A Good Night for a Bonfire

This past weekend, Ryan and I drove back to Minnesota to visit with family. Hillary and her Ryan drove down from Duluth and we all spent Friday night through Sunday at my parents place. Ryan and I got in late Friday night - around 10:30ish or so. My mom was making chex mix {love the smell of that stuff} and we all just sat around relaxing. We watched Hillary and Ryan's wedding slide show, talked about their wedding and then watched several video clips from the big day. We laughed and laughed and laughed. I'll eventually post some on here when I get a few. It was 12:30 am before the majority of us decided to hit the sack. And by majority, I mean everyone but the two Ryans. They took their party outside and sat in the garage, drank a few beers and I'm sure my Ryan played with the cats a lot, until 3:30 in the morning!! My Ryan was even nice and didn't wake me up when he came to bed. Normally he'd stick a cold foot or hand on my leg or back to spring me from my slumber. But he was nice and let me keep sleeping.

Saturday morning, I slept in. It felt so good. I love being able to sleep in, more so now than ever since residency started. Once we were all up, we ate breakfast and the Ryans went outside to change the brakes on Ryan C's truck. My mom, Hillary and I went in to visit my grandparent's. They are doing well. I love being able to visit them :-) We brought in some flowers from my mom's garden as well. My mom brings my grandma fresh cut flowers quite often throughout the summer. I hope that when I have kids, they turn out to be just like my mom :-) Who doesn't love fresh flowers?!  Friday night there was talk about making a spud launcher. This discussion goes back a few months and ever since then I think that the Ryans have been dreaming of sending potatoes launching through the valley! After we got back from my grandparent's house, we drove to the St. Peter hardware store to see if they had the necessary parts for this activity. No such luck so no spud launcher this time around. But there is talk about building one the next time we get together. Boys will be boys and to tell you the truth, I think my dad is excited with the spud launching extravaganza as well!

Saturday evening we had a bonfire. The weather was gorgeous out. Fall is here! The guys worked on starting the bonfire while mom, Hillary and I got dinner together for a picnic by the bonfire. This was my kind of picnic - lasagna, salad, french bread and fresh strawberries all up by the fire.

Here's everyone chowing down. This picture cracks me up! Between Ryan C and my mom's I'm-in-the-middle-of-chewing smile, it makes me laugh! We had a good time.

Mr. Oliver decided he was going to join us.

The llamas were wondering what we were all doing on their territory.

L to R: Cora, Quita, George, Tres and Mocha. Cora and George don't look too happy that I'm taking their picture.

Overlooking my parent's house. I love this view over the valley, it is so pretty! {Hi Cora!}

Llama butts! All the llamas were watching Hillary and Ryan walking up the hill.

I'm bummed this picture turned out blurry :( Once Hillary and Ryan got to the top of the hill, Ryan stuck his hand out as Tres came to see what he was all about. Just as this picture was being taken Ryan said "Is this thing going to bite?" as he quickly moved his hand away and Tres turned and bloated. Then Ryan said "Or will is just spit on my!" Then he made a big spitting noise. This might be one of those had-to-be-there moments but it was rather funny.

After dinner, Hillary and Ryan took their dogs back down to the barn {Wiggles kept wanting to attack Oliver} and the llamas were all intently focused on what was going on.

Another view from the top pasture.

The newlyweds.

After dinner, my mom went to grab the ipod player and brought Sophie back with her.

Sophie was super excited {to say the least} to be coming up to the bonfire. She ran and ran and ran and ran.

Here is the crew and the bonfire on top of the hill.

View down to my parent's deck, garden and sauna.

The men started a pretty good fire.

Mom, Sophie and Ryan enjoying the bonfire.

This old rusty shovel has been up by the bonfire pit for years and years.

We messed around with the settings on my camera to catch the detail of the fire :)

Just relaxing by the fire while the two Ryan's went to St. Peter to get ice cream from the Dairy Queen :)

Mom and Papa

Action shot of me tending the fire.

Mom and Mr. Oliver

Isn't he cute?! Don't let the cute face fool you, he has a bad temper some times. If you are petting him and you stop when he doesn't want you to stop, he'll try to bite you or will swat at you or try to trip you as you walk away. He can be pretty temperamental!

We had a pretty good fire and bed of coals going.

Ryan and I enjoying the nice weather and fire.

We all decided to call it a night after the Ryans got back from DQ and we ate our ice cream. We ran a hose all the way up to the top of the hill so we didn't have to carry buckets of water.

Ryan's being a good boy scout and preventing forest fires.

After the fire was out and the four-wheeler loaded up with all the chairs, the two Ryans jumped in and headed back down. My mom, Hillary and I all took the short {and steep} path back down. My mom went first with the good flashlight to go shut the water off. Hillary was next and she had the hose with the leak sprayer attachment. I brought up the rear with the camera case across my chest, a grocery bag with the leftover strawberries, plates and napkins over one arm and a second grocery bag with the Bose ipod player over my other shoulder. I had a flashlight as well {I grabbed them when I brought the other leftover food back into the house earlier as I didn't want to step in llama poop at the end of the night - I wanted to be prepared} but my flashlight either had a dying battery or a bulb that was on its last leg as it pretty much only gave off a little glow. Well, half way down the hill, I ran into a pile of mud {at least I'm calling it mud because the other alternative is a pile of llama poop} and slipped through that. I managed to not wipe out! I was proud of myself. Just as I was going down the steepest part of the hill to meet the actual road that goes to the top of the hill, gravity took over and I started pretty much running down the hill with all of this stuff around my arms and body. Well, unfortunately, my little flashlight didn't keep up with the running and right before I hit the road, my foot took a nasty little turn in a little crevice and sent me tumbling. I must say that I was able to gracefully do a rolling land, and I kept everything I was carrying {mainly the Bose ipod player and my camera} safe. But there I was laying on my back, with excruciating pain in my right foot. Beside the pain, my first thought was "oh crap, I've probably landed in a pile of llama poop!" LOL!! Good thing, no pile of llama poop below me, I lucked out! But my foot hurt like none other. Hillary was the first to come to my rescue, followed by the mom. As my mom approached the situation {after asking if I was laughing or if I was really hurt}, she heard me telling Hillary not to move me.  I didn't want to move since my foot was in so much pain. So, when my mom heard me say that to Hillary, she thought I had broke my back. LOL. I laid there as they got all the extra appendages off of me. I laid there some more. I finally was able to get up and hobble inside, still thinking to myself, "Thank goodness it wasn't my ankle!"  Ryan thought it would have made for a better story if I landed in a pile of poop. Yeah, he may be right, but I'm glad it didn't happen. At least I can walk since it wasn't me ankle but the middle of my foot still hurts :( Looks like Ryan will be the one driving back down to Omaha {hehehe}.

~Ashley