Calling All Hunters!

Here are the plans for this coming weekend as I know them. Anna and I are driving out to Dix on Thursday. Frank will fly in Thursday night. Jake and Scott and Kelli will also arrive sometime Thursday night. John and Joe plan to drive out on Friday. They all plan to hunt Friday and Saturday. So anyone who can join them, please plan on it. They said the more hunters the better.

Hope we get the chance to see as many of you as possible.

GO BRONCOS!

First of all, Congratulations to Tina and Craig. Everybody looked so nice.

Just to update everyone, for Arron's 16th birthday, we flew to Denver to attend a Broncos game. We had a great time. On Friday, we took the rail downtown, where we ate at The Cheesecake Factory. After dinner, we walked around a bit, spending most of our time at the ESPN Zone. For those of you that don't know, the ESPN Zone, is a bar/restaurant with arcade games. It's a pretty cool place, for those sports enthusiasts they even have TV's with sports on in the restrooms.

On Saturday, we took the rental car and decided to go on our own little adventure. We started out by driving west into the mountains. We drove to Black Hawk and to Central City, which are both casino towns. We drove through Loveland Pass, which goes pretty high up into the mountains. Then we drove through numerous small towns, eventually making our way back south of Denver to stop in Castle Rock where we did a little shopping at the outlet mall there.

On Sunday, we met up with Jake, Scott, Kelly, JJ, and Jonathon at a pizza place/ bar downtown called Old Chicago. From there we hopped in Scott's truck and headed to the stadium. As we were walking to the stadium to see the big game, Scott and Jake offered Arron and I their seats, in exchange for our seats. So instead of watching the game from the third tier up, we watched it nine rows from the field. THANKS AGAIN JAKE AND SCOTT!!!!!!! It was so much fun, I'm thinking this will be one birthday Arron will never forget.

P.S. Sorry Jake, but I just had to post the picture of the boots you wore to the game. :-)




--posted by Cheryl

New Pics

Here are some new pictures of Trae. Some of them are actually a few weeks old but i have been a little tardy putting them on the blog. Trae is starting to make a lot of noises and has even started to giggle a little bit. He is going to go as a bumble bee for halloween so im sure there will be plenty of pictures to follow. Being we forgot our camera at home, i can not put the party pictures from tinas wedding on here. my moms camera has some of them along with tinas friend. so in due time im sure you will all see how much fun we REALLY had. We missed Trae a lot and i dont think we could have made another day without him. It was a great time although my body begged to differ. if there was such thing as a total insides replacement, i would have gotten it done immediately. well enough about us, i know the real reason most of you are here. bring on the pictures:

Who wore who out? (This picture was actually about a month ago)

Trae on his changing table, this is his favorite spot in the house and we are not sure why

Hanging out in his bouncy chair in his Titan red and white

Trying to figure out exactly what is going on

One of our favorite pictures!!!

His first halloween outfit, the butt tells a story in itself

In his play gym having a good ol' time

He burps best sitting up, but if hes tired it doesnt matter, its bedtime!!!

Grandpa Riehl must be asking telling him about his high school dating years

Dad and Trae

--Posted by Todd

Viva Las Vegas - the Fisher/Johnson Wedding

Our family at reception
Todd & Trista - just happy to see their baby.

Pat & I escorting Tina down aisle - sorry it is dark
Tina and Craiug - again it is pretty dark here!!
Pat & I Tina & Craig
Craig's Family
The Cake

Craig & the minister that officiated

Well I am going to try my hand at this blog again. The wedding went wonderfully. I will try to post some pictures when I am done telling you what a great time we had. We all met at the Bismarck airport Friday - our plane left at 12:00. There were 22 of us on the plane, 6 more would be joining us in Vegas. The flight went well and we arrived on time and ready to see the sites. We had all planned to go downtown that evening. Craig's sisters and their families had never been to Vegas, neither had Craig, Trista or Tori (Traci's boyfriend) We got down just in time to see the light show and then everyone kind of found their own things to do. Slowly everyone made it back to the Imperial Palace (the Casino where we all stayed and where the wedding was) and I think we were some of the first one's to turn in, and that was 2:00 AM. Saturday, Todd,Trista and Pat & I went out to see some of the Casino's Tina and Craig and most of the others spent some time at the pool before having to get ready. The wedding was at 4:00 and we needed to be at the chapel by 3:45. It was very nice the chapel was a nice size and the minister - a woman was just great. The vows she used were so appropriate for Tina and Craig - you would have thought she knew them for a long time. Pat & I escorted Tina down the aisle. Traci was her maid of honor and Craig twin brother Greg was the best man. The ceremony was short, but very nice. After, they took pictures and we got one of each of the families as well as a picture of everyone in attendance - it was great. Tina & Craig got to pick out there pictures the next day & they really got some nice shots. Then we made our way to the reception room - it was on the same floor but a ways away. They had a finger food buffet that was wonderful and full all night long. There was champagne for the toasts and cake. We had the room for 6 hours and I really wasn't sure everyone would stay around that long but we did. We danced and drank and just had fun. It was great to be able to meet and enjoy Craig's family and friends also. About 10:00 we went back up to the casino and at some point I went with the kids to an outdoor club next door to dance & drink some more. I finally went to bed at about 6:00AM Pat had been smart & went up about 2:30, needless to say - I was not feeling the greatest the next day. Nobody was really moving to fast. Todd, Pat, Keith, Trista & Dawn got up & went over to a huge sports bar in the Hilton to watch games and later in the day we all met and did some more Casino hopping - site seeing. All in all it was an exhausting, but great trip. Out plane left Vegas at 7:00 AM Monday so we were up at 4:00 to meet cab at 5:00. Tina & Craig are staying until Wednesday. I am sure they have enjoyed having some time to themselves. There are just too many things to do & see in that town & hard with that many people to do everything together. We are looking forward to Patti, Frank and family (we hope) & Jake, Scott and maybe Kelly being here week end after next. I haven't really heard how the hunting is - but I am sure it will be a good time, just to see everyone. Okay I will give the pictures a shot.

I am sorry if this is a confusing blog the pictures got on but probably not in the right order. You get the idea anyway.

--Posted by Kathy

CONGRATULATIONS TINA & CRAIG!

Craig, welcome to the family.

CONGRATULATIONS LANDON AND THE ND BISON FOR YOUR WIN OVER THE MN GOPHERS!

Dutke Family Update...

(fall at the cabin)

I thought I would write a quick update for our family...

Everyone has been keeping busy. John turned 24 last week. We had a low-key celebration since he had to work that evening. He has a job as a security officer, which has proved to be quite eventful. I suppose that's expected since his job consists of monitoring a few bars and thus dealing with numerous drunk people at closing time. Mary begins her new job today working for the American Refugee Committee as an administrative assistant. Joe's life is the same old. Instead of being in trouble with the cops, he assisted them last weekend with staging stings in bars and liquor stores. Nothing new to report with my life, senior year is going well.

My parents, Joe and I returned last night from doing chores at the cabin. We pulled the boats, lift and docks out of the water since we won't have another weekend to do it before the ice forms in November. Joe and my mom will most likely be spending quite a bit of time up there over the next few weeks becoming the contractor's worst nightmare. The construction progress is slow (but really, who's surprised?) but it is getting near the end (by end I mean, livable). The unfortunate problem is that we now have to deal with landscaping, which we didn't intend to mess with until later. But of course, the more unfinished projects the merrier, so our contractor started it now.

New Kitchen CabinetsSiding nearly complete (wall with light fixture is being changed)

Waiting for stone to be placed for wood stove

Built-in loft bed... design change possible

Reason for removing sidewalk - to build deck in back. Here we are 2 weeks later and still no deck....Where the sidewalk once was - looking toward driveway

Perhaps, just perhaps it will be completed in time for this summer's family reunion:)

This weekend we're looking forward seeing the Smith family and cheering on Landon and the Bison as they go against the MN Gophers.

Hope everyone is doing well!

--Posted by Anna

Happy Birthday Arron!

Happy 16th Birthday Arron!