It's cold...

It's so cold that essentially every school district in the state are closed today and tomorrow...

This is what it was like at 10:00 this morning...

It's cold enough that the Minneapolis area has a shot (it might be close) at setting record daily low temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday.  The last time the area set a record cold daily temperature during a winter month (December, January or February) was December 1996.  The last time a daily low temperature was set during January for the area was 1977.  We've set a helluva lot of daily high temperature records in that span...the result of human induced global warming (and yes it's human caused.  Only about 30% of the American public do not believe (and whether you believe in science or not, it's still true) that climate is changing...and they are probably the least scientifically literate people around)...but hell, if we're going to be this cold, lets set a record...

What do you do in this type of cold?  Stay inside mostly...Lukie said he wanted a cheeseburger, so after a stop at the bank, it was off to the DQ for $5 lunches...

Lukie and I had identical Deluxe cheeseburger meals (except that Lukie requested no lettuce, tomato or mayo...he did keep the onion and pickles though)...Lex had the chicken finger kids meal...

Feels like -35...let's have ice cream...all the meals came with a sundae (Lex got a kids cone)...

Look at both of these two eating ice cream...tongues out waiting in anticipation...

When we weren't out...all of use read quite a bit, Lukie/Lex both did math practice online...but they also watched some videos...for some reason, Lex has taken over a corner on the floor to watch movies on the iPad...

But the temperature and wind chill continued to fall...this was about 4:00...

Lukie continued working on another Legos project on and off all day...he finished late in the afternoon...

By 6:00 pm, this is what it was like outside...

Of course, Lukie played Fortnite on and off throughout the day...he earned the 'Ice King' today...believe me, to him that was huge...

Not too long ago, we boiled some water and through it to the sky outside...I had never done it, but seen it many times...Lukie recorded it in slow motion...

Eager to see what it's like in the morning...at 7:30 pm, we have a -22 F air temperature and -52 F wind chill...

What to do in the MN cold...

This is the coldest air to come to Minnesota in years and it's going to get colder in the next few days...so what do you do when it's cold?

Apparently, you cold to sporting events...it started yesterday with a 7th grade basketball game...this is the opening tip...you might be able to see K sitting on the bench (just to the right of #25 of Tri-City United)...

There's usually a good crowd at these games...it's always interested to see who isn't there...

All afternoon the temperatures continued to drop...

So what do you do when it's below zero?  You go to a hockey game!  The temperature there is a balmy 40 degrees or so...

With the forecast coming this week, might have to get to some more hockey games to stay warm...

Lunar Eclipse...

So last night was the total lunar eclipse and of course we were ready for it...the partial eclipse started around 9:30 pm and the total eclipse started around 10:40 pm.  It was going to be a late night...

 The full moon rose and we were getting ready...

It was relatively balmy when the moon was rising...

Before the eclipse started, I took this picture through a pair of binoculars...

The kids went to bed around 8:30 or so and I asked them if they wanted to be woken up for the last stages of the partial eclipse and the beginning of the total eclipse...they both said yes...

While they were sleeping, I took these pictures...

They slept on couches so it would be a quick look outside...they didn't sleep gracefully...

But they both woke up and took in the eclipse...

And it was cold at the time...

They used a pair of binoculars and enjoyed the show...

Luke was the first one inside...no surprise there...Lex would've stayed out all night watching the eclipse...

I didn't get many more pictures of the eclipse through the binoculars because the temperature kept hovering around the dew point and the optics frosted up...

Oh well...it was still a great experience...that's two lunar eclipses and one solar eclipse in 18 months...

Youth Basketball...

From November to the end of February, weekends (for some of us) mean it's time for youth basketball...Lukie loves playing with his friends and asked his uncle if he would come to his games yesterday.  Well, he did...

Lukie commented several times over the last day how he liked his uncle being there...his team won one game and lost one game...both were competitive...it was a good day on the court...

Excellence in Responsibility...

So we've known since before winter break started that Lex was nominated for 'Excellence in Responsibility,' one of the character traits the the elementary school awards several kids per classroom every month.  Her (and other winners) picture was in the paper a couple of weeks ago, but tonight, I picked them up from school after Spanish class and she wanted her picture taken again...

Here she is in front of the board with all the winners (not sure why her hat was pulled down so low...it was 39 degrees)...

And a closeup of her section of the board...

Of course Lukie got a bit envious...he said "in my class, only the girls have been nominated so far.  The boys are going to be in the spring."  Apparently, only one boy out of his class has been nominated, and that was in this last month...

Lex is happy...Lukie will be happy when he can show Lex he was nominated...

Lex's Creations...

Lex has been busy today making a project she received for Christmas...it's a blanket/hoodie that is a unicorn...

It started this afternoon, Lukie took off to be with a friend and Lex had time to work...

She started with the hood...

And besides me doing a little 'untying' of knots, it's been all her work...

As usual, when she gets to work, she concentrates really well...

She was really happy as the mane was coming together...

After dinner and a shower...she was back to work...

She's about halfway through the project, but she's having a lot of fun and can't wait until she's done...

Safari Island's Wibit....

Tonight was 'Family Fun Night' at Safari Island...meaning the 'wibit' was back...

It had been over a year since we've gone to SI with the wibit out...Lukie went last October with a friend and his family...and apparently their mother used my (and the kids) membership to take them sometime after October...but it was the first for us in over a year.  They both jumped at the opportunity...

Lex was up first (well...she takes longer to change, Lukie had gone twice before we got out there...she was the first photographed)...

Then Lukie came around for his second run...it's easier if you're smaller...

Then Lex attacked again...

Lukie and I (and several lifeguards) are still working on getting her to not plug her nose...

Here's video that both of them requested be taken...

One of the few times that I got both of them in the screen...of course they're both wiping their faces...

Shortly after, Lukie slid face first down the wibit...he must have hit his face some, because he came up with a slightly bloody nose...it didn't stop him much...

It wasn't all about the wibit...there was the slide (and diving board)...

But, the focus was on the wibit...

Then Lex asked me to record 'something special.'...not sure if these were it, she says they were...

Special or not...it was a fun day that included a morning of Lukie's basketball (in Annadale), taking down a Christmas tree and a late night movie...till tomorrow...