Family Time

Photo 1: Abigail with the joy of discovering a particular difficult geocache we had missed on a prior visit near Cohasset.

Photo 2: Alivia and I on the bus on the way back from her third grade field trip. 

By Allan Olson

Life is a whirlwind – enjoy it while you can.

That adage is something I’ve heard many times, and I try to live up to it as much as I can. Another one I’ve always heard is, “Your kids will grow up fast; enjoy them while you can.” To that, I say, “They aren’t kidding!”

At the end of this school year, my oldest son will exit middle school. My response: “How is that possible?” It is, and in a few short years, I hope he will be college bound. To clarify, I’m not hoping for the years to fly by, but rather that he attends college and does well academically.

This week, I spent time with family. The first four days of the week, and especially the first three week days, I crammed and jammed everything possible into work that I could think of, because I knew what the rest of that week and the following week would bring.

Thursday finally arrived. That was the day Alivia had been working and waiting for all year; the day that all the candy bars and donations she had asked for paid off. It was time for her class field trip, and dad was going along. My wife and I were part of their initial trip in 2014, when the third graders raised money for an overnight excursion to the Twin Cities and a chance to sleep under the sharks. This year, we were sleeping with the dinosaurs and avoiding the sharks all together.

We arrived at the school about 7:30 a.m., about 90 minutes ahead of our actual departure. Before long I was paired up with the four other kids I would be chaperoning. Just prior to leaving, I looked at each one of them (including Alivia) and said, “Follow the rules and listen to me, and we will have a great time. If you don’t, we will not have a great time.” 

I can now report that the kids I had were excellent. I did not have even a slightest bit of a problem, not even once, on the entire trip with any of them.

As the bus departed from the school, I was feeling a little anxious about leaving because I knew I was going to miss Nikolai’s first home game – along with the varsity baseball game that day, but family takes priority. I made this promise to Alivia a long time ago, and I was not about to break it. Our first stop on the trip was at the Minnesota History Museum. I can only say that we never had enough time there. If they wanted to, a person could easily spend six or more hours and probably not see everything in a way in which they could absorb it all. The kids had fun – especially by using technology to integrate their learning. For me, I was just trying my best to usher them from room to room, allowing them a sample a bit of what each room had to offer.

Our next stop was at the State Capitol. The plan was for a quick tour, a photo opportunity with Rep. Matt Bliss, and then head off to the Science Center. We didn’t plan on a “Legalize Pot” demonstration in front of the Capitol; however, we got by that with no delay to our plan and all was good.

Next we arrived at the Science Center. I had to shut the email off on my phone to save the battery – I disconnected it completely, if you will. We secured our baggage and got a brief introduction, then had a pizza supper with over 500 others there for the camp-in, and then set off to explore science for the next three hours. 

I have to say, this place is pretty fabulous. Personally, I’m more into history than science, but it’s really amazing of how science impacts our everyday life. I was also a little more liberal with the kids at this point, allowing them to spread their wings. My only rule (aside from following the rules of the building) was to not leave the floor we were on (they were pretty big floors). I only felt one moment of panic when I couldn’t find one of my kids. As it turned out, he was in the same location, just at a different spot than where I had last seen him.

At the end of the night we all spread out across one level, with the boys on one side and the girls on another, and we all slept on the nice hard floor. I had planned to be up by 5:30 a.m. to get ready for the day, thinking I would be up before the rest of the crowd, but another individual’s alarm stirred me out of my fitful slumber at 5 a.m. 

The morning was a blur. It included a Science demonstration, breakfast, and an IMAX movie. We loaded the buses one more time, just after 9 a.m., and posed for a group pic. Once we got back on the road I turned my my email back on and was relieved to find that I didn’t have any urgent messages; all was well.

Back in town, Alivia talked with her teacher who wasn’t on the trip with us, and then we lugged our stuff to the office. I checked my emails there and returned a few messages while we waited for our ride for home. First we had to stop at the Earth Day event sponsored by the LL DRM.

At home, I unpacked the bags and settled in for a three hour nap.

My wife came home from work at about 8:30 p.m., and about an hour later we were heading into town for a short date night. After our dinner date, followed by a grocery shopping date, we headed home again. I noticed that the Northern Lights were so active that I could see them from the house. I debated whether or not to go out, but I knew the next several nights would be cloudy, so off I went, accompanied by Abigail. It was just after midnight when we arrived at North Twin Lake and were greeted by pillars flashing across the sky. I got some great shots (and some not so great ones) and we were home by 1:30 a.m.

I stayed in bed until 10 a.m. on Saturday, made breakfast and followed that up with another nap. Abigail and I made a run to Bemidji for a few items, and followed that up with one geocache north of Bemidji before having a really late supper.

On Sunday, the family went on a geocaching outing in the area south and east of Deer River – including our first visit to Schoolcraft State Park.

This week will be extremely busy at work, and the weekend looks to be hectic as well.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.