Electric Company

We had friends out for lunch yesterday and let all the kids (a matched set of boys and girls) play while we watched football. It's nice having kids old enough that they can play on their own, until...apparently the boys had a dispute over whether the light switch should be on or off. After all was said and done, somehow one of the wires got broken off the back of the switch! No idea how it could have happened. $1.88 in repairs, and no injuries. Eli, being part of the problem, also decided to be part of the solution by holding my flashlight while I replaced the switch. Within 5 minutes he broke the flashlight too. He's a one man wrecking crew!



Alison and I went to skate with Santa on Sunday night, which was a great chance to just go skate without having to worry about lessons or working on anything other than just having fun. Santa's apparently a hockey player - he was kind of hard to keep up with.




Eli has been fascinated with electric toothbrushes this week. Tonight he decided that he needed his own electric brush. With great (though slobbery) results.

Giving Thanks

We took an extended trip to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving. The weekend before, I was able to fill two of my three turkey tags. This is the second year in a row that I was able to get a turkey the weekend before Thanksgiving.

We were concerned about getting caught by weather on Wednesday morning, and decided to leave at midnight to get out ahead of any weather. As it turned out, the roads didn't get that bad, but we were still able to log almost all of the miles of the trip with the kids sound asleep.

Thanksgiving was spent wrangling kids (ours and our nephews) and just relaxing with family.




On the way back, Eli and Alison took turns playing with the camera on my phone - they're getting pretty good!



We suffered a slight bit of insanity and chose to go to IKEA and the Mall of America the Sunday after Thanksgiving - amazingly enough, it didn't seem that busy and the kids did really well - AND we managed to find the dining room table we've been looking for.

Candy Bandits

Another Halloween has come and gone...

First School Picture

Alison got her school pictures back this week. She was very excited to get the pictures, and we're very happy with how it turned out.



Today was the first day of skating lessons for the year - it seems so early, but it was plenty cold! Alison was a little nervous going on the ice alone at first, but did really well.

Eli slept in his newly converted toddler bed last night, and managed to stay in almost all night! Morning was a little early today (5:30) but considering how it could have gone, I'm happy.

Deja Vu?

This seems like last year. We've had over 3 inches of rain which is keeping me from driving for beet harvest, but that means I get to enjoy a little bit of fall. We took the kids to the Dakota Carriage Pumpkin Patch this weekend, and while it was a muddy mess, the kids both had fun. Eli wasn't thrilled with the idea of riding a horse, but he enjoyed watching all the animals. Alison, on the other hand, loved her pony ride.




It wasn't exactly real cow milking, which is probably good for the cows. Both Alison and Eli got to practice their milking skills on a bucket.



Alison and Jennifer took a cart ride behind clydesdales out to the pumpkin patch - Eli was too scared to ride the wagon, so I waited in the farmyard with him. They came back with two large pumpkins. Once we were all regrouped, we went home to watch the Twins.

I smoked a mallard this weekend and added the meat to a mix of alfredo sauce and peas, tossed over penne pasta. Everybody ate very well (for once), so I think I've come up with a solution to getting the kids to eat - I gotta do more hunting!

Headwaters

We left Friday afternoon to take part in the Headwaters 100 bike ride on Saturday. Joel and I were hoping to tackle the full 100 miles, while Jennifer and Carrie were going to try the 45 mile route. The morning started cool and cloudy, with a little breeze. The boys headed north to Itasca State Park, while the girls took a meandering route closer to Park Rapids. The one thing that surprised all of us on the route was the hills - there's just no way to train for them in Fargo. We made it to Itasca in good time, but the route through the park took a lot of work. I escaped a mishap after the bead of my front tire slipped out of the rim - luckily it held until the rest stop where I was able to reseat the tire and the on-site mechanic filled it with air. After we left the park, we made our way over to Lake George, then south toward Emmaville. At about mile 60, I was trailing behind Joel when I heard a loud bang - Joel's rear tire blew out. A sag wagon pulled up within 30 seconds - impeccable timing - and helped with the tire change and we thought we were on our way. Within a few yards Joel realized something wasn't right and I spotted a bulge on his tire. The gash was so deep on the tire that the tube was poking through. Sure enough, it blew right away and Joel was out. I forged on to the next rest stop and called Jennifer to let her know. She said that was kind of funny since she got to ride the sag wagon as well. After 35 miles, her knee started to act up, and rather than aggravate an injury, she very wisely caught a ride with the ride organizer back to the school. Shortly after I called her Carrie made it to the school, and I decided that I would cut the ride a little short as well. I took a cutoff to rejoin the 75-mile route after Emmaville, and made it back to Park Rapids after completing 85 miles total. It was a fantastic ride, and will definitely be on the schedule for next year.

The kids are getting older, we aren't

Eli learned how to pedal his trike tonight. After pedaling for a while, he decided that he wanted to ride Alison's old bike for a little bit, which he was able to pedal also.

Last night when I was putting Alison to bed, she said "Daddy, I think tomorrow night I want to put myself to bed." I was taken aback by that, so I just said that we'd see tomorrow if she still felt that way. She mentioned it again on the way to school this morning. After she got her pajamas on tonight, she came out to say goodnight and I told Jennifer what she wanted to do. She still wanted to try it, so I moved her lamp from the armoire onto a bookshelf so she could reach it. I stood outside her door just out of sight, heard her pray, and then add "Thank you Jesus for letting me have a great day, and thank you for letting me have a great day at kindergarten." She clicked the light off and climbed into bed. We haven't heard a peep from her in about a half hour. I'm not sure if I'm ready for this or not!

I ran my first half marathon on Saturday morning. It was ridiculously humid so it was a challenge to stay hydrated. I made it to mile 11 and then my legs cramped up badly which forced me to stop, stretch, and walk for much more than I had hoped. I was over 20 minutes over my target time, but still managed to finish the race.

Sunday I took the kids to the Honkin Haulin Hands On Trucks activity in West Fargo. The kids got free t-shirts, coloring books, play hard hats, and got to climb into a great assortment of trucks - fire, construction, army - just about everything. They had a lot of fun, but the heat was wearing us all down. We took a ride on the MSUM Train, then went to Dairy Queen for an arctic freeze. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Carrie took an 11-mile bike ride to Saint Benedict and back as a training ride for the Headwaters ride.