Monopoly...

It was cold and rainy yesterday, so we decided to play Monopoly...after playing quite awhile, the cleared up some and the neighborhood kids showed up and Lukie/Lex were off...

We had to go to Target, but the goal was to finish the game tonight...I've been out of the game for over a hour...

It's getting serious...Lex has been down to $43 but has pulled back, somehow she's holding on...Lukie owns almost everything...can he win?  Or does bedtime come first?  They're having fun (especially since I lost out early)...

Lex cheers at halftime...

Last week, after school, Lex stayed at school to participate in cheer camp.  Ultimately, they would cheer at halftime of this past Friday's home football game...she was excited when she was signed up for the class...

She's pretty easy to pick out in this pictures, she's the one wearing red...they were asked to wear Raider colors (maroon, white or black)...

She was also very excited to be on 'top of a pyramid' as part of the presentation...

Good thing she's light...

It was a fun routine to watch at halftime...

Like I said, she was excited...she had fun...

Besides the whole 'color' snafu (the Raiders were playing the Luverne Cardinals...guess what color they wear...), it was a good night...

Luke & Band...

Last week, Lukie came back from school talking about music options going forward.  They had had the band vs. choir talk at school and Lukie had his opinions...

Lukie said he didn't want to do choir.  I asked why and he said 'I don't want to sing.'  I mean, that makes sense...so choir was out, early...

Then there was tryouts for individual band instruments.  Lukie had originally wanted to do percussion (that would have been nice...carry some sticks...less gear to have at home...), but a more musical background is preferred for percussion.  He wasn't deterred and said that he'd like the trumpet or trombone if he didn't get percussion.

Then he came back with this on Friday...

Looks like it's the trumpet!  He's excited...it's something he wanted to do and is ready...am I ready for the music practice?!?!  We'll see...

Lukie's 11th Birthday...

Today is Lukie's 11th birthday and he's been looking forward to it...last night we had to go get snacks for his class (too bad the local grocery store is closing in a few weeks), we ended up at Kwik Trip and got muffins...Lukie was satisfied...

We actually went to the grocery store to scout out cupcakes (and get snacks for his class), but I realized that wasn't an option...so earlier this morning, I got 'birthday donuts' for Lukie and Lex...

If Lex can have a candle in a cupcake (while we were camping this summer), Lukie can have a candle in a donut...

Good news...he blew that one candle out...btw...Lex isn't in these pictures because she was still in her pj's and had the 'medusa' hair going...

Then it was onto gifts...

This is when he realized what this gift was...

It was the only thing he asked for...his own hammock...as he said, not to be shared with anyone but dad.  I like the idea that I can now use one of two hammocks...win for me...win for Lukie...

One last gift...

Got to be Legos...

And it is...the Avengers Quinjet...

Pretty sure he went to school happy...dinner tomorrow...

First Day of School 2019...

5th and 4th graders...if you ask them, they'd tell you they weren't that excited...

Push them and they'd say they were excited...

Dino Lukie (with Hollander hat) and Captain Marvel Lex...they had good days...

Interstate State Park...

We took off yesterday to Taylors Falls to visit Interstate State Park driving in rain showers the whole time, hoping they'd end before we got there...we got lucky, they did...

It was one of the two parks that Lex had not done the hiking club trail yet...Lukie was not a fan of having Lex start this hike...

But the rain stopped and we were off anyways...

It's a three mile hike, half of it is along the river that brings you to some nice overlooks...

But having just rained for several hours, the rocks were slick, there was mud around, so we had to be careful...Lex especially (she has a tendency to fall down)...

While waiting for Lex, Lukie apparently had the need for a drink (water was falling off the leaves)...

Lex was happy to find the password...Lukie still not a fan...that brings Lex to 73.9 total miles, just 1.1 miles from her 75 mile patch...in total, she's just 2.5 miles behind Lukie and I...

They loved this tunnel, they would've played with echos for a long time there...

After the tunnel, I told them there would be a lot of steps up to an old railroad bed...they both said 'you're wrong dad, this isn't a lot of steps'....

Wrong section you two...when we eventually got to the point I was talking about they said 'you were right' and went up the step section...

But it's easy hiking on the railroad bed...

We had to go into the 'restricted area' to get this picture...

And Lex wanted to walk across the highway bridge to Wisconsin (because Lukie was bragging he had done it earlier)...the 'welcome to Wisconsin' sign is off in the distance...

It was cool when we got to see the paddleboat back out into the river and take off on it's tour...

This is about the fourth time I've got a picture of Lukie in this pothole...he keeps getting taller and the pothole smaller...

Lex wasn't going to be outdone...

We watched the rock climbers for a while...the ones on the top of the cliff are not the climbers...

It the visitor center, there was a sign telling visitors to look out for newly emerged tree frogs as they completed the transition from tadpoles...we found several, Lukie is pointing at one...they were tiny...

Rest breaks make good pictures...

Then we kept exploring potholes...

Before we left, we had to tackle the geocache...which they've really enjoyed lately...this was an easy one, just two stops before we found it...

And they got their 6th geocache card...

Another good day...

MN State Fair...

It's fair time and Friday we took off for the state fair...caught the bus early trying to beat the crowds...

Our first stop at the fair is always the same...pronto pups...

After getting a snack, we always head to the DNR building...this time we climbed the fire tower first...it was a little different look than when we climbed the fire tower at St. Croix State Park a few weeks ago...

And you can spend a long time looking at the fish pond...

Before heading into the DNR building, we detoured to the KARE11 barn...we tend to watch a lot of the KARE Sunrise news program during the school year (Lukie answers the quiz questions they ask on his or my phone) while having breakfast and I knew Sven Sundgaard and Gia Vang would be there taking pictures in front of the 'green screen.'...

How the picture looked digitally altered...

Wearing a green shirt that blends into the background, I had to take a picture too...

After the pictures, we went back to the DNR building to look at snakes, fish, etc....like this timber rattlesnake...

And after being on the Iron Range, Lukie and Lex spent more time than normal reading the exhibit on mining and agates, though they didn't spend as much time as me...

And I guess you might as well go canoeing with a fox...

It's the 50th anniversary of the Giant Slide and that even got me to go on it...

Lex took off first and Lukie waited until I was already going before he left...

In the University of Minnesota building, we saw Paul Bunyan's Axe that the Gophers won last year when they beat the Wisconsin Badgers...I hadn't seen that since 2003...

The Eco-Experience building had lots of cook things for Lukie and Lex to try, they had fun...there was also a giant block of ice that had been set up at the beginning of the fair just melting away, representing the melting ice of glaciers or the poles due to human-caused increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide...

18,000 pounds of ice, melting to liquid water...

They even got tattoos...their favorite lake, Lake Superior is now on their arms...

We rode the Giant Ferris wheel again...

There's a new exhibit on Angry Birds 2 (the movie and game) where you learned how they were put together and got to try to replicate the game...like this zipline where you were the bird trying to knock out the pig...

Things that you just 'have' to do at the fair:

1.  See the giant pumpkins.

2.  See the princesses carved into butter (they took a break from carving as we walked up).

3.  Go up the Space Tower.

4.  Go to the Miracle of Birth building to see the new animals, like this two-day old piglet.

New for Lex this year was the Sky Glider...Lukie rode in the car ahead of us...

And they had to ride the Giant Slide one more time...

It was busy, but never seemed that busy...I guess it was 'fair' busy...

It was a pretty good day...fried pickles on the way out...

We got on the bus and I asked Lex when she was going to fall asleep and she said "I didn't sleep on the way here."  Of course, that was before walking all day...but minutes later...

And minutes after that....

And yes...I probably took a nap on the bus too...the next day we saw this...

We were there on a new daily attendance record for the fair (last year we were there when the fair set it's all-time attendance record)...

***Note - we had camping reservations for labor day weekend, but the Cologne Hollanders won their second game at state last weekend, moving to this weekend.  They played a close game yesterday (of course we were there) but lost.  Baseball season is over until next year...it was a fun ride...