A weekend for mom!

A weekend for mom!

Alivia wouldn’t get any closer to this friendly(?) snapping turtle that we discovered on Saturday.

By Allan Olson
As everyone knows, last weekend was one of the most important holidays of the year in Minnesota – the opening of the walleye fishing season! Oh, yeah, it was also Mother’s Day on Sunday. Knowing that, I didn’t plan any major geocaching outings because I figured I might get in trouble.
So I started the weekend off on Saturday morning by sleeping in. I made it until nearly 8 a.m. – it helped that I didn’t go to bed until nearly midnight Friday. A large portion of the day was spent cleaning; with my schedule last week and my wife’s the week before, the house was in need of some TLC, so that’s what we gave it. The work list included dishes, laundry, sweeping, mopping, reorganizing and more.
That evening we fired up the grill and I cooked the family a meal of brats, burgers and hot dogs – and then mom went back to work mopping and cleaning. I think she wanted to get it all done Saturday so she wouldn’t have to do it on Mother’s Day (and probably so we wouldn’t put it off another day).
We took a break during the afternoon, but I couldn’t stay still. I wanted to do something, and since geocaching didn’t seem to be an option, I did the next best thing and went to scout some potential locations. Alivia was the only kid willing to join me on this endeavor, and I was okay with that, since one child is usually much easier to deal with than four. I wasn’t planning to hide anything when we headed out, but when we turned off the highway just a few miles from the house and went down a forest road for the first time, we came across a large snapping turtle – so we just had to hide a cache in its honor.
Alivia and I examined the turtle – at least as closely as we could – and I took several photos of the magnificent creature. I tried to get her to stand next to it, but whenever I approached, it turned its body so its gaping jaw was toward me – I think that was the icing on the cake. I got her to stand next to, but well out of reach of it – there was no way she was getting any closer (see photo above). After we were done with that, we found a place to stash a geocache and headed back to see if our little friend was still there, but the turtle was gone. We named the cache in that location “Alivia’s Turtle Crossing.”
We continued on our journey, looking for another place to hide a geocache. We headed down a road that already had one cache and found many possibilities for hiding more, but I decided that I might want to try some future geoart in that location, so we didn’t hide any at this time. Instead, we hit another forest road that I’ve been meaning to travel for some time – Tower Lake Walking Trail. We cruised around, Alivia took a nap, and I took some photos and looked for more cache locations. While Alivia was asleep, I drove by a grove of pines that I thought would be perfect for a new cache. I drove a ways further before waking my sleeping passenger for another scenic photo.
On the way back home, we stopped and hid another geocache in the cluster of pine trees. I had four different geocache containers with; Alivia wanted to hide them all, but was happy to hide two. In all, we were gone for about two hours, even though we only drove about 30 miles.
I made omelets for my wife and four kids on Sunday morning. Then, with sandwiches packed, we headed off on an afternoon drive to Cass Lake, then over to Bemidji and eventually back home. I had hoped to stop to find a quick cache or two, but mom decided that she didn’t want to, so we didn’t – it was, after all, Mother’s Day. I can tell you right now that on Father’s Day, we will be geocaching. And by the way, we did hide another geocache in town on Sunday!
This weekend my wife will be leaving me on a trip to the cities to attend a baby shower. While the thought of geocaching to and from the cities is appealing – feeding and lodging the entire family while doing it is not so appealing. Since my wife is going on that trip with my sister-in-law, that means our house will be busy, since my brother will be bringing her here and then staying for the weekend with their three kids. That should be fun. I wonder if we’ll find any time for geocaching?
Please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreation, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Also, please watch out for the buses that are transporting our children, and remember to drive safely. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Hunting Season to Remember

Image
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...
Read more
Image
Thank you for being our friend Frey Olson May 19, 2018 - April 26, 2024 By Allan Olson 4.26.24 Thank you for being our friend, thank you for making us your forever home, if we could’ve saved you, we would’ve. Losing our four legged friends is never easy, in our house they aren’t “just a pet” they are our family. Frey, our nearly six year old English Mastiff came into our lives in August of 2018 and crossed over the rainbow bridge to be with others before him on April 26, 2024. Frey was our gentle giant, he was our protector, our laughter and most importantly I think it’s more than safe to say, he was Alivia’s best friend. Have you ever seen a teenager and a Mastiff sharing a twin size bed - or perhaps more aptly put the teenager getting what’s left of the bed when he’s in it. Or perhaps a giant of a dog, staring at her from the doorway of the bedroom saying, “it’s bedtime,” while she’s playing a game or watching something.  He was taught to react to “who’s here” or the alert of the...
Read more

Thankful for Family

Thankful For Family By Allan Olson published 11-24-10 Cass Lake Times Eat until I can’t eat anymore is the plan for me this Thursday. This is likely the case for many others as well. The food that will be prepared is just one of many things to be thankful for this week. I can honestly say I’m thankful for a lot of things in my life. I’m especially thankful for my beautiful little family. Do I always feel overwhelmed with joy while dealing with the everyday tasks of working and raising four children? I would be lying if I said yes. My children are great kids. They are great at making me smile with their questions and antics. However, they are also great at driving me up a wall. Asking them to help clean a room sometimes and it’s like you put them in a torture chamber by daring to ask for a little help cleaning up the mess they made. Other times they are willing, eager partners ready to help with whatever task you need them to. Of course, there are also those times when ...
Read more