Halloween...

We decided to go with an Avengers theme for 2019...after all, Avengers:Endgame (which we've probably seen too much) came out last spring...

Lex went with her favorite Avenger...Captain Marvel...

Lukie went with Ronin (whose actually Clint...aka, Hawkeye, but is angry with the world at the moment) because he liked the ninja look...

I went with Thor, but not the early film style of Thor...mine was Fat Thor of Endgame...in that movie, Thor is deeply depressed because of earlier events and lets a few pounds add onto his frame...

Yep...I think we won Halloween...

Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at the MN Zoo...

Yesterday, we went to the MN Zoo for the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular...5,000 pumpkins carved, it's amazing...we visited last year and had to go back...

These pumpkins 'only' have the sponsors of the event...

The theme this year was 'Around the World,' so there were pumpkins carved representing images from certain regions (only some are on this post)...like Africa...

The monarchs go somewhere...

A Mayan temple in front of a Mayan temple...

The Galapagos...

Most think Darwin...

Or iguanas...

There is an amazing number of jack-o-lanterns carved...

We love it...

England...

Robin Hood and castles...

Of course there's Harry Potter...

Greece...

The Spartans...

Then they have some massive pumpkins to hug...

Lukie liked the pumpkin with Bo Peep (from Toy Story 4)...and we're currently watching Toy Story 4...

If you look at the minion pumpkin long enough, you'll see some other characters...

Before we left...we had a few races through the maze...you couldn't get lost...

It was a great evening...we'll be back next year if the have it...

Science Musuem...

We went to the Science Museum this morning for four hours or so...

Our first stop was a new exhibit (that they'll be adding to in different steps) called 'SMM's Science Superheroes.'  This one describes how one of the paleontologists for the museum helped to discover the largest snake ever to live on the planet...Titanoboa...

It was large enough to eat crocodiles whole, as this one was doing in the back...

It lived in present day Columbia about five million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs.  Being 40-feet long and weighing more than a ton, it probably had no predators...

 The next stop was the Body World's Rx exhibit, but since the exhibit uses human remains as a learning tool, I didn't take any pictures...

From there it was off to the Sportsology exhibit...Lukie's beginning to be able to jump a little higher...

He keeps trying to race the T-Rex though...

And has never won...

Lex continues to race TC Bear...and she's never lost (we've only seen one kid lose to TC and he tripped and fell)...

After seeing a nice Omnitheatre film (it's no longer using film, it transferred to digital in the last month), we went back downstairs to see some more...like the tornado...

And the Triceratops...

Lukie had to race the US Para-Olympian that he recently met at Cross Country club...Lukie lost...

On the way out, Lukie and I took our usual picture with the T-Rex...

And being a nice day outside, we took in the overlook that gives a view of the Mississippi...

Another good day...

Science & Nature Conference at Gustavus...

Lukie and Lex wanted to go to the Science and Nature Conference at Gustavus again this year.  This was the third year for Lukie and second for Lex.  We took off this morning and headed for Saint Peter...

Being in 5th grade, Lukie could sign up for four sessions, he went with:

1.  Super-Structures
2.  The night sky from your backyard
3.  Macro Invertebrates
4.  Phun Physics

Lex could sign up for three sessions (all 3rd and 4th grade students had a morning session called Phun Science).  She went with:

1.  Honey bees and you
2.  Seven bears Oh My!
3.  Mysteries of the MN River Valley

I was able to catch three of the sessions each went to (there's a lot of back and forth making sure they get to where they need to go)...

In Super-Structures, kids were placed in groups and given a task of either building a bridge (greater than the smallest wingspan of a group member) or a tower (taller than the shortest group member).  But first, they learned how to build strong squares...

Lukie's group decided to build a tower (and it needed to hold 5 pounds of weight), he was the shortest member of the group by an inch or two...

And they made good progress...

This is the point I had to leave (to catch Lex's last 20 minutes of her morning meeting), but Lukie said they built a tower taller than all the members of the group and it held 8 pounds...

After the end of the morning session, Lex and I went to her first short course about honeybees...of course she sat in the front row...and of course, her hand was in the air for every question...

Though she's seen them, she liked watching the live bees near the end of the session the best...

After lunch, Lex went with a friend of Luke's to her next session, while Lukie and I went across campus to learn about Macro Invertebrates...

At the end, they searched for some...we both saw (but couldn't catch) a leech...

From there, Lukie and I went to Phun Physics were they learned about Potential and Kinetic Energy through the classic bowling ball on a string, of course the student leaned into the oncoming ball and took one to the face...

They also talked a lot about waves, like light waves, how white light is divided into colors.  They had a ball lite up in white light, but when they twirled it around in the dark, you could see the different colors that comprise the white light...

I left shortly after that demonstration to head to Lex's last session to find her holding a bison femur bone (she was convinced it was a mammoth bone, but was wrong).  They were learning how different fossils have been found in and near the MN River Valley...

By the time Lex's last session was over, Lukie was waiting at the door to head back...he has basketball camp all week and was worried he'd be late (he wasn't)...but it was a good day...

Minneopa State Park...

Saturday, even though there was a rain/snow mix, we took off for Minneopa State Park to see the waterfalls, the bison and do a little hiking...our first stop was the bison drive to see where they were at (and if we'd have to come back later)...

Turns out, they were pretty close, though most were just on the other side of a hill...

At the Seppleman mill, you get a good look of the prairie below...

That's the old mill, behind the trees...

On the way back through the bison drive, a few bison were even closer...

Then it was time to see the waterfalls, they were roaring with all of the rain...

After a couple of hours, as we were leaving, we decided to drive through the bison drive again...this time the herd started from a distance and then walked right past a few cars...

The park recommends you being no closer than 75 feet...we started much farther than 75 feet away, but the bison closed that distance...

Eventually crossing the road to the other side...

When we could, we drove forward looking for a place to turn around...of course, Luke and Lex took the opportunity to work on the Junior Naturalist Prairie program that they picked up at the park's office.  They finished the 'Pinelands' book in August and have started the 'Hardwoods' book we got in early September...

We past the herd one more time...this time they were pretty content...

A quick picture at the park's sign on the way out...

And one of them holding their new book...

And we were gone for the day...a good day...