Lake Rachel

The boys spent last week up on Lake Rachel with grandma and they really wanted to fish.  So when Sarah and I went to pick them up on Saturday, we brought their gear along for them.  And they fished...

And they fished...

They even caught some...

Even Lex fished...

Sarah even fished...the following is a series of pictures (taken out of order to tell a fictional story) of fishing...

They boys left to do something...so Sarah fished...

But the sun was out...so why not get some sun and fish at the same time...

But why deal with the fish at all?  Let's just get some sun and let the boys fish...

Later, Sarah took all the kids out for a paddleboat ride, the boys apparently continued fishing during the ride...

What did I do during the paddleboat ride?  I took a nap...was a good day.

Carver County Fair

Sarah and I took Lex to the fair today, we're the only ones home - everyone else is up at Ann's house near Alexandria.  (Don't tell the boys...they don't know they were missing the fair...).  Perfect fair weather....sunny and hot.

Boy can that kid talk...she never stops talking...it was exhausting.  It'll be much easier taking the boys to the State Fair in a few weeks...

Of course she got to ride some rides, more so than usual because tickets needed to be used.  Merry-go-round, ferris wheel, rollercoaster and a couple of others I don't have names for.

I temporarily interrupted a selfie on that top of the ferris wheel...

What do I do at the fair?  I eat (that's better than what I used to do at the fair)...I eat a lot - 2 cheese curds, a snow cone, 2 strawberry shakes, a lot of all-you-can-drink milk for $.50, etc...

What little girl who's wearing an Elsa shirt and Elsa socks can pass up a photo in an Elsa cutout?  Do you want to build a snowman?

And if you ever get the chance to touch an elephant...touch it...

Mom

She was born - 4.26.1952 in Lake City, Iowa.

She loved Dad...

She loved her kids...even the ones who were/are a pain in the ass...

But she really loved her grandkids...

She died - 8.2.2015 at home, in Norwood, Minnesota.

Obituary -
http://www.johnsonfh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=3263188&fh_id=11478

Summer Baseball

All the summer programs and winding down - Lex's last day of kindergarten camp and the boys' park program both have their last days today.  Summer baseball ended a few weeks ago, here is a pictures and/or videos of the last games for Kieran and Luke (I guess videos do not work on iPads or mobile devices, only computers)...

Kieran's last game started at 8:00, our only night game.  The game ended around 10:00 and the lights came on about halfway through the game.  The boys enjoyed that aspect.

Kieran getting ready for the pitch...

Lights are on, Kieran is ready out in centerfield...

The whole team...

Luke's T-Ball games are much shorted, they last about 45 minutes...here's two videos...

Luke's playing first base, fielding the throw and then throwing back to his coach...

This last video is Luke batting -- the last batter every inning in T-Ball gets to run all the bases, earlier batters advance only one base per batter...

Now that talk this morning is what to do during the fall.  Football, soccer, basketball, cross country, etc...

Science Museum

We went to the Science Museum several weeks ago, primarily so we could go to the Big Back Yard, which we had never done before.  It was a nice warm day, perfect for being outside...

 There is all sorts of things to do outside, like a prairie maze...

The kids move through it faster than the parents do...

Being early July, the plants sure had grown well earlier in the summer...

There's also a 'camera obscura', a dark room where light passes through a lens on the wall, inverts the image and projects it on the opposite wall...

But most of the outdoor area is focused on major principles dealing with water, surface waters and groundwater.  Ideas like permeability and porosity...three large rocks (sandstone, granite, limestone) were there for you to pour water on to determine which is permeable.

Four large tubes were filled with different sizes of gravel/sand, you poured water into them to see which has the highest porosity and would allow the water to pass through the quickest...

A water flume that mimics dams on rivers, you see how sediment builds up behind the dam and how it's removed once the dam is removed...

Measuring lengths of rivers to see how meanders in a river affects it's length...

Another flume that looks at turbidity currents, where masses of sediment move downslope quickly.  The more dense materials settle first and the least dense settle last.  Northern Minnesota has some awesome turbidites from when we sat on the edge of the early North American continent...

And they have stream table...way bigger than the stream table I have at school...

We almost didn't get inside...but eventually Luke wanted to see the tornado machine...

He really liked destroying the tornado...

And yes...we saw dinosaurs...

And the Triceratops....

We even saw Iggy...who moved with the museum from downtown St. Paul years ago...

Lexy's Birthday

It was Lex's birthday yesterday, as she had been announcing to anyone that would listen for weeks.  She's finally 5 years old, won't like the doctors appointment tomorrow, but that's tomorrow...

Because of the month-long kindergarten camp, she went school on her birthday.  She took treats for everyone in class and really looked forward to that...of course she had to dress as a princess for school...

Lex's wishes (and loves) for her birthday were:  puppy, princess stuff, Frozen things, Dora things and probably a couple more.

Well...she got a dog...for a week....we're dog sitting for eight days.

She did get a puppy she could keep...its the stuffed variety...

She got a Frozen tea set...and then played tea party before going to bed...

She got an Elsa dress...who was a princess, but now is a Queen...and a couple of tiaras...

And of course had to put it on...with the new tiara...

Thank you hugs were a must after...

And the cake after...Dora!

Pretty sure she blew out all five candles, I honestly don't remember (but she talks she freaking much, she's got more than enough air to blow out five small candles)...

She did alright....

Kenny Chesney & Jason Aldean

Last night, Sarah and I went to the Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean concert at Target Field.  There were five total acts, first one went on at 4:30.  Sarah and I got there around 5:00...it was a late night.

I enjoyed one of the earlier acts more than I thought I would, Cole Swindell.  Brantley Gilbert was good too.  Jason Aldean, one of the headliners was very good.  Chesney was like Garth Brooks twenty years ago...always moving...big smiles...he's having fun, it's hard to fake that...

We'll see how these pictures look, they were not taken right next to the stage (and with an iPhone).

Aldean went on at 7:00 and played until around 8:40, still light out...but that didn't stop him from using fire and fireworks (a lot)...

Target Field is awesome...with downtown Minneapolis just to the east...

We had a sitter watching the kids...one going into 7th grade this fall...she was probably up way too late...

Chesney came on at 9:00, it got harder to take pictures once the sun started going down...

And got real tough when it was dark...

But I kept trying....

They had two shows (Saturday and Sunday) and set the Target Field concert attendance record.  Saturday night had over 44,000 people and Sunday was about 40,000.  Almost 85,000 people for the weekend...not bad.  The previous attendance record was set two years ago by Chesney...way more than Sir Paul McCartney last summer...

Here's a clip of how it sounded...

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would...and it was my idea to go...

There will be pictures of kids next time....promise....