We decided to travel to Calgary via Wisconsin because friends of our ours from Holland would be visiting family there. I taught with Dawn, she has three kids and a nice husband. She’s held my new born babies and I’ve held hers. They’re good people. Her mom welcomed our gang, and whole lot of other people, onto the family dairy farm for Fourth of July celebrations. We all pitched our tents on the front lawn and ate and drank beer and gathered. I’m pretty sure it was a little slice of Midwest American heaven. At least, it was as this Canadian imagined it should be.

The weather was perfect for camping, warm days, cool nights, and a light breeze. The children bathed in bug repellent and still look like they have chicken pox; sleep often came before baths because by the time we were done visiting it was long past bedtime. And besides, the water from the hose they’d been running through all afternoon must have cleaned off some of the dirt, right?

I spent some time on my grandparent’s farm growing up and my mom is still a farm girl at heart. There is something about everybody pitching in to cook enough food for an army, people arriving with a casserole dish, and a table full of dips and desserts that feels like home. If you have never experienced farm hospitality then you are missing out.

Today, I was thankful for old friends and new memories.