By Patrick Tepoorten

Kayla Melby, 11, North Branch, and her brother Tyler, 7, had a very interesting summer that they wished to share with readers.

Kayla participated in a Laura Ingalls look alike pageant in Walnut Grove as part of Little House on the Prairie Days, the weekend of July 8. According to Kayla, people from all over the world attend this festival, which celebrates the life and time of the Ingalls family, whose saga was recorded in a series of novels and later became an extremely successful television series starring Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls.

Kayla was one of the top five finishers in the look alike pageant. As such she, along with the other contestants, had to answer questions about the Ingallsí life. The question posed to her was to describe the Ingallsí first house. Kayla correctly answered that it as a ìdug outî house, which is a house burrowed into a hillside.

Winners of various pageants were tasked with playing their respective characters in a play later in the evening.

ìIt was a huge production,î said Melby who, though not a part of the play, noted that she enjoyed it immensely.

As to her overall experience at Little House Days, Melby said, ìit was really fun.î

Younger brother Tyler had summer plans of a slightly different pace. He raced his Yamaha 50cc dirt-bike at the Isanti Co. Fair this summer.

Taking a page from his father Marty Melby, also a moto-cross racer, Tyler was pitted against seven other riders on a dirt track course full of jumps, bumps, and berms. He finished sixth in the three lap race.

Asked about his favorite part of the race, Tyler responded that it was the ìholeshot,î or, the distance between the starting gate and the first turn, which riders make a mad dash for to open a race.

Tyler noted that he had a little trouble keeping up with the leaders in the race, as they had the more ìsouped upî KTM 50cc dirt bikes, but plans to purchase a similar mount in time for next yearís races, which he wouldnít miss for the world.

In the meantime he will continue to practice at home as well as at other area tracks. When he wasnít racing himself, Tyler spent a good deal of time observing.

ìI like to watch the big guys,î he said.