Rabbit Catching

Luke and papa built a trap a few weeks ago in the hopes of catching a rabbit, a squirrel, an opossum or anything really.  There's been a few close calls in the last weeks, the trap had been sprung but nothing was inside (Luke's convinced that those were an opossum but the creature's tail stuck out from the door allowing the animal out).

Then Luke and Lex noticed that the door was down this morning.  It was raining, but that didn't stop them from running out the door to have a look...and Luke was just giddy...

The reason for the excitement?!?

Maybe it's hard to see, but it was a rabbit...now the goal was apparently to 'make city rabbits, country rabbits' so we piled the trap in the car and drove out in the country (less than a mile away) and prepared to release the rabbit --- I was hoping to get a picture of the rabbit as it got out of the trap...

No chance to get a picture...after initially refusing to leave the trap, it took off like a bat out of hell and was gone...the kids loved it...

The trap is set again, waiting to catch another animal...

MN Vikings Training Camp

For 52 years, the Vikings have held training camp in Mankato on the campus of Minnesota State University, Mankato.  We've gone every summer since at least 2012.  This summer is the last year training camp will be in Mankato, next year it moves to the new facility the Vikings are building in Eagan.

So Luke, Lex and I visited camp on Tuesday, the last day the Vikings would ever be in Mankato...

There's a ton of things for kids to do at camp...like throwing footballs at targets...

Taking pictures with cheerleaders...

They had games of Jenga you could play...Luke played Lex first...he won...

Then he played me...he won again...

New this year was a place you could measure your vertical jump (and compare it to some of the players jumps)...

It's customizable for every height, so they have to raise or lower the device before you can start...when it's ready, you jump...

Lukie was pretty happy with his jump of 75 inches...

Lex always likes to take a picture with the big Viking...

We had to take a picture by the sign commemorating 52 years in Mankato...Lukie's frowning because he didn't really want another picture and I said if he wasn't smiling I'd start whacking butts...he's calling my bluff...

And yes...there's even practice you can watch...

Another good day...

Luke's New Pool Trick

Luke has spent a lot of time swimming at the pool this summer...he's basically a pool rat, but he loves it.  He'll ride his bike up and spend a few hours there.  Every time that he goes to the pool there are friends from school there, he loves that, but what he also likes is the lifeguards.  All the guards know him and talk to him like a person and he respects them a ton.  He's got his favorite two, one's a college guy and the other is going to be a high senior.

The cool thing about these two is that they look after him.  Take Sunday for example, he was swimming (and both of them were working) when there was some weather that moved through just south of town (3-4 funnel clouds were seen, nothing severe, didn't even rain).  When I went up to check on him, the college guy said "Mary and I already told Luke that one of us would take him home if we closed."  Which that was cool...

This summer Lukie has become so much of a stronger swimming and is brave off the diving board.  He is really good at dives (which he learned in June), cannonballs, can openers, among others, but was missing a flip to his repertoire...

Sunday, Ben and Mary started to teach him how to do a flip and it didn't go well before Luke gave up.  When I walked up to the pool to get Luke yesterday afternoon Ben said "Luke learned a new trick."  So here's a series of pictures showing his new trick....

After Ben got him to do a flip, apparently Luke did 34 flips in a row, I saw at least 10.  He's got a couple of more weeks to swim at the pool this summer...

Willow River State Park

Luke, Lex and I went to a new state park for us in search of a waterfall...we even had to go to Wisconsin to see it...Willow River State Park.

Fortunately, it was just across the border, a few miles from Hudson.  There was an okay nature center, with a fox snake and a few turtles.  The other animals were all stuffed.  But the goal was to go see the falls, so we drove to the parking area indicated on the map and found a 16 stall parking area completely full of vehicles.  The ranger there gave us the other option of driving back to the nature center and hiking 1.5 miles to the falls (a 3 mile round trip hike)...so we were off...

It was a paved trail for almost all of the walk, not exactly difficult.  When we got there we saw mass chaos in the falls themselves...never even seen anything like it at Gooseberry...people all over jumping from one level to another, dragging young kids through the several inches of moving water...Wisconsin...

But it was a nice looking series of waterfalls...

The kids liked it...

If you're willing to climb a big set of stairs, you get an overview of the scene below...

It was easier going back down than it was going up...

There were a ton of people there, both in the water and on the bridge overlooking the falls...

The nature center was located next to this huge swampy area filled with vegetation with a small river flowing through the middle, not particularly pleasant to look at, but it turns out it used to be a lake with a nice swimming beach...

Turns out that the lake was formed by a dam holding back the river and in 2012 it was found that the dam could potentially fail soon.  So the decision was made to breach the dam and draw down the lake.  The park obviously lost a signature feature of the area and it's been decided recently to re-construct the dam to bring back the lake...

It was a good day, but Wisconsin State Parks are nothing like Minnesota's...we are definitely spoiled here...

Minnehaha Falls

A couple of weeks ago, Luke/Lex and I took off for Minneapolis to have a picnic...and Minnehaha Falls is a good place for a picnic...

Before we ate (and play on the playground for the kids) we had to walk around the falls...to bad I couldn't convince them to walk down to the Mississippi River -- it's a nice hike through the gorge to river...

No idea what Luke was pointing to...I think it was something like "Lexy, look...a leaf."  But I could be wrong.  What's cool about Minnehaha is that you can view the falls from all different angles...

Luke really didn't like this next picture...just as I got ready to take the picture, Lex decided to give him a hug...

Of course the waterfall is there because of the drastic discharge of Glacial Lake Agassiz via Glacial River Warren.  The original waterfall would've been located just downstream of the Science Museum and would've been as tall as the river valley there...over time it migrated upstream and it's remnant is St. Anthony Falls, which is forever concreted in place.  Minnehaha formed as the creek flowing out of Gray's Bay on Lake Minnetonka fell into the gorge created by the original waterfall.  (Same thing happened at Minneopa Falls, just farther south.)  Minnehaha has been migrating upstream ever since...

It was a good day...no pictures of the picnic (we were too hungry to take the time...) or of the playground...

Town Team Baseball

We spend a lot of time going to sporting events...during the school year it's Central Raider sports (football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, etc.)...during the spring and summer it turns to baseball of the Crow River Valley League.  We've watched games the last few months in at least five different ballparks.  The team we follow the most is the Cologne Hollanders, largely because a HS senior who just graduated plays for the team, both boys loved watching him play at Central.

Playoffs started last Wednesday evening and we had to go...round 1 is a best of 3 game series and the game was in Cologne.  Cologne was seeded 8 and Winsted was seeded 9, so it should have been a good series...

It was a perfect night for baseball...

During the game, boys do what boys do...sometimes they watch the game and some times they play catch with the other guys...Luke's always sure to bring his glove along...

What Luke loves the most about town team ball is that foul balls are worth $.25 if you get one and turn it in...it's Luke's only mode of making money and he loves chasing foul balls with the rest of the pack...he generally gets several a game...

This night though, Luke got six foul balls (that's $1.50) and Lex got two ($.50), though Luke says she didn't really get them...an older boy got two foul balls and gave them to Lex to turn in for the money...

Cologne lost game 1 and game 2 Friday night in Winsted (they were leading 3-0 going into the bottom of the ninth, Winsted scored three runs and won it in the bottom of the 11th), so they're done for the year...too bad, how will Lukie make money now?

Minneopa Falls State Park

On day two of our exile, Luke/Lex and I went to Mankato to spend the day exploring a state park that is pretty familiar to us, Minneopa.  Our first stop there is usually the bison drive, you enter their habitat and drive the road looking for them.  Sometimes they're way off in the distance and sometimes they are right up by the road...

This time they were literally on the road.  How do you get a bison out of your way?  You sit there until it decides to move...

We got lots of pictures of them, though I told the kids not to make any loud noises (don't want to spark a fight with a bison)...

From the bison trail, we went for a short hike that was completely new to all of us...it's a trail to the confluence of Minneopa creek and the Minnesota river...it's hard to see in the picture, but the creek has made a lit delta at the confluence, all that eroding sandstone is getting deposited in the river...

There were also some very large prints that we admired for a while...Luke said velociraptor while I said Great Blue Heron...both technically dinosaurs...

The trail down to the confluence was pretty cool..the kids loved the sand..."it's perfect sand dad!  Where do we get some?"  I told them right there in that rock...not a good enough answer...

We also found this very cool tree growing among the Jordan Sandstone...

And yes, we went to the falls...

The falls were busy, they usually are...but we took the walk to the base of the falls too...

I had never noticed a little cave carved into the sandstone, based on moss and liverwort growth, it's been there for a longtime...which of course they kids had to crawl into...

The falls were nice, but it was cool exploring something that we hadn't seen before...

I would imagine that we'll be back to the falls sometime this fall yet...