"My Crazy Kids"

Enjoying the Outdoors The boys and I took a break after we found our third cache on Star Island. This is only the second time I’ve been on the island, and the first time I’ve been wading in Lake Windigo. By Allan Olson I may not be winter’s biggest fan, but I wouldn’t say I don’t enjoy it, either – at least as long as the weather isn’t below zero for days on end and it isn’t snowing a foot per week. Last Saturday was a picture-perfect winter day in northern Minnesota. For several weeks I have been planning to attend a geocaching event in Bemidji, and a few days prior to the event, I was contacted by a friend to see if I wanted to tag along to find the caches hidden on Cass Lake. I was game, as long as the weather cooperated. The only thing to decide was how many kids I should bring, if any. As the date approached, I finally asked Nikolai if he wanted to go. I really wasn’t going to give him much choice, but he readily complied – he was ready for a new adventure. Th...

Another Winter Weekend By Allan Olson Winter is taking a reprieve for the moment. The air has warmed up nearly 40 degrees, with the daytime temperatures around 20 above. It’s been nice enough that the kids are no longer complaining about not going outside because of the cold; now they just get their stuff on and head out. Saturday was a busy day; we got up early and headed to Bagley to make a delivery to a friend. While there, we visited their ponies, but soon found that while the temperature was warmer, the brisk winds had some bite and so we made that visit a short one.  As long as we were already out and about, I decided (surprise!) it would be an ideal time to find a geocache. I looked for one that appeared easy and winter friendly, and asked my wife to navigate us to the location. Upon arrival, we walked a couple hundred feet, and after a strong nudge in the right direction, Alivia spotted the cache hanging in a tree. We jotted our signature in the log book and set ...

We interrupt your life to bring you – the flu! Abigail and Marcus were able to explore the loot of geocache treasure after we solved the stages of the puzzle at the Blackduck Library on Saturday.   By Allan Olson Oh joy! Seriously, this winter seems to be dragging its ugly frozen feet across the tundra we call Northern Minnesota. While the weather has been a little unpleasant lately, visits to our family by the flu bug has made things even more unpleasant – although, in truth, I have little to complain about personally. As mentioned last week, we ended 2014 with one sick kid, Abigail, who had a nasty five-day bout with the flu before finally feeling well enough to eat anything, and didn’t really regain her appetite for about a week. Marcus wasn’t hit nearly as hard; he pretty much maintained his appetite the entire time and his symptoms weren’t as bad. But we weren’t done. Last week we got a call from the Nurse’s Office at school saying, “Come get ...

A New Year’s Christmas to remember By Allan Olson By all accounts, our new year started out with a bang. I’m guessing there are at least a few of you out there who can relate. On Tuesday morning (12/29), Abigail reported that she had a headache all night, and that was followed by a fever, followed by a trip to ER, followed by being sick the rest of 2014 and the first couple days of 2015. Not a fun start for this little girl, or her parents. Of course we knew that with one sick in the house, sooner or later it would claim more victims. My wife and I were looking at the kids on New Year’s Eve, and we knew that Marcus was going to be next – just not when. On New Year’s Day, Abigail was feeling better and was finally eating some food, but by that evening Marcus decided it was his turn. And although he was sick, he didn’t want to act sick, except for a couple hours at a time. He did the whole removing food from his body act, and my wife didn’t get much sleep again that...