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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
