Quick Trip to Minneso-tah

Two trips to Minneso-tah in two years...never thought I would be back, but was asked to help out with a self assessment at a Plant about 40 minutes north of Minneapolis, and off I went...What do you do in MN...you go to the Mall of America...act casual shopping thru the American Girl store all by yourself, then grab an Orange Julius to watch the crowds of folks at Nickelodeon universe in the middle of this mall.  That mall really is cool...many many things to do...and I decided I needed to at least ride one ride...the Sponge Bob plunge...definitely the best ride there...

 

And do you see the poop brown car I had as a rental...absolutely, the ugliest rental car I have ever had.  U G L Y, it ain't got no alibi.  And work was over on Wednesday, so I drove back into town to watch the Twins play before leaving the next morning back to home.  Stadium was nice, had a great seat for supper in their club lounge with an awesome steak sandwich.  Then took my seat along third base for the twins to hammer the white sox 11-1.  Great game.  I love the twins symbol of "Minnie" and "Paul" shaking hands representing the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  This is Number 11 on my stadium quest.  Going to try for the Marlins next year.  

 

Ruby Starts School

What a cutie!  and a sad day for me and Magan...hard to see this little one getting bigger, and she let's us know all the time how big she is.  Magan walked her in, but this girl was ready to go...she was excited about her room, THE kitchen in her room, HER teachers Ms. Coleen and Ms. Shannon, and HER homework in the blue folder.   She explained all of this later with BIG HANDS and a LOUD VOICE...so excited.  And with tears in her eyes, Magan was about to leave, and Ruby said "OK, mom, bye!"...I guess she was ready.  Luckily just two days a week this year...we will have to step into more days later.  :)

 

Even this week later in September, she woke her mom up at 5 AM (Magan does not even understand what that word even is) for SCHOOL!!  And I think the Moana dresses were a little present for the first day.  

 

Rocket Derby

Traveling on this Sunday, so I missed my first rocket derby in about 7 years.  But I was glad to see all the smiles captured from this day, and heard Miss Ruby loved making her rocket this year.  

 

Solar Eclipse

Sam's class went outside to watch 96% eclipse.  We were not in the totality region, nor with the crazy folks that drove up to watch, so I guess Magan took the pic below of the eclipse.  I was at work and watched it...took the little picture below as everyone was amazingly looking at the shadows.  So, I was not real impressed, if we could have at least had some message from the skies declaring from a mothership that all was well, and they were just visiting...now that would have been cool...otherwise no big deal. 

 

I did get to see a bunch of kids that morning at the schools as I was recruiting for scouts...and took a picture of just one of the many Interracial eclipse drawings.  Now THAT made my day.  That was about the funniest display for the eclipse you could ever do...I am just thinking about that teacher's preperation...let's see, let me get the black kids on one side and the white kids on the other...now you guys choose your partner from one on the other side...good...now show what happens when you guys eclipse each other.  haha...I like it.  In my mind, this picture was the much better Eclipse of 2017.  

 

Whitewater with Sam

So the only story I remembering hearing from this trip was that one guys (Adam) single person boat smashed into Sam who was riding in a 5 person raft...after becoming untangled, they realized their boat was losing air...so they had to go the rest of the trip with 1/4 of the air out of their boat.  Sam seemed to have a good time, but the 5 hour drive up then same back wiped him out...I guess also rafting the Nanatahala twice also helped with that.  He was a zombie for a day or two afterwards.  

 

Zoo Trip

Magan had a photo session, so I decided to take them to the zoo.  Don't remember much about this trip, but this was the first (and probably ONLY) time they got to go down the slides...we had some free tickets.   One trip down the slides...5 seconds...$5...Crazy, unless you have free tickets.

 

The other thing that cracked me up was Ruby and the flamingos.  Davis bought some food to feed the flamingos, and after I tried it Ruby said she wanted to try.  Now, Ruby is NOT one to do things like this..."Im scared Daddy" is usually what I hear.  But instead as that flamingo leaned its head over and ate the food from Ruby's hand, I heard a belly shaking chuckle of laughter.  She just kept giggling and feeding those birds.  So funny.

 

It was also now pirate Train...so me and the kids had fun making fun of all the pirates along the train ride.  and we ended our day trying to wake up the sea lions. 

 



 

Back to School

A 7th grader, 5th grader, 2nd grader, and pre-K...These guys are getting big.  Sam is taking all advanced courses and robotics as his elective...and is the go to guy in our family for historical information.  Davis is in Mrs. Painter/Birdsong class, same as Sam's teachers.  He seems to be doing well, and liking his cub scout responsibility to raise the flag each day with his buddy Isaac Puckett.  Belle has Mrs. Cespedes, which we all like saying her name around the house.  And little Ruby has a whole blog to her beginning school this year, so no more on here for now.  

 

I have gotten to see the kids during the Cub Scout rally, where we come to each of the classes.  And I just yesterday got to eat lunch with both Davis (10:28 AM) and Belle (11:07 AM)...may be considered breakfast.  But it is always fun getting to see them in their school environments.  Little Ruby is most of the time up to see them off on the bus, and runs to give them all hugs (especially Sam) when they get off the bus.