Across the Tracks

Race Day

2011-01-30T19:52:00.001-08:00

Today was race day. I took part in the B-B-BRRR Winter Classic bike race in downtown Fargo - a 5K race through the snow and trees and on the frozen Red River.

It was -4 with about a -20 wind chill for the race, but it was a whole lot of fun.

After the race was done, I hustled back to Horace to get Alison to her first Pinewood Derby. She had a great time, and came in 2nd in her troop and 6th overall. She also got the "Best Car that's not a Car Award."

A little mid-winter roundup

2011-01-26T19:58:00.000-08:00

It seems like we're still digging out from the holidays. Eli had his preschool Christmas program at our church, which was just large enough to hold the hordes of parents and grandparents assembled to watch. His teachers were brilliant, once the kids were lined up in front, they said "Ok, wave at your moms and dads, get it out of your system!" It seemed to work.

Alison had her school program at the middle school, again, a packed house.

Our niece Stephanie and husband Muhammad stopped in on their way to Bismarck for Christmas, and Alison had a great time playing with Maya (so did we).

After Christmas in Bismarck, Grandma and Grandpa came up to be snowed in with us for New Years - it seems to be a new tradition. We celebrated Grandpa's birthday with a devils food cake with mocha frosting - a big hit with everyone.

The weather's been so cold lately that we haven't been playing much outside, but Eli has been very entertained with his GeoTrax train set. Okay, mom and dad have been very entertained putting the tracks together, Eli just gets to work on his patience while our layouts get more and more elaborate.

Holiday Train

2010-12-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

We decided to somewhat ignore the weather advisories tonight and headed south to Hankinson to watch the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train roll through. The event was pretty short, but just right for a night out in the snow. It was about 20 degrees for the concert, but a great time was had by all. We pulled into town just as the train was pulling up.

Santa started off the festivities.

A little chilly, but everyone was having a good time.

Each car of the train was decorated for the event.

Trains, Santa, and loud music. What else does a boy need?

The band was lead by Melanie Doane, a Canadian who plays a mean fiddle.

Before the train left, I was able to run up by the engine to get a picture of the lights.

Christmas Program Time!

2010-12-12T19:08:00.000-08:00

Alison and Eli had their Christmas program at church tonight. Both of them did great, despite some concerns that Eli would have a meltdown before getting up to the front. But, typical Eli, he was resistant to practice, resistant to leave the house, wouldn't go up to the front for Children's Chat today during the regular church service, but then showtime comes...

Apparently he got over his stage fright. Alison, on the other hand, was ready to go from the beginning and was more than happy to get into the show.

Small town church. Good thing they built the new building, I can't believe how many kids are in the congregation.

Let's do the time warp again

2010-12-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

It's still October, right? What? December? That can't be right...oh well, here goes.
Alison and Eli still have the proper level of cuteness to score really big on Halloween. Eli was a monkey and Alison was a belly dancer/genie/whatever. Whenever anyone would ask what she was, she would just respond "Well, the package said 'Harem'". It was a great way to say "I don't care, I just thought it looked cute".

I finally decided that it was time for new shocks on the Tahoe, and rather than bring it in, I replaced them almost all by myself in the garage. Eli took great pride in helping me out.

This past weekend we really got into the holiday spirit. Alison had practice for the Christmas program at church, followed by her first skating lesson of the new session. After the lesson was done, she said the teacher wanted to talk to me. As it turns out, the teacher felt Alison should have been passed the previous session, so now she gets to move up to Basic 3!
After the lesson, we went back to Horace to visit Santa - he just happened to be in town. The Lions Club hosts an event at the community center each year, and servers sloppy joes and the kids all get small gifts. Other than having to wait in line for a long time, it's a neat setup.

After visiting Santa, we got home and decorated the tree.

We also gave making a gingerbread house a try - it worked, for the most part. And it's from a kit, we're not that ambitious.

Punkin Chucker

2010-10-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

Eli got to experience one of the joys of fall at a harvest festival in town recently. A local church was selling pumpkins from a patch they had grown, but all the "too small" pumpkins were put into buckets for their pumpkin-chucking activity.

I showed Eli how to do it once, then he took over and wanted to go over and over again. Here's a sample:

Another September in the Books

2010-10-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, does time fly when you're having fun. When I got back from the elk trip, I met Jennifer and the kids for Eli's first night of gymnastics. He's been going weekly and really seems to enjoy it. Even better, he's absolutely wiped out by the end of the night, so it makes bedtime easy!

That weekend we had a little cookout and grilled - what else - elk. Big ol' steaks and burgers. Yummy.

The following weekend, Jennifer had her "payback" day and went to Carlos Creek winery with Jodi for the annual grape stomping.

During Horace Bean Days this year, Horace Lutheran Church held a salvage sale at the old church building and sold the pews. We bought one to use as a bench in our entryway, and with a little length adjustment made it fit perfectly. Here is the finished product:

Eli's also been participating in free track nights put on by the park district. More energy to burn!

For my birthday weekend, we went to Park Rapids for the Headwaters 100 bike ride. I did the 100 mile route with Joel, and Jennifer did the 45 mile route with Patty. The day started cool and rainy, but the rain stopped and the sun came out and it made for a great ride in northern Minnesota. The leaves were changing nicely too, which made for a very pretty ride.

With a new school year comes a new year of scouting - Alison had her Girl Scouts kickoff ceremony last week.

This week I've been hauling beets again - on Sunday Jennifer and the kids were able to come up and see just what I've been up to during the day. Alison got to ride in the tractor pulling the beet lifter while Jennifer and Eli rode in the truck with me while loading.

Badlands Elk Expedition

2010-09-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

details to come later since I'm busy processing meat, but I got my elk!
6 nights camping, 5 days hunting, got my cow elk at 10am and it took 5 hours to pack out.

First Grader!

2010-08-31T19:41:00.000-07:00

What a weekend - it was the annual Bean Days celebration - which means pancakes, parades, pews, parents, and parties. We started the morning with the Lions pancake feed at the fire station, then went over to the old Horace Lutheran Church for a salvage sale. They were selling the old church pews and we thought about getting one as a bench for our entryway. We went to the parade while we pondered the decision.

Alison took part in the parade as part of the Girl Scouts.

After the parade, we finally decided to buy the pew. After paying, we went back to the house, had lunch and chased down a neighbor with a trailer. Robert graciously helped haul the pew back to the house, and then we started preparations for the street dance. The annual street dance is a uniquely small town thing - driving four wheelers to an event where they use cattle gates to create an enclosed party area on Main Street. The band has a semi trailer with roll-up sides that they just back across the road to create a stage.

To close out the weekend, we got Alison ready for her first day of first grade! Today was the first day at Horace Elementary School, and by all accounts it was a great day.

Hawaiian Bash

2010-08-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

West Fargo Parks had a Hawaiian bash earlier this week and it gave the kids a chance to get out and play.

Here's Eli attacking the inflatable slide with gusto:

And here's Alison showing off her slick hula hoop skills:

From Across the Tracks

"Reading" a Book

2010-08-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Eli has gone through his Johnny Tractor book so many times with us reading to him, he almost has the whole thing memorized. Not sure if this video is going to work from Facebook, but we'll see!

If it doesn't work, here's a picture.

Friday was Jennifer's birthday, we celebrated by smoking a brisket, making sweet potato fries and a tres leche cake and having a few friends over.

Sunday morning I met Joel for a bike ride out to Rothsay, where the girls picked us up and we all went to Carrie and Joel's family lake place for a relaxing day.

A few more birthday pictures

2010-07-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get a few more pictures from Eli's birthday out here. This is actually from Lake City days...guess which boy has a big sister...

After we got back from Lake City, we had a small little get together with friends.

After dinner and gifts, the kids went out front to play with a parachute.

Eli has been LOVING his ...Toy Story toy lately. He's gone to sleep with Woody and Buzz pretty much every night since his birthday, and the nighttime routine includes tucking them in and saying goodnight to all the toys too.

Happy Birthday Eli

2010-07-15T20:03:00.001-07:00

Yeah, yeah, two weeks late on the post. We've been having too much fun playing with Eli's birthday presents.

We dropped the kids off and Grandma and Grandpa's for Lake City Days, then spent a quiet week at home getting the house cleaned up. It was awfully nice being able to put toys away and have them stay put away for more than five minutes. We returned the following weekend for Eli's birthday and for the 4th of July.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Flower Girls and Ring Bearers

2010-06-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

Alison and Eli had the great honor of being flower girl and ring bearer for our niece Heather's wedding. Alison was looking forward to the event all spring, and as expected, acted every bit the part for the wedding. Eli has enjoyed getting into his tux and being "handsome!", but wasn't interested at all in rehearsing for the event.

Remarkably, when it came time to perform, Eli "turned on" and acted perfectly.

After the wedding, the kids were very excited for the reception. Heather and Jesse's wedding cake consisted of both a traditional cake and cupcakes for the rest of the attendees - the kids are all about cupcakes.

We couldn't get Eli out on the dance floor (remarkably) but Alison was more than happy to go out for the dollar dance.

I'm happy the pretty girl still has time for old dad.

Mmm...sprite!

My favorite picture of the night - Alison was off on her own, twirling to the music. It was getting late and she was wearing out and stopped for a moment.

They ran long and hard and neither was ready to walk back to the car at the end of the night. It used to be easier to carry them.

A Mammoth Post

2010-06-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

"It's good to be back home again." Wise words from a little girl after I tucked her in when we got home from the Black Hills. About 1400 miles of driving over 5 days got us through the back roads of North and South Dakota and back home again.

We started our expedition shortly after midnight on Saturday. We decided at the last minute that we would leave at night to limit the amount of "awake time" the kids had in the car, and I had plotted a course that avoided interstates and backtracking as much as possible. We dropped south from Horace to State Highway 46 and made our way west to US 281 then south to Aberdeen, SD. Between home and Aberdeen, I think I saw two cars. We cut west on US 12 across South Dakota and saw just a handful of semis hauling cattle until we reached US 83. A short jog south to Pierre, where we stopped for gas, coffee, donuts and a much needed restroom break. As the sun came up we continued to I-90 for one of the few stretches of interstate on the trip. We pulled into Badlands National Park at about 8 am and let the kids do some exploring in their pajamas.

Just before we left the park, we came across a small band of bighorn sheep. This ewe was grazing beside the road until she decided to leave in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the group.

We left the park and had brunch at the (in)famous Wall Drug. What more to say about Wall Drug than "Well, we got that out of the way."

After we left Wall Drug, we continued west to Rapid City and stopped at Reptile Gardens for a while to let the kids run. It was a fun stop, but it wasn't our main destination.

The real focus of the trip was Mount Rushmore. Alison has been pleading to go to Rushmore for nearly a year, and we decided that Memorial Day weekend would be a good time for a road trip. As we made our way up US 16 to the monument, she caught her first glimpse of the faces.

We paid for our parking pass and made our way up the stairs of the parking garage to the memorial. Alison was grinning from ear to ear and doing a funny kind of run/dance/skip/walk as she tried to get to the monument and expend 9 hours of energy simultaneously.

We wandered around Rushmore for a while, then loaded up again so we could finally check in to the hotel in Hill City.

On Sunday, we drove to the Crazy Horse memorial in the morning, then had a picnic at Sylvan Lake. There's at least a face at Crazy Horse now, but other than that, it was just so-so. For next time, just a drive by on the highway would be enough for us. After we finished our quick picnic, we went back to Hill City and road the 1880 Steam Train from Hill City to Keystone and back. The train was definitely Eli's high point of the trip.

Later that night we headed back to Rushmore to watch the evening show and lighting of the faces - yet another late night for the kids!

On Monday we set out early and drove the Needles Highway south from Hill City through Custer State Park. We saw pretty much all the animals we needed to see, and had a great drive.

We had loaded two coolers full of food and drinks and planned to picnic as much as possible on the trip. After we had finished the Needles Highway, we stopped at a little gift shop in a campground and got suckers with stuffed bison attached for the kids. We finally caught up with a bison herd at a visitor center in the park and stopped for our picnic there.

We made our way back to Hill City on the Iron Mountain Highway - a nice little scenic byway that we hadn't planned on.

Once back in Hill City, we went to the Black Hills Institute museum, a great little place with a ton of fossils in it. Definitely worth seeing!

After the museum, dinner, more ice cream and a wild west show.

On Tuesday we headed down to Hot Springs, SD and the Mammoth Site. Before the museum, we stopped at a surprisingly good chinese buffet in Hot Springs for lunch. At the Mammoth Site, we were amazed at how much has been discovered there. Alison got to be a junior paleontologist for the afternoon and had a great time unearthing a mammoth molar.

On the way back from Hot Springs, we stopped by at Bismarck Lake for a quick snack and a break from driving. What a great little lake! Definitely need to stop there again with a fishing pole.

On Wednesday we said farewell to the presidents and made the long drive back.

We stopped for a short time in Aberdeen at Storybook Land, had dinner, then drove the rest of the way home.

Next post: The wedding!

First Run

2010-05-20T19:38:00.001-07:00

Alison ran in her first race today - the Fargo Marathon 1/2 mile youth run. She had a great time and did a great job!

Six!

2010-05-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Alison's 6th birthday this weekend. On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa came up with Pat and Mike to join us at Mexican village.

The kids loving on Aunt Pat:

Too funny not to post:

Jennifer made a cake made of individual cupcakes - it turned out great!

On Saturday, Alison had 3 friends over for a garden party. They painted flower cans and played games, then had part of the cake.

Jennifer finally got a Barbie dreamhouse for her birthday, just like she always wanted. She was very excited to have friends over to play with it. Er...scratch that. Supposedly, she got the dream house for Alison.

Christopher and Eli were very busy on Saturday "fixing" things. No bruises, cuts or bumps, so it was a good evening!

Eli got Alison a new Barbie doll, which she was very excited about. Eli wasn't so excited about the hug and kiss!

Alison modeling her new "twinkle toes" shoes.

Blow out the candles. Again!

Betsy made it in late Friday night from California - she gave Alison a mini-loom and I think they both had a lot of fun using it for the first time.

Ain't they cute?

2010-04-22T20:21:00.001-07:00

Alison and Eli were asked to be flower girl and ringbearer for their cousin Heather's wedding this June. We just got their outfits in the mail this week.

March in a Nutshell

2010-04-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

Apologies for not putting anything on here recently - more current information is appearing on Facebook. I'll at least try to get monthly summaries of life on here.

March began with Alison's last skating lesson. This was the second time she had taken the Basic 1 class, so we were all hopeful that she would pass. And she did! We practiced on an outdoor rink a couple times before her last class, and she's really coming along on her skills.

The following weekend, we headed for the Mall of America - it might be an annual thing now. First, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's; checked out the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, then headed for the MOA. We met friends at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch, then met more friends at Bubba Gump's for dinner. We closed out the weekend with a trip to IKEA for dining room chairs and some storage organizers, then made the long run back to Fargo.

After we got back to Fargo, I began assembling furniture. I got into a few steps of the storage organizer and realized we grabbed from the wrong bin at IKEA. Guess what I got to do the following weekend? Yup - back to IKEA! Thanks for coming along on that trip Ryan!

We closed out the month with a Fargo Force game - the first time we've seen the local USHL team play. It was a great time, and great seats.

Building the Great Wall

2010-02-27T18:33:00.001-08:00

Alison had her second-to-last skating lesson today, and she seemed to be doing a lot better with the snowplow stop. Last weekend we went skiing at Andes Tower Hills outside of Alexandria, MN, and she did very good at her skiing lesson. I think the "pizza stop" for skiing really helped with the skating stop.

After skating, we went through the drivethru at Caribou and grabbed a latte and a kid's cocoa, then stopped in at my office to take care of a couple of things - scripts run a lot better when you actually remember to start them.

When we got home, we had lunch then started to build a cardboard Great Wall. It was a kit we found on clearance, and Alison has had a blast putting it together and now coloring it. She actually seemed bothered that she had to stop coloring to go swimming at a hotel with Nancy and Curt. When we finally got home, Alison went right back to coloring.

Oh yeah, that holiday post

2010-01-20T19:53:00.001-08:00

I really did mean to get Christmas photos posted right away. I at least got them on Facebook, but forgot to post over here.

We had a quiet Christmas at home - a blizzard blew in which kept family from coming. We had the neighbors over to help destroy a prime rib, then spent the evening playing Wii.

It was a very high-energy holiday. We also got extremely wild and crazy for New Year's.

Eli is getting into the realism of Wii - apparently you need to take cover in a foxhole to properly play.

Goodbye Old Pup

2010-01-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

Today the Janes family said farewell to a dear friend, companion, and protector. Our dog, Daisy Mae Janes, was put down after a valiant fight against arthritic hips and rapidly declining bodily functions. We thank God for allowing us to care for one of his dear creatures. She was truly one of a kind. We will miss you Daisy, and will forever have a patch of daisy flowers in our garden to remind us of all you meant to us.

Electric Company

2009-12-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

Another Halloween has come and gone...

First School Picture

2009-10-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

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.

First Day of K!

2009-08-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Alison started Kindergarten today, and we managed to start and finish the day mostly tear-free! Alison was grinning the entire time and excited, but her parents were a little nervous and scared. Unfortunately the street and driveway around the Kindergarten Center aren't quite done yet, so dropoff consists of parking at least two blocks away and walking Alison into the center.

Posing next to our new tree in the front yard. Hopefully we'll remember to take this same picture every year. And hopefully it's the same tree!

At the front of the Kindergarten Center.

New desk! Woohoo!

Gravity

2009-08-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Kindred's community days/cowboy fest/whatever they're calling it now, and that meant two things: parade and pancakes. We went down on Saturday morning with our neighbors down the street (Chase is the same age as Alison and Alexa is the same age as Eli) for the pancake feed and then stayed for the parade.

The kids started a game of "ring around the rosie" in the middle of the street before the parade started. I think with a little more time we could have made it an official event. There were quite a few other kids that came and joined in the fun. Not sure that asphalt is really the best surface for "we all fall down", but it didn't seem to faze the kids.

Four kids all diving for candy at the same time - what a haul! We might need to disperse some of the loot at Halloween just to get rid of it!

Alison has been working on her numbers quite a bit lately, and she put that together with her love of sidewalk chalk this week. If you can't make it out in the picture, she made "4+4=8" and "3+3=6" with stencils. She even knew to put the symbols in - a small correction to get them in the right order, but still!

Yesterday was my day to cash in a Father's Day gift. The gift was one free day to ride the Heartland Trail, and after trying to schedule it all summer, yesterday was finally the day. Joel and I started out from Akeley, MN at about 8:45, headed east to Walker, then north to Cass Lake. On the way back from Cass Lake, we stopped to stage a couple of photos, like this one.

Look at that! Such grace! Such poise! I make it look easy! And then I turned around, and promptly got my front tire stuck in the bridge I had already crossed. The tire dropped down in a crack and wedged in place, depositing me on the bridge deck in a rapid manner. Luckily, I was going pretty slow, and the timbers have more give than pavement, so I was able to escape with no injury. I managed to badly bend the front wheel and was a little worried about what to do. We were 10 miles from Cass Lake and about the same from Walker. I was able to bend the wheel back into alignment (kind of) the same way it got out of alignment - jammed it in the bridge and bent it the other way. I had to disconnect the front brake so the wheel would turn, but with a little tuning I was able to get going again, albeit a little slower.

We stopped in Walker for lunch, then made the last 9 mile leg to Akeley. Grand total: 67.3 miles. My butt hurts. Lucky for me, I trashed the front wheel on my bike so I can't ride until the new wheel arrives in the mail!

One more for July

2009-07-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how fast this month has gone. I've had two different trips to the Devils Lake area for work plus a trip to San Diego for the ESRI International User Conference and a family trip to Bismarck, and suddenly it's almost August! I've been neglecting this blog and my running - time to get serious about both again.

Eli's been working on a plan to travel with me. This is one of his favorites:

It finally warmed up a little so we could get the pool out. We added the slide so the kids could get a little splashing in.

Jennifer's brother Myron came to Bismarck this weekend with wife Fran and their two kids. We managed to get all the kids on the couch for a picture - all sitting at the same time was all we could ask for.

Here's one of just the girls. Notice they're all smiling, looking at the camera, and behaving.

And now here's one of all the boys doing the same...wait...nope. Not going to happen. We've got Matt trying to maintain control over Eli, and Grant doing...well, I'm not sure what Grant is doing. Hiding behind his own legs?

Alison and Eli discovered the joy of Hungry Hungry Hippos. I forgot how loud this game actually is. I think it would be a great game for Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Two?!?!

2009-07-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Eli's 2nd birthday on Thursday at Happy Joes with Carrie & Joel and Jodi & Ryan and kids. Pizza, ice cream and too much time in the game room, and the night went off without any major meltdowns.

Alison got to teach Eli the finer points of winning tickets.

Joel and Christopher playing the basketball toss game. This, by the way, is the same game that Eli attempted to climb into all night long. He was just shy of getting over the final barrier by the time I was able to pry him off.

Eli tearing into a present from Grandma and Grandpa. He got a baseball tee and pitching machine. He seems to really like it, and if he gets good at it, maybe he'll play pro ball one day. If he doesn't, he could play for the Tigers (sorry Joel, had to do it).

Christopher helping Eli with a present. I love 2-year-old parties - the kids all want to open the presents, and they don't quite get the whole gift exchange concept. I propose we do this for all ages at Christmas - everybody, open up somebody else's present and act completely surprised!

I said major meltdowns. He's still two. And it's HIS party, and yes, he will cry if he wants to. I'm not sure of the reason, but Eli felt compelled to go into a corner and play with his new dump truck while crying. Hey, as long as it's quiet and he's not bothering anybody...

Finally, ice cream sundaes for everyone. Clown ice cream, with peanut eyes and a maraschino cherry nose. For those of us who have an aversion to clowns, there is something therapeutic about stabbing a clown sundae in the head with a spoon.

Ahem. Father, I see you have more ice cream. May I have some NOM NOM NOM.

I spent Friday home with the kids while packing for Bismarck. After we dropped Daisy off at the kennel, we came home and played in the front yard. Alison made a very large cat with her chalk, and I was really impressed with the improvement in her drawing skills.

We also set up the pitching machine to see how it worked. The kids absolutely loved it, even after discovering what happens to the baseballs after they're dropped into the tube.

When we went to Bismarck, we had a cookout at Patty and Chuck's and Grandma B made a cake for Eli. Took lots of pictures, but this one is my favorite. He did it! He actually listened and blew out a candle! With no spit! He did it!

Alison and cousins Alexander and Andrew watching fireworks out the front window.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck. As always, the most common animals (goats, ducks, donkeys, etc) were the favorites.

Alison and Alexander went running off to see the emus. When I got there, I realized just how ugly emus really are. I mean really, the thing's got a look that would send a chill down its own mother's spine.

One of the tigers was very close to the window when Eli walked up. I'm pretty sure Eli was thinking "Please can we keep it?" while the tiger was thinking "appetizer".

That night we had a barbecue at Aunt Connie's house, then went back to Patty and Chuck's to light off fireworks. Here's Chuck launching a rocket.

And watching some of the neighbors' displays.

Summer Sports

2009-06-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

Alison is taking basketball lessons and swimming lessons now. Tomorrow is the last day of swimming, then we'll be on to a somewhat normal schedule again. Her ball lessons are at the Fargo Basketball Academy, and she's really enjoying it.

The first weekend in June we went to Bismarck for our nephew Brad's wedding - it was Alison's first wedding (and wedding dance) and she had a great time. Eli had a lot of fun as well, and both of them actually stayed pretty well behaved during the ceremony.

Marla taught Alison the finer points of getting dolled up for the dance.

Finally the kids were ready to dance.

Behold, the power of grandkids.

Baseball and the Zoo

2009-06-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

We took in a Redhawks game on Saturday night. The bank has a share of a stadium box, so it makes for a nice evening since it keeps the kids reined in a little. Both Hawkeye and Scarlett (the two mascots) made a visit to the box. Surprisingly, Eli wasn't afraid of them at all - he kept running to get hugs and high fives.

Amazingly enough, the kids did sit to watch some of the game. Okay, so maybe about a minute of the game. But still, a good time.

After church on Sunday morning, we stopped to do a little shopping at Target. By the time we were done at Target, it wasn't quite lunch time yet. We thought we would just make sandwiches at home and hang around for the day because it was terribly windy out, but both kids fell asleep on the way home. We were pulling into the neighborhood and looked at each other and said "Now what?" We ran the frozen food inside, then hopped back into the car and drove to Wahpeton to go to the Chahinkapa Zoo. The zoo is in the trees and out of the wind, so we thought it might be nice to be outside but not completely windblasted.

We made it to Wahpeton shortly after normal lunchtime, and grabbed a quick McD's meal before going to the zoo.

There were several wild turkeys wandering around the zoo, and they grabbed our attention more than some of the featured animals.

Hey little chicky

2009-05-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

The killdeer eggs in our backyard hatched early this morning or last night. It appears all four hatched, and there were little cotton balls running around the yard this morning before work.

I decided to take my chances and see if I could get a little closer. The chicks are small enough that their instinct is to play "I am a rock you don't see me", so I was able to walk up and get a closer picture.

Heartland Trail Ride

2009-05-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

We met Joel, Carrie and Christopher this morning and drove to Park Rapids to bike part of the Heartland Trail. We weren't sure how far we would make it, but set out down the path with the goal of reaching Dorset by lunch time - about 6 miles.

We had lunch (burgers, pizza and ice cream) at the Dorset House, then put it to a vote of whether or not we should continue on. Alison said she wanted to go further, and nobody else objected, so we continued on to Nevis - another 5.3 miles.

We took a short break in Nevis to see the world's largest Tiger Muskie.

After visiting the fish, we went back to Park Rapids. Total for the trip - 23.3 miles. Yikes. Everybody was a little beat after that, but in good spirits. Here's hoping the kids sleep in tomorrow morning.

Why I don't Tweet

2009-05-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

If I went this long between updates on Twitter, I'd probably end up on a missing person list somewhere. "Gosh, his last tweet said he was going to the store, and that was three weeks ago!" Somehow it seems more forgivable to neglect a blog for a little while.
Now, let's see...May...The first weekend in May we had Alison's 5th birthday party. I'd post pictures of that, but I forgot my camera at home on the way to the party. Gasp. I know. I've been warned.

Alison finished up with her parks and rec track events - it was a lot of fun and free.

The following weekend was the Fargo Marathon. Both Jennifer and I ran in the 5K and Jennifer did an awesome job. Grandma and Grandpa came up to watch the kids for us.

Except for the morning of the run, it's actually started to feel a little more like spring around here - enough that the kids have been able to play with bubbles outside.

Alison got a sewing machine from Aunt Pat and Uncle Mike - she absolutely loves it. Included with the sewing machine was a pattern to make a pumpkin and a turkey (for turkey hunting, of course). After the run we sat down and worked on the pumpkin with her.

And here's a sign I've taken too many pictures:

That weekend I discovered we have a killdeer nest in our backyard. Now, normally I'm not a big killdeer fan - they're loud. Obnoxious. Keep you up at night. But now they've got a nest, and...well, that's kind of neat.

Here's a strange family trait. Eli's got the same curl on the top of his head that Grandpa does. Well, at least in this picture.

This last weekend we went down to St. Paul for my godson's baptism. On Saturday we stopped by Jennifer's Aunt Betty's place for lunch and had a great visit. Alison loved spending time with Aunt Betty and couldn't stop talking about her all weekend.

After Aunt Betty's place we checked into the hotel, managed to lose the laptop in our vehicle (thought it was stolen for the day but found it in the morning) and then went to the Children's Museum.

Alison managed to steal a city bus and get into a high spee...no, that can't be right...Oh, that's right. They had a neat city exhibit where the kids got to play bus driver, work in a restaurant, and do other fun jobs.

You know how when you're trying to go somewhere in a hurry and the kids just seem to drag along? Finally, an accurate representation of the sensation.

No trip to a kids' activity would be complete without face paint.

We've got a long weekend coming up - hopefully at some point we're going to get the kids out for a nice long adventure on bike. Pictures when we get them!

Happy Happy Fun Weekend

2009-04-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

After many delays, we finally got our weekend getaway to the Twin Cities. We stayed at a hotel right across the road from the Mall of America, which turned out to be right under the approach for the Minneapolis-St Paul airport. Now, some may view that as a detriment. We actually had trouble getting Alison and Eli out of the hotel room to go to the mall because they just wanted to sit and watch all the big planes fly past.
We met our friends Karen and Dave at the mall, had dinner at the food court, and headed for the Underwater Adventures aquarium. It seemed like we ran the entire way through - the kids were so excited to see all the fish they didn't quite want to take the time to soak it all in.

Eli sizing up a sunfish.

Alison really liked watching the gar swim past.

Okay, so I thought the sharks were pretty cool. The kids pretty much ran past them to go see "nemo fish".

Leprechauns? In my treasure?

After a fitful night of sleep (cranked up kids and trying to sleep in a hotel) we managed to sleep in all the way to 6:30! We grabbed the complimentary continental breakfast, then took the kids to the pool for a while. Alison has a new life jacket that holds her more upright in the water so she can swim on her own with it on. Eli is at the "Don't oppress me!" stage and didn't really care for the idea of being held on to. We went back to the room, and fought the battle to get the kids away from the airplane viewing window so we could get back to the mall.

We met Grandma and Grandpa Janes and Aunt Pat and Uncle Mike for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Alison was very interested in the volcano cakes that kept coming past the table. We never dropped a hint to her that one might be coming to our table for an early birthday. Video will be posted later.

So happy!

Did you know that toddlers can unhinge their jaws to fit more ice cream in?

Alison was very careful to point out that this was a red eyed tree frog. Not just a tree frog. A red eyed tree frog. Don't mix it up, or you'll hear about it.

After Rainforest Cafe, we headed for Lego land. Alison spent some time building a race car with Grandpa, while Eli worked on his tower building skills.

We said goodbye to the family and debated hanging around the mall for a while. By this time everybody was getting beyond tired, so we headed back to the hotel. Eli was sound asleep in the car before we got out of the parking garage, and Alison barely hung on until we got to the room. A nice nap, and off to the mall again. This time, we were going to get some rides in!

Alison got to go on her first roller coaster (the Pepsi Orange Streak) with me and went on the log flume with Jennifer. Eli was too small for most of the rides, but we were able to take him on a couple smaller rides as well as the ferris wheel.

When we got in the vehicle last night, Alison sat down and said "I had so much fun. But I'm sad because we had so much fun and I could just cry." She sobbed the rest of the way to the hotel because it was just that much fun.

Got home today and everything is quickly becoming a blur. But, the camera still works, and the kids are still cute, so here's one from home tonight.

Easter Turkey

2009-04-21T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've been woefully late posting an update. First, the Easter kids:

Easter was pretty relaxed - no working the weekend, and no travel. We took the kids to the zoo on Saturday, and watched the wind make waves on the field behind our house while seagulls flew past. Eventually the water went down, and it actually looks like it should now.

I had to travel to Bismarck for training on Friday, so we decided to make it a family weekend. I loaded all the turkey hunting gear into the Tahoe and went out on Friday night on a little scouting trip.

Things were looking promising when I came across a flock of turkeys. Unfortunately, the area I hunt in was flooded out so there's still a lot of mud in the fields. But, still got a neat pictures of some birds while I was driving past.

Then, things went south. I got a flat tire which prompted a quick change. By the time I got to the farm where I was going to hunt, it was too dark to scout and nothing was responding to calls in the dark.

At least the sunset was pretty after I got the tire changed.
I got the tire fixed in the morning then loaded Alison up for her first hunt. She was incredibly excited to say the least. We made the drive out to Grant County again and began the search for a turkey. We finally located a flock on the other side of the river, which prompted a little rugged driving to get across, but eventually we got there and Alison saw her first flock of turkeys that we could actually hunt. As we were stalking the flock, I looked up and saw a porcupine in the tree. Alison was pretty excited to see a porky in the wild. Heck, she was just excited in general!

We never were able to catch up with the turkeys, but it was a great time just the same.

Alison got to see a lot of animals close up - all the standard livestock, porcupines, pheasants, turkeys and a lot of miscellaneous birds - including a meadowlark that finally sat still long enough for me to get a picture.

Sheyenne Breakout

2009-04-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Water is now breaking out from the Sheyenne and spreading south of Horace.

This horse barn is about a half mile south of our house.

New culvert funnel!

This is normally dry.

We'll skip this road and go to the next one.

The field behind our house, looking south to Country Acres.

And I just think this one is too funny. Eli's turkey call.

So This is Spring

2009-04-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

And it wouldn't be spring without 9 inches of new wet sloppy snow!

Alison is getting very excited for turkey hunting. I just hope the snow is gone by next weekend so we can have a warm hunt.

Here's the county highway sign about 5 miles south of our house. Just a little water around here yet.

Watch out for culverts. They'll get you every time.

So I show this picture to Alison, and she asks, "Is that baby cow for sale?"
"Why do you ask?" I reply.

And she responds, "It's got a price tag on it!"

Flood Update

2009-03-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

You want a flood update? Tough, you get a video of our kids dancing instead. We both had the day off work and might again tomorrow as well.

Crested?

2009-03-29T14:26:00.001-07:00

It appears the river has crested and we're breathing a little easier now. Just hung around home yesterday, and didn't really do much of anything. It's kind of strange, because we're pretty insulated from what's happening in Fargo.

After we went to church this morning, we came home by way of the Main Avenue bridge. We parked in the Fryn Pan parking lot and I walked over to the bridge to get some pictures.

Looking south from the Main Avenue bridge. In the distance you can see the old St. John's hospital (now Prairie St. Johns).

The coasties are here plucking people from their houses when necessary. Here they are on their way out to something.

Hmmm...wonder how deep the water is here.

And now, time for a normal blog entry. Sunrise was very pretty this morning and we had some neat icicles hanging off the back of the house.

Jennifer and Alison got to enjoy a little cuddle time on the couch while watching "Phineas and Ferb".

Geography rocks.

One more day, one more foot

2009-03-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Going to work was a little interesting this morning. Roads were still icy, and when I got on to the interstate there was water on the east side of the road. Just outside of Fargo traffic came to a stop as they are building a dike across I-29 just south of town.

Don't worry, traffic was only going 10 mph at the time the pictures were taken.

The flood forecast was changed again today. Now the forecast crest is 41 to 42 feet with the possibility of 43 feet. Pray the dikes hold and Fargo stays dry.

Came across this video of the Fargodome sandbagging operation. Pretty cool.

Still Hanging On

2009-03-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

Went to bed last night with a winter storm warning. Woke up with a snow drift in the driveway. We picked up somewhere between 6 and 9 inches last night and today. And yes, it's still flooding. Yes, our house is still fine. However, they revised the flood forecast to 41 feet - new record, woohoo! That has a lot of people struggling to get sandbag dikes built to the correct level. I tried to get up to Georgetown this afternoon to help friends raise their dike, but most (if not all) of the roads there are flooded out and the visibility was horrible. I went as far as I could and turned around - the snow let up for a moment and I had to snap this picture.

On my way back to town the only other vehicle I saw was a National Guard Humvee. It's an eerie feeling.

I came back home and got a call from my neighbor wondering if I wanted to go back out sandbagging, so we went to Oakport Township north of Moorhead and helped fill and transport bags until they ran out of sand.

Friends in Low Places

2009-03-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

Make that low-lying places. The Red River and surrounding rivers are expected to be near or above record levels by the end of this week, triggering a massive flood response in the area. Luckily, we're across the tracks (hmm, sounds like a good name for a blog) so our house should be dry.
Yesterday I went over to Kragnes, MN to help sandbag a friend's house along the Buffalo River. Later that night, I went with our neighbor Ben to help out at "Sandbag Central" in Fargo to help fill sandbags. We finished up around 2:30 in the morning, and came home. I originally was thinking that would be it for volunteer work for the weekend, but another friend called this morning. They also live along the Buffalo, but in Georgetown, MN. I spent the day helping with the sandbagging effort there.

The bridge to Georgetown. If you look closely, you can see a log lodged on the girder from the last high water event.

The mighty Buffalo River. There's a lot of ice on the river yet, but it is flowing.

Lots of sand.

We received an alert tonight that the water has been shut off to the city of Horace because the lift station failed. Hopefully that gets fixed shortly.

More flood news tomorrow, I'm sure.

At least it's sunny

2009-03-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

Our blizzard finally finished sometime last night. This morning most businesses were delayed opening and school was closed, so the kids got another snow day. Ben came over and plowed our driveway with a skid steer and I was able to get into work.

This is 17th Avenue just west of the mall - I can't imagine how bad this will blow in if we get another strong wind.

After I was done with work, Alison really wanted to go play in the snow. We bundled up and played for a while before dinner. The big piles she's climbing on are what was pushed out of the driveway this morning.

Drifting against the back of our house. The snow is absolutely crusted over - enough that I could walk on it without cracking through.

Yay, March!

2009-03-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

Man, am I relieved. I thought they said LIZARD Warning. We spent the day inside watching the whiteout conditions. I plowed a pathway through the driveway once this morning, but it didn't help. I went out again tonight to get a head start on the morning. Yeah, not happening. Time to call the neighbor!

The wind was blowing so hard against the garage door that it would push snow underneath the door until it hit a small obstacle on the floor. Then it would pile up on top of that, forming piles on the floor. Strange, but entertaining when you're housebound.

Where the Wind Blows

2009-03-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, I wonder which direction the wind was coming from.

Good news - it's warm enough to melt and form icicles. Bad news - it's so windy all the icicles are crooked.

Meanwhile, Alison is teaching Eli the finer points of assembling peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Pancakes

2009-02-16T19:34:00.000-08:00

Saturday was pancake morning. We've been a little out of the habit of making pancakes every Saturday, but this weekend was a little different. The Fargo Kiwanis Club was making a world record bid for the most pancakes made in 8 hours. We arrived at the Fargodome at a little before 8 in the morning and tackled two stacks of pancakes and sausage. Unfortunately, they weren't able to break their record from last year, but it was still a great time. They also had inflatable games set up for the kids to play on.

After pancakes, we took Alison to her weekly skating lesson.

And what's a weekend without a little boogie time?

Ascending Mount Cheerio

2009-02-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

Apparently just climbing an easel isn't enough. Eli has now figured out how to get into his high chair.

Get along little doggies

2009-02-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

Friday was one of those mornings where I looked out the window and told myself I'd better grab the camera for the sunrise.

We didn't have anything extraordinary planned for the weekend. I took Alison for her skating lesson on Saturday morning, and we went to Scheels to kill a little time, look for shoes and ride the ferris wheel in the afternoon.

Sunday afternoon we took the kids to Rheault Farm for a little winter festival. It was a beautiful 30 degrees and sunny, with very little wind. One of the best days for weather we've had in a long time. Which was great, because the park district was giving kids free sled dog rides around the farm. I told Alison that I was too big to go on the sled (it was 14 and under) but if she was going to be brave she could go. She sounded pretty confident so we signed the waiver form and got in line. I was kind of expecting her to back down by the time it was her turn, but each time the dogs came around she got more and more excited. When it was finally her turn, the musher wanted to have one more kid in the sled, mostly just to keep the line moving fast. So they added another kid and off they went.

I think Alison is still grinning from the ride.

It's rained nearly all day today, which made for a slippery drive in and caused some street flooding one the way home. About that flood insurance policy...

Cute monkey

2009-02-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

I think someone replaced our boy with a monkey. He insists on climbing everything now. While I was helping Alison color a picture on her easel yesterday, Eli was playing on the other side. Suddenly I hear "Hi!" and look up, and here the rascal is peering over the top of the easel at me. He was more than happy to repeat the task for a picture.

Cold? Nah...

2009-01-15T17:36:00.000-08:00

I always love doing this little science trick on a cold day. We hit -31 here last night. Notice how loud the snow crunches under my feet - and if you listen carefully, you can hear the water expand into steam!

It wasn't brutally cold on Sunday, so we took the kids outside for a little while. Alison wanted to shield her eyes from the sun, and Eli is just a little copycat.

Cartoon time on the couch.

Clementines are on sale again - they make a great snack and a great smile, too.

Perigee Moon

2009-01-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

It's finally above zero and not snowing! With the full moon tonight, I decided to sneak out and do some snowshoeing tonight. I picked Ryan up at about 7 o'clock and we headed for Hamilton Wills Wildlife Management Area. It's about 30ish miles outside of Fargo and has some nice hills and river bottoms to explore. It was largely overcast tonight, but the moon peeked through a few times and made a brilliant landscape.

Casting shadows under the moon:

The old farmstead. It was absolutely calm, with an owl hooting in the background - things that aren't captured with a picture.

Ryan heading back through the woods. 2 second exposure with a second curtain flash.

And here I come!

Snowing again!

2009-01-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

We closed out December by setting a record - 33 point something or other inches of snow for the month. We're starting January off with another snowstorm. This time the weather guy is predicting somewhere between zero and twelve inches. But the forecast was only a 70% chance, so we're nearly three quarters certain that we might get something between nothing and a record. I believe the professional term for that is "guessing". Oh well - it gives a fresh coat of snow for the kids to play in.

Alison had her first skating lesson today. She learned how to fall down and get back up, and a little bit of marching and gliding.

Grandma and Grandpa were up for the week - they came on Monday just ahead of one storm, and left Friday, just ahead of the next storm. We had a pretty quiet New Years Eve, and we almost stayed awake all the way to midnight!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T13:11:00.000-08:00

Here we are celebrating Christmas 2008 already. This year was decidedly low-key. I stayed home with the kids on Christmas Eve, and Jennifer worked until noon then did a little last minute shopping on the way home. We went to the Christmas Eve service at church at 4:30, then came home for dinner, cookies and presents. We had little smokies and ham and cheese with crackers. I decided to try a different cookie recipe this year and made chocolate crackle cookies - they turned out great and Santa is sure to gain an extra pound or two.
After we finished dinner, we opened presents - Santa didn't come during church this year, so we had to wait until morning to see what he would bring.

Alison got a "Belle" Disney princess costume, a dance-along DVD, a coloring book, a bouncing ball, pajamas and a robe. Eli got a dump truck full of mega blocks, a big stuffed dog, a tool kit and a Little Einsteins baton. In the morning, Santa brought Alison a DVD (The Little Mermaid) and Eli got a new flashlight. Flashlights are very popular around here!

It finally warmed up a bit around here today - it's almost 20 degrees! Both kids got to play in the snow for a while. This was really Eli's first time being able to play in the snow, and he seemed to enjoy it.

I just asked Alison what else she got for Christmas, and she said "Jesus! Jesus is the best present!"

Dug out

2008-12-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

Gee, that was fun. We got about 10 inches of snow over the weekend, and it formed a very lovely series of drifts across the driveway and street. I watched the city play with their new toy last night - apparently they have a new New Holland tractor with a bucket on the front and a snowblower mounted on the back. The driver got to the entrance of the neighborhood, then turned around and began attacking the snow drifts with the blower.

I tried tackling a little of the big drift across the driveway last night, without a lot of success given the strong winds. I didn't have to go to work until 12:30 today, and Jennifer was home all day, so I had plenty of time this morning to work on shoveling. Luckily it didn't take too long. I cleared a small patch about 6 feet wide - just long enough for our neighbor to see me and drive over with his skid steer. Ben had the entire driveway cleared in about 5 minutes.

Big Bad Blizzard

2008-12-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

We are officially going nowhere today. We're getting somewhere between 7 and 13 inches of snow, but the wind is gusting to 47 miles an hour so it's a little hard to measure anything. Half of our driveway is completely clear, but there's a pretty big snow drift across the other half.

The local news radio station posted up this video of driving around Fargo - it's proof enough that we don't need to go anywhere.

Alison's First Time Skating

2008-12-13T14:51:00.001-08:00

Here's a short little video of Alison's first time skating.

Super Holiday Mega Blog

2008-12-13T14:30:00.000-08:00

Warning - many pictures ahead! It's getting closer to Christmas and there just seems to be too many pictures to take!
Last weekend we went to Jennifer's Christmas party in Grand Forks. The bank booked a block of rooms at the CanadInn, which also has a large waterpark attached to it. The kids had a ball at the water park, but the party got a little too long for them and nobody slept very well. By the morning everyone was pretty tired and cranky, so we came back home pretty early.
I don't know why, but I really like these two pictures. I think it pretty much captures the pace we're living at now.

Just cute. Eli managed to do this all by himself.

We got the tree put up this week. I was having some problems finding one of the plugs for the lights, so Alison decided to get "under the hood" and help me out.

Eli had to make his final inspection to make sure all the lights were working.

Today we took Alison ice skating for the first time. It was also my first time in at least 10 years, and amazingly enough we both stayed off our butts. Alison's decided that she really wants to take lessons now and go skating every day.

Serious about grilling

2008-12-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

We had some wonderful hawaiian barbecue chicken kabobs for dinner tonight. I'd like to share the North Dakota version of the preparation tips with you.

First, assemble the kabobs and place in marinade. Next, open the garage door. Start the lawn tractor, lower the plow blade, and clear a small area in front of the garage door. Stop the tractor and roll the grill from the garage into the freshly cleared area. Start the grill. Return to the plow while the grill preheats and clear off some of the driveway. Drive the plow back to the grill so the headlights illuminate the workspace. Retrieve the kabobs from inside and place on medium high heat. Plow for five minutes, then brush kabobs with marinade. Continue to plow, turning kabobs occasionally, 10 minutes or until chicken is done.

For added convenience, wear leather gloves while plowing - it eliminates the need for tongs to turn the kabobs.

Turkey day

2008-11-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

It's definitely the holiday season now. On Tuesday night we went downtown to see the annual light parade on Broadway. It was warm enough this year that we didn't feel bad dragging the kids out for it, and there was no snow or wind. Both of the kids really enjoyed it, and we've got yet another bag full of candy to get rid of.

Alison really was having a good time - she was just a little upset in this picture that she had to turn away from the parade.

We've got a couple of chefs on our hands. Alison and Eli decided to make "alphabet soup" by taking all of the letter magnets off the fridge and stirring them in a pot.

It's a good thing I got that turkey last weekend. After it was dressed out and ready to go in the pan, it weighed about 13 pounds. I was a little concerned that being a wild bird would make it a little tough or dry or gamey or something, but that was definitely not the case. I used a roasting bag and stuffed it full of sage and onion stuffing, put it on top of some diced onions and celery, brushed on some butter, and let it go. It turned out to be some of the juiciest turkey I've ever had. It was slightly darker than a store bought bird, but the taste was wonderful.

Yes, this is my boy. He's the only other one in the house that will eat pickles or olives. He also likes egg nog and sour cream and onion chips.

Thanksgiving "shopping"

2008-11-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, I saw the grocery store ad. Yes, turkey is only 70 cents a pound. But mine was more fun!

November's here!

2008-11-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

Definitely one of my favorite times of the year. I always look forward to the first Wednesday in November - no more campaign ads! We stayed up late to watch Obama's acceptance speech. Wow.

I don't think this picture needs any explanation - Alison and Eli both were looking for snacks, and the crackers seemed to do the trick.

Friday was the opening of North Dakota deer season - I was able to fill my doe tag after about 4 hours of hunting on Friday afternoon. I passed on at least 6 shots hoping for larger deer this year. I still have a buck tag to fill, so I'll have a couple more days in the woods.

Halloween

2008-10-31T18:54:00.000-07:00

Ah, Halloween is finally here! Instead of carving a pumpkin this year, Alison just wanted to draw on it. That still leaves the opportunity for pumpkin pie, so she was pretty excited.

Alison and Eli got to have at least one more Halloween being a matched set. Alison was Little Bo Peep and Eli was a sheep. It wasn't until today that he'd actually leave the hat on, but after the party at the Community Center, he actually seemed to enjoy it!

Done?

2008-10-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

It's raining again. I think that means the end of beet season for me. It was fun while it lasted - all in all I had 68 loads delivered to the plant in 9 days of work. And a parting picture of the equipment.

Now it's back to regular work for me. The office is slowly getting back to normal, but it appears that I lost my computer to the raging waters. My desk was reassembled today, so now it's a matter of cleaning up and getting re-settled.

Back at it

2008-10-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

Back to beets again today - fields were still very soft, but still got 9 runs into the plant today, total of 46 trips now. Alison took up her job as photographer at home today, so here's a few of her photos.

Noah who?

2008-10-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

Still too wet to harvest beets, but things are looking positive for the weekend. I was planning on working in the office this week until things dried out, but a water main burst in the office on Monday and filled the building with about 3 to 4 inches of water. Now it is too wet to work outside, and too wet to work inside.
We took the kids to Maplewood State Park on Monday afternoon to see the leaves, and it was a great display.

Tuesday I recovered some of my personal items from the office so they didn't get damaged from the humidity, then spent the morning browsing Scheels and Gander Mountain.

I had a very short stint of work this morning giving a presentation to a GIS meeting in Bismarck. I left here about 5:30, drove to Bismarck, and was done by about 10:30. It's dry in Bismarck, which was nice. Since I had some time, I drove home by way of a promising hunting spot. I pulled the truck off to the side of the road and proceeded to shoot two pheasants, miss a few more, and generally have a grand old time. I walked back to the truck, started down the road and was home by 4:30. It's a rough life. I walked in the door and Alison greeted me just like I was coming home from work. I think I'll keep that little secret to myself.

I'm still shut down for both beets and office work tomorrow, so I'm going to make the best of things. I hope to get new tires for Jennifer's car early in the morning, then perhaps sneak out in search of pheasants again.

Duck weather

2008-10-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

As predicted, it was much to wet to even think about harvesting sugar beets this weekend. The southwest got snowed on, so I spent Saturday morning duck hunting about an hour and a half southwest of here. My neighbor and I left at about 5 in the morning and started putting out decoys in the dark at about 6:30. Ducks were already trying to land in our decoys before we were done setting decoys. By the time it was light enough to identify birds, things had settled down a bit. The first two birds to come into the decoys were a pair of Canada geeese. I was astonished when they committed to land and worked to plop right down the landing zone I had set up. I managed to get one, but didn't shoot at the second goose because I wasn't sure if the shotgun load would be big enough to cleanly finish the bird. Well, apparently it was and I finally got my first goose. I weighted it when I got home and it was 11 1/2 pounds. We also took home 6 blue winged teal, one green winged teal drake, and a gadwall.

Rained out

2008-10-09T16:23:00.001-07:00

We've been shut down for beet harvest since Sunday evening. Sunday and Monday saw an inch and a half of rain and made everything a muddy mess. So, back to reality for a while. There's more rain forecast for the weekend, so I don't know when we'll be back to harvesting. I was hoping to go fill an antelope tag this weekend, but they're forecasting 6-10 inches of snow for my hunting unit. So, it's duck hunting nearby instead.

Our neighbor called me this morning and said "You wouldn't believe the size of the track in our back yard! I don't know if it's a big deer or a moose!"

It's a moose. Mind you, moose bites can be very nasti.

There's been several moose sightings around here lately, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

The beet goes on

2008-10-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

After living in the valley for 14 years now, I figured it was about time to participate in the fall sugar beet harvest. I'm driving truck for a grower near Hillsboro. Load beets, drive, dump beets, drive, load beets, drive, dump...repeat for 12 hours. I snapped a few random pictures today. It'll probably be pretty quiet on the blog front for a while until harvest is done.

Following the beet lifter:

One of six pilers at the processing plant. Yes, that is a LOT of beets.

Ha. Ha.

I discovered a new smell today. On my first run into the plant my air brakes cammed over and caught fire at the weigh scale. After the flames were put out by the fieldman I weighed in then limped the truck out of the way until the brakes stopped smoking. I was able to get to the piler and dump my load, and that's when I discovered the new smell...burnt brakes and processed sugar beets. It's, uh, nasty.
Long story short, we were able to get the truck to the shop for repairs and I spent the rest of the day driving a backup truck.

Pumpkins and berries

2008-10-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

A short series from last weekend in Lake City. We headed for Grandma and Grandpa's for my birthday weekend, which was kind of the last free weekend before a busy October.

WestFest

2008-09-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

I'm playing Mr. Mom this weekend while Jennifer's in Bismarck. To occupy the kids today, I took them to Bonanzaville for WestFest/Harvest Days. Here's a couple of shots from the day:

Release!

2008-09-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Friday morning was extraordinarily foggy, and the sun was just breaking through before I had to go to work. I grabbed the camera and snuck outside to get this shot.

Saturday was the Fargo-Moorhead Bridge to Bridge Bash, a running race from downtown (on the Main Avenue bridge) down to Lindenwood Park, then back up to the floating pedestrian bridge, across to Moorhead and then to Center Mall for a total of 5 miles. I was pretty happy, I was able to shave 10 minutes off my previous best for a 5 mile run.

We had a successful hatch of all 5 chrysalides and today was the big release. Alison was very excited to let the painted lady butterflies go, and it was finally warm and dry today.

Eli got to meet his first tiger salamander this weekend. It's nice living in the country!

Butterflies and Tractors

2008-09-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well, after a weekend of shoveling wood mulch, we now have gardens along our house foundation. I had one more load to haul across the driveway. Or something like that.

I took Alison to the West Fargo Arena for the Honkin Haulin Truck show - basically they put about 20 different trucks and tractors in the parking lot and let the kids climb all over them. It was a lot of fun, but midway through it started to rain, which sent everyone scurrying for cover. After the rain passed we were able to take in a few more trucks.

Eli is working on his superhuman strength. We took him to a park nearby and he really seemed to enjoy hanging from a zip line. We thought this outfit was appropriate:

And finally, the big news - for Alison's birthday, my aunt and uncle, Pat and Mike, gave her a butterfly habitat. Well, we finally got the caterpillars ordered and after about two weeks of watching caterpillars turn into chrysalides, they hatched today into 5 painted lady butterflies.

When Alison was much smaller, her aunt Betsy got her a little house playset. Eli's now at the age that he can play with it, so it's been getting a lot of use again. Thanks Bets!

Monkey See

2008-08-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

This picture just cracks me up every time I look at it. Alison was playing hide and seek the other day and hid under the bar stools at our counter. She was giggling while she was hiding, so that really attracted Eli's attention. He decided to take up the same hiding spot.

And then there's this one. Pure musical genius.

It's the annual Bean Days in Horace this weekend. There was a trap shoot last night, a parade this morning, and a street dance tonight. The big question is whether or not we'll have a street to dance on - it's been under construction all summer long, and as of last night there were still barricades blocking the route.

The trap shoot was a ton of fun. Each team of 5 shot two rounds (a total of 50 shots each). Boy did I stink. But I made up for it in the Annie Oakley shoot afterwards. For some reason, I could connect a lot better with longer shots in a stronger wind. I came in second, so I was pretty pleased.

Weekend Getaway

2008-08-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

I had a work party out in Lakes Country on Wednesday night, and on the way out I drove past a large sunflower field in full bloom. I made a mental note of the location and made myself get up early on Friday morning to get some sunrise pictures. This is probably my favorite of the morning.

All of the pictures I took that morning seemed to have a very orange hue to them. Here's why:

The sunrise was very vivid, and lent a neat tint to the flowers. After I was done playing in the field, I went back home and helped get the kids ready for daycare before I had to go to work. I don't know when I became a morning person, but apparently I've become one.

We blasted off to Bismarck this weekend to visit Grandma B. After we arrived on Friday evening, we just relaxed for a little while and let the kids play in the basement. Eli was quite entertained by the piano, and we listened to some great duets performed by the two kids.

On Saturday morning, I got up and went for about a three and a half mile run on a path along Hay Creek. After I got back and got showered, I ran to pick up Starbucks for Jennifer and myself. With a little caffeine in our systems, we were ready for the day. First up, Dakota Zoo. We've got a membership for the zoo in Fargo, and that gets us into the Bismarck zoo for free. We took the kids and Grandma B, and met Jennifer's sister Patty as well. The kids had a great time, and especially liked the playground.

The zoo recently opened a new big cat exhibit that has 3 tigers on display. There is a tunnel underneath the exhibit area that opens into a viewing area where you can get extremely close to the tigers.

Part of the exhibit is still under construction, when that is finished they'll have leopards on display as well.

After the zoo, we went through a drive through window then took the kids back to Grandma's. Eli was more tired than hungry, so he went down for a nap right away. After he woke up, he ate an entire softshell taco and a whole banana on his own. We lounged around for a little while, then left for the Raging Rivers water park in Mandan. After a slight miscalculation with directions and a lovely detour through a Mandan trailer park, we arrived at the water park shortly after 4:00pm - just when the discount rates started. We took the kids to the water playground first, then loaded everybody into tubes and floated on the lazy river for a couple laps.

After that, Alison and I went down one of the large tube slides. It was Alison's first time, and we weren't quite sure how she would do, but we figured we'd at least give it a try. I grabbed a single tube and we started the climb to the top of the slide - it's easily 3 stories tall. Alison didn't act scared at all on the way up, so I figured that was a good sign. Patty went down in front of us to act as a catcher, just in case, then it was our turn. I had Alison stand in front of me while I positioned the tube and sat down. She then sat in my lap, and away we went. The beginning of the tube is completely enclosed and is pitch black. She was absolutely silent. Suddenly, we erupted into the sunlight and continued our spiral down. Still completely silent. As we made the final turn, there was a large wall of water at the end of the slide. We splashed through - silence. Finally, we came to a rest in the pool at the bottom and I asked if she had fun. She paused for a minute, then excitedly screamed "Yes! Let's do it again!" As soon as she was out of the pool she was jumping up and down ready to go again. We went two more times, then tried another slide. I think we've got a thrill seeker on our hands.

Before we left the park, I made the climb to the top of the tower to go on one of the speed slides. Just because. There was no line for the slide, and I shot down like a bullet. After I got off the slide, I was a little worried that I would need specialized machinery to extract my swimsuit from my behind, but everything came out okay.

We finished up at the water park at about six, then went back to the house to get changed. To round out the day, we took the kids to Space Aliens. Somehow, throughout all the activity, we managed to make it through with no meltdowns.

We went to an outdoor church service this morning. It was a combination service for about 6 different congregations of all different denominations in Bismarck. It was a neat event, and the kids enjoyed playing in the grass for the entire service. Afterwards, they served bratwurst, hot dogs, macaroni salad and chips. This really should be a weekly thing. After lunch, we packed the truck and hit the road.

Both kids napped until we got to Valley City, so we decided that would be a good place to stop. Valley City, the City of Bridges, also seems to be the City of Closed Gas Stations. I don't know how many gas stations we passed, but it seemed like every block had an old, closed gas station, with a newer, temporarily closed gas station right across the street. We finally found an open Cenex (next to an old, closed Cenex and across the street from another closed Cenex) and got the kids taken care of. To take a little break from interstate highway driving, we drove to the north side of town to look at the highline railroad bridge.

Before bed time, Alison wanted to put together a jigsaw puzzle online. I had to take the picture of my little computer geek.

Box car

2008-08-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

We spent the better portion of yesterday watching Joel and Carrie's little boy Christopher. He's about 3 months older than Eli and the two of them had a blast playing with each other. Definitely boys. I have a prediction that we're going to see a football matchup between the two in the future. Both of them wanted to play with a toy vacuum cleaner. At one point, Eli walked up behind Christopher and did a two-handed grab at the shoulders and made a pretty good tackle. Both of them toppled and laughed, and went right back to playing. A little while later, Eli tried the same thing and was met by a stiff arm from Christopher which toppled Eli. Again, both kept laughing and playing.

This morning made me question again why we bother spending money on toys. Alison and Eli spent quite a while this morning playing with an empty diaper box. After a while, Jennifer put Eli in the box and he just sat there with a big grin. It didn't take long and Alison started to push the box making train noises. They made a few passes through the kitchen, laughing all the way.

Ryan and Jodi came over tonight with Henry and Eva. We spent a while playing outside, and had baby back ribs, baked potatoes, apple/walnut/gorgonzola salad, and baked beans for dinner. I haven't done ribs too many times on the grill before, so it was fun to experiment. I did one rack of dry rub ribs and one rack of "wet" ribs - they both turned out pretty good, but I think next time I either need to shorten the time on the grill or knock the heat down a little bit.

Chokecherries

2008-08-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

I took Alison on a little adventure today to try to find some chokecherries. Ryan and Henry joined us as we went out to a wildlife management area about 20 miles away to see what could be found. Unfortunately, it appears that with the cool spring we had it's not a good year for chokecherries. The usual bushes that I raid were nearly bare.

There's a few other locations I've got to check out, but it might be tough to make syrup and wine this year.

Children of the Corn

2008-08-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

It's definitely summer! I think it was in the 80s almost every day this week. Wednesday night I ran in the Dick Beardsley "Run for Your Life" - a 5 mile run to benefit the Dick Beardsley Foundation. I had a miserable head cold, so I wasn't exactly in peak form, but I finished in just shy of 53 minutes. I wasn't the last one on the course, so that's a good thing. After the race they had a raffle for a door prize and I won a brand new pair of New Balance running shoes of my choosing. Pretty sweet deal!

Alison and Eli got to play in the pool this week. It's going to be a challenge keeping them out.

After we put Eli to sleep tonight, I looked out our kitchen window and saw a cropduster spraying a field a little over a mile away from the house. The lighting was just right and I was thinking about going for some pictures, when Jennifer said "Only if you take Alison with you." It didn't take too much convincing and Alison was loaded in the truck and we were off. Once we got about a quarter mile away from where the airplane was spraying, I stopped so Alison could see it fly past and I could get some pictures. No matter how many times I see them, all I can think is "Cool. Those guys are freaking nuts."

After the cropduster moved on, we drove down the road a little bit more. Alison has been very observant about what kind of plants are growing in fields, and got pretty excited being so close to the corn. I pulled off to the side of the road and we got out so she could see just how tall the corn really was.

We loaded back into the truck and drove another half mile and saw this little stinker on the side of the road:

Needless to say, I rolled the windows up just in case.

And one passing artsy type shot. It's still hard to believe that this is basically our back yard.

Words with "oo" in them

2008-07-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Another week has blasted by. Last weekend we went to Wahpeton to check out the Chahinkapa Zoo. I hate to admit it, but little old Wahpeton's zoo is better than Fargo's. Better variety, better location, and bigger. Luckily it's only 45 minutes away. Since I know most visitors come here for kid pictures, I'll skip over the animals this time.

Jennifer started her new job on Monday and is loving it. As it turns out, her office is about half a block away from mine. We're able to carpool in the morning, and I ride bike home in the afternoon. It's about 15 miles and takes about an hour, but that's an hour of exercise that I don't have to otherwise schedule. We'll have to work on a plan for the winter months, but for now I'm enjoying it.

It's been in the mid 80s all week and looking like the same for this weekend. Jennifer's down with a cold right now, so I'm chasing after the kids. We filled up the inflatable pool in the driveway.

Now it's off to the bike shop and grocery store, and after dinner the pool should be warm enough to go in.

Detoured

2008-07-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to bike to work periodically this summer, but the county highway department seems to have other plans. My main route is under construction, so I have to pedal about 15 miles instead of 11. It's not really a big deal - after about 5 miles it doesn't seem to matter how far I have to go - but it does add a little time. I replaced my mountain bike tires with some narrower slick tires for commuting and it really seemed to help.

Here's the other thing that helped today - I didn't need to worry about rushing home to pick the kids up from day care. Jennifer took a job offer with a different bank earlier this week that will allow her to work part time. She'll start on Monday, but in the meantime she's got the rest of the week off.

Shortly before Eli's birthday my old second-hand Canon Powershot S1 croaked. It appears the CCD sensor just failed, as all I could see was black and purple. The review function still worked. It had a good run, so I had no hesitation getting another Canon. I upgraded to the Canon PowerShot S5IS, and so far I'm extremely happy with it. Best of all - I have a macro function again!

One Year

2008-07-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

How the? I really was planning on posting pictures on Eli's birthday, but somehow that didn't quite work. Now I get to jam three weeks of happenings into one post.
So last time, I put up a video clip of James playing on the organ. No, in fact, he does not know how to play "Superstitious". That was a blatant copyright infringement meant for a laugh. We had a fun weekend in Lake City for Waterski Days. Since James and Sammy were there for the weekend, it was a little hectic chasing 4 kids around.

After we got back from Lake City, we celebrated Eli's 1st birthday. For his actual birthday, we had a very low key night and just went to Space Aliens. Then, things started getting busy!
Jennifer's sisters (all 4 of them) and mother came into town for the 4th of July. We had a nice little party for Eli on the 4th, then torched off as many fireworks as we could stand.

Eli decided to start walking, and is now really motoring around.
Once the last of the family left, we got back to work for the week and things seemed to be settling down a little bit. We realized we didn't have anything going on for the coming weekend, so we invited Grandma and Grandpa up. We had a pretty quiet Saturday and didn't go out much because it was horribly windy. Sunday was absolutely beautiful and we spent the day out at Fort Ransom State Park for Sodbuster Days. Alison really enjoyed seeing the horses and sheep, but was feeling a little under the weather.

Musiquarium?

2008-06-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

James was channeling a little Stevie Wonder tonight.

First word!

2008-06-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Eli said his first word this afternoon. Not "mama" or "dada", but "Alison". That's right, he decided to just skip to a three syllable word.

I'm trying something new. I managed to record Eli talking today, and through a strange multipart process, I think I have the recording posted online. Click the player below to listen!

A whole new kid

2008-06-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

Summer's here and we started it off by getting Alison's hair cut. It was finally long enough (and then some) to donate to Locks of Love. We went to Whipper Snippers this morning - Jennifer took Alison inside while I slept in the car with Eli.

Before:

After:

After all was said and done, the stylist took 14 inches of hair off!

Meanwhile, I'm beginning to think that Eli's just about ready to start singing "Philadelphia Freedom". Shine a light.

Swimming

2008-06-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, so before all the storms...we spent Saturday afternoon out at Buffalo River State Park with Ryan and Jodi and their kids Henry and Eva. It was a nice day and the kids were able to go in the swimming hole. It's a nice sized pond with a sand bottom, but with the cool spring this year the water was a little brisk.

Sirens

2008-06-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

Other pictures to post later, but here are some pictures of our first tornado warning of the year. There was a doppler-indicated tornado 6 miles NW of us, with some "other" activity reported. Here's a few pictures.

Soggy feet

2008-06-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

After a short rain delay, the Fargo YMCA Chase Race was held tonight. This was my first organized 5K and I'm happy to report that I am still, in fact, alive. I finished with a time of 27:43, so I'm pretty happy with that. Jennifer and the kids played in the park while I ran and cheered me on at the end.

Memorial Day a little late

2008-06-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Had a quick run to Iowa for Memorial Day weekend and our nephew Sam's baptism. On the way back, Alison helped Grandpa put out the flag for Memorial Day.

Eli got his first haircut at 11 months. Now that it's cut he looks more like a little boy than a baby. Scary.

The weather has been a little spotty lately. It seems like there's always a thunderstorm on the way.

It's making it a bit difficult to prepare for the Y 5K on Thursday night, but somehow I've managed to keep running just about every other day. In between running days I've taken up biking again, and even commuted to work today. It's about 11.5 miles one way, and it's a very nice ride IF the wind isn't blowing.

Speed of life

2008-05-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

How in the world can it be over a month since I posted last? Crazy. Well, had a week in Kansas City for a work conference, four days in Minneapolis for our 10 year anniversary, followed up by a week in Washington, DC. Oh, that's how a month goes by.

In the midst of all that, Alison turned 4. We had a small party here, then another small party at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Into Everything

2008-04-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

Ah, nine months old. That magical time of drool, improved mobility and selective hearing. Needless to say, Eli is now in to everything.

We had professional photos of the kids taken by a lady with a studio in Barnesville, MN last weekend. We're using the sitting as a combination 9 month / 4 year photo shoot. Overall the kids did pretty well. After the photos, we headed home, took care of some routine appointments and went to Bismarck for the weekend.

When we returned, we were met with a wall of snow and slush at Casselton that slowed traffic considerably. There were a few cars in the ditch, but not too bad overall. Just gotta love April.

This weekend was much better - we stayed in town and it was reasonably warm. The wind was miserable on Friday night, but I went out for a run anyway. I was able to go 3.9 miles, which is both the longest I've ever run, and just about the extent of the roads in Horace. Okay, maybe "run" isn't the right word - I'm not exactly going to be setting any speed records.

Today was gorgeous - about fifty degrees and no wind. After church, Alison wanted to ride her bike. She was perched at the top of the driveway, waiting to go. Daisy went running across the yard after the neighbor, so I told Alison to stay put. I turned to call back Daisy and saw motion from the corner of my eye. Sure enough, Alison was under way. She accelerated pretty quickly about halfway down the driveway until she decided to turn. Wipeout #1 of the year. Luckily, there were no bruises and no scrapes. Once we got straightened out and settled down, we went to the level street to try again. Alison did very well getting back on the bike and pedaling away. She pedaled through the neighborhood but would stop every time I took my hand off her back. Alison was biking in the same direction that our neighbor was walking, so I had a nice conversation with the neighbor about kids. They have a little girl almost the same age as Eli. It's funny - people live less than 100 yards away from you, and yet you never see them for 5 months out of the year because of the cold and dark.

Easter

2008-03-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

We had a nice "quiet" Easter. We wanted to get both kids ready and get photos in their Easter outfits, but realized that just wasn't going to happen so we did one at a time.

After Jennifer got Alison into her dress, Alison did a little dance and said "Daddy! I'm a princess! And you can be my prince!" Awww....

Eli is just a bundle of energy and doesn't want to stay in one spot for very long. Any future pictures may require either a high-speed shutter or an elaborate rigging system to keep him in place.

After church we went to a brunch, then came home and dyed Easter eggs. One note - Easter egg dye is NOT color fast. Strangely, the dye comes off an egg much easier than it does off a little boy's lips.

Good Friday

2008-03-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

Good Friday was a travel day for me. Since we had a little time before my flight left, we wandered around Arlington National Cemetery for a little bit. We managed to show up right before the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

As we were walking back to the car, the Old Guard came rumbling past on horseback with a funeral caisson in tow. Makes for a somber morning.

St Patricks in Gettysburg

2008-03-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

I spent last week in Emmitburg, Maryland for training. It's about 8 miles from Gettysburg, so we spent a couple of evenings after class walking around the battlefield.

I took a bunch of the standard tourist photos, but also tried some of the "artsy" shots too. Luckily the guys I was with are also kind of into photography, so I wasn't offended when I heard, "Come Ansel, let's go!"

These photos are from the Little Round Top and Devil's Den area of the battlefield.

For dinner, we went to the Dobbin House and ate in the Springhouse Tavern in the basement. It's a 1775 building and has great food, great atmosphere, and is pretty reasonably priced.

New photographer

2008-03-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

I'm packing to go to training in Maryland for a week, so I thought I better take a break and introduce the new staff photographer. Alison is taking over picture duties this week, and I thought I better show off her portfolio.

She's getting quite good at taking pictures with her pink Little Tikes camera.

Now, for the "Where does she come up with this stuff" story of the day...We're sitting at the counter the other night and Alison knocks over her sippy cup of milk. She turns and says, "Do you know what we say when we knock over our milk? That didn't work so well."

Spoken like a true North Dakotan. Ya sure. Not too good a deal then.

Caught in action

2008-03-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

Finally caught Eli doing his army crawl-creep-slug motion. He's going to have some serious upper body strength if he keeps doing this.

Shopping weekend

2008-03-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

In between bouts of colds and flu-like symptoms, we actually had a nice weekend. I stayed home Friday with a temperature, but was feeling pretty decent by Friday evening. Saturday, Jennifer started to go downhill. Since we needed to get some grocery shopping done, I brought Alison with me. That almost never happens, since I treat grocery shopping as my alone time. Just me and the produce section. So...peaceful. Decided to give it a shot, but before we could leave, Alison had to make a grocery list.

Alison decided that Daddy's Bean boots were just the ticket for shopping.

Here's Alison's shopping list. It's obvious what she wants. Oranges, bananas, blueberries, peas, strawberries, green beans, and duck. I was with her until the end. She changed her mind when we got to the store and decided that the last item was actually fish. This may be the first and only time that we get EVERYTHING on her list. It worked great, because when she asked to get a balloon, then a ball, then candy, all I had to say was "Sorry, it's not on your list."

Since she did such a great job shopping, we had special pancakes for breakfast. Blueberry eyes and smile, with a sliced strawberry for a nose. Alison has been a great helper for cooking lately.

We played hide and seek tonight, with her in a halloween costume. When it was time to get pajamas on, we didn't quite have the order right. We ended up with a fairy godmonkey.