Hastings Area

The plan for the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend was for the kids and I go go hiking at a state park and complete the hiking club trail.  Kieran had really wanted to go to the Upper Sioux State Park near Granite Falls to learn some more history about the Dakota Conflict, so that's where we were going to be heading....but then Kieran/Lex were convinced to go watch a pool getting backwashed and our plans changed...

Luke had no interest in a pool being backwashed...so he and I took off on an alternate plan...we took off east for Afton State Park near Hastings.  It lies next to the St. Croix river, just upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River....of course it started to sprinkle as soon as we got out of the car (and continued as long as we were at the park)...

There were nice overlooks of the St. Croix...

 Places where you could contemplate your situation...

 There's supposed to be a swimming beach at the park, but with the heavy rains we've had recently you can't reach it...so we skipped rocks instead...

 The trials we were on were real easy walking...

 At one point we came across a little stream...Lukie said "dad, we can cross it..." and I said "yeah, we'll cross it over the bridge."  I tend to ruin his messy plans...

 And we found the password (and got a stamp for our passport)...

We also took an awful lot of selfies...this kid likes these pictures...

 After almost four hours at the park and not ready to head home yet, we took off to Hastings to see a new waterfall neither of us had seen before....Vermillion Falls in downtown Hastings...

Right across the river is a mill that's been operating since the 1850s apparently because of the waterfall...

The view from the top was cool, but I figured there had to be a way to see it from the bottom...it was a bigger hike than I thought it would be and much more steep (especially considering the recent rains)...

We were in quite the gorge, but I didn't take many pictures because I was trying to keep Lukie and I out of the river...

But it was cool to see from the bottom...

I didn't initially want Lukie up at that vantage point (you're literally 6 inches from a 8 foot drop to the river), but he insisted he wanted a look...

What you don't see is my hand holding his butt...

From there, we crossed into Wisconsin hoping for a view of the confluence of the St. Croix and the Mississippi...but we were thwarted due to too many deciduous trees growing...it'd be a good sight in early spring or late fall.  Best we could do is get a picture of the sign...

We'll be back!!

Lukie's First Communion

A couple of weeks back was Lukie's first communion at the 10:00 mass...it was the first time we had gone to the 10:00 mass in a while, Luke and I have been going to the earlier 8:00 mass because, in Luke's words, "we're done earlier and can get outside and play."

He had trouble with the wine...his face was puckered for a good five minutes afterwards...he did not take any wine the next week...

Here's some pictures from that morning...

And one last one...the boy likes to take pictures and really likes selfies...I bet I've got a couple of hundred selfies of him and I in random places all over...

Track & Field Day

Track and Field Day was yesterday at the Elementary School.  Basically, it's a day of fun for the kids...in the morning there is a tug of war tournament and the afternoon is filled with three hours of different stations.  I've volunteered to help at a station for the last six years (and I counted yesterday that I've got four more years to go --- when Lex is out of the school).

Yesterday was the first time I'd seen the tug of war tournament...I'm out of school already and the kids asked me to come watch.

Kieran was the first of the three in the competition...see him?

You can't find him?  Need some help?

Kieran's team lost...next up was Lex's team...I don't think she's a huge help on the team, but she gave it her all...

She's harder to find because she was behind another kid...

Lex's team lost too...next up was Lukie....

Here's the helping picture...

Luke's team lost too....tug of war was not our thing that day...

I've always helped out with the game called "Rat Race" -- it has two teams of 'rats' who have to run down a course and pick up an item called 'cheese' and get it back to the beginning.  If at any time the rats are hit by a dodgeball they need to go back to the beginning and drop the cheese if they have one.  My job is to through dodgeball at kids for three hours...it is awesome...

Luke's class started at our station...

I had one other person throwing balls at the kids with me (unless a teacher took part in the game...many did).  Mary, the kids favorite girls basketball player, did a great job hitting kids...my three all enjoyed running against Mary...

I missed Kieran on all three of his runs, but the picture below shows Mary about to smoke him with a ball...

It is a hot, sweaty mess with the older grades...we get into pretty good.  When the younger grades (K-1) show up, the intensity goes down quite a bit...Lex is a lot more smiley than the boys...

It was a fun day...till next year!

Lukie's Field Trip to the Zoo

A couple of weeks ago, the 2nd grade went on a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo.  As soon as the permission slip came home, Luke asked if I would come with as a chaperone.  Being four days before my school year ended I was hesitant, but since he asked me, I went...

It was a really easy day...Luke and I were teamed up with Luke's best friend (and his father Jake that I know pretty well) and one other kid (who Luke said 'gets in trouble a lot).  It was the five of us for the day at the zoo...

I only took 3 pictures...and all of them were at the Tiger Lair...the kids were off being kids while Jake and I were busy chatting...the tiger was up and about (we usually see it sleeping)...

I asked one of the 2nd grade teachers how she was doing, because field trip days can be the most stressful days of the year and she said the zoo told her they expected 2000-3000 students that day and they usually get 15-20 lost students a day...that didn't help her.  I told her 'don't worry, we won't lose one of our kids.'

Well...10 minutes before leaving the zoo, Luke's teacher gathers her students and takes them to recycle old cell phones.  Jake and I had nothing to do, so we followed along but got separated some, me being 20 yards behind the class and Jake 20 yards behind me....

Halfway to the place we'll recycle the phones, all three of us realize at the same time we're missing the 'other' kid...Jake and I weren't paying too much attention because the students were with their teacher...oops....

Jake and I looked for him for 10-15 minutes and couldn't find him before I got a phone call from Ms. Dvorak saying they found him at the meeting point.  Somehow this kid turned away from his class and then walked straight past Jake and I without being noticed...good for him he knew where to go!

Fun day!  Plus, Luke and I rode home with Jake and Lincoln instead of the bus...we got back to town 20 minutes before the bus...Luke then went to Lincolns to play while I went back to Delano...

MN Twins Baseball

On Kieran's actual birthday, the Twins game was postponed after we had been at Target Field for an hour.  On the drive home, Kieran spent most of it going through the schedule and looking for games we could go to as a makeup...I thought it would be sometime this summer...I thought we agreed it wouldn't be the next night...

Thursday afternoon, I spent some time after school with some students and didn't get around to leaving until at 4:00....thinking there would be no rush, we weren't going to the game.  Kieran called about 4:20 asking if we were going to the game...I didn't think we were, but I was wrong...

I got home and started to get a few things done, thinking the game would start at 7:10...I was wrong again.  At 5:10, Kieran said "dad the game starts in a hour."  We were 45 minutes away from the game, with good traffic...

Off we went...quick....we got to the game as the first batter came up to the plate...

We started the game out in left-center...where our seats were going to be the night before...

But because there were only a couple of thousand fans there, we spent most of the time moving to new seats...we went along the 3rd base line next...this is Joe Mauer batting...

Then we went to the lower deck, just a few rows from the field...here's Miguel Sano batting...

Then we moved along the 1st base line...the is Jose Berrios pitching (he struck out 11 batters that night)...

And the Twins won!

We had fun....we'll be back...

Kieran's Birthday

I asked Kieran a month ago what he wanted to do on his birthday and he replied "I've been looking at the Twins schedule, they play at home that day, can we go to the Twins game?"  Yes, we can...so we bought some tickets.

Unfortunately, this is what radar looked like when we were ready to leave...

I asked him if he still wanted to go, knowing the game would probably be delayed or postponed and he said yes...so off we went...

When we got to Target Field it was dry...

But the weather was moving in...

Shortly after the national anthem, we were told the game was being delayed and that all fans should move to the concourse area for protection from predicted lightening and wind.  Then it came...

While waiting out the weather, we had a nice bucket of fries...but it continued to rain...

By about 8:00, the game was officially postponed and fans were told to leave the stadium...

On the way out, the rain slowed and the sun tried to come out...

All in all, Kieran said he had a good night, even without any baseball...

We had to get one more picture on the way out...

On the way home, we discussed when we'd use our tickets for a makeup game...I thought we decided sometime this summer...I apparently was wrong...but that's next time...

Baseball Clinic at Target Field

Kieran had a baseball clinic at Target Field yesterday and it was a glorious day to be outside!  He loves the chance to step onto a major league field, while Lex and I just had to sit in the stands.

The clinic had 10 different skill stations and groups would spend 15 minutes at a station, so altogether, we were there for almost 3 1/2 hours...

With Kieran busy having fun, Lex and I took off to have some fun of our own.  First we visited the gold glove...

Then Lex gave her best Kirby Puckett impression...

And she tried to replicate the Killer, Harmon Killebrew...

But we really just spent a lot of time hanging out and talking...

It was a great morning....and the three of us are heading back to Target Field Wednesday.  When I asked Kieran what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said 'go to the Twins game' so we're off...

Kangaroo Crossing

A week ago, the kids and I went to the zoo to see the sneak peak of the new exhibit for the summer, Kangaroo Crossing.  You walk into the exhibit and the kangaroo's and wallabies are roaming free...it's pretty cool...

Of course we couldn't pass up an opportunity to take a picture at this sign...

Or this one...

 The first animal we saw in the exhibit was a couple of emus...they look wicked mean...

Then it was off to the wallabies and kangaroos.  The wallabies stayed pretty far off, but the kangaroos got real close...

It's basically a free range exhibit.  Humans are required to stay on the path, but marsupials can go wherever they want...

And you can get pretty close...one came hopping at full speed that missed all of us by less than two feet...

All of the kangaroos are between 1-3 years old and are not concerned with humans at all...

The kids were already talking about when we're going back...