"My Crazy Kids"

Marcus finally got to visit the Columbus Zoo, a place he has long wanted to see.  By Allan Olson My best memories are those made with my family. On a mostly spur of the moment decision, we made some more such memories this past week on a big road trip – the destination was known to a select few; the kids had no clue. This road trip ticked off a few bucket list items for the kids, and for me, by attending North America’s largest Geocaching event ever (to date) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Somewhere over 5,000 people attended at the Coney Island amusement park. To be clear, it wasn’t just people from a few states attending; this event drew geocachers from virtually every state in the nation, along with over 30 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and more. The trip also allowed my wife to do some ancestry research, and Marcus accomplished his biggest bucket list item to date with a visit to the Columbus Zoo. We took off on Thursday evening after work...

Sitting along Highway 64 north of Motley, it’s known by many unofficial names: the Ever-Changing Rock, the Painted Rock, or simply the Motley Rock. There’s a geocache hidden near it, and we took the opportunity to find it on Saturday on our way back from St. Cloud. By Allan Olson This past weekend was a blur, just like almost every other weekend. I spent Saturday morning at the LLTC graduation and from there, I buzzed back home and then a few of us took a quick road trip to St. Cloud. On the way back, we did manage to work in some geocaching. The trip started out with plans for it to be just my wife, myself, Marcus and a friend. Alivia was getting dropped off at a friend’s house, but those plans fell through so she ended up tagging along as well. After we took care of our business in town, we made a quick stop at a big electronics store, but came away with only headphones for the children. Then we made a quick jaunt across the street to get a special coffee for ...

By Allan Olson I’ve hit more rummage sales so far this season than in the last two years combined, although the amount of stuff I’ve purchased is very small. On Saturday morning, with the kids assigned their duties, my wife and I headed off to check out to a few rummage sales. In truth, I was the one who wanted to do the browsing; she was nice enough to come along and keep me company.  We had barely gone five miles when the phone rang. Of course, the kids were calling. I thought, could they possibly be fighting already? Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. The power had gone out in the kitchen, in particular to the microwave and fridge. I told them to check a couple of things; meanwhile I turned around and headed back home to help. Nikolai took the wheel with his newly minted drivers permit.  Once back at home, I headed to the fuse panel and soon found the breaker that had tripped. I told the kids the number and what to do should it occur again, and w...

Abigail with my camera on some ice from Cass Lake.  By Allan Olson This past weekend we enjoyed all of the activities in the title of this column, and it made for a busy couple days. Very late on Friday my wife and I went to dinner with her co-worker, and then the two of us headed to a movie to celebrate the end of prom season. No more 1:00 a.m. nights for her, and more time available to spend at home with the family, which also translates into more co-parenting instead of dad doing it all. I managed to stay in bed until about 9 a.m. on Saturday. After not getting to bed until about 1 a.m., I figured it wasn’t really sleeping in, rather just getting my requisite sleep. Once up I assisted Marcus in making pancakes, and at about 11:30 we all headed out the door for a full day of just driving around. Last Wednesday Nikolai officially got his driving permit, so we ventured out with him behind the wheel on the backroads of the Chippewa National Forest, headi...

—Abigail held my camera and took a pic of us at arm’s length while we were between photo sessions on Saturday afternoon. – Photo by Abigail Olson. By Allan Olson Unlike last weekend, when I put about 13 miles on my feet, this weekend I don’t think I covered one mile total. Instead, I stayed closer to home, grazing on snacks and doing other things inside without getting too much fresh air or exercise. After a busy week, my plan was to go to bed early Friday and sleep late on Saturday. Instead, we ended up going to the late show after the baseball game to watch the latest Avenger movie. To say I was lost throughout most of the movie is probably an understatement, but I did enjoy at least some of it, and of course, spending quality time with my family. It was nearly 1 a.m. before I got to bed, and we were supposed to be doing senior photos at 9 a.m., but then shortly before we got home we were notified that it would be later that day. My wife got up early in th...