"My Crazy Kids"

- Abigail danced a little with her great-grandfather, who at nearly 98, still wanted to get out and enjoy the fun on the dance floor. By Allan Olson I’ll be flat out honest – spending a weekend around wedding-related activities is not my idea of a fun time. But now that it’s done, it wasn’t terrible; I survived and still found time for some fun things. We hit the road at about 7 p.m. on Friday and headed for the north country, with a destination of International Falls. Our reason for going was, of course, the wedding. We checked into our hotel late that night, after dropping Nikolai off at my brother’s, and then I took the other three kids swimming. We enjoyed a very ample breakfast at the hotel on Saturday morning and then I headed out geocaching by myself. It was wet and a little chilly, but I was determined to find some geocaches that have been on my radar for a long time. I set out in search of the first one and since I knew it was in need of replacement...

While driving my dad’s Ranger, Abigail said, “I got the gas part down, but I don’t know to do the whole steering thing.” It was definitely a moment to remember as I pretended to be terrified, much to her amusement. By Allan Olson I think by now I’ve clearly outlined my carpentry skills for you in many other previous columns, but for those of you not familiar with my disclaimer, I’m not very skilled in that department (and that might be an understatement). And I’m the only one in my family so seriously lacking these skills, which is likely my own fault; I can think of more than one occasion where I intentionally skipped out on related projects growing up. Of course, some of it might be genetics, too, because it seems that some people just don’t get these skills, and I’m that person. The reason for this disclaimer is that we made another trek north this last weekend because my wife wanted to spend some time with her grandfather and hopefully treat him to a dinner...

Photo: The requisite annual back-to-school photo finds us with one freshman in high school, two students in sixth grade and one in fourth. The time is going by so fast; in a few short years these kids will (hopefully) be off being responsible adults, going to college and/or working somewhere. It’s hard to fathom how fast time flies by. By Allan Olson This past weekend, we stayed home. Lame. After several weeks of doing nothing but running, and looking forward for the next month appears to be more of the same, we opted to stay home. At least on Saturday. To kick off the weekend following the big win by the hometown CL-B Panthers football team, I finally got out of town around 10:00 on Friday night. I decided to make my way home away from civilization and check out a couple places I know of for any possible Aurora Borealis activity. Seeing none, I decided that sleep sounded like a good idea.  However, by the time I got home, had a late snack and sett...

Cousins Kaylene, Alivia and Abigail helped out with the deer stand repairs. By Allan Olson According to the calendar, summer is not over for a few more weeks. However, for those with children in school, Labor Day weekend marks the end of the season for most (for some it’s even earlier). For us, this was our final big weekend of fun – and we extended it a day longer than planned. We headed north on Saturday morning, intending to return home by dark on Sunday, so we all packed light. Of course, we ended up staying an extra day.  We left home around 9 a.m. on Saturday,  a couple hours later than originally planned after my wife and I took in a late movie with some friends on Friday evening. It was a fun outing and even though we didn’t get home and in bed until nearly midnight, it was worth it. Our plan for the weekend was to spend it outside, working on deer stands. My oldest brother suggested that because of the unusually dry conditions in our hunti...