"My Crazy Kids"

A Fishing Weekend – Part II By Allan Olson On Sunday afternoon, just over two weeks ago, we were back on the ice again. This time it was my wife and all our kids except Marcus (we couldn’t convince him to go, and couldn’t convince the girls to stay). Also along with us was my youngest brother again. The previous day (as noted in last week’s column), the group consisted of my oldest brother, two of his kids, me and two of mine (Nikolai and Abigail). We had some challenges that day moving the fish house to a new location. First the house came off the hitch, and then later, when we were setting it up, the handle got the best of my brother and the cable came free from the winch. Still, we managed to get some fishing done and have a great time doing it. Earlier in the week, my wife had left me with the kids and went out on the lake to spend time with her mom and sister. They managed to land over 30 fish! I was hoping she would bring that same luck this time, but it wasn’t me...

A Fishing Weekend – Part I By Allan Olson It happened again. We finally got to go on another hardwater fishing adventure up on Lake of the Woods, and yes, we took the kids again – at least those who wanted to go. And when I say it happened again, I mean it really did. Once again Abigail got her foot wet, and once again I had to go diving for a fish that shook and broke the line. These plans were made a few weeks ago: my wife would leave with one of the four kids, and head up north to go fishing early. I had to stay back because school and work interfered with my departure. However, my plans were made known on Saturday – I was going fishing. Abigail also made her plans known. “I want to go fishing!” she said emphatically on Friday evening on the way to her destination. Marcus quickly chimed in with his opinion as well. “I don’t want to go fishing.” Nikolai was uncertain – it depended on if his cousin was going. On Saturday morning, I couldn’t talk Abigail out of going (trust ...

A New Year’s Party By Allan Olson We had a marathon of a party over the New Year’s weekend this year – at least it seemed like it at the time. This year’s party was all about playing games and having a good time, like every party should be. The favorite this year was Euchre, a game played at nearly every family function on my wife’s side. Throughout the weekend, all of the adults and one kid took turns playing the game. One person would vacate their seat, sometimes in the middle of the game, and another person would quickly fill in. A winner or winning team would be near impossible to determine, due to the many partner changes throughout the course of the next two days. Of course, we also spent those days indulging ourselves in all manner of food. It seemed like from Saturday through all day Sunday, we were always eating something. This year I can honestly say that I made it to midnight without even taking a nap first, compared to other years where I’ve hit the sack sometime...

Memories of 2011 By Allan Olson In comparison to 2010, this year was loads better. One of the main reasons it was better was that we moved. On New Year’s Day last year, we ventured out for a road trip on snow-covered roads. While the distance wasn’t great, it took considerable time, with the amount of snow on the roads. We found the house we hoped we were looking for in terms of size, price and location – very rural. Fast forward just over a month, and thanks to the hard work of a couple businesses and individuals, we had signed the papers. We moved into a new dwelling that was more than twice the size of the three-bedroom trailer we had resided in for nearly five years. While this house isn’t (still) without some kinks, we are slowly working some of them out and making plans to make it look even better. Another change for us was going from having one kid in school to three. Time flies; our twins, Abigail and Marcus were officially school age. With that adjustment, my wife and I...