Congrats Beautiful Bachlorette Kristin!

Hi Everyone! This past weekend Jenn and I hosted a Brides Luncheon and Bachlorette party for Jenn's best friend Kristin Keckler. She has been a part of our lives since the Keckler's and us threw the kids together when they were babies, and has always felt like a second daughter to us. She is a kind and wonderful girl and we are so happy she has found a great guy like Dave to be happy with for the rest of her life! They are to marry on Sept 13th but before she can do that we had to party! We started at the Fireside for a brunch complete with Mimosas and salad, and a great video of Kristin and Jenn at their first t-ball game! The video made everyone laugh as much as I do everytime I view it! Then we went to the lake to enjoy the beautiful weather on the pontoon. It was great - as you can see. Briggs even went swimming as he never gets very far from his "mother"! The pic on the deck is of Kristin's bridemaids, including from left, April Brorson, Kari Wosick, (Kristin), maid of Honor Jenn, and Danelle Tate. Reluctantly we had to get off the pontoon to get all dolled up for the Limo that was picking us up at 6pm. We went bar hopping around the lakes area and everyone had a great time! There were three generations of Brorson's there with Jeanet (Kristin's grandma) and Julie (her Mom and my best friend) in attendance! It was great to see and Jeanet had no trouble keeping up! Just the opposite in fact - she put most of us younger ones to shame!! I HAD to play the Mother Hen at our last stop (The Hotel Shoreham) about 1:00 AM rounding everyone up. (The limo driver insisted we go home - huh 7 hours for the price of 6 - you have a problem with that?!?!?) It was quite a chore as the place was packed and just as two or three would board the bus - three or four more would disappear!! Whew - I managed with just a little pushiness (not being a bitch mind you - just forceful - Ha!) and we were home by 1:30 am. Wow - what a day! It was wonderful and I hope the beautiful Bride had a day/nite to remember! Lots of great stories to tell and re-tell! I dropped my camera while the bride to be was opening presents or I would have some great pics to share from the limo - maybe thats a good thing???

The next day the blurry eyed troops went home and I spent the day being a lazy bum - enjoying the weather again. It was such a nice day, but I was so tired I drove home fairly early afraid I would have a hard time keeping my eyes open later in the day! Great weekend - lots of fun! Have a great week everyone!

Vacation Report

Yes dear family and friends - today was back to work and the only saving grace is we have the new bank to look forward to or else I may have cried all the way to work!! We had a wonderful 4th and a great vacation at the lake! The 4th was so much fun with all the family around and the weather was perfect. Our weeks vacation started out rainy, but Greg caught some fish off the dock and Billie and I went to do a little shopping and lunch. We had a great day and a few purchaes were made! Billie had the week off too so we got to spend alot of time together - it was great! Tuesday we had the family over for supper and Greg cooked kabobs on the grill - Bil and I did the prep work and he got most of the credit. Usual. They were great non the less. Wednesday Greg graciously let me stay at the lake while he went to the farm to mow. (Thank you, Thank you!) I had the best day laying in the sun, reading, washing a few clothes and playing with Riley. It was marvelous and the best weather day we had! As you can see, we became "God Damn Tourists" on Thursday (which was also our 32nd anniversary) and went to Walker MN for Moondance Jam. We saw the biggest Muskie (hey kid, where's the big fish??) the ugliest Paul Bunyun, the town famous for the Taste of Dorset but there was absoultely nothing open or to see there, and basically the lakes area we never see because we rarely leave the DL area. We had a great time. We found a great little bar made out of a classic boat that was so cool. There was a roof over the middle and a patio around it. We are pretty sure it is a million dollar idea and we could call it Ivan's Boat Bar. (Greg's nickname in college) We are sure it would be a huge success, but we would need to open it on a beautiful island in the Carribean to make it work! Any interested investors our there?? Greg also taste tested a "loaded Corona". The waitress picked him - he took a drink from a regular Corona and then the bartender poured a shot of Bacardi Limone in the bottle. He said it was pretty good until it got warm and then not so good. He also reported he could feel it pretty strong after just one! Dangerous! We took a bus from the casino to the concert site. It was much smaller than We Fest, and we saw the bands: Hairball (interesting costumes, bad music) The Guess Who (excellent again - love their music) Sammy Hagar (by far the best showman and best music, excellent) Boz Scaggs (old, slow, and boring music) and Crosby, Stills, and Nash ( again, slow and boring, and by the time they played a song we liked it started to rain and we left) Many gallons of vodka and beer were consumed by the four of us and we poured ourselves into bed after a much needed supper break at about 1:30 AM. Whew! Friday was a resting day, and then Kim and Dave Jones came to visit. Dave just came home from a 5 1/2 month service in the army. It was great to see them both and we had a wonderful time! The weather on Saturday was horrible - the wind was crazy - we did some driving around and visiting cause it was just to crummy to be on the lake! They provided us with a great steak supper that evening! Our kids came over earlier too and surprised us with a beautiful anniversary present. Its a board picture that says Welcome to Munson Lake with a pic of an old fashioned boat and it also says "The Barkers" in the middle. It is so cool and I have wanted one ever since we moved in. They special ordered it and really surprised us with it!! Thanks Andrew, Jenn, Meagan, and Mike and Jack! We love it! The pic of Shannon is after her first day at the hospital in DL. She is doing a shadow/intern type thing. 3 weeks of it - and she is staying at our house while she is there. It was so fun to hear her stories and see her in her white coat. So cool and yet hard to believe our little Shannon is close to becoming a doctor!! Ok I'm sorry abut the screwy pic formation - I did this on my new laptop for the first time and am having trouble movin the pictures around. Getting tired now and have to go to bed!!

Well - that is the vacation report - hope you enjoy the pics! I am counting the days until we can go back to the lake! I never get tired of it! Take care everyone!

Happy 4th! Happy Vacation!

Hi everyone - reporting from sunny Munson Lake - a great day on the 4th with some of the most beautiful weather I can remember for the 4th of July. A very successful Munson Boat Parade! Our record (we think) is 17 boats and we had 15 this year! We had a wonderful spread of food at the cabin after some water fun and then came here for some games and fireworks. Kim, Kimberly and Sean Gowenlock along with Aunt Jo of course were here, and Sean was having so much fun helping to blow things up! Jenn and Mike stopped over too and She was also very entertaining!! The kids had given Greg a Bean Bag toss game for Fathers Day and we played it for quite a while! After 50 years I have finally found a game I am reasonably good at! Ha! Anyway - I held my own and Jenn and I beat Greg and Mike so that was fun!! The fireworks show was GREAT as usual and a good time was had by all. Billie and I went shopping today at Summerhill Farm by Park Rapids and then back to DL. It was a very nice day and we had a great time. It has been spitting rain today and even one pretty good shower but now the sun is out so we hope it stays that way for the rest of the week!! For the 1st time since we bought this place Greg finally wet a line and caught a good supply of sunfish for some appetizers! Can't wait! He's pretty happy we our done with our major "projects" around here for now and this week he can relax alot! Have a great week everyone and I will post some pics from our vacation later!