"My Crazy Kids"

Abigail and her banana muffins.   A Weekend at home By Allan Olson Every weekend it can be a challenge to find something to do – especially if you live 20 miles from everywhere like we do. So unless we plan something specifically we often don’t do much. I’m often torn between staying home and doing nothing after running all week or going out and doing something because I get bored at home. I’ve never proclaimed to be a handy man – quite the opposite in fact. If you want something taken apart to salvage I can be of some assistance to a certain point. If it gets to be a struggle and it won’t come apart well, it likely won’t be salvage worthy either. If I do take something apart my non-mechanical brain won’t give much help in putting it back together or building something with my clumsy hands. On Saturday – I was heading to the LL Diabetes Family Fun Day – for work and then later in the afternoon the kids and I were asked to a demonstration on Geocaching. It was ...

My Crazy girls. The time spent with them all day Saturday geocaching was nothing less than enjoyable. Enjoying the Outdoors – with my girls By Allan Olson By March standards it was a spectacularly warm weekend, for that matter even for June standards it was a pretty decent weekend. The temperatures here in the northern sticks of Minnesota touched in the low 60’s on Saturday and even dipped into 70 on Sunday – thankfully those temperatures were above the donut. My plans for the weekend at least Saturday was to go geocaching, the weather was right and there was also an event on Saturday in Walker to attend – a pi event for 3.14. The number has no bearing on geocaching but just gave us another excuse to have fun as a group and perhaps do some geocaching afterwards. Earlier in the week I decided that while I was willing to go caching without the family, it would be more fun with company. I asked the kids who wanted to go with on Saturday, I emphasized that we wou...

Weekend Adventure By Allan Olson It’s beginning to feel like spring – by the time this article reaches most readers we should have had at least five straight days of temperatures nearing 40 degrees – simply marvelous. So my weekend was spent outdoors – Saturday on the ice and Sunday in the woods.   It was a great time for outdoor activity, Saturday was a little chilly standing on Big Winnie watching people trying to catch fish and hoping to win some good prizes but as the day waned on it turned out pretty nice after the wind began to subside. Normally the whole family attends but after our crazy week it was only the boys – along with two cousins and my brother. They fished at least for a brief time while I wondered the ice trying to get photos of people with their fish – while I never succeeded with that I captured lots of smiling faces, playing with their friends, fishing, eating and just doing what was intended of the event getting people to enjoy the great outdoors. Th...

My family - The 13 of us grandchildren of my grandparents - all took the opportunity to have a group photo of us for the first time in 20 years after attending the funeral of my uncle. A Family Gathering By Allan Olson So what is a family? One definition of a family according to the dictionary is: any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins. My immediate family consists of my wife and kids, parents and siblings – however my extended family reaches out a lot further than that. Since I’m married – my wife’s family is also part of my family and then my parent’s siblings children are also part of my family. Recently a member of my extended family – my mother’s brother passed away. While his health hadn’t been the greatest in years it was still a surprise to get a message from my mother that her baby brother had died. Those that he left behind included his three kids – my cousins who when we were younger all played ...