Just measured Aaron today and he in fact has grown this summer... He's officially surpassed the 5-foot mark at 5 feet 1/4-inch. That would make around a half inch he's grown since school let out this year.
Speaking of school, we just had the open house at Challenger yesterday, a good way to spend my birthday. We met with Mr. Schafer and Mr. Thorson and picked up all the paperwork for the new year. I found out Mr. Schafer has an environmental science area of sorts out in the marshes surrounding Challenger where Aaron will be spending a lot of time this school year learning about the native flora and fauna. I also discovered a familiar name on Aaron's class roster. TUrns out besides Emily, the hockey coach's daughter, there's also a girl named Hannah who is the daughter of one of the guys I attended elementary school at St. Hilaire. Aaron took the opportunity to go say hi to his old 3rd grade teacher, Ms. McGeary, and we met his new resource room teacher, Mrs. Duchser (pronounced "Duke-Shur"). Couldn't talk Aaron into signing up for orchestra, but looks like he may try flag football league this fall.
The days are getting short before it's time for the early mornings and school bus rides. We've got the school supplies and now we're down to clothes and shoes. Aaron's been begging me to go to Purdy Shoes in town to get him a pair of "those shoes with the 'M' on them" so he can be like all his buddies in school. Daniel's already got his light-up Lightning McQueen shoes that I've managed to keep him from wearing as of yet (not an easy task, mind you).
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
We Made It, But....
It was a great trip to Minneapolis regardless of the downsides. By downsides, I'm particularly referring to the Weasel's difficulties on the way down. We made it all the way down on I-494 until a mile or two before the hotel when traffic slowed to a standstill thanks to George "Dubya's" visit to Minneapolis. I had only burned three-quarters of a tank of gas getting down there and thought I was doing great, but with the gridlock, I burned off the rest of the gas and had to find a way off the freeway and get to a gas station. We filled up and figured we were almost there, but in the process of getting back on the freeway, the transmission started acting up and upon parking at an area hardware store found the transmission dipstick was bone dry. After filling with transmission fluid we were able to make it the rest of the way to the parking lot and the following day (Wednesday) had it towed to the transmission shop, which happened to be less than a mile from the hotel.
We met mom, Jennifer, Nick, and Jake at the Outback Steakhouse in the hotel for dinner the night we arrived and had a relaxing evening thereafter. Aaron was cute when we were on the freeway and I asked if he and Daniel were going to give their cousins a big hug and let them know how happy they were to see them. He responded in characteristic intellectual fashion by stating, "We haven't seen them in a while. I think we'll just act normal until we get to our suite."
We had a great time visiting the Mall of America and seeing the underground aquarium there with the sharks and stingrays and such and managed to get out of there without buying anything at the mall or riding any rides in what used to be called Camp Snoopy. The boys enjoyed seeing Lego-Land much the way it was the last time we were there in 2002, but with the addition of some life-sized Harry Potters made out of Legos. We then traveled to John and Beth Smeby's for dinner at their house. It was another relaxing evening as we dined in John's garage (actually a nice place to eat). He grilled a delicious dinner of marinated chicken and bratwurst and Beth served brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert. The kids had a good time playing catch with a baseball in John's back yard and we left for the hotel around 8:00 or so.
We met up with Cousin Jeff and his wife, Katrina (you still crack me up, Katrina!), and took in the sights of the Minnesota State Fair. It was an overcast rainy day at the fair and we took shelter more than once in the various buildings at the State Fair. We saw the beautiful draft horses in the livestock buildings including Perchons, Morgans, and probably a few Belgians. Mom treated us to a horse show indoors where they had a demonstration of medieval warfare with jousting and swordfighting. They had squires that helped the knights with their swords and lances and we also returned later to see an equestrian jumping competition. We passed through the "Miracle of Birth" barn where they had nothing but sheep, pigs, goats, etc. giving birth and they displayed the births on these large flat panel screens hanging from the ceiling. The barn was attended by veterinarians from the University of Minnesota and we saw a number of animals that were just born that day or late the prior night including some ducklings, piglets, and a lamb.
Of course we had to go on a few fair rides when we were there (thanks Mom and Jen!) and the boys had a great time doing that. Jennifer and I alternated donating tickets to Jeff so he could go up on several of the rides with the boys instead of us, though I did ride a few of them with the boys including the Tilt-a-Whirl and Crazy Mouse. The latter ride was hilarious in terms of Aaron's expression while riding it, but Daniel unfortunately hit his head on the seat back at one point and as a result didn't care too much for that ride when all was over. At least we captured the look on Aaron's face in that ride...
We were caught in a classic Minnesota thunderstorm while at the fair toward the end of the day and we ended up parting ways with Aaron and I going with Jeff and the others going with Jennifer to meet up for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse for dinner close to Anoka. I think that was the best night of the three nights we were there, as we were able to see both of Jeff's brothers, Jeremy and Joe. We had a great dinner there (it was Joe's birthday) and the funniest thing happened as we were about to leave. One of the waitresses stopped at our table and pointed out the WSU lanyard I was wearing around my neck, stating she herself had grown up in Spokane and recognized WSU as "WAZZU" right away. She was also studying nursing, an interesting parallel. It was pretty funny that there I sat 1,200 miles away from Pullman and yet someone recognized my alma mater just from the initials on my lanyard.
We headed back to the hotel and Friday morning after breakfast Mom's friend, Janna, arrived at the hotel and brought a birthday cake for Mom. We visited a little in the morning and then Jennifer left with the boys for the airport while Mom went to stay with Janna for a few days before returning home to Seattle.
I was finally able to make a reliable wireless connection with my laptop in the hotel lobby Friday morning and planned our trip back to TRF and we pulled out around 12:30 or so. We drove up to visit GG and Grandma Judy (thanks, Jeff, for the heads up on the freeway exit!). Unfortunately, I ended up taking I-94 East instead of West or something like that and ended up on University Avenue where I found myself unexpectedly in the middle of the University of Minnesota Campus. We drove through Greek row and took in the scenery while I found my way back on the freeway in the opposite direction (thanks, Jen, for that MPLS map!) and eventually made it to Crystal Lake and GG and Grandma Judy's resting place. Aaron remembered a lot about GG and told Daniel all about him as as being a "great" grandpa as we visited the gravesite.
We then headed out of Minneapolis on I-94 West through St. Cloud, stopping briefly for lunch at Denny's just south of St. Cloud and I also took about a 20-minute breather to close my eyes and rest before driving the rest of the way. We reached the exit to head north through Detroit Lakes, but I hadn't noticed it previously and Aaron told me about it just as we were passing the sign, so we ended up going another 11 miles west before we could turn around and go back, adding another 22 miles to the trip total. I just put it on cruise, though, at 58 mph and took my time the rest of the way back. We stopped just outside Pelican Rapids for dinner at the Taste-T-Freez and made it home at about 10:30 Friday night, all in one piece. The next morning we went and picked up Duchess from the kennel outside St. Hilaire and she smelled April fresh after her bath and grooming while we were gone. We then picked up the rabbits and guineas from Sandy Drevlow's yesterday afternoon and now we're back to our usual routine looking forward to the start of school in about 9 days.
Now that we're back in TRF, I've managed to mow the lawns yesterday and just now I've been noticing the leaves are starting to turn their autum color and fall off. There's only about a couple dozen yellow leaves in my front yard, but as September approaches, we will likely be in a pile of leaves in no time. This summer seemed a lot longer than last summer. It's hard to believe the leaves are already turning color and we'll be looking at snow before long, though we could do without snow until at least December.
We have an open house for school on my birthday, August 30th, and the following week the boys will be in school again. Aaron has indicated an interest in playing basketball this year, so we will probably check into signing him up for that. Daniel can probably do that too if he's interested. I'm looking forward to building on last year's skating practice and the return of Prowler hockey season.
If you're reading this, Jeff and Katrina, or anyone else we visited with down there in Minneapolis, thanks for a great time! It was really fun seeing you guys again!
We met mom, Jennifer, Nick, and Jake at the Outback Steakhouse in the hotel for dinner the night we arrived and had a relaxing evening thereafter. Aaron was cute when we were on the freeway and I asked if he and Daniel were going to give their cousins a big hug and let them know how happy they were to see them. He responded in characteristic intellectual fashion by stating, "We haven't seen them in a while. I think we'll just act normal until we get to our suite."
We had a great time visiting the Mall of America and seeing the underground aquarium there with the sharks and stingrays and such and managed to get out of there without buying anything at the mall or riding any rides in what used to be called Camp Snoopy. The boys enjoyed seeing Lego-Land much the way it was the last time we were there in 2002, but with the addition of some life-sized Harry Potters made out of Legos. We then traveled to John and Beth Smeby's for dinner at their house. It was another relaxing evening as we dined in John's garage (actually a nice place to eat). He grilled a delicious dinner of marinated chicken and bratwurst and Beth served brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert. The kids had a good time playing catch with a baseball in John's back yard and we left for the hotel around 8:00 or so.
We met up with Cousin Jeff and his wife, Katrina (you still crack me up, Katrina!), and took in the sights of the Minnesota State Fair. It was an overcast rainy day at the fair and we took shelter more than once in the various buildings at the State Fair. We saw the beautiful draft horses in the livestock buildings including Perchons, Morgans, and probably a few Belgians. Mom treated us to a horse show indoors where they had a demonstration of medieval warfare with jousting and swordfighting. They had squires that helped the knights with their swords and lances and we also returned later to see an equestrian jumping competition. We passed through the "Miracle of Birth" barn where they had nothing but sheep, pigs, goats, etc. giving birth and they displayed the births on these large flat panel screens hanging from the ceiling. The barn was attended by veterinarians from the University of Minnesota and we saw a number of animals that were just born that day or late the prior night including some ducklings, piglets, and a lamb.
Of course we had to go on a few fair rides when we were there (thanks Mom and Jen!) and the boys had a great time doing that. Jennifer and I alternated donating tickets to Jeff so he could go up on several of the rides with the boys instead of us, though I did ride a few of them with the boys including the Tilt-a-Whirl and Crazy Mouse. The latter ride was hilarious in terms of Aaron's expression while riding it, but Daniel unfortunately hit his head on the seat back at one point and as a result didn't care too much for that ride when all was over. At least we captured the look on Aaron's face in that ride...
We were caught in a classic Minnesota thunderstorm while at the fair toward the end of the day and we ended up parting ways with Aaron and I going with Jeff and the others going with Jennifer to meet up for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse for dinner close to Anoka. I think that was the best night of the three nights we were there, as we were able to see both of Jeff's brothers, Jeremy and Joe. We had a great dinner there (it was Joe's birthday) and the funniest thing happened as we were about to leave. One of the waitresses stopped at our table and pointed out the WSU lanyard I was wearing around my neck, stating she herself had grown up in Spokane and recognized WSU as "WAZZU" right away. She was also studying nursing, an interesting parallel. It was pretty funny that there I sat 1,200 miles away from Pullman and yet someone recognized my alma mater just from the initials on my lanyard.
We headed back to the hotel and Friday morning after breakfast Mom's friend, Janna, arrived at the hotel and brought a birthday cake for Mom. We visited a little in the morning and then Jennifer left with the boys for the airport while Mom went to stay with Janna for a few days before returning home to Seattle.
I was finally able to make a reliable wireless connection with my laptop in the hotel lobby Friday morning and planned our trip back to TRF and we pulled out around 12:30 or so. We drove up to visit GG and Grandma Judy (thanks, Jeff, for the heads up on the freeway exit!). Unfortunately, I ended up taking I-94 East instead of West or something like that and ended up on University Avenue where I found myself unexpectedly in the middle of the University of Minnesota Campus. We drove through Greek row and took in the scenery while I found my way back on the freeway in the opposite direction (thanks, Jen, for that MPLS map!) and eventually made it to Crystal Lake and GG and Grandma Judy's resting place. Aaron remembered a lot about GG and told Daniel all about him as as being a "great" grandpa as we visited the gravesite.
We then headed out of Minneapolis on I-94 West through St. Cloud, stopping briefly for lunch at Denny's just south of St. Cloud and I also took about a 20-minute breather to close my eyes and rest before driving the rest of the way. We reached the exit to head north through Detroit Lakes, but I hadn't noticed it previously and Aaron told me about it just as we were passing the sign, so we ended up going another 11 miles west before we could turn around and go back, adding another 22 miles to the trip total. I just put it on cruise, though, at 58 mph and took my time the rest of the way back. We stopped just outside Pelican Rapids for dinner at the Taste-T-Freez and made it home at about 10:30 Friday night, all in one piece. The next morning we went and picked up Duchess from the kennel outside St. Hilaire and she smelled April fresh after her bath and grooming while we were gone. We then picked up the rabbits and guineas from Sandy Drevlow's yesterday afternoon and now we're back to our usual routine looking forward to the start of school in about 9 days.
Now that we're back in TRF, I've managed to mow the lawns yesterday and just now I've been noticing the leaves are starting to turn their autum color and fall off. There's only about a couple dozen yellow leaves in my front yard, but as September approaches, we will likely be in a pile of leaves in no time. This summer seemed a lot longer than last summer. It's hard to believe the leaves are already turning color and we'll be looking at snow before long, though we could do without snow until at least December.
We have an open house for school on my birthday, August 30th, and the following week the boys will be in school again. Aaron has indicated an interest in playing basketball this year, so we will probably check into signing him up for that. Daniel can probably do that too if he's interested. I'm looking forward to building on last year's skating practice and the return of Prowler hockey season.
If you're reading this, Jeff and Katrina, or anyone else we visited with down there in Minneapolis, thanks for a great time! It was really fun seeing you guys again!
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Question Is.... Can We Make it to MPLS and Back?
It's been a week of preparation here for our upcoming brief journey to the Twin Cities. I of course waited until the last possible week to realize I had to do something with our menagerie of animal companions before we leave next week for the trip to Minneapolis. I managed to find a kennel about 7 miles out of St. Hilaire to drop Duchess off at (Thanks Dawn!) and they'll give Duchess a nice bath and nail trim while we're gone, so I'm looking forward to coming back to a fresh dog. Kind of reminds me of putting our old dog, Pepper, in the kennel over in Edmonds and coming back to a "skinnier" dog after her "shave and a haircut - two bits." We found a home as well temporarily for the bunnies and guinea pigs (with Sandy Drevlow). That leaves the love birds that Andrew left behind, but thankfully we've gotten rid of those noisy irritating creatures by finding a lady in town here that has a large number of birds already and was happy to take two more.
As summer continues its march to an inevitable conclusion, we've been the recipient of a couple good torrential downpours. We had a fantastic thunderstorm about three days ago with a great light show from the heavens. I took a ruler out to a Rubbermaid bin in the back yard and measured 3 inches of fresh rainfall from that night's storm. While great for the farmers, we now have a lawn that has largely been resurrected to its lush green carpet appearance, so it looks like I'll be mowing upon our return from the trip, the first time I'll have mowed since sometime in June. I haven't been looking forward to that, as we have a bit of a neighborhood yellow jacket problem. They've been swarming along our fence line the past few weeks in the back yard and seem to be everywhere. The traps I set out last week have about 3/4 to an inch of yellow jackets apiece (probably a good 300 to 400 in each), so that's at least a small dent in this year's population. Hopefully by late August most will have died off and I can mow the lawn in peace.
In other trip preparation news, we went to Wally World this past week and got an oil change and a fresh pair of sneakers (tires) on the Weasel. The right front tire had had a slow leak for some time, but seeing as we have to make it 300+ miles and back next week, I figured we should go ahead and replace the tire altogether along with the other front end tire for balance. All told (with the oil change) it came to $129.99, so not a bad deal at all. I think the ride in the Weasel is a little quieter now too on the new tires. So my next blog update will likely be about what we did on our mini-vacation to Minneapolis.
As summer continues its march to an inevitable conclusion, we've been the recipient of a couple good torrential downpours. We had a fantastic thunderstorm about three days ago with a great light show from the heavens. I took a ruler out to a Rubbermaid bin in the back yard and measured 3 inches of fresh rainfall from that night's storm. While great for the farmers, we now have a lawn that has largely been resurrected to its lush green carpet appearance, so it looks like I'll be mowing upon our return from the trip, the first time I'll have mowed since sometime in June. I haven't been looking forward to that, as we have a bit of a neighborhood yellow jacket problem. They've been swarming along our fence line the past few weeks in the back yard and seem to be everywhere. The traps I set out last week have about 3/4 to an inch of yellow jackets apiece (probably a good 300 to 400 in each), so that's at least a small dent in this year's population. Hopefully by late August most will have died off and I can mow the lawn in peace.
In other trip preparation news, we went to Wally World this past week and got an oil change and a fresh pair of sneakers (tires) on the Weasel. The right front tire had had a slow leak for some time, but seeing as we have to make it 300+ miles and back next week, I figured we should go ahead and replace the tire altogether along with the other front end tire for balance. All told (with the oil change) it came to $129.99, so not a bad deal at all. I think the ride in the Weasel is a little quieter now too on the new tires. So my next blog update will likely be about what we did on our mini-vacation to Minneapolis.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Summer Can't Be Almost Over... It Can't!!!
It's too hard to believe we're in the final weeks of summer. We've had such a blast this summer with sports and playing outside in the hot Minnesota sun that it's hard to imagine a new fall season around the corner and the start of a new year at school. We've been so busy I just realized I didn't look at my last blog entry just now so you'll have to forgive me if I duplicate any previous news in this post.
We finished up vacation Bible school at Trinity last week and it was a very successful week. All the kids had a great time and were well worn out by the time we got home each night. Pastor Mark took some pictures so hopefully I can get a few to post here in the not too distant future.
As soon as vacation Bible school was over, we realized they were having Sports Camp at the Evangelical Free Church at the old Washington Elementary, so the boys caught the last 3 of the 4 days of that activity there and were part of a group of somewhere between 130 and 150 kids there every night and several parents and grandparents were there including my old teacher from Franklin, Walter Reddinger, and his wife. At tonight's finale, they had borrowed the City of TRF's dunk tank and the pastor was dunked along with several of the youth leaders. Afterwards, in memory of all those times Dad used to drive us home to the farm while we sat in the back seat with our fingers crossed saying to ourselves, "TURN LEFT NOW," I took the boys and their buddies, Drew, Zach, and Kade to DQ for a Blizzard treat. While they were at their activity tonight I snuck out to the grocery store and picked up some school supplies to get started on the Back-To-School shopping. Before I know it, I'll be back to my regular Friday lunch appointments with Aaron at Challenger (Yeah, Danny gets embarrassed when Dad comes to eat with him, but I'll probably surprise him a few times too this year).
I think that's all for the organized summer activities for now, so I'll have to be creative in filling the remainder of our summer break, though we're looking forward to our upcoming trip to the Cities not too long from now, which reminds me, I gotta get the Weasel in for an oil change and once over before we hit the road...
We finished up vacation Bible school at Trinity last week and it was a very successful week. All the kids had a great time and were well worn out by the time we got home each night. Pastor Mark took some pictures so hopefully I can get a few to post here in the not too distant future.
As soon as vacation Bible school was over, we realized they were having Sports Camp at the Evangelical Free Church at the old Washington Elementary, so the boys caught the last 3 of the 4 days of that activity there and were part of a group of somewhere between 130 and 150 kids there every night and several parents and grandparents were there including my old teacher from Franklin, Walter Reddinger, and his wife. At tonight's finale, they had borrowed the City of TRF's dunk tank and the pastor was dunked along with several of the youth leaders. Afterwards, in memory of all those times Dad used to drive us home to the farm while we sat in the back seat with our fingers crossed saying to ourselves, "TURN LEFT NOW," I took the boys and their buddies, Drew, Zach, and Kade to DQ for a Blizzard treat. While they were at their activity tonight I snuck out to the grocery store and picked up some school supplies to get started on the Back-To-School shopping. Before I know it, I'll be back to my regular Friday lunch appointments with Aaron at Challenger (Yeah, Danny gets embarrassed when Dad comes to eat with him, but I'll probably surprise him a few times too this year).
I think that's all for the organized summer activities for now, so I'll have to be creative in filling the remainder of our summer break, though we're looking forward to our upcoming trip to the Cities not too long from now, which reminds me, I gotta get the Weasel in for an oil change and once over before we hit the road...
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