Camping in Fairmont

We just got back from camping in Fairmont, MN with the entire Von Ahn side of the family.  We stayed at the Flying Goose Campground, which is not typically the type of place we camp at, but it was fun.  There was lots to do for the kids - a swimming beach, mini golf, playground, volleyball, hayride, etc.

Weather was perfect, sunny and warm, so a lot of time was spent down at the beach.  Here's Charlie, Kieran, Henry and Andy all staying cool....

The lake is Lake Imogene - a typical, shallow, eutrophic, southern Minnesota lake...

But there's a beach, where you can build sand castles...

Or just generally dig into the sand....Sarah and Leah just watched....

There were a couple of nice floating structures to swim out to and jump off of or you could just jump off the dock.

Mom, Dad and mom's brother Jim...

The mini golf course is going to be replaced next summer...it's in pretty bad shape, but playable.  Lex was very good at giving directions on how to play...

"That's not how you play mom...."

A phone booth?!?  Whose seen a phone booth recently?

Mom with the youngest one present, Leah's two-month old little girl...

Here's Jim, his daughter's Stephanie and Leah, son-in-laws Nic and Boomer and five grandkids...

And the whole group...quite the crew...

Minneopa Falls

On the way to Fairmont on Friday, Luke wanted to see a waterfall.  You don't have a lot of options in southern Minnesota, so we stopped in Mankato for ten minutes to see Minneopa.  It was really flowing after all the rain we've had.

Of course we needed pictures of the kids and the waterfall...

And even a selfie...

Here's video of the waterfall...

We'll get some pictures of the weekend camping with Mom/Dad and the Von Ahn crew up on the site soon...

PeeWee Baseball

Kieran plays PeeWee Baseball (3 & 4 grade) this summer, where the rules are the same as regular baseball for the most part.  Pitching is done with a pitching machine.  His team has nine kids, Sarah and I are the coaches.

We knew going into this week that two of our kids were going to be on vacation and wouldn't make the games.  Well, Kieran got strep throat yesterday and he couldn't play.  That left us with a team of six...time for Luke to play.

Luke plays T-Ball with the rest of the kindergarten and has never batted off the pitching machine.  Time to learn...

He wore Kieran's shirt and hat for the game.  We put him in right field, where he wouldn't have too many balls hit his way, but did real good with those that did come his way.

First time up to bat in the first inning, he struck out, but did foul tip on pitch.  About what I was hoping for...

Second time up, he hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield and was thrown out at first.  Awesome...

Third time up he hit a single...he was happy, I was happy...here he is on first base after the hit.

He hit another ground ball out his last time up.  He made contact three out of the four at-bats, couldn't ask for any better.  Five innings is a little long for him to keep his concentration (T-Ball plays three), but I think he'll be playing again with the team Thursday night, whether Kieran is better or not.

Dinosaur

Driving through Norwood last week we saw something that caught our eye...and with a dinosaur boy we had to stop to take a picture...

A giant, inflatable dinosaur in Norwood?  Turns out it was to promote Hamburg's Zummerfest and it's car show, but Luke didn't care.  I was a dinosaur....though he said it's arms were too long...

Visitor to the house...

We had a visitor to the house this morning....and he brought his motorcycle.  We wondered if the boys would go for a ride, Kieran was definitely hesitant to go, but Luke couldn't wait...

And off they went...

Eventually, they came back...Kieran wanted to record them coming...so we did...

Once Luke went for a ride with Craig...Kieran couldn't be out done by his little brother...so he got the courage to go for a ride too...

And off they went...

So of course, Luke wanted to record them coming back too....

Liberty Triathlon

Today was Sarah's second triathlon of the summer, the first that the kids and I went to.  It was the Liberty Triathlon (Long Course - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) held at Lake Rebecca Park Reserve near Delano.  This is the same park that we walk our 8th grade students at Delano to on the last day of school every year, I was just there a week ago.

How do you convince Kieran, Luke and Lex to go to a triathlon that is going to be over 5 hours long, when it's raining/misting?  You promise them a park to play in...but not your average park.

 This one has a fire tower to climb and then slide down...

It has a tree house-like thing with another huge slide...

 There's an animal and plant scavenger hunt all around the playground.  But we were there for a triathlon...just that all the action for that was way far away from the playground (Luke's words).

 Of course we walked up to the transition area looking for Sarah and/or her bike....

But before long, the kids took off for the park again...where there was a little house to play in...

And a log to climb through or on....

They spent a lot of time running between the four main features...

Finally, they came back to me at the transition area (they were hungry).  I said we needed to see mom get off the bike and start her run before eating.  It was apparently very hard waiting for them, but before long she came in off the bike...

And started her run...

 And we could get eat our picnic lunch...but we had to be done before she finished.  So after a little food and more playing at the park, we went to the finish line to watch for her...and she appeared over the hill...

And headed for the finish...

 After one last picture, it was time to head home and warm up.  All three kids fell asleep in the car....

Elementary Track & Field Day

Track & Field day was held for the elementary last Tuesday - the second to last day of school.  Usual details, all the classes rotate around 25-30 stations playing all sorts of different games.  I've volunteered the last four years to help run a station.  This year I got lucky and drew "Rat Race" -- the second time I've done this game.

Rat race has the class divided into two teams.  One at a time, students must run down a course and pick up a 'cheese' and bring it back to the starting point.  While they're running, volunteers like myself are throwing balls at them.  If the students get hit by a ball they need to drop the cheese and the next person in line gets a chance to advance the cheese.

Let's see....throwing a ball at kids instead of working?  Easy choice...I took a personal day.

Kieran's class was the first to get to my station....the last time I ran this game Kieran was in Kindergarten and I smacked him right in the face.  Whoops....

It was hard trying to take pictures and video while throwing balls at the boys....

The last class to make it to my station was Luke's...

That boy can run too...

But we got him...

All in all it was a fun day...I was tired and worn out...the boys too.  I only accidentally got one kid in the face -- a 4th grade girl, I apologized...a lot.