Halloween

The kids had been asking to carve pumpkins for at least a week and I always said it's too early yet.  Then Luke asked last night about 4:30 if it was too early to carve pumpkins....nope, it was about time...

Lex wasn't home when Luke remembered the pumpkins....so it was just the boys (she later drew a dalmation on a small one she brought home from school)...

Luke wanted a dinosaur and Kieran wanted something that represented Tom Brady (no surprise from either)....so off we went...

Luke's took a while, we used a T-shirt of his for the design....

Since we were running out of time...we took the easy way out for Kieran --- reminder to start earlier next year...

 Then tonight it was off for trick or treating...

Lex and Kieran went as the same people as they did for school last Friday, Luke changed it up...he was Kylo Ren (from Star Wars) tonight...but Luke Skywalker at the school party...

While getting ready for the school party, he and I had to get dressed up....Luke as Luke Skywalker and me as Darth Vader (once Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father)...

It was a good Halloween....here's the pumpkins blazing (sort of) on Halloween evening (Luke's candle was dying)...

Minnehaha Fall

The kids and I had MEA weekend these last few days...meaning no school Thursday and Friday...what to do with our time?

Thursday we spent the afternoon at Minnehaha Falls and the park area around it....too bad it was later in the day when we made it to the falls, the sun was at a pretty bad angle around the gorge, but oh well...

We had to add some perspective to the falls...

It's hard to see in the pictures, but the leaves that were on the trees had some really good color...

Of course we needed to have one with all of us...

We actually spent most of our time not at the waterfall itself, but got some nice views from lots of angles...

Nice color...but lets add something pretty...

The kids best part of the day?  The playground....

Friday we spent the afternoon swimming at Safari Island.  Saturday afternoon we spent at the Science Museum for National Fossil Day.  All and all...not a bad MEA weekend...

Kieran plays Football at Halftime

The last football event of the season for Kieran was playing at scrimmage at halftime of the Raider varsity football game Wednesday.  We would have gone anyway, but with him playing, he got in free...

Luke, Lex and I went to the game to watch him play.  Papa and uncle Craig also came to watch...we all stayed for the whole game...

I told Kieran I wanted a picture of him and I (plus Luke and Lex) in his pads before he played...that didn't happen, but we did get one of Papa and Craig with Kieran...

Here's two pictures of the the combined 5th and 6th grade teams...

Kieran's team is obviously in maroon and the other 5/6 team is in white...

Football is done for the year....now onto basketball, which a weeklong camp starts on Monday...

Kieran's Football

Kieran started football practice in late August.  Every Tuesday and Thursday from 6:00 - 7:30 or so (depending on when the sun went down) he had to be in Norwood.  The last four Saturday's he had two games...these games took place in Belle Plaine, Mayer and Norwood, so were pretty close.

Yesterday was his last football game of the year...

But he still has to play during halftime of this week's Raider football game...there might be pictures from then...

Crazy Day - CHS Homecoming Week

It's homecoming week this week for Central and the dress up day have been busy.  Monday was pajama day...Tuesday, senior citizen day...Wednesday, jersey day....but today was Crazy day...

We had mismatched socks...shirts/pants worn backwards...and colorful hair....

Luke and Kieran really got into it....

Lex is a little more reserved (though her pants/shirt was backwards and she had mismatched socks)...

Here are all these crazy people at the bus stop (it was cold this morning...will be better tomorrow)...

Friday is Raider Pride day....and the homecoming parade/pepfest...the kids are excited to go to the football game...Kieran likes the game, Luke likes the popcorn and Lex wants to see the homecoming queen and princesses...

Amnicon Falls State Park

On the trip home from our camping trip on the North Shore a few weeks ago, we made a side trip to Wisconsin.  The Vikes were playing the Pack that night, so we thought we'd make fun of some cheeseheads, plus we had another waterfall to see.

Kieran had been talking about how he was learning about faults at school while driving up to Duluth and he asked if I knew of any that were close by....I did and I said we'd have to visit Amnicon Falls State Park in Wisconsin to see one...It's an easy to see site of the Douglas Fault...

Basically, in a highly simplified form....the 1.1 billion year old basalts of the Mid-Continent Rift System were covered by almost 3,000 feet of sandstone.  Some sort of compression event (probably), brought the basalt to the same level of the sandstone...there would have been all sorts of earthquakes associated with this...

As a result, the Amnicon River has cut through the less resistant sandstone and created a waterfall as it flows over the more resistant basalt.

With fall coming on and the time of the day we visited...lighting was tough...but oh well...

Just downstream of the upper falls is a nice covered bridge that you can walk across...

Just before the upper falls, the river diverges and forms another set of waterfalls...

The lower falls are where the river continues to cut into the softer sandstone...

It was a quick two hours or so, but then it was time to head home....it was a fun weekend...

Tettegouche State Park

A week ago, the kids and I left Gooseberry and drove up to Tettegouche State Park for the day.  The boys and I have been there before, but this was a first for Lex.  We had a great time!

Before we got to the park office, we made a stop at Palisade Head...

It provides great looks of Lake Superior and the shoreline looking towards Tettegouche and Shovel Point...

The kids enjoyed watching the rock climbers...they were picking up trash that people have through over the cliff....

And of course I made them take a group picture....

It is a long ways down from the top of Palisade Head to Lake Superior and a couple of miles to Shovel Point (that light colored rock in the distance)...

People have asked me sometimes why Luke and I seem to take more selfies than Kieran and I....it's because when Kieran and I try, this is what we tend to get...

It's hard to get a good one with him (there were 5 taken here, they all look close to this)....Luke seems to just do better...

From Palisade Head to went to the state park itself with two goals --- seeing the highest waterfall completely within the borders of Minnesota and taking the hiking club trail out to the tip of Shovel Point.  The hiking club trail was a little more than two miles long and was our first stop.

From Shovel Point, you get a lot of nice views of Palisade Head in the distance...

It's also a lot up steps...altogether, Kieran counted we walked over 1000 steps at Tettegouche and Gooseberry that day...I'm not sure if he was accurate, but it was a lot. 

The trail also gives you some good views of Shovel Point, before you get up on top of it...

But eventually we got to the end and found our password...

After we completed that hike, it was time for another hike, this one would take us 2.5-3 miles roundtrip see see the High Falls of the Baptism River.  

And we'd get to cross a pretty cool bridge that definitely swings and moves.  Kieran, Luke and I had done this before, first time for Lex.

It's a great waterfall to see...worth the walk...

Even the kids liked it...

Of course, they liked throwing rocks into the river just as well...

Some lady offered to take our picture and we said yes....too bad the lady got other people (there were about 10-15 others there) in the picture and had me stand so I blocked the waterfall...

After the waterfall, we took another short walk (.5 miles --- but it had a lot of steps) to the mouth of the Baptism River.  What do you do there?  You throw rocks...

Plus, you can get one more nice view of Shovel Point in the distance...

It was a fun day, with perfect weather...