This past week-end, our family loaded up the Dodge Durango and headed up to Kalispell for a family wedding.  Our niece, Karest got married to her boyfriend Kyle.  The wedding was a real nice outdoor wedding on the shore of Whitefish Lake.  Photos were a challenge because the sun was setting directly behind the bride and groom, across the shiny lake.  I was, however, able to catch a few nice ones.  The sunset afterwards was magnificent.  See photos of the wedding and sunset by clicking HERE.

The wedding was on Friday.  We were invited over for a barbecue at some

friends house on Flathead Lake.  Our hosts, Terry and Birdie, has a fire ring made of landscaping blocks, in their yard.  We had a great time cooking hot dogs over the fire, playing in the yard, and taking a walk down to the lake.  We went home tired and satisfied.  See photos of our picnic by clicking HERE

During our hot dog roast, actually while having smores, Ana said her tooth hurt.  We looked at it, and one of her molars was split in two. We were unsure as what to do, because we were going home the next day (Sunday) and Ana was to hop on the bus on Monday morning and head back up to Bible Camp.  We called the hospital, and they said we could come in and they would refer us to someone as they do not have dentists on call.  We then called our Dentist’s emergency line.  The Doctor himself answered the phone at his home.  We explained the situation to him; and he told us to give him a call about 15 minutes before we were to get to Helena on Sunday, and he would meet us at his office.  Wow! What service.

We got up bright and early Sunday morning, went to church and was getting ready to head out of town.  We started out, and before we actually got out of Kalispell, I noticed that our brakes were very mushy. I stopped at a gas station and checked the brake fluid; It was down a bit.  I bought a bottle of it and filled the reservoir.  I checked the brakes and they came up momentarily.  I had Carol push on the brakes, while I checked under the Dodge.  Brake fluid was spraying everywhere.  We ended up going back to Carol’s mom’s house and gave her brother a call. (The father of the bride that just got married.)  I pulled up the Dodge on some blocks and we crawled underneath.  The brake fluid was squirting out of the brake line about half way from front to back.  After some head scratching, we did some temporary repairs to get us back home with only front brakes.

Remember, we were supposed to visit the Dentist about 2:00 in the after noon, it was now past 1:00 and we were still in Kalispell.  We gave a quick call to the Dentist, explaining the situation, and headed out.  We arrived in Helena about 5:00 in the evening and met the Dentist.  He spent no time at all examining Ana’s tooth, extracted it, then sent us on our way.  We was very kind, and the kind of dentist we all should have.  We got home in time to finish packing Ana and Alia for Bible camp and get to bed.

Oh, it’s nice to be in our own beds! John

We decided not to go camping over Memorial Day weekend because we had several days of rain and cold weather.  See our posts from the past several days about this adventure to get filled in.  We usually plan a big meal for at least one evening while camping, so as not to miss out on anything, even though we stayed home, we still had our big meal.  We had barbecued chicken, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes.  Yum! It was all very good.

 We are substitute camping however, so we have to finish the meal off with something we would have camping…. S’mores.  How can this be done without a campfire?  Oh, the conveniences of home.  The good ole’ microwave oven was put into use.  If you have never cooked a marshmallow in a microwave oven, I dare you to try it.  The marshmallow puffs up very large and gets very gooey.  Through some experimentation, we came up with a time of about 15 seconds for the most delicious s’more.  It melts the chocolate perfectly and makes a nice gooey mess.  So, the next time, you need to do some substitute camping, try a microwaved s’more.  You will be glad you did.

We had our big meal with some friends that were supposed to go camping with us; and we were blessed to have Carol’s Mom and Brother come down from Kalispell for the weekend.  Friends, Family, and good Food for a fun Camp IN.  You can’t beat it.