Busy Weekend

We rolled into town last night at about 8:30 after a weekend at Mom and Dad's for the Artisans Road Trip. They hosted a display of Dad's drawings, paintings, photos and other artwork in the "Crib Gallery", (their old, converted corn crib) on Saturday and Sunday. We took the opportunity to lead worship with our friend Amy Scheaffer (Amy Lu) in Sheldon since we were only 30 miles away.

In order to get us out the door in good shape, I left work early on Friday only to discover that Xander had come home with pink eye. He was unwilling/unable to open his eyes by the time we rolled out of town, but kept a pretty good attitude about the whole thing. When we got to the farm, we plopped Xander on the couch and let him listen to the TV for awhile. Rena and her girls got there a little later and by the time we all went to bed, the house was pretty much full.

Saturday morning we were set to rehearse with the worship team in Sheldon and got Xander and Maia settled in before we left. Rehearsal went well considering we threw a few new things at the team and had only worked previously with Amy Lu and that was years ago and in a completely different setting.

We got back to the farm, ate too much food and hung out with friends and family in the house and in the crib while the few patrons that braved the cool temps perused the art. Grandpa and Grandma Svaleson had come up from Fort Dodge and it was good to catch up with them some. Thankfully, Xander had opened his eyes while we were gone and was very active the rest of the weekend playing with Lexi. The show wrapped up around 5:00 and we continued with the feasting and family time into the night.

Sunday morning was a near repeat of Saturday in getting Maia and Xander up and dressed before driving to Sheldon. We had fun leading worship in a different environment and the team did a great job of remembering the things we had worked on the previous day. Their congregation is a young one in terms of how long the church has been around, but there was some great worship and we were blessed to be allowed to be a part of it.

We headed back to the farm for more food and family where Xander and Lexi continued to wear each other out while Maia fed the sheep, watched movies, napped and did other things that Maia does. The temps were a bit more favorable, as was the wind direction, and there were quite a few more folks at the show than the previous day. Jim and Marilyn arrived early in the afternoon, said "hi" to the kiddos, took Amy to Peterson to see another part of the Road Trip and then came back to hang out for most of the afternoon.

The show seemed to be winding down and we started trekking food back to the house at about 4:30 when my Uncle Marv and Aunt Shirley rolled in just before 5:00. They weren't the last visitors to arrive though as another car pulled up a short time later.

We had a good visit with Marv and Shirley over supper and were back on the road to Sioux Falls before 7:00. Xander fell asleep almost immediately and Maia was wired all the way home. We all got to bed in the hopes of recovering and reorienting ourselves to our routines. A birthday party in Mitchell for Chase and leading/interviewing at Mercy Church this weekend should keep us on our toes though. Normality will have to wait for another time.