"My Crazy Kids"

The wind-up... and the pitch. It’s all about learning the basics at Farris Park during summer baseball. This is what America’s favorite pastime is all about, learning the fundamentals of the game while having fun. Marcus and Alivia were part of a group of kids that joined in the evening’s activity on Sunday, June 26. A Warm Weekend By Allan Olson Now this isn’t a complaint about the warm weather, because I’m not in a hurry for winter, but wow, it sure was hot on Friday and Saturday. The kids returned home on Thursday evening five full days of fun at their grandparents and attending vacation bible school at their church. When I informed my mom, that we would get them Thursday evening, she told me the kids had their hiding spots all picked out and they weren’t ready to go home. Of course, I had to burst their bubble and simply said, “I grew up there, I know all the hiding spots.” On Friday afternoon, I brought them swimming at Norway Beach after they helped picked...

On the Road Again By Allan Olson Finally, the camping weekend was here on Thursday morning we took off for south west Minnesota, looking to explore a part of the area we had never visited before. The plans were to spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the campground and head home early Sunday morning, however weather once again played a role in our camping adventures. The weather forecast when I checked it on Thursday morning for our camping location looked great, maybe a little hot, no rain and certainly no cold weather forcing us to head home early once again like last year. Of course as fickle as Mother Nature is, things changed. We left home about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, our four kids and one nephew with all the camping supplies crammed into the vehicle; there wasn’t any extra available space. My plans for this weekend included not working, lots of geocaching and some relaxing with the family. The geocaching plans weren’t about getting numbers but rathe...

Summer Fun By Allan Olson Finally, it happened, I finally got my boat licensed and in the water on its maiden voyage or at least it’s first voyage on over 10 years when it was last licensed. My wife, for some reason didn’t want to go out with me on the boat until I had a lesson in handling, due to my inexperience of boat handling. It just so happened my older brother was going to be staying at my house Friday evening, so I arranged it with him and we agreed to head out after he got there. The Maiden Voyage - Alivia, Tony and Nikolai Originally I wasn’t going to take any kids with me when I tried for the first time, but ultimately I ended up taking Nikolai and Alivia – Marcus opted to stay home instead. We headed over to a nearby small lake, I got it in the water with a little instruction, I had the boat ready, the motor started like a charm and I checked to make sure we weren’t taking on water at the dock and we took off – well as fast as we can go with a   15 hp motor....

Marcus, Abigail, Alivia and Nikolai are pictured on the last day of school, and their fifth year of attending Cass Lake- Bena schools. A Weekend of Celebration By Allan Olson It’s officially official, the 2015-16 school year is over and summer is here for my students – yeah! In case you can’t tell, there is sarcasm in that previous sentence. Summer for some, means joyful bonding time with their darling children, summer for those with a teenager and three younger children means, higher food bills, keeping them entertained without the constant stream of electronics, more minor quibbling and sometimes some knock down hitting (yes, teachers these are the same kids you describe as perfect), and of course mass chaos at various intervals throughout the day. Of course summer also means, camping, some fishing and more fun memories of my crazy kids. This last week with the closing of the school year means I will now have three students in middle school, wow, I’m honestly not su...

Abigail’s been in a cast for two weeks, and we aren’t sure it will hold up another week as she has already walked a hole in the heel. She was content to sit and watch the game on Sunday and take a few photos, but on Monday she was not happy that she couldn’t play with the rest of the kids. A Busy Holiday Weekend By Allan Olson The final weekend of the month of May sure flew by in a hurry but even though it departed fast we were still able to get some work done and have some fun. The weekend started on Friday which was the only night all week that I left work behind at a much earlier time than the preceding four days. That evening, the kids and I went home, we had some supper and then Nikolai and I departed for  a geocaching event in Bemidji. The event was focused on learning how to create a specific type of geocache and even though the attendance was very low the information was good, now I just have to learn how to put it all together.   On Saturday, i...