exhausted at the breakfast table, said he had come into her room at three a.m. complaining that his arm hurt, and she couldn’t figure out why.  Not sure she was super impressed with me when I explained our previous day’s activity while she did that same head shake my own mom used to do. 

So while I finish out the week out on the prairie, we’ll all be right here…

…Keeping you Posted.

Rach