Goldy's Run - 10 Mile

Last weekend, Sarah had two classes down in Rochester.  The plan was for us all to go with and spend a night in a hotel down there, but before we left the cities, Sarah had to do Goldy's 10 mile on/near the University of Minnesota campus.  We had to get everyone up and we left by 6:30, the start was just outside TCF Bank stadium and the finish was on the 50 yard line.

What do you do if your visiting a stadium for the first time?  Kieran had to check it out..

When we finally (in his words) got down to the turf, of course he had to lay down on it...

Lex had to dance...I tried to get video, but as soon as she saw me try, she stopped dancing...

Kieran had to do a (really multiple) 40 yard dashes...like they do in the NFL combine.  Kieran clocked in at around 8 seconds...Luke was around 13 seconds...when he lost he started walking...

Of course we were keeping an eye out for Sarah...

After the race we always need pictures...

There were a lot of people at the race...

And then we were off to Rochester...

Lex's First Dental Appointment

We just got back from Lex's first dental appointment, the boys also had appointments but like Luke said "we're pros" so it wasn't a big deal for them...

Lex was a little concerned going in and sitting in the big chair.  She said several times "I'm scared" as she began to well up with tears.  It didn't help that Luke was telling her that it would hurt and be really loud.

She really paid attention when the hygienist walked her through what was going to happen (in real kid friendly terms)...

And pretty much giggled the whole time her teeth were cleaned...

She got more and more comfortable and was very excited to learn she had 20 teeth (one less than Luke and probably more than Kieran -- though we weren't in with him during his appointment).

By the time the dentist came in, she talked his ears off with all sorts of information on teeth, school and Elsa...

Best part for me was there were zero cavities with all three kids....

Happy Easter

Cologne did have an Easter egg hunt yesterday, it was put on by a local 4-H group and we had to go (sunny and 40s helped).....

The boys were not very excited to get pictures with these two 'rabbits'...Lex was very excited.

Each kid had their own age group hunt.  Here's Lex (just left of center and still on the infield dirt)...

Luke carrying a yellow bag (on the left side of the picture)...

Kieran is ready to get started...

And he's off...

Here's Luke's haul...

And Kieran's....see that large blue 'stylish' egg?

It's a prize winner...

It was a huge prize...

Afterwards (or before the hunts) you could make some rabbit faces, touch baby rabbits or chicks and look for money in corn...

Here's our two finished rabbits...

Happy Easter.

Minnehaha Falls

After leaving the Science Museum Wednesday, we decided to stop at Minnehaha Falls.  Sarah doesn't think she's ever been there and it's been a couple of years for the boys.  Plus, it was 83 or 84 degrees out - we had set a high temperature record that day.

The first views of the falls.  It's been a dry spring, with very little snow melt, not what the falls would typically look like in April.  Pictures were tough with the sun in the western sky, right behind the falls.

Ice lingers in the gorge with the little direct sunlight.  People were still walking back behind the ice.  Minnehaha Falls is formed as the creek falls over the Platteville Limestone and excavates the soft, St. Peter Sandstone underneath.  The limestone is undercut and occasionally large chunks of limestone breaks off and the falls migrate up stream.  But between the limestone and sandstone is a small layer of shale (essentially impermeable clay).

If you look closely, most of the ice starts to form at approximately the same level or layer.  Groundwater soaks through the soil, glacial material and limestone until it hits the shale, the water then moves horizontally along the shale until falling out into the gorge.  In the winter, it's obviously cold enough for the water to freeze.  You can see these frozen springs at sites all throughout Minneapolis & St. Paul during the winter, anywhere this combination of bedrock is exposed.

It was a pretty nice day for us (even though I felt sicker and sicker as the day went on - I ended up staying home from school the next day...).

Science Museum

Spring Break was this week for the kids, so Sarah and I took Wednesday off and we went down to the Science Museum.  One of the first things that we had to check out was the mummy.  Lex was impressed that it still had teeth and fingernails...so much so that later on she kept pointing out the things that still had teeth and fingernails.

Something new to the museum was TapeScape a traveling piece made entirely out of packing tape that kids can run around in and tire themselves out.

The tape is stretched across a steel frame and essentially gets stronger as the kids weight is applied to the structure.  Lex had the 'under 5' version all to herself.

They were all tired and sweaty when they were done playing...

It was the first time that we had seen the 600+ year old tree cutting...it was huge.

From there it was time to see some fossils...Luke likes listening to the exhibits (many have phones you can put up to your ear), Kieran just plays along.

Dinosaurs are the best...says Luke.

But theres more than just dinosaur fossils at the museum, here's a fossil rhino from North America.

And here's 1.8 billion year old fossilized algae from Minnesota's Iron Ranges.

There's a space theme at the museum for the next few months - we saw an Omnifilm show on the end of the Space Shuttle and the future for the Orion program that everyone liked.  There is also a 3-story astronaut that you can have your face projected onto.

Astronaut Kieran -

Astronaut Lexy -

Astronaut Luke -

But of course, we couldn't leave the museum without checking out the T-Rex...guess whose idea that was...

Luke

So it's spring break for the kids, but you still have to look good....

Apparently, Luke wanted to do his hair yesterday before going to daycare:

That's what he came up with.  Sarah says he kept telling her "I'm Mr. Handsome" all the way to daycare (it's about 2 blocks)...

Easter Egg Hunt

We didn't wake up with a plan to go to the Shakopee Community Center yesterday for their Easter Egg hunt, but we did anyway.  There has been very little information publicized about Cologne's hunt, so we went to Shakopee, even though they decided on Friday to hold the hunt inside (in the gym).

We had to split the kids - the 5 and under group went downstair first, so Lex and I headed for the gym, while Kieran & Luke stayed upstairs with Sarah.

As you can see...it's not much of a hunt for eggs when they're on the basketball court floor...they tend to stick out.  Rules were to get no more than five eggs, but you could get as much candy as possible.  

After the 5 and under group, staff members had to reset the floor, so there were games that the kids could play and win little prizes between the hunts.

Lex and I ended up watching the older hunt through a window overlook on the second floor.  Here's Kieran and Luke getting a pep talk from Sarah -- she's probably telling them the specific candy she wants them to get...

 Can see them?  Here's a little help...

The white shirts really helped the boys stick out so we could see them, again, it wasn't planned though...minutes later, the madness started...

It didn't take long...

 Could you find Kieran and Luke (and maybe Sarah) in the pictures?

MN Zoo

The first day of spring break for the kids was today, so we all took off to go to the Minnesota Zoo.  With the temperatures in the low 30s, we didn't really want to go to the Como Zoo and spend all of our time outside.  It wasn't too bad, especially when we were out in the sun.

Luke tried to 'milk' the buffalo statue below...it was a male buffalo...

One of the first animals we saw was the African penguins...penguins being Kieran's favorite...

Discovery Bay lost the dolphins a while back and is much more limited, but the sharks were still cool...they'll be getting Monk Seals in the next month or so...

The cougars (or mountain lions, pumas) are one of my favorite two animals there...

Going with kids who are always loud (Lexy), knowing everything (Kieran), mischievous (Luke) and always climbing on things (all of them) can be exhausting...

They were really excited to see the turtles...

Lex's favorite animal was the sea otters (the picture below is a river otter native to Minnesota)...a sea otter was engaged in a inappropriate behavior for young eyes -- good thing Lex didn't understand what it was doing...

Luke thought it was too cold at the otters though...

The eels were cool...

Komodo dragons are also cool...these are really small ones though...

I also like the wolves...I hear them camping and have seen their tracks, but never seen a wolf in the wild...

Luke has always been skilled at 'photobombing'....

Did you find him?  Lex had to wear her sunglasses, because Mom and Dad had them on...

That is a big bear Lukie...

Don't wake the bears guys...

Only Luke finds the Mammoth fossil dig site (it's fake and the fossils don't come out of the ground --- Luke really tried)...

Remember Luke's photobombing?

Have a good weekend!  Don't ride horses...ride fake rhinos.