"My Crazy Kids"

Goodbye, 2014 Marcus, Alivia and I at the location of one of the two geocaches we found on Christmas Eve. By Allan Olson It’s been another interesting year in our life, raising four kids on the frozen tundra of Minnesota. That’s what it was for most of 2014 – frozen! If I made any New Year’s resolutions last year, I quickly forgot them and just forged ahead into 2014. For our family of six, the past holiday week was spent largely close to home. Our plans for a family Christmas with my relatives was moved to this weekend, for several reasons. We weren’t planning on doing anything special on Christmas Eve, but I ended up making a trip into town for some supplies. I took Marcus and Alivia with me, and we hit the dreaded stores full of last-minute shoppers. Even though I was only in them for a short amount of time, the experience was still enough for me to not enjoy shopping all the more. On the way back home, however, we found time to stop for a couple geocac...

It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas By Allan Olson Well, it finally is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and if the weather forecasts hold true (up to six more inches of snow prior to publication of this paper) any thoughts of us not having a White Christmas will be eradicated. It was a truly chaotic weekend for us, with our Christmas celebrating starting on Saturday with a trip to International Falls. In most years we are, if not the first guests to arrive at my wife’s brother’s house for Christmas, at least really close. This year we ended up being the last, through no fault of our own. My niece had a basketball game out of town and, of course, it was a late starting game, so in order for her to attend Christmas with the family, she would need transport, and since her game was in our area, we were the logical choice. We attended her game all ready to cheer her on, but alas, since she wasn’t one of the starting five and the game was close the entire way, ...

A Trip to Remember By Allan Olson In terms of crazy weeks – this last week takes the cake, hands down. Over the course of the last few months, my two third graders and their classmates have been selling raffle tickets to raise money to go on a field trip to the Minnesota State Capitol, Governor’s Mansion, Minnesota History Center, Sea Life – Mall of America, and the Science Museum of MN. The kids reached their fundraising goal, and my wife and I were asked to go along on the trip as chaperones. I was hesitant at first; I could stay back at home with our other two kids and not have to spend two days on the road with a busload of kids and sleep on the floor, but in the end I chose the adventure. We arranged for my wife’s mom to come stay with Nikolai and Alivia, making sure they got to and from school, and ate something other than Ramen noodles or burritos. We headed to school on Tuesday morning with bags packed, sleeping bags, and two cameras charged and ready to go...

A Busy Week Fun times shopping at Bemidji Woolen Mills! After making our purchases, we all tried on some crazy hats before heading off for more shopping elsewhere. By Allan Olson Well, 2014 is drawing to a close, and as busy as this last week was, this current one will be even busier, and the coming weeks and remaining days of the year are just going to fly by! This last week started off with the Middle School Band/Choir Concert and Art Show. My parents attended to watch their grandson in his first band performance, and with school and work the next morning for the kids, wife and I, everyone got up bright and early, and they departed for home when we took off. This last week, the roles were reversed in the house a little. Normally, I’m the one with late night games, meetings, etc., and leave my wife home alone to deal with the hooligans we call our children. Nearly every night except the first two last week, my wife had a date with several “fancy dresses,” a...

A Thankful Weekend While many of us, including myself forget to give thanks on a regular basis, this weekend was yet another one to be thankful for in 2014. The fun began Thursday, with the aroma of food filling the air. I was ready for a nap before the Thanksgiving meal even began. As the appetizers were getting placed, I was filling my plate and enjoying just a few fine samplings before the meal. This year’s meal consisted of turkey, ham, scalloped potatoes and mashed potatoes, along with accompaniments like olives, pickles, cranberry dish, a salad dish and more. Our party of five kids and six adults enjoyed digging in, and when the main course was completed, it was time for the mid-course – a nap. At least a few of us adults enjoyed a brief quiet time or even snooze for at least an hour or so. I claimed a spot downstairs in my chair, and although the girls both sat with me for a while watching the television, only Abigail stayed rooted next to me the entire time. I’m not sure ...

Give Thanks By Allan Olson Its official – for my hunting crew the 2014 deer season is over – and it’s the one for the record books, not in terms of harvest but in terms of overall success. This year was the very likely the first year we had five deer hanging in the garage at my parents, with only five shots fired. This included one shot each by two first year hunters. Without them and their doe tags, we would’ve only had three deer hanging. The weekend for me was spent at my parents hunting. Unfortunately, the deer tally remained the same as it had for a week. I could’ve upped the number by one late Friday night, but it would’ve resulted in a trip to the body shop – whew.  I hunted all day Saturday and left for home early Sunday afternoon. After three weekends of hunting, I was done. The weekend was a little lonely without my hunting partner, Nikolai, that I’ve had the last two weeks. It was really quiet without him, but I’m afraid that with the amount of time ...

It's All Coming Back To Me..... It’s been a long time (22 years) since I was first allowed to go on the search for the mighty whitetail – to join the rest of the hunters, hear the same stories when I wasn’t too busy playing with cousins, and to go sit in the stand and freeze my hands. Last year, my niece joined the hunting party for the first time, becoming the first of her generation to go hunting and to break the gender barrier – we welcomed her and were disappointed at the close of the season when she didn’t even get to fire a round at a white tail. This year, Nikolai and his 12-year-old cousin, Trevor, joined us at the hunting camp. Sadly, Saren decided not to. The boys were eager to prove their hunting skills and ready to go hunting. Nikolai became the first hunter of his generation to harvest a deer the very first day of his very first season. Dad, of course, was very proud. So as I said, it’s all coming back to me – my first year of hunting. I was out with my dad, and...

A Hunting Season to Remember By Allan Olson The orange clad army headed into the woods this past weekend in search of the mighty white tail to attempt to fill the freezer with some tasty venison and I was no exception to this party. I too was clad in orange and out on the mighty hunt. Every year there are new stories to tell, old ones to bring up and memories made, some deer seasons for me, after over 20 years of hunting have faded into the background, one year blurring with another, not remembering which year I shot what deer or if I shot a deer. Of course there are a few years  stand out more than others and some are just a blur altogether. However, I find it hard to believe that anything will top this year’s remarkable deer season. This year, I had the honor of bringing Nikolai with me. Not just to sit in the stand, but to actually hunt, he was going to have the ability of harvesting a deer also. Recently he completed his gun safety certification and he wa...

Birthday Party Fun By Allan Olson Our family’s last birthday party of the year was held on Sunday afternoon – this one for Alivia – our soon-to-be seven-year-old. I think as parents, we have come to realize how fast time really does fly by. It doesn’t seem possible that my youngest child will be seven in just a week’s time. In preparation for the big event we were cleaning the house Friday evening – and Saturday – and Sunday, as well – just so we could have kids over to mess it all up again. Go figure. I was really hoping that I would be able to sleep in on Sunday, with the extra of hour sleep thanks to the changing of the clocks, but that was just a dream. I was already awake at 5 a.m., then again for good at 7 a.m. While that would technically be two hours of additional sleep from my normal routine, it would’ve been nice to make it until 9 a.m. This year, my wife came up with the idea of doing something different. Since we don’t go out trick or treating Frid...

Busy Times Marcus and I enjoyed a walk in the Hobson Forest on Sunday afternoon. We found the two geocaches we were in search of and the fresh air was - refreshing. By Allan Olson As we launch into fall this week with the cooler temperatures projected once again after we enjoyed a two week reprieve from the fall temperatures the schedule has yet to slow down for this family. We didn’t plan any long geocaching adventures this weekend – primarily because we already had our schedule busy without it. Friday night the kids and I attended another Legacy program in Cass Lake and enjoyed some tasty treats afterwards, the music was good, but the highlight of the evening was someone who is clearly a kid at heart trying to use my son’s rubber band to shoot a spitball at me. I saw him getting it ready but didn’t realize it was at me until afterwards when Nikolai informed me that he shot it at me but missed by a longshot. Afterwards we tried to make it to the Leech Lake Tribal...

A Fun Fall Weekend Alivia was excited that she managed to find a difficult hide in the woods. At least a couple of the kids found some swag items they wanted out of some of the caches. By Allan Olson This weather, while not ideal for the upcoming deer season, is certainly nice on the fall heating bill! Heck, if I had known it was going to be this nice, I would’ve waited a little longer to put on propane to keep the house warm this winter. I’d had plans made for last Saturday for several weeks; they just factored on a couple of things – no rain, and what family members were going to come along. On Friday night I asked the kids individually if they wanted go geocaching on Saturday with a group of people. Three of the four said yes, so that meant it was unanimous – with that many kids wanting to go, mom decided to go, too, and once again it was a family outing! I was awake before 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, and soon started waking everyone else up. We neede...

A Warm Fall Weekend All four of my crazy kids at our first geocache find of the day. The whole weekend was a blast hanging out with these guys, even if they do drive us crazy sometimes. By Allan Olson This past weekend was a warm and truly fun weekend for mid-October. We spent several hours outdoors on Saturday, followed by many more on Sunday. It was a most perfect weekend, weather-wise. Friday evening, while a bit chilly, was a fun time for us. For the first time ever in my nine years of covering Panther football, my entire family attended the game. My wife helped sell hot chocolate, coffee and some suckers for the third grade field trip, while I did what I usually do at a football game – took photos. We arrived back at home late, all a little cold and tired. I slept in on Saturday morning – I think I managed to not get out of bed before 8 a.m. That is amazing considering the fact that my four children typically argue over the Saturday morning program...

Weekend Travels  After helping dad drag the yard last week, Alivia enjoyed driving the lawn mower up and down the road for a few minutes. By Allan Olson On the road again… that’s our theme song! This time we weren’t picking up another rabbit or finding a bunch of remote geocaches; instead we were attending a nephew’s birthday party. In all last week was a pretty quiet week at our household, but as usual, the weekend was crazy. Friday night the kids were picked up by my folks so my wife and I could attend “another working dinner” as she calls them, this time for the annual Cystic Fibrosis dinner. After that event, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and took in a show. We attended a movie with very few others in attendance, but ironically one individual I know from Cass Lake was also there. After the movie we contemplated going for dessert, but it was getting late and it had been a long day already, and we had to head north in the morning....