The MN Zoo

The kids and I went to the zoo a few weeks ago and even though we saw all the animals that we could see, the goal for the day was to see Dinosaurs......Luke had really wanted to go, so we went...

Entering the dinosaur kingdom...

The first we saw really caught Luke's attention...

Even Kieran enjoyed them...

Some looked like they wanted to eat you...

This one he spit...which is why Luke is standing in the line of fire...

Almost every time that Lex knows a picture is being taken, we get this smile....hope it gets better...

They liked 'Fluffy' - the T-Rex...(apparently K's forced smile is like Lex's....)

Here's a raptor getting ready to pounce...

Of course Lex liked the babies the best...

This might be Lukie's biggest wish...that he could've hatched as a dinosaur...

Luke and I had to take a picture with the T-Rex....

What....you're upset we went to the zoo and there are no pictures of any living animals?  Fine....here's a brown bear...

And a moose....

And Lex and Luke watching the brown bear...it was a pretty hot day out that day...

The dinosaurs are at the zoo until Labor Day and I know we'll be back again before then.  Luke has three goals for the rest of the summer -- go to the zoo, the science museum and a cave...

Kieran and Lex think those goals are just fine...

Lex's Birthday

So the little girl had a birthday a few days ago....she finally turned 6...she's been waiting, impatiently for it for months now...

It started early that morning...this is what she looks like in the morning...hair's a mess, but it's rare that she's got this smile going that early...

Of course she was happy with everything....

She had a birthday party at the pool in Shakopee - considering it was over 90 degrees, it was a good day.  Lex invited five kids (three girls and two boys), but on of the boys couldn't go.  Sarah figured that in order to keep the boys away from her, they should each bring a friend.  So we had 9 kids total coming.

The boys and the friends rode with Sarah, while I had Lex and her four friends...I bet Sarah's ride was quieter than mine.  Five first/second graders don't go quietly....

After a quick lunch it was time to go swimming...

And then of course, eat cake and open presents while the lifeguards were taking a safety break...

Here's the cake...

And some present opening....

I think everyone had a good day!

Baseball Clinic with the St. Paul Saints

Kieran and Luke had the opportunity today to participate at a baseball clinic put on by members of the St. Paul Saints at their home field, CHS Field.  They had both done the same clinic the same weekend in July last year and had been on the field, but I had never been there - it's nice stadium.

They both got into the same group, which was nice - plus you could see them talking to each other and having a good time.  Each group rotated through 4-5 different stations working on fielding, batting and pitching.  Both boys said they enjoyed the batting (this station was out of sight in the batting cages behind the dugouts) and the pitching stations the best.

Here's some pictures....

Luke getting ready to field the pop fly

Here comes Kieran's pop fly 

And a good, hard throw back to the infield

Luke getting ready for the ground ball (Kieran's right behind him)

Kieran's turn for the ground ball

It is a nice stadium, with good looks of the St. Paul skyline and even the capital, if you're in the right spot...

Pitching practice was fun.  First they started with the mechanics of the windup.  Kieran is in the lower left and Luke is in the upper right, close to the kid wearing the blue shirt....

First they paused to balance on one leg

Then they finished the practice throw

Then each kid got some time to pitch to the catchers...

Luke firing a pitch

And Kieran too...of course Kieran says his were better

We had to start the day off with a group picture...the boys were excited...

Lake Maria State Park

With Kieran team at a tournament in Maple Lake all weekend, we got a little antsy between games.  Sarah arrived at the ballpark just as the first game was ending on Sunday (she was coming from a triathlon up in Clearwater) with a slow leak in one of her tires because of an embedded nail and needed to get that fixed, so she took Kieran to Buffalo to fix the tire and get lunch.  That left Luke, Lex and I alone looking for something to do....we found it when we stopped at Lake Maria State Park.

We had never been there before, so we had about an hour (before we had to get back to Kieran's next game) to find some of the highlights for a later visit.  The ranger said that the deer flies were out and I sort of blew her off....I should have listened, they were out in force - thankfully, we only had an hour...

We took a 3/4-1 mile interpretive walk that took us along a lake and over a marsh on a boardwalk.  There were lots of little signs explaining the plants and animals that lived there....but there were too many deer flies to stay in one place too long....

The portion of the trail heading through the woods was easy going...

Once we got to the boardwalk though, it got a little tighter...

Many areas of the boardwalk are almost overgrown....being a small park, they must have limited staff...

The park protects an area of kettle and kame topography that resulted from the most recent glaciations, as well as a portion of the 'big woods' that existed prior to European contact.

It also protects multiple nesting sites of the threatened Blandings turtle.  We saw several signs along the road warning us to slow down and watch for turtles...

Even though we were only there for an hour, of course we got a picture of the sign!

And we got our passport stamped too (we did not complete the hiking club trail, that'll have to happen on another visit -- Kieran will have to be there too)...

Kieran's Baseball Season Ends

After finishing the regular season with an 11-3 record, Kieran's baseball season concluded yesterday with the completion of the end of the year tournament.  The tournament started Saturday with two pool games to determine bracket seeds.  Kieran's team won one and lost one in back-to-back games, so they had to play another a few hours later.  

That was the first, and only, true elimination game of the tournament.  Lose that one and the season would be over, but the won fairly convincingly meaning they would play Sunday too.  They lost their first game Sunday, meaning they would play for 3rd place.  Which they should've won...but lost it with one out remaining in the game.  4th place isn't too bad...they even got a medal...

  

Lake Waconia Triathlon

Summer means it's triathlon season and Sarah has taken part in two so far.  This first was in Delano (which she didn't partake in the run portion because of ongoing foot/heal/achilles issues), but the most recent was in Waconia, just over a week ago.

I like going to watch these triathlons, I've been to an awful lot....I'm not a very loud cheerer, but thats why I bring the kids...

Of course it starts with the swim....which is always hard to find Sarah, but if you really look close you can find her taking off (she's the fifth from the left).

When she's out swimming you have some time to prepare for her to come in (or if you're the kids, you can dig in the sand....).  But here she comes...

Once she passes you coming out of the water, you've got 1-2 minutes to get to the bike exit (where she'll be leaving on her bike)....it usually takes a lot of running or very quick walking....

But it can be done for most triathlons....even the kids can get there fast enough...

Once she's off biking, you got some time to yourself...or if you're the kids, you play on the park until some mean guy says go stand by the road (that would be me....)....but then you'll see her coming in on the bike....

And she'll go flying by you quick!

Then it's another quick hustle over to the run exit....you've got a couple of minutes max...time to run...

But it can be done and soon she's off running again...

You'll have a little time after she leaves by yourself, but it won't be too long before she comes flying back down the hill towards the finish....

There's no waving here...she's looking to finish...

But you can usually get a photo at the end...

Lake Rachel

We spent the weekend up at Ann's on Lake Rachel.....I didn't take too many pictures, but here's a few...

Of course, there was some fishing to be done...here's Luke fishing in the early morning hours (between 7-8 am - he wakes up early and it's easier to get him out of the house)...

Kieran fished whenever he thought he was missing something (i.e. when he saw Luke fishing) or in the picture below, late Sunday night...

I didn't take many pictures of the fish they caught...I should have, since I don't have any that Luke caught (and I'm pretty sure he caught more)...but here's two of Kieran's....

The first he caught Sunday night fell off the hook as I was taking the picture, just got this shot...

The second he caught Sunday night was smaller than the first, but we got a decent picture...

I also insisted on stopping at an overlook in Glenwood on the way back from church...

Luke was hungry and didn't want to smile...but if you look closely, he's putting on an act....if you want to read the marker to get the geology of the landscape, here you go....

With a lot of people present and lots of things to do, there's bound to be some blow ups in behavior....Kieran had one while playing croquet.  I sent him up to sit in front of the house, gave him 10 minutes or so and when I went to talk to him about his behavior....I found this....

Apparently he was pretty tired...he slept almost an hour or more....

Being the July 4th weekend....some fireworks were bought for the kiddos (I think by their aunt/uncle Missy & Pete ---- pretty sure....)....

Here are some sparkler shots...before the mosquitos got too bad...

Some nice Jedi action...

An imitation of Elsa, this ice queen from Frozen...

And who really knows what K tries to imitate...