"My Crazy Kids"

Reunion Weekend My crazy kids enjoying the fireworks during Summer Fest on Friday night from Stony Point Resort. What a great show! By Allan Olson It was another busy weekend for this crazy family. I covered Summer Fest activities in Cass Lake on Thursday and Friday, including the spectacular fireworks show on Friday night. I crawled into bed late after that and was up early again Saturday and right back on the road. For the first time in many years, I had to miss the Saturday parade and Miss Cass Lake events during the Summer Fest activities. Thankfully, I have a friend who covered those two events for me, so I was able to head north and attend a family reunion. Early Saturday morning we were northbound to the city of Roseau – actually the country area near Roseau. Enroute, we made a stop in Warroad to do a little grave hunting. My wife, the genealogist, found that a great-grandmother a couple generations back is buried there, so we detoured in that ...

Hot Summer Weekend Nikolai and Marcus watched and helped Diane Pittman of Shifting Gears work on their dad’s bike on Saturday in Bemidji. The bike is now fixed and ready to ride – all dad needs is a comfy seat and some ambition to climb on that contraption! By Allan Olson This past weekend was a little warm, but I won’t complain much because the polar opposite (pun intended) will be back before we know it. My family’s schedule was largely uneventful; it involved sticking mostly close to home. We didn’t even go geocache hunting (shocking!). On Friday evening, my wife and Abigail went to pick up a new rabbit for her, after we got one for specifically for Marcus the night prior. I’m still not sure how I feel about these extra pets, but as long as the kids take care of them and clean up after them, I will try not to complain too much. Nikolai and Alivia will be getting their own rabbits, too, in the coming months. While they were off on that errand, I took care o...

Gravitron  Nikolai and Abigail were the only two kids who braved the Orbiter ride at the Lake of the Woods County Fair. They decided afterwards that it was fun, but a little too fast for them. As a parent watching, my stomach sank a few times just watching them spin around, so I was glad they didn’t want to do it again! By Allan Olson It was another very busy but fun weekend for us, with a whirlwind road trip north and west and back home again, putting on around 300 miles in approximately 36 hours. Our adventure for the weekend started Friday with my (radio) alarm not going off – well, it went off, but I must’ve bumped the station dial, and so it was all static – which resulted in an additional 15 minutes of sleep. Once I realized we had overslept, I was instantly awake and making sure the rest of the family got the news. My goal of leaving the house by 6 a.m. was overshot by nearly 30 minutes, but to be realistic, I had set that 6 a.m. goal with the antic...

Lost in the Forty These cousins had a fun weekend of playing and geocaching, which included a visit to the “Lost 40.” Fun times were had by all, and these kids never seemed to tire out (unlike the bigger kids)! By Allan Olson We spent this past weekend just like every weekend should be spent – having fun! We took the kids to town on Friday morning, cramming their bikes into the van just so they could participate in the bike parade at Norway Beach. We got their early and they went to work decorating their bikes. I think Abigail was decorating hers the entire hour; the others did their decorating and then rode their bikes around until we made them stop to wait for the parade. After the parade, we headed home to wait for company and do some more cleaning – not exactly fun, but something that needed to be done. That afternoon I headed out to do a little more mowing, but then it rained. I didn’t think a little rain was going to stop me from what little mowing I needed t...

It’s all fun and games ... Alivia didn’t look so happy at the doctors office in her wrapped up arm on Thursday evening. However, her plain brown wrap has since been decorated by friends’ signatures, and her spunk has kept her active. By Allan Olson Our weekend’s excitement started on Thursday – which is technically not the weekend. I went to pick up Alivia from Vacation Bible School and I found her snuggling with someone, crying. She had fallen off the swing set. At first I didn’t think it was a big deal, but I checked her out and she wouldn’t quit crying. I had my suspicions that she may need a visit to the emergency room, so I carried her to the van to snuggle with Bob, and then I went to round up the other three.  Once we got home, I sent her straight to her mother, who made the decision that I had suspected all along – a visit to the doctor was in order. So off they went, while I stayed home with the others. A couple of hours later, they returned wit...