Gooseberry Falls...

We went camping over the weekend to Gooseberry Falls and our favorite campsite in the state park system...after setting up camp, we took off for the picnic lava flow to see if there were any tadpoles...

Though, this is an overlook we stop at all the time...

The lake was rough Friday night and it would get rougher all weekend long...the winds were consistently blowing at 15-20 mph from the Northeast...there's a whole lot of lake for the wind to blow across before hitting land at Gooseberry Falls State Park...a whole lot of time to build waves...of course air temperatures were cooler too as the winds blew across a lake that is 40 degrees...

Yes, there were tadpoles, but we didn't stay long because of the wind and cool air...

It was fun watching the waves crash onto shore...

But they had to try skipping rocks, it's hard with those waves...

Then it was back to watching waves...the one below almost got them...

We went above the river's outlet to the lake so the water would be calmer (easier to skip).  See that picnic table, half of it was submerged under the river two days later due to the action of the lake (more on that later)...

After skipping rocks, we hiked to the Falls area, taking in some looks...

It was a pretty quiet night at the falls, not a lot of people, which is nice...

You don't have people all over when your trying to take a picture...

After the mile hike back to camp, it was time to rest...Lex is in the hammock, Lukie is in the tent (he said he was going to read, don't think it happened)...

Everyone slept well and our camping trip was off...

Father's Day...

We had a pretty nice day on Sunday, even though it looked like it would be an interesting day early.  Just as he sat down for breakfast, Lukie got up and went to the bathroom to throw up.  Nothing before that indicated his stomach wasn't feeling well, but after a couple of hours of laying down, he recovered just fine and our day got going...

We started it by playing catch - a baseball for Lukie and softball for Lex...

Then, when Lukie and Lex started to play with the neighbor kids, I started to read a book in the hammock.  Pretty sure I got a brief nap in before they realized I was in the hammock and kicked me out.  It's been a bit of an argument on who gets to sleep in the hammock when we go camping soon...

When Lukie/Lex and neighbors decided to swimming at the neighbors pool, I got the hammock back and took a decent nap...

Later in the afternoon we caught another Cologne Hollanders baseball game...that's cheeseburger residue on Lex's face (the cheeseburger is in her mouth)...

Friday night, the Hollanders won a game against a state qualifier from last season, it was a great game to watch.  But as well as they played Friday, they played equally poorly Sunday, we left in the 6th inning and they were down 22-3...

Oh well, they still have food and it was good to be at the game anyway...

After we got back from the game, we took off on bikes up to the pool for a little more than an hour...we all slept well last night...a good day...

4th Grade Classroom Book and Academic All-Star...

Every year, the 4th grade classrooms put together a book of individual student work and you have the option to purchase one.  I bought one for Kieran way back when and was absolutely going to get one for Lukie (and Lex next year)...

This years book features a poem written by the students, a drawing representing their poem and an autobiography of the past school year...

Lukie's poem and drawing are below...

If you can see it, it says:

Water is flowing

The water is going down

Waterfalls are cool

Apparently, we visit a lot of waterfalls...

His autobiography can be read below...

When he handed me the book a couple of weeks back, he was really excited to show me what was inside the front cover...

His teacher had nominated him for a 2019 Academic All-Star!  There's a recognition ceremony at the Mall of America later this summer.  I have to register him for it by mid-July, but Lukie said he definitely wants to go...so that'll be a fun day.  Good job Lukie...

Science Museum of Minnesota...

Lex and I went to the museum in mid-May, but we went back today for a couple of new things...

The summer's focus is on Inventing Genius and it was cool to see....

Most of the exhibit focuses on Da Vinci's inventions, near the end it lists the 101 greatest inventions from Stone Tools and Conquering Fire (two different inventions) to things like Legos (Lukie liked) and the Internet...

Lukie saw this and immediately said "it's a helicopter."  Yep, the basic idea of a helicopter several hundred years before the thought came to fruition...

There were some 'hands on' parts of the exhibit, where you could test out Da Vinci's early examples of simple machines, bearings, locking mechanisms on pulleys, etc.

Of course, Lukie found the military inventions much more exciting, like this early idea of a machine gun...

Lex liked the room that was devised so one didn't have to turn around to see all of him or herself...

Lukie tolerated it because I said "go in."

There was a nice example and write-up behind the mathematics of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man...though, I probably should have had one of them stand in front of his junk...

I think they really enjoyed the exhibit, we were in there about an hour, which is a lot for the time spent at the museum...

Of course we watched an IMAX movie too, this one I wanted to see...it was Apollo 11: First Steps...July 20th marks 50 years since Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon.  The movie was cool...you could hear people crying some around us...

After the movie...Lukie and Lex met a feathered T-Rex (undeniably, T-Rex's would've had feathers at some point in their life)...

Then we saw the usual parts of the museum, like dinosaurs...

And looked at the human body, like vision in infants...

I just like those pictures...but, we had a good day.  We saw the mummy, the Sportsology exhibit, musical stairs, etc...a great day...

Now Summer Has Started...

The pool opened today at 1:00...Lukie asked to eat lunch at 11:15, just so he could be ready...he and Lex have been waiting for this day...

Finally, at 12:45 they took off on their bikes and were off...of course they had to wait for me to catch up and pay, but they wanted to be there...

It was 85 degrees, a great day to swim...and this was Lukie's first entrance into the pool for the summer...a good entrance...

And then why not hit the slide too?

1:10 pm...he was happy...

Lex swam awhile before going off the board...our goal is to stop the nose holding this summer...

Still holding the nose...

And she does it on the slide too...we'll get that stopped this summer...

By the looks of it, we'll be swimming a lot this summer...

School's Out For Summer...

Cue the music...School's Out For Summer...

Here's Lukie and Lex on the first day of school...

Here they are on the last day...

Did they grow some...yes...did they learn some...better be yes...but it's time for summer fun!

Lex's First Softball Game...

I had no idea how this would go, but it was a good game...

Pitching is done by the machine.  Lex walked up in the first inning, took a swing at a pitch and missed.  Second pitch, she hit pretty well to the right side and got a base hit...

The bottom of the second inning they put her at first base.  She had two grounders hit to her, which she fielded clean and touched first for two outs.  We'll take that...

Her next time up in the third inning, she hit it again, but was thrown out at first.  We'll take that too...

Her last time up in the top of the 5th, she struck out.  But, by that point, it was already a successful game.  And her team won...

Lukie even left the park every time she was up to bat to watch her...a win...