Science & Nature Conference - Gustavus...

For students in grades 3-6 at Central, they have the option to attend the Science & Nature Conference at Gustavus Adolphus each year.  Lukie attended last year and Lex wanted to go as well this year.  Students get to choose three sessions that they would like to attend.  Both Lukie and Lex wanted me to come along as well...so I did...

The day starts with an opening keynote.  In this case, it was WCCO's Mike Lynch talking about constellations and telescopes.  Lynch gives astronomy parties across the state throughout the year, both Lukie and Lex enjoyed the session.

After the keynote, students choose which sessions they'd like to attend (based from this pdf).  Lukie and Lex selected two of the same sessions (though they happened at separate times), Remarkable Reptiles and A Slimy Good Time...

Lex's first session was the one focused on slime...

Lukie was at Remarkable Reptiles at that point, but we got together for lunch...

After lunch, Lukie and Lex basically switched...Lex saw the Reptiles...

Lukie was busy making slime...

 And Lex was still looking at Reptiles...a boa constrictor...

And then touched it...

 And even got a closeup of the Timber Rattlesnake, from Southeast MN...trust me, we could hear the rattle...

For the last session, Lukie was building super structures and Lex was looking at Animals Nobody Loves...like this bull snake...

 Both Lukie and Lex loved the day, (Lex said to me as we were walking across campus, 'it's like I'm in college' and I didn't want to tell her that I'm not walking with her at college).  Both said they want to attend next year, which would be cool...

Raider Football...

The Central Raiders football team had a tough season this year...1-7...and started the section tournament tonight in Glencoe.  It was a great first half, 8-6 score at halftime in favor of Glencoe, before three fumbles and an interception in the 3rd quarter doomed the Raiders...

But the best part of the night...

Craig's always been coming out to Raider Football games to be with the kids.  This game was just closer to home...and of course, was missing a nephew (of this group)...here's another from a few years back...

Not in Glencoe...not missing a nephew...

There will be more football games next year...

St. Ben's Volleyball...

Lukie has been asking when we could go to a game...it was always a case of bad schedules...when they played in the cities, it was the wrong weekend...when it was the right weekend, they we're playing out of state...

Yesterday, St. Ben's played Gustavus in St. Peter and Lukie/Lex we're able to go...

His favorite person in the world plays for St. Ben's...he's watched online and has kept track of how the team is doing some this fall, but, watching is always better...

Yeah, he (so was Lex) was into it from the beginning...

During a timeout, you could just see how happy he was to be there (and he's been to a lot of other volleyball games this year)...

When she got into the game he was even happier...if you can see, she is the one who just received the serve below...

Lukie and Lex had a great couple of hours watching someone they think very highly of...

Yeah, he was pretty happy being there...

Crow Wing State Park

Last weekend wasn't just about waterslides and waterparks...even though it was most of the weekend...we also hit up a new state park for the kids, Crow Wing State Park.

It's a nice park along the Mississippi that documents a battle site between the Dakota and Ojibwe in 1768 or thereabouts and the village site of Crow Wing, which was a major route along wagon trails leading from St. Paul to the Red River Valley in the 1850s and 60s (the village failed shortly after the Union Pacific crossed the river at Brainerd, the city of Brainerd took off and Crow Wing died).

Up first for the afternoon was the battle site...Lukie's request...we were looking for remnants of Ojibwe rifle pits that they had dug to use as breastworks against the Dakota.  The Dakota had earlier attacked the Ojibwe village, with Ojibwe warriors absent, and taken the women captive.  The Dakota were expected to return using the river, so the pits were dug...

Lukie and Lex agreed for a picture...

But Lukie wanted a picture of just him...

We eventually got to the site of the rifle pits, but it was a hard picture to show scale with all the leaves down...but the Ojibwe won the battle, it was one of the many battles between the tribes that eventually pushed the Dakota out of the woodlands and onto the prairie of southwestern Minnesota...

Like Lukie does whenever we hike, he finds a stick or two to carry...

From there, it was time to start the hiking club trail...

It was a couple of miles hiking and we found the password and we took the usual picture, but this time it had to be taken separately...

The password was at a nice overlook on the Mississippi, it would have been very colorful a week or two earlier...

And that's when Lukie said he wanted a picture with me...Lex, the camera gal was up...

Of course, then Lex wanted a picture with me...

And since we were busy taking pictures...I wanted a picture of the two of them...

Whenever we hike, we're always looking for things that are interesting, like this tree...

Or this frog that we found (it was about 40 degrees and misting, the dude should be ready for winter) and helped off the trail...

After a couple of hours of cold and light rain, we were done...back to the hotel for warm water...it was a busy day...

Three Bears Waterpark - Baxter, MN

We had reservations to camp at Gooseberry Falls the weekend of October 12-14.  Lukie really wanted to camp there this fall and we made reservations back in August knowing that the weather could be warm, cold or anywhere in-between.  The Monday before, looking at the forecast (high 39, low 30 and slight rain), we punted and made a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express in Baxter that has the Three Bears Waterpark...

We left town around 4:30 and got to the hotel by 7:30...Lukie and Lex were in the room long enough to change into their swimsuits and they were gone...

The pool closes at 10:00 and the slides are shut down at 9:30...so they swam until the slides shut down...

Lex going down the slide...

Luke was not to be outdone...

They had fun that night and we're ready for bed...

The next morning we had breakfast and we were back in the pool by 9:15...

Lukie was not too happy to have this picture taken...but they get along really well together...

Later on Saturday we even played Laser Tag at the hotel...Luke was excited...

But watch out for Lex...she's trouble...

But in the evening, it was time to swim again...they have this massive bucket that fills with water every 10 minutes or so and then dumps...kids love it.  You might be able to find Lukie, he's in the back of the group wearing a suit that is dark blue on top, lighter blue in the middle and orange/red on the bottom.  As the water spills, he moves through the group to the front to get hit better...

We were all tired that night...Sunday morning was a repeat, breakfast early, then swimming for a couple of hours before we had to checkout...

Slides...

The lazy river...

And more slides...

They earned the nap they took on the way back...