Stiftungsfest 5K

Kieran did the Stiftungsfest 5K again on Sunday with Sarah.  The plan was to start slow and finish under 30 minutes....that was the plan....

Luke, Lex and I went down away from the start a bit...shortly after the gun we saw a group of 4th & 5th grade boys leading the pack....Kieran is the bright shirt on the right...

He passed me and I told him to slow down....he was feeling pretty happy...

He wasn't as happy at the end though...he learned the hard way not to sprint out at the start...trouble will find you...

Turns out that he left Sarah at the start....she caught him and then left him by the 1.5 mile mark and came back after finishing to find him again...

He still finished under 30 minutes...just under 30 minutes and learned a valuable lesson...

Here's the real pictures...I messed with them a bit because they didn't look very good to start with...

Science Museum

Asked the kids a week or two ago what they wanted to do and the said the Science Museum...so off we went...

Luke just had to have this picture....he's always wanted to park on Level 5 of the ramp...can you guess why?

But, once we got inside, it was back to the usual things....

The boys were learning about the weather....

And they had to see their faces on the astronaut again...

Luke measured himself against a dino femur...

Which meant that Kieran had too as well....

Lex listened to the stories about how some dinosaurs were found...

We took a selfie with the recently moved Triceratops...

Lex just had to show the boys the 'color wall' that she 'discovered' on our last trip...

On the tug boat, Lex found a spot that was just right...

We went out on the Big Back Yard and played...the boys (and Lex) like the hands on teaching tools they have out there...

And the love the giant stream table...

We saw a great Omni film on National Parks...but this is as close as we got to Devil's Tower...

And Kieran had to check the strength of a T-Rex bite on the way out...

One more picture with the T-Rex...can't have enough...

And our last stop for the day was an overlook that looks over the Mississippi River and Harriet Island...where Kieran regaled us in how he's been there on a field trip....

The kids and I are taking off again today (School starts for me on Monday) --- we'll see where we end up!

Ready to Ride...

Apparently, this crew is ready for Sturgis next year...

Of course, Luke wasn't able to explain how to change gears...or where the gas was...or where the brake was...so maybe not...

Lex just wanted to look good (and no...she's not throwing a 'peace' sign...those are bunny ears)...

Firehouse Drive-in

This weekend was the Drive-in (just another sign the summer is coming to an end) and we went again both days...in years past, we've seen temperatures near 90 and dew points of 65-70...

Not so this year....here's a picture from Friday night taken by Kieran's friends mother....

Steady rain, occasionally coming down hard was happening till the sun went down.  After the sun went down, the rain continued by wasn't as heavy...I got this picture sent to me on Facebook...

Kieran and Luke were holed up with a couple of friends and Kevin...the boys ended up watching the first movie with them...

So it was just Lex and I...we were also holed up in the van...

When the movie started we moved up to the front seats....

And Lex said multiple times that she and I were 'on a date'....spent most of that movie like...

When we left that night, I have no idea how we didn't get stuck...that field was a mess --- and it only got worse as it rained more overnight and Saturday morning...I should've taken a picture of the field...

Saturday, Day 2 of the drive-in, the rain continued on/off during the afternoon and early evening hours....we'd get sun and then a quick shower...the good news was that the last shower ended about 7:30 (the rest of the night was dry, but cold).  The grounds were soaked...you would step into puddles deeper than your ankles (this had to be what Woodstock was like), but it had stopped raining...

Plus we got views like this...

Because the heavy rain was ended...the fire truck rides, bounce houses, pony rides and the smokehouse all opened up again...

Eventually, we settled in for another two movies (Inside Out and Grease)....

Because of the heavy rains the day before, the fireworks that happen between each movie were postponed...which meant last nights fireworks were all the fireworks planned for the entire weekend...(and this show is always better than the local July 4th fireworks)...the kids loved them...

The moon rising at the same time added a nice touch...

Till next years drive-in....

Last Day of Swimming Lessons

Today was the last day of swimming lessons for the kids.  All of them had fun and worked hard, but more importantly, they continued to become more confident while in the water....

Kieran's lessons were first, Luke/Lex had to wait 45 minutes till theirs....I didn't make it over to K's group to get a picture of him swimming so here's one from after the lesson...

He got stronger with the front/back crawl and started working on strokes like the sidestroke and breaststroke...

Lex is still working on floating (which is hard to do without an ounce of fat her her to provide some buoyancy) and the basic skills.  She's just now starting to do some doggie paddling on her own to swim through the water...

She had said that she would jump off the diving board to the rescue tube all by herself today....that would've been big, but....

The moment came and the tears flowed, so she was lowered down some to the tube....next year...

Luke got the most comfortable and began swimming longer distances on his own using the front crawl, back crawl and portions of the elementary backstroke...

He also had a first today....first time off the diving board without any assistance...swimming all the way back to the wall....he's ready...

And he didn't even think about it....he's gone...

We stuck around after lessons and swam for a couple of hours...Luke spent most of his time going off the diving board and the two drop slides (which he had never done before either because he had to be able to swim back to the wall).  He loved being able to do these new things...Kieran liked that Luke was able to accompany him and they could play together...

It was a good day.

Kieran - Football

I've got several posts coming from the last week or so indicating that summer is ending....here's one from tonight...

Kieran had to pick up his football gear for the coming season....it starts next Tuesday (August 22) and runs every Tuesday/Thursday until October 25.  They will play at halftime of a Central Varsity Football game on October 19th --- like they have during grades 3 & 4.  For the first time they will also have several scrimmages and/or games against other nearby towns.

So there is my fall schedule filling up...

Forestville/Mystery Cave Hiking Club

After the tour of the cave, we drove over to the main section of the park so we could complete the required hike for the hiking club....we've completed six parks now, for a total of 17.8 miles (on the hiking club trails)...

We stopped at the main office and picked up a couple of maps, while driving to the parking area, the boys were reading the information on the backside and one piece got their attention quickly....it was in the vegetation and wildlife section....third paragraph down...

Yeah...rattlesnakes....it's the first time the kids have known that they were in rattlesnake country and we're extra vigilant, they walked slower and kept looking for anything that looked like a snake.  But with almost 6 inches of rain two days before and a cloudy, overcast day we were there (it started to rain the last half mile of our hike), the likelihood of seeing a rattlesnake was low...

The hike was going to be short, just two miles....completely doable.  Then we saw the results of the recent rain and some of the terrain we would be going over...good hike though.  At the first big mud patch, I turned and told all the kids to go slow and be careful.  I was specifically talking to Lex, she's on her own on these hikes, but seconds later I heard a wet, sloppy, thud...

Lex made it through just fine....Kieran bringing up the rear, he hit the ground.  That picture is an hour later....after he cleaned some of it off...big mess...

Going on with the hike....here's Luke looking for snakes...good thing we never saw one (who knows what Luke would do with a rattlesnake)...

The route took us past the river a couple of times, which was fun looking.  The river goes into the cave at about 70 degrees this time of year, but comes out much colder....great trout habitat.  It didn't take too much looking to see some brown trout...

When the trail had a rock base and was more open, Luke was more confident taking the lead...

Though when he's in the lead, he sometimes tries to take wrong turns....found him at this river crossing wondering what to do (we didn't have to cross it)...

Farther upstream, not sure if Lex was trying to command the trout to come to the surface or not....

Once we got away from the river, the terrain definitely changed (less muddy yes)....we started hiking up...

Hard to get an idea of the slope, but there were several switchbacks and we all were definitely slowing down...

Good news was that half way up the steepest slope, we found the password we needed for our hiking club....the password is right behind Kieran's head.  You want to know it?  Go look for it...

Shortly after, it started raining pretty good (we drove home through some real heavy rain.  Luke at one point said "dad, can you see the road?"  I replied "why?"  His answer was "I can't"  I almost pulled over 3-4 times)....

But good thing we got our picture of the sign as we were entering the park...

And yes...we got our passport stamped...