Science Museum of Minnesota

Rich took Caleb and Sarah to the Science Museum of Minnesota on Friday to enjoy the family membership we purchased earlier this year. One of the things we saw was the signpost that stood at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Itasca State Park for about 20 years before it was replaced several years ago. Rich and Grandpa G had their picture taken by this very sign on our first Jaunt with Jim Klobuchar bike ride back in 1990. Cool!


Sarah and Caleb are pulling on a lever and making the jaws of this T-Rex skull move up and down. Sarah LOVES T-Rexes!




Caleb took off on his own to enjoy the exhibits for about an hour, so Sarah and Daddy took in the museum. Here's Sarah in front of a skeleton of a triceratops...




... and sitting atop a fake glacier back in the ice age.








And posing next to the actual thigh bone of an ancient herbivore dinosaur.

Science Museum, Part II

We took in a short presentation on the curse of King Tut's Tomb, presented by a crazy professor.








Caleb rejoined us and he and Sarah did some experiments with a wind machine and a play ball.






Here's Sarah with "Lance," taking his temperature. (His temperature was only 74 degrees when you put it in his ear, but more than 100 on his forehead. Go figure.)








"I want my mummy!" Yes, it's a real mummy ... Caleb and Sarah were fascinated.






Here are Caleb and Sarah in front of a cross-section of a tree that was 522 years old when it was cut down. No, we didn't count the rings ourselves!

Bowling bikers!

Despite having to work all weekend, Rich managed to carve out a Saturday morning of bowling and lunch with his bicycling friends, whom he doesn't get to see quite nearly enough! We bowled a couple of games at Brunswick Zone XL in Lakeville, then most of us headed to Perkins for lunch. Here are Curt, Cyndie, John, Julie, Mary and Rhonda.


Julie, Curt, Rich and John ... having way too much fun!








John, Cyndie, Rhonda and Julie.








Juuuliieeeeee!!!










Bella the cat likes to sleep high up on our kitchen cabinets. Meow!

January memories

Noah's hockey team decided to adopt a dress code for school on the days of their games. He and Erin went out and bought him new pants, shirt and tie to wear to school. He looks sharp!






Sarah and her buddy, Grandma G, played cards during grandma's recent visit to the Twin Cities.






Caleb and Lucas turned 12 on January 27. Only one more year of being a pre-teen, guys!












Caleb blew out the candles on the twins' birthday cake. Lucas didn't want to be in the picture, so Caleb took care of business.












Sarah poses in front of the amaryllis plant Grandma G bought for us at Costco last Christmas.

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010, part II

Christmas 2010, part III

Sarah and Santa

Sarah's dance school held a Christmas party on Wednesday, and Santa Claus even stopped by to pay a visit. Sarah FINALLY got up the nerve to sit on Santa's lap, after three years of trying. Looks like Santa needs to work on graying up that mustache, though!


"Santa, I want a Barbie doll, and a horsey, and a Corvette, and a million dollars, and candy, and another horsey."




Can't believe she's going to be FIVE in a few more months. Already?!!












Striking a pose in dance class. She and her classmates put on a short program for the parents.

Blizzard of 2010

Well, tonight we're stuck inside because we have about 18 inches of new snow on the ground ... the most in the Twin Cities in 19 years.








Yep, that's our mailbox. Any more snow, and the newspaper guy wouldn't have a hole to stick the paper into! The mailman still hasn't arrived today, and it's about 5:30 p.m.








Our house is snowbound! Lucas helped shovel a little bit, and Caleb made a snow fort out back.












Rich has shoveled the driveway two times since the snow started late Friday night, and also made two passes with the kindly neighbor's snow blower. Gonna have to get me one of them soon!








The boys' shortcut to the bus stop has been effectively cut off!

Sarah goes sledding

Sarah and daddy went to the sledding hill at nearby Central Park for the first time this season on Friday, one day before the big snowstorm hit. Sarah had a lot of fun! We stayed for about an hour, and daddy made a few runs down the hill, too.




Wheeeeeeee!












As kids will do, Sarah quickly made a new friend at the sledding hill. They joined forces and made several tandem runs down the hill.






Yahoooo!










OK, this hawk wasn't sledding with us ... Caleb took this picture about a week ago in the neighbor's yard. The hawk and his buddies have lived around here for some time now, and have left various rabbit, mouse and bird carcasses in our yard for Max and Harley to sniff at.

Happy (Early) Thanksgiving!

Erin and Rich both have to work on Thanksgiving Day this week, but we managed to get both sets of grandmas and grandpas to visit our house last weekend for an early Thanksgiving celebration! Here's Erin "helping" Lloyd carve the turkey. (It was tast-EEE!)


Moby always thinks he's allowed to sit up at the kids' table. He looks BUSTED, doesn't he?






"Yahoo, it's time to EAT!"