The Heidt Family: North Dakota Adventure: Tuttle

We left Grand Forks on Friday the 6th for Tuttle. We had been looking for a reason to go and visit the Tuttle relatives this summer and Jim and Susie Heidt's 40th wedding anniversary was the perfect occasion to see everyone. We had a nice drive to get to Carl and Anita's house where we stayed. They were great hosts!

First we stopped at the Tuttle cemetery to see Grandma Heidt. It was nice to see the stone marker and talk a little bit about Grandma with William. He was a good boy and did not spit up on her, although Grandpa said she would understand if William did. As part of a separate project, we took pictures of about a third of the stones in the cemetery for some genealogy work Grandpa Heidt wants to do later on.

After leaving the cemetery, we drove down the street to Carl and Anita's home. We got to visit for awhile and helped to make a sign for the back of the wedding buggy ("Just Married 40 Years) before we got ready and went to see Jim and Susie renew their wedding vows. Jim and Susie had a very sweet service to renew their vows. Their 12 grandchildren were the attendants! It was perfect and emotional. After the service, we walked down to the "Blue Hall" (it is blue on the outside) for dinner. During dinner was a wonderful time to talk with some relatives we knew and meet some relatives we didn't know. We were sad we had to leave on the early side as William hadn't really had a nap or time to play on the floor during the day. He was getting restless and tired, so we took him back to Carl and Anita's house. When everyone came home later in the evening, we got to enjoy some great music Carl had recorded at a local variety show including himself. We were sure impressed with his harmonica skills!

On Saturday, we drove to Bismarck to see John's Uncle Earl and Aunt Violet. We had a nice visit with them and then had lunch at Perkins. We enjoyed lunch very much as we don't get Perkins in St Louis. After lunch, we drove to the cemetery to see where John's Uncle Wilbert and Aunt Ardella are buried. It nice to see the cemetery after hearing so much about it. It was time to hit the road again and we drove back out to the Tuttle area to have dinner with John's Uncle Charles and Aunt Dorothy. The last time we were at their house was after Mom's funeral, so it was nice to be there with happier circumstances. John's Uncle Harry and Aunt Lorene (hey! dad, I think we spelled her name wrong!) joined us. It was nice to visit and the food was amazing as always. I think John and I gained about twenty pound each in the last week! Back to the Y next week!

We left Tuttle on Sunday the 8th for Rochester. This was our longest day of driving yet. We hit several areas of heavy traffic and then a big rainstorm in the cities. Those two things added at least an hour to our drive time. Yuck. William was very well behaved and discovered that he could see different things out of his window. His favorite thing to look at out his window: Trucks. All in all we had a very nice trip and got to see a lot of family. And we ate way to much. But, we had a great time!