Lake Season

We've finally gotten out to the lake to enjoy Minnesota summer. We found out that we have another boater. Wyatt absolutely loved riding in the boat and begged for more rides. Gavin has turned into a tuber - he was our boater last year. He rode right along with the big kids this weekend. We had a gorgeous Saturday afternoon at the cabin and celebrated Father's Day with food and boating.

The Jeske cousins piled in the boat.

Cruising Big Birch. See Wyatt's smile.

Enjoying the wind thru his curls.

Catching the Dolphins While They are Still Here

We made a trek to the Minnesota Zoo with some Moms Club friends at the beginning of June. We were there with a lot of other zoo goers and school kids.

The Minnesota Zoo is planning to get rid of their dolphins while they fix their tanks and not have them return. So, we were excited to catch their "show" before they take off. We had to wait about a half hour to see the 13 minute show, but the awe on the kids' faces was worth it.

Avery and Gavin watching the dolphin show.

Wyatt's awe.

The dolphins striking a pose for the crowd.

My favorites are the bears, who were fighting in the water when we were there, but I missed them with the camera. Another favorite from the day were the penguins - cute little African penguins. They were so curious they swam right up to the glass and "played" with the kids.

Gavin and Avery checking out the penguins.

Wyatt was entertained for a long time with this $3.50 sucker. Meanwhile the other kids splashed in the water fountains, it was a perfect day for that.

Gavin riding a dinosaur. We opted not to go thru the dinosaur exhibit - A. because I'm cheap, B. I'm not sure if Gavin has recovered from the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom yet.

Sometimes I impress myself...

I saw an idea on Pinterest for a Father's Day gift a while ago. First of all, I impressed myself by remembering the idea (even though I had pinned it). Second of all, I impressed myself with the execution of the project, which I do declare was better than the original.

The original:

Mine - enhanced with cuter kids, signs colored by the kids, and then the words/symbols traced on the glass. Jacob says it looks like 3D.

Fred liked it nearly as much as his new iPhone.

Surprise!

Fred turned 35 last Friday. He's done a couple really fun surprises for me, so I figured it was about time I do something to try to even the score. So, I took him to eat at Gastof's (German restaurant) in Nordeast Minneapolis with Tim and Adrea - saying that we were celebrating his birthday and Tim's recent birthday. Then at the end of the meal I said I had a surprise and that we were going on a Pedal Pub. He asked, "who are we going to pedal with?" and I replied, "they're be other people." He didn't notice that we drove by a group of his friends on the way to board the "pub". But he did happen to see someone familiar (Julie LeClaire) hiding behind a tree and then saw Alyssa and Joe walking up the sidewalk. And then Chad, Mary, Jill, Jim and Gene and Mary Ann came out and then he saw the rest of his friends wander up. He was surprised, so I considered myself successful.

We boarded the 16 person bike (only 10 people have to pedal) and made a couple stops in Nordeast Minneapolis bars. We actually had 2 pedal pubs, one for Tim and his friends, but Fred is so popular that his pedallers spilled over to Tim's pub. It was a fun outting, we did sweat a bit pedalling around and by the last bar, we just stayed on the pub in the parking lot, because it was fun to be on.

Fred's family and friends on the Pedal Pub.

The whold gang - 2 pedal pubs full of fun!

Alyssa and I.

Back at Gastof's after the pedalling - Fred drinking from a boot.

Fred and I at Gastof's.

Jason, Fred and Pete - yes, this is the best photo I could get of these goofballs.

Fred with Gene, Chad, Mary, Mary Ann and Jill.

Fred may have had a little too much fun that night - he had a rough ride home and spent most of the night sleeping on the bathroom floor. He recovered pretty well the next day and learned a valuable lesson about drinking like you are 21 when you're 35.

End of May

Jacob had track and field day on the Friday before Memorial Day. They got to do all sorts of fun events including the 50 yard dash, jump rope competition, baseball toss, tug of war, lawn games, playground games, and water games. He thought he would be OK to leave at noon that day to head up to Tenstrike to be with his cousins, but when I showed up at 9:30 to watch some events, he had changed his mind - he couldn't leave before the water events. So we took off at 2 instead of noon and made it to Pike's Point Resort with daylight left to play with the cousins.



Jacob jumping rope with his classmates.

Tug of war - his class won 3 out of 4.

Just one stop on the way to Tenstrike - a visit with Paul in Akeley.

We had a fun weekend at Pike's Point Resort. We had a beautiful Saturday and a rainy Sunday, but not a washout. Jacob and Gavin did a lot of running around, biking, target practice, and we got the Gigaball (giant inflatable ball the kids went in to roll around) out for its first and final adventure. Wyatt did a lot of playing too and got to join the big boys in his first four-wheeler ride. Jacob declared it the funnest place on earth - really I don't think it had anything to do with the place, but the cousins and the freedom.

Wyatt's favorite spot - on top of the bunk beds, overlooking Grandma and Grandpa's living room (and the TV Grandpa brings "camping")

Wyatt on the way back home - not napping!

Jacob and Gavin - napping.

Jacob is playing coach pitch baseball in Carver. Fred is helping coach, but Fred was in Texas last week, so I got to attend a couple games (usually I stay home with the other boys since they don't allow me to watch the game anyway). At Tuesday's game Jacob got to don the catchers gear. He didn't catch many balls, but he looked good and he got a nice double.

Jacob - #4

Done with the inning.