Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

We stayed home with the kids and had our Thanksgiving Day lunch.  We had beans....

We had stuffing...

We had turkey....

Of course, we also had mashed potatoes, cranberries, etc. to go with our lunch.

We even had warm, apple pie...

The kids were very excited...

Sarah did a fantastic job!

I kept asking what she needed from me and how I could help....all she wanted was the kids out of the kitchen and not arguing or yelling...that was my job.

Sarah did a much better job than I did....

Camping at Jay Cooke State Park

A couple of weeks ago, we all went camping at Jay Cooke State Park....yes, camping....in November.  But we were staying in a camper cabin...heated camper cabin, with electricity.  Not exactly tent camping, but still...

High temperatures were never above freezing and the lows were in the single digits, that heat and electricity came in handy.  Turns out that went it's cold, I don't take as many pictures....oh well, here are a few.

The St. Louis River, early in the morning....

When it gets cold at night, most retreated inside the warm cabin...

I tended to stay outside for awhile, where it was quiet and calm...but still cold.  Sarah would come out too...too loud in the cabin.  Luke would come out too, always wanted to play with the 'sparklers'...

Saturday, Luke and Lex took a walk with me for a couple of hours.  Lex made plenty of snow angels and Luke tried to get away from here.  Sometimes they got close enough for a picture....

I caught up with them again down by the river...

Last year when we had camped here, the bridge wasn't open so you couldn't cross the river.  It's open now, so go explore the south side of the park...

Then bridge moves like the old one...it doesn't 'swing' too much, just enough for you to feel it...

There was a noticeable change in the amount of ice on the river over the three days, two nights we were there.

Downstream of the swinging bridge on Saturday...

Here's the upstream picture the same day...

All five camper cabins were full that weekend and so were three campsites --- one had an RV, one was a tent and the last campsite was filled with a yurt.  That was cool to see!

Acupuncture

Sarah has been doing therapy on her legs for a while down....a lifetime of beating takes its toll on ones achilles, hamstrings, etc.  Your body can try to compensate for weaker or hurting areas, but usually that puts strain on other areas.  Well, her therapy has been really good therapy --- and by that I mean sometimes very painful, she's come home with bruises in the past.

Recently acupuncture was suggested and we both know some people that swear by acupuncture, so she's been going recently to see if that helps her to continue running.

It's also something that I was pretty interested in seeing (in my mind, I picture thousands of little needles placed all over the body....like I've seen on TV or in magazines).  She had an appointment before we picked up the kids from school to take them to Jay Cooke State Park for camping in cabins (that'll be in the next post) and she agree to take me.

I'm pretty sure I didn't help with the quiet, reflective nature of the appointment...I asked a lot of questions (examples:  Does it hurt?  Why put the needles there?  What are you doing when you twirl the needle around?  Is that all the needles you're going to use?).  But I found it very interesting...note, I'm not saying I want needles placed into me.

Of course I took pictures....even video (though not of the needles being placed, I didn't want to interrupt too much).  Though it turns out that the sound does not play when placed in this blog.  Too bad...you hear some birds chirping and waves crashing into shore from the chiropractor's office...and Garth Brooks on the previous post!

Garth Brooks

It was announced earlier this fall that Garth Brooks was coming to Minneapolis for two shows.  The two shows were on dates that we already has reservations for a camper cabin at a state park.  Sarah seemed interested in seeing Garth and I said I thought he would be adding shows when tickets went on sale (he had done that previously back in 1998).

The Friday the tickets went on sale, I went out for lunch and heard on the radio that his first two shows were sold out and that there were another 5-6 shows announced (he ended up doing 11 shows total in Minneapolis).  I texted Sarah what I had heard and her reply was "I'm sitting in the online waiting room for tickets right now!"

Very cool...

I had seen Garth in 1993 and 1998 when he came to Minneapolis...he puts on a show like no one else.  It was Sarah's first time seeing him, neither of us were disappointed.

He has changed (I'm sure I have too) in the twenty-one years since he first came to town -- he doesn't run around the stage nearly as much, now it's a lot more walking, but he still knows how to work the crowd...

He played mostly his old songs (except for 2-3 that are on his new album that just came out) and his wife Trisha Yearwood played four of her songs.

Who doesn't like 'Friends in Low Places?'

And who doesn't like 'The Dance?'  It's one of my top 5 songs of all time...