Happy Happy Fun Weekend

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

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

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

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!"