Lukie's Basketball Tournament...

We spent most of the day out at the Hutchinson High School for Lukie's season ending baseball tournament...

Lex really liked the display of Lindsqy Whalen pictures, jersey, bobbleheads, etc., but we were there for basketball...

His team ended up winning the tournament...three games, three wins...

The first game was a blowout win by 40 points, the second game against Hutchinson was much closer.  They won by a few points.  The final game was against Alexandria, that had also won its first two games.  It was hard fought, but the boys ended up winning by about seven...

 It was Lukie's first time ever winning a tournament or receiving a medal...

He was/is pretty excited...he's told me he's texted four people the above picture so far - his grandfather, his uncle Craig, his great-grandmother and brother (though he said he did that because he doesn't think Kieran's won a medal...he's trying to pick a fight)...

Lukie's Basketball Season...

It starts in mid-November or there about.  Games start in December, every Saturday, two games a day...it's a long season, especially if you made all the games except for one.  He enjoys playing with his friends, so it's fun to watch.  Yesterday was the last two games of the regular season (except he has a tournament next weekend to finish it off) in Winsted...

It was a cool gym to be in, it's probably been there a hundred years...seemed like it was a gymnasium in Indiana somewhere (Hoosiers)...

That's Lukie, the player in white on the right (he had just thrown the ball into play and was catching up to the action)...

The games were at noon and 1 PM...games ended around 2 PM.  At that point, I asked Lukie what he wanted to do...his answer was eat!

So we ate...it was a good day...

Gooseberry Falls State Park...

We got away for a quick visit to the the north shore during President's Day weekend...first stop was Gooseberry...

Frozen waterfalls are just as cool as non frozen waterfalls...

Looking downstream from the middle falls...there's a lot of snow and ice...

Yes, river ice is never 100% safe...but we weren't exactly worried either...

There is a lot of snow in the northwoods...

You had to be very careful walking up to the falls...very slippery...

After seeing the falls, we headed down to the lake...as of that weekend, 13% of the entire Great Lakes surface area was frozen, a very small amount for this time of year...

We didn't find any tadpoles though...

Any surface near that lake is completely covered in ice...they've had some big storms this winter...

But the river continues on getting to the lake, just barely though...

It was a great day to be outside!

Sea Life...

Earlier this week, there was a teacher appreciation evening at the aquarium at the Mall of America.  There typically is one twice a year, but this time, they gave us a 15 minute behind the scenes tour (including above the tanks).  Teachers were free and guests fees were greatly diminished (it cost $11.06 for the three of us)...

We really enjoyed the above the tank portion of the tour...

That's Lukie and Lex following the guide closely...

We liked seeing the tunnel that everyone walks through...this time from above it...

There was a sea turtle that was in a separate tank because it had a 'vet' day...it was going back to the main tank that night...

Then it was time for the regular trip through the aquarium, starting with the caimans...

Lex is holding her head because she hit it pretty good getting into the observation post...

They are surrounded by cockroaches...

Then, we entered the tunnel...Sturgeon Lake was first...

Then it was time for sharks...

Nemo!!

They still have a big assortment of jellies around...

We had heard that the aquarium has a surprise birth of 8 guitarshark pups in January.  They were separated from the main tank and can be seen in the picture below (there's one just to the left of the barrier, in the shadow).  When they are big enough, they'll head back to the main tank...that was cool to see...

They rays had to give up some of their space for the shark pups, but they just keep swimming...

The touch pools are always fun...

After the aquarium, we went to eat at the Rainforest Cafe...

I knew Lukie was fighting something that night (just look at him in the picture), but he kept saying he was fine.  When he woke up the next morning, he immediately said he didn't feel good.  He ended up not going to school that day.  He and I went to the doctor for a throat culture, it came back negative...bummer.  Two days later and I got a call mid-morning and they said he was positive for strep (nice that he had spent the previous day and a half at school...sorry for everyone who got strep at school).  He's on antibiotics now...

Character Traits...

Every month at the elementary school, kids are recognized for specific character traits that the school is focused on that month.  January was 'teamwork' and we found out a week ago or so that Lex was nominated for this recognition...

After picking her up from Spanish class Monday after school, we thought we'd take this picture of her on the teamwork board...