The Blog of Bert Jones

What a weekend..

We had Amy’s older sister, her fiancé and their three chil­dren come down for the weekend so we could all go to the Afton Apple Orchard in Hast­ings. What a blast.

I got off of work early so that I could visit with them and play games (we are such a gaming family) We played curses and scene-it. Had some drinks and turned in around 1 am.

We woke up around 8 or 9, got ready and left for Hast­ings around 10:15 am.

We got there at 10:45 am and it was already packed. We paid and headed down to the corn maze. We did phase 1 with the kids and then Amy’s mom took the kids to the play area while Amy, Me, Cindy, Jason, Jen­nifer, Gabe, Tyler (?) and Matt & Tony went on to phase 2.

There is three phases to this maze. Phase 1 takes about 15 min­utes. Phase 2 takes about 30 min­utes and phase 3 takes about 45 min­utes. Every year they change this 10-acre maze so it is never the same.

After we did phase 2 we went and col­lected the kids and ate lunch (with some bees). After lunch we all decided to take the hayride and go get some pump­kins and some apples.

Well we tried to get on the first hayride and all of us wouldn’t fit. Some other people ran right in front of our group of 15 and jumped on. So the owners said that the next hayride we would be the first on (they have about 4 trac­tors that run all day). So we waited and got on first.

Of course the first stop was the pumpkin patch. So we all got off and the kids each picked a small pumpkin, while Matt and Tony picked a 40–pounder. We then pro­ceeded to get on the next hayride.… no luck… so we decided to walk to the next stop, but let Jason and the Boys take their big pump­kins back on the next hayride.

So, Mikayla and I start walking. The next thing I know, everyone is waving to us on the hayride as they pass by. Of course, this just pisses Mikayla off and she is thor­oughly ticked off.

So we follow it to the next stop. I notice no one gets off and it turns around, so I start walking back. Finally I tell Mikayla that we can go to the park, but nope, she wants the hayride. So we walk back to the pump­kins and wait for the next one. Guess what. Prac­ti­cally empty. So we jump on and follow it around through the dif­ferent apples and back to the store.

The whole time Mikayla is just upset so I keep telling her she can yell at mama when we get back. This makes her feel a little better. We get off at the play area where the other kids are and I go to find Amy, who is on the hayride behind mine (she had to stop and get some Honey Golden apples for pies).

So we meet down by the store where Cindy and Courtney are waiting and Amy real­izes we still have to pick Rasp­ber­ries. Amy, Courtney and I walk over and pick the best Rasp­ber­ries I have ever tasted. Of course we are eating as we are picking.

We then walk back into the store (which is packed) and pay for our apples, (honey golden and honey crisps–which you cannot pick-only get in the store), our rasp­ber­ries, pump­kins, apple cider, and fla­vored syrups.

As we are taking this all to the car, everyone else meets back and says the kids need to go home, they are get­ting crabby. But Courtney didn’t get to go to the pet­ting zoo, So Mona (Amy’s mom) takes her. While we are waiting, Cindy, Jason, the boyz and I go take phase 3 of the maze. We all get thor­oughly lost. One hole sec­tion is a dead end.

Finally Cindy and I give up and we cut through the maze (we had lost the boyz and jay somehow) and start walking back to the entrance. We see the exit line, so we cut through so it looks like we exited. We then load up and go home.

We play more games when we get home, have dinner and stay up and party. Jason’s youngest brother came over and we all played scene-it. He brought his new laptop, so I hooked him up with 20 gigs of music.

Sunday morning we all wake up and have pan­cakes and donuts (Amy’s dad stopped over and brought some) then the girls go visit their Grams in the hos­pital while Jason and I play ESPN NFL 2K5 and he beats me 22 to 50. Then when the rest got back they head home.

All in all, we had a great time and can’t wait to do it again!

Well… Where to start…

I arrived Friday after­noon with my dis­tant brother-in-law Aaron (who owns the trailer we were staying in) and unpacked. Jason and Ron were already there. They went off to golf while I unpacked gro­ceries and lis­tened to music. They came back a few hours later and I believe Chris arrived and then Jon shortly after.

We had some ribs and pork that Ron made and lasagna that Jon brought. Thank good­ness, cause I don’t like ribs or bar­becue sauce. After that we played some horse­shoe (the guys taught me how to play!) and then went back to the site to play some poker.

After that the guys went to the bar and I went to bed. They came back and played more poker.

Sat­urday morning was the tour­na­ment, so the guys went golfing while Chris and I slept in.

When we woke up we went and vis­ited his mom’s new cabin. We then walked over to the “hen house” and waited for the tour­na­ment to end and all the golfers to con­vene at this hen house for the results of the tournament.

We then went back and had lunch (actu­ally break­fast) and Jason, Jon and Ron went to Hinckley and Chris and I lis­tened to music and talked, while Aaron helped a fellow sea­sonal res­i­dent build his deck. After awhile though, Chris and I stole his mom’s golf cart and drove it all around and Chris was being so goofy and cracking me up! It was fun to hang out with him.

When the guys came back, we headed out for a game of goofy golf, where all the players are allowed to use only one club and one putter throughout the entire course. I tagged along to learn about golfing and ended up the score keeper (or Pen Bitch) and driver of the golf cart.

We then went back to camp and had dinner (Jason made Vegan bur­ritos and Aaron made Hobo Stew), I cleaned up while the guys went out for another round of golf.

They came back and we loaded up and headed out for Karaōke (where Jason fell off the golf cart on a sharp turn)!

I had a blast. I sang Maybe Your Baby’s Got the Blues, All By Myself (where I almost bombed the high note) and I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

The host let me use my own CD’s, but some of them he already had so I didn’t have too. The bar was a little sparse when we got there, but it livened up around last call.

Chris sang a few songs and so did Jason. I tried to get Aaron too, but he was starting to lose his voice before we had got there. But he still enjoyed sit­ting at the table and singing along. There was some other great singers there too!

The host was very fun! I was teaching some of the guys Karaōke Eti­quette. At the end of the night I said goodbye to the host and he made me promise I would come back, “Cause he needs me for his show!” and that “he would take care of me”.…a very funny guy!

We then got back to the site and started a camp­fire to warm up (It gets chilly dri­ving to a nearby bar in a open golf cart).

A few of the guys were filling me in on what the “Red­necks” were saying about my singing and how they couldn’t believe it was a guy singing. The same stuff I hear every­where I go. One of the guys even said that you can make fun of a guy for singing high, but if the talent is there, there really isn’t much neg­a­tive you can say.

After we warmed up, we all went inside to play poker. The guys tried to teach me how to play and I played one round (until a small inci­dent hap­pened), then someone spilled their beer on the new carpet and I imme­di­ately went into “host” mode and cleaned it up before it set (thank god for baby wipes!) All I could think of was what Kris would say if that set in! I mean, this is her new cabin!

I then laid down and read while the other guys played a hand. Then they all went to bed, except for Aaron, Chris, Jason and Me. We sat around and talked and goofed around and giggle for a while before going to bed. Boy do I have some black­mail pictures!

Sunday arrived and Jon left early, fol­lowed by Chris, then Ron (who forgot his laptop and had to come back).

Aaron, Jason and I hung out and cleaned up, ate and talked. We then drove Jason to Pine City to get a new oil filter. His sprung a pretty good leak.

He then left around 6 pm. Aaron and I fin­ished cleaning up and then talked for 2 more hours and left at 8. I really enjoy talking with Aaron. He and I are alike in so many ways and have so much in common. If I could have a real life brother, he is who I would want that to be (and the twins of course).

I had a really good time. I was really quiet until we went to Karaōke and then I wouldn’t shut up! As Aaron said, “Karaōke is where I am in my ele­ment”. It is where I really come out of my shell and shine.

I kept cleaning up all weekend. Sunday, every time they would ask if some­thing was shut off, I would say that I already did it. Aaron said if I keep that up I am always invited!

I just wanted to make sure that it was clean enough for Kris. Nothing sucks worse then coming up to your cabin for a weekend and all your doing for the first hour or so is cleaning. This was their new cabin and Kris gra­ciously allowed us guys to use it for guys weekend. (I am sure she was prob­ably dreading the thought…)

I also knew that there wasn’t going to be much for me to do this weekend, so I wanted to make sure the other guys had fun and didn’t have to worry about clean up and such! I take plea­sure out making sure others are happy. I like playing host. I like making sure everyone is com­fort­able and enter­tained and such.

Well, we should be able to start moving in on Sat­urday. Hopefully…

Guys weekend is this weekend too, I am a little wor­ried… the gaggle of guys I am going with can get a little wild and crazy… wish me luck (some prayers wouldn’t hurt either!)

Also, we are going to have our House Warming Luau on July 25^th from 3 to 9. E-mail me for details and where to park!