Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

We stayed home with the kids and had our Thanksgiving Day lunch.  We had beans....

We had stuffing...

We had turkey....

Of course, we also had mashed potatoes, cranberries, etc. to go with our lunch.

We even had warm, apple pie...

The kids were very excited...

Sarah did a fantastic job!

I kept asking what she needed from me and how I could help....all she wanted was the kids out of the kitchen and not arguing or yelling...that was my job.

Sarah did a much better job than I did....

Camping at Jay Cooke State Park

A couple of weeks ago, we all went camping at Jay Cooke State Park....yes, camping....in November.  But we were staying in a camper cabin...heated camper cabin, with electricity.  Not exactly tent camping, but still...

High temperatures were never above freezing and the lows were in the single digits, that heat and electricity came in handy.  Turns out that went it's cold, I don't take as many pictures....oh well, here are a few.

The St. Louis River, early in the morning....

When it gets cold at night, most retreated inside the warm cabin...

I tended to stay outside for awhile, where it was quiet and calm...but still cold.  Sarah would come out too...too loud in the cabin.  Luke would come out too, always wanted to play with the 'sparklers'...

Saturday, Luke and Lex took a walk with me for a couple of hours.  Lex made plenty of snow angels and Luke tried to get away from here.  Sometimes they got close enough for a picture....

I caught up with them again down by the river...

Last year when we had camped here, the bridge wasn't open so you couldn't cross the river.  It's open now, so go explore the south side of the park...

Then bridge moves like the old one...it doesn't 'swing' too much, just enough for you to feel it...

There was a noticeable change in the amount of ice on the river over the three days, two nights we were there.

Downstream of the swinging bridge on Saturday...

Here's the upstream picture the same day...

All five camper cabins were full that weekend and so were three campsites --- one had an RV, one was a tent and the last campsite was filled with a yurt.  That was cool to see!

Acupuncture

Sarah has been doing therapy on her legs for a while down....a lifetime of beating takes its toll on ones achilles, hamstrings, etc.  Your body can try to compensate for weaker or hurting areas, but usually that puts strain on other areas.  Well, her therapy has been really good therapy --- and by that I mean sometimes very painful, she's come home with bruises in the past.

Recently acupuncture was suggested and we both know some people that swear by acupuncture, so she's been going recently to see if that helps her to continue running.

It's also something that I was pretty interested in seeing (in my mind, I picture thousands of little needles placed all over the body....like I've seen on TV or in magazines).  She had an appointment before we picked up the kids from school to take them to Jay Cooke State Park for camping in cabins (that'll be in the next post) and she agree to take me.

I'm pretty sure I didn't help with the quiet, reflective nature of the appointment...I asked a lot of questions (examples:  Does it hurt?  Why put the needles there?  What are you doing when you twirl the needle around?  Is that all the needles you're going to use?).  But I found it very interesting...note, I'm not saying I want needles placed into me.

Of course I took pictures....even video (though not of the needles being placed, I didn't want to interrupt too much).  Though it turns out that the sound does not play when placed in this blog.  Too bad...you hear some birds chirping and waves crashing into shore from the chiropractor's office...and Garth Brooks on the previous post!

Garth Brooks

It was announced earlier this fall that Garth Brooks was coming to Minneapolis for two shows.  The two shows were on dates that we already has reservations for a camper cabin at a state park.  Sarah seemed interested in seeing Garth and I said I thought he would be adding shows when tickets went on sale (he had done that previously back in 1998).

The Friday the tickets went on sale, I went out for lunch and heard on the radio that his first two shows were sold out and that there were another 5-6 shows announced (he ended up doing 11 shows total in Minneapolis).  I texted Sarah what I had heard and her reply was "I'm sitting in the online waiting room for tickets right now!"

Very cool...

I had seen Garth in 1993 and 1998 when he came to Minneapolis...he puts on a show like no one else.  It was Sarah's first time seeing him, neither of us were disappointed.

He has changed (I'm sure I have too) in the twenty-one years since he first came to town -- he doesn't run around the stage nearly as much, now it's a lot more walking, but he still knows how to work the crowd...

He played mostly his old songs (except for 2-3 that are on his new album that just came out) and his wife Trisha Yearwood played four of her songs.

Who doesn't like 'Friends in Low Places?'

And who doesn't like 'The Dance?'  It's one of my top 5 songs of all time...

Pumpkin Carving

Happy Halloween!  It's time to carve the pumpkins again.  It went surprisingly well for Lex considering she doesn't like to get dirty...

Kieran dove right into the pumpkin, getting rid of the 'guts'....

Luke had to show a little flair....

 Here are the final products (we still have one to go)...Luke wanted a scary one...

Kieran wanted one that would represent the Central Raider football team (they play in the section final Halloween night for a trip to state)...

The last one represents Sarah's Ironman triathlon this summer in Couer d'Alene, Idaho...

Altogether...

Reconciliation Park

Sarah, Pam and I ran the Mankato 1/2 Marathon on October 19.  After we crossed the finish line, we had to walk past Reconciliation Park to get to our buses.  I've driven past the park for years, but had never walked through it.

Reconciliation Park is the site of the largest mass execution in the history of the United States.  38 Dakota Indians were hung there as a result of the U.S./Dakota Conflict in 1862.

The park now has a large, limestone buffalo, a tepee and a large, scribe with the names of those hung.  It was all dedicated in 1997, it was interesting to see how quickly the white limestone has been weathering over the last 17 years or so.

The Pumpkin Patch

Stopped by the local Pumpkin Patch this morning to see what we could find.  Answer....a lot a pumpkins...$5.00 per pumpkin, you pick your own.  So off we went...

Wasn't too long before people were off on their search...

Sarah found one early on...

Then Luke found one too...

Kieran was just to busy talking....

Maddy felt like she should dress in costume...and in bare feet...to go to the pumpkin patch.  (Actually, this was the morning after the homecoming dance...costume?).

Lex found one...it had to be a little one, because she's little...

You need superheroes if you're afraid of the Great Pumpkin!

This is the haul from the pumpkin patch!

They are now sitting by the front door waiting to be carved in a few weeks...

Friday Night Lights - Kieran plays at halftime

Kieran's playing tackle football this fall, practices are Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:00 - 7:30. The highlight of the fall was last night when the 3rd and 4th graders played at halftime of the Central Raider game.  Kieran has really been looking forward to it (last week when the Raiders were in Watertown, their little ones played at halftime and Kieran said "that will be me next week dad!").

We go to all the games and Kieran really does enjoy watching his favorite players (#4 and #5).  Last night he just had to wear his football pants...

Friday nights at Central are always great to watch the sunset (if there aren't any clouds like last night)...

Can you find Kieran?  He's the fullback in the backfield, getting down into position ready for the snap of the ball...he got a carry, went for almost two yards and got creamed...

He plays defense too...here he is as the left cornerback...you can almost make out the 0 on his jersey (his number is 10)...

Everyone came out to watch him play...although Luke and Lex were too busy running around to notice that he was on the field.

The Raiders beat Sibley East 35-6, it was a good night for Kieran.  The team is now 4-1 on the season, though they have two really tough games coming up yet.

The team picture....look to the front right...

Duluth-Goosberry Falls-Split Rock Lighthouse

A few weekends ago, we were up on the North Shore.  Maddy was scheduled to do the Inline 1/2 marathon and Sarah was going to do the Wheels Off Half Marathon run.  We decided to camp at Gooseberry because I had two nights reserved at the campground in July that we couldn't keep because of Luke going to school.  We were able to change the reservation, though we couldn't keep our favorite site - #27.

The races were on Saturday morning, we woke up to temperatures around 38 degrees and the skies were sunny.  We've been to a lot of races, but we're not familiar with times for inline skates -- we missed Maddy coming through, but caught Sarah on the run.

What do you do on the North Shore?  The kids throw rocks....lots of rocks.  Though Luke always looks for something bigger....

After the mornings races, Sarah wanted to go to Split Rock Lighthouse since Maddy had never been there....so off we went.  Of course you have to climb to the top.

Of course you have to walk all the way down to the Lake...though not everybody goes at the same speed...

Since it's so many steps down to the lake, most people require a short rest before walking back up, these four were no different...

It is a nice view from below the lighthouse...

It was certainly cool when the sun went behind the clouds, the wind didn't help either.

Sunday morning, we had to go check out the falls near the visitor center...

Kieran and I took a quick 1.7 mile hike up to the fifth falls, we had never seen them before...

They're in a gorge, but with the low sun angle and just the phone, it was tough to get a decent picture.  That means we'll have to go back...

Site #25 wasn't too bad...it certainly isn't as good as #27, but not too bad.  I've actually made reservations for the same site next summer during the weekend of Grandma's Marathon for the same site.

The Conservation Corps has been busy at Gooseberry's campground, they've completely re-landscaped the area around the bathroom and shower...nobody thought that was very cool, but I certainly noticed!  (actually, they thought it was pretty dumb that I was taking a picture of a bathroom....).