Bonus Round

I love holiday weekends. Just knowing we have an "extra" day is awesome! If we allow ourselves, it can be a bonus day to do whatever we want -- guilt-free -- and leave the chores and To Do lists for another day.

I did it. And I loved it!

To prepare, of course, I did my "Saturday morning" chores of vacuuming, sweeping, dusting last night just so I could start off the day guilt-free. That's not as easy as it sounds. But when I do it, it feels awesome!

It was nice to start out the day with 8 hours of sleep. There's a bonus right there. Carter and I had a mission this morning. We were going to hit the Adams Flea Market first, then the Lake Arrowhead Arts & Crafts Fair, then head up to Rosholt for a parade at noon. It didn't sound that ambitious when we planned it, but now that I see it written, it makes sense that we didn't exactly accomplish this.

Part of the fault was getting that 8 hours of sleep. We did not hit the road as early as we hoped. So we grabbed breakfast on the road. Carter got his glazed doughnuts and Mommy got her cinnamon roll and coffee. Perfect.

When we got to Adams (a half hour south), we couldn't believe the crowd compared to that Sunday afternoon we trekked down there. Not only were there tons of shoppers, but every possible vendor space -- and then some -- was taken. We managed to find the 2 items we were looking for and then only had about 20 minutes to browse -- and that was taking into account that we'd for sure have to skip the Arts & Crafts Fair.

We made the most of it but we were kind of bummed. There were too many useless, senseless cluttering objects that we never got to even look at, let alone buy and bring home to take up space. We may have to go back. (I joke about it, but Carter says, "Oh you and Dad aren't working Monday? I've got an idea what we can do. Adams Flea Market!") We'll see...

We hit the road in time to pick up our friends Christine and Nate in Rapids on our way up to Rosholt (about 45 minutes to the northeast ... yes, we put on some miles today). We got to the little village of 548 with 5 minutes to spare. Surprisingly, there was a huge crowd and the parade itself was great! Very long, about an hour or, as we measure things, "3.8 pounds worth of candy" long.

The reason we were up there was that my nephew Colin was in the parade with his Super Late Model race car. So I took some pictures of that for him and one of his racing sponsors. On a side note, Colin is having one heckuva weekend. The parade was just a teeny highlight. As of last night, since races were canceled, his season at Golden Sands wrapped up and he was the Super Stock champion! Very cool. Tonight, just for giggles, I guess, he raced in Marshfield and won the Super Stock feature race there. Awesome!

So back to Rosholt.... After the parade, which is held in conjunction with the county fair, we decided we should go get some "fair food" for lunch. First the boys went on a handful of rides. Then there was a quest for cheese curds, but they were apparently sold out. Dang. So Carter had a BBQ pulled pork sandwich and I had to settle for chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick. Oh the sacrifices we must endure...

Got back to town about 4 and got a few groceries. Jim spent the day up in Marshfield doing some family tree work at the library, then visiting an aunt and uncle on the way home, so he had a good bonus day, too.

Tonight, after he went to church and I survived a 5-mile run (cheesecake, be gone!), we played the Bustola dice game. What better way to wrap up our extra day than to let Daddy win so he could have some fun this weekend, too. Oh the sacrifices... Whoops, I already used that line!

Guess I need another bonus day to come up with some new material!