"My Crazy Kids"

Celebrating with Friends By Allan Olson Another weekend has flown by – as they usually do when you are having fun! We spent Friday night working to tidy up the house because we were hosting a party on Saturday to celebrate our 1,000th geocache find. While we were hoping we would be doing it mostly outside, we figured we shouldn’t gamble on Mother Nature. The kids worked, but pretty slowly, and as a result they didn’t get screen time on Friday night. Instead they got bed time without screen time. My wife and I stayed up late to do some baking and more cleaning. I wasn’t going to move too early on Saturday morning, so I think we finally started working on the house some more around 8 a.m. All the kids were up and enjoying the screen, and as long as they were working on their project, too, I was going to let them have it. I soon was reminded of the fact that they don’t multi-task very well, instead getting wrapped into the screen, so I made them shut it off and split t...

A weekend of fun and work My dad and Alivia excitedly peeked out of the deer stand after we finally got it in its place and stabilized. Alivia was also excited to “help drive” the tractor back to where Grandpa had it parked in the woods. By Allan Olson Another weekend has flown by, and all I have to show for it is some deer stand repairs and a clean garage. I guess it was productive, if nothing else. After getting home late from the football game on Friday night, I started getting things ready for a one day road trip up to Lake of the Woods to work on deer stands in preparation for our annual hunt in just a couple short months. I woke up at my normal time – 6 a.m. sharp – and promptly woke up Nikolai, Marcus and Alivia to head north. Abigail decided after the football game on Friday night that she didn’t want to go, and so stayed home with mom. I informed the kids that if they were going with me, they would be spending the day outside and not in front o...

September Sunday Fun! Here’s a super Panther fan! While Abigail didn’t pay close attention to the game, she sure had fun! By Allan Olson If the weather for rest of this month could be as nice as it was this past weekend, we would really be in great shape when October rolls around – it was nearly perfect. We spent Friday night watching the Cass Lake-Bena Panthers in their first home football game. The outcome wasn’t favorable for the home team but it was a fun night for fans to visit and watch the game. Abigail and Nikolai both had fun, and now (as long as the weather stays decent) I don’t think Abigail will let me go to a game without taking her. Our Saturday was quite unadventurous; while I should’ve been out mowing one last time for the season, I didn’t. Instead, I brought Marcus to a birthday party and visited friends in town. It was a quiet evening, too, as the kids enjoyed their weekend screen time. I made breakfast on Sunday morning, and then right before it was ready, I infor...

So long, Summer! For the life of us, Abigail and I couldn’t find this thing in downtown Grand Rapids, but after Alivia was on the case she found it in less than 30 seconds – what a fun time! By Allan Olson With the kids returning to school across the area this week – it truly does mean that summer is over. No more leisure evenings for the kids. No more extended weekends at the drop of a hat. And, of course, the twining of the summer sun. For us, Labor Day weekend wasn’t one last hurrah of camping and swimming and biking. In fact, we did none of those. I went to work on Friday – boring! While it seemed that most of the town was off and about, I was at my office. On Saturday morning I went to a photo session with the Gieseke family of Cass Lake (Thanks, everyone!) and then we took off for a weekend of geocaching. Our first stop was the Ball Club Lake boat access. This was the third time I’ve attempted this cache, and the third time I’ve failed to find ...