Fun with Family

I loved the shocked look on my friend's face on the 4th of July when upon asking, "So did just your dad come down for the 4th?" And I told her, "my parents live in Bismarck now." In March of this year, my dad officially retired from the oilfield after 35 years, most of those years spent driving an 18-wheeler.

Shortly after his retirement, they officially became residents of Bismarck. In fact, their home is just down the road from my younger brother's place. They still have their land and their home in Watford City though so whenever my dad starts missing home, he can always go back to visit! They were blessed to have met some great people to rent their home out to who moved here from California to work in the Bakken.

Welcome to my parent's new place! (I made that sign when I was a freshman in high school!)

My youngest sister, dad and me on Father's Day.

Besides my parents moving here, my youngest sister also moved here from New Town. So now with the exception of an older brother in Montana and a sister in Nebraska, my whole family lives in Bismarck!

This past week, my sister came up from Lincoln, NE and my sister-in-law came out from Baker, Montana. My parents had a family get-together at their home this past weekend where I had a great time visiting with siblings, in-laws and aunts. I didn't see too much of the kids as the youngest four spent most of the time outside and the older ones hung out in the basement.

Family time

Our sister-only evening - supper at the Walrus!

Unfortunately, Faith wasn't up to seeing everyone at once so she and daddy stayed home from the get-together. I found it worked better to just have people come over to our place in smaller groups and to visit with Faith as we sat downstairs on the patio of our apartment complex.

This is our new nightly summer tradition - I come home, we have supper, we watch Wheel of Fortune then gather all of our stuff to spend the rest of the evening outside on the patio. It is practically dark outside before she wants to come back inside! I love this new tradition as it is so relaxing for me after a stressful day at work.

Faith with her cousins from Montana, Sydnee and Kenzie and auntie Amber

Faith with her funny cousins from Nebraska, Donnie and Preston

All in all Faith is having a great summer and we look forward to spending more time with family now that most of them live so close by!