Another week has flown by.
Its been crazy for work with four night teleconferences completed this past week. The last one was on Thursday night and I took it at the cabin while overlooking the lake. That definitely made up for the 1 hour of Japanese that I endured.
We made our first trip up to Outing this season, definitely overdue but had to work around the move of the house. I went into work early on Thursday and snuck out around noon. I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple essentials before heading home to pick up the kids. We were on the road by 1:30 PM and heading up Highway 169. We didn’t hit much traffic and Riley was sleeping before we even went across the Minnesota River. We made our way towards Garrison and took an ice cream break by the big Walleye (its in bad shape with 2 of its fins missing). After our break, we met the parents in Emily at the Bungalow Restaurant. The kids played first at the new playground (definitely 2 thumbs up!!) and then we ate a great dinner and drank some beer. Following dinner, we drove the long distance to the cabin (6 miles) and the kids ran in to see all the toys that Gramma and Grampa had for them (especially the dinosaurs).
On Friday, in the morning, the kids played in the water near the dock and got some minnows for fishing. In the afternoon, we took it easy and went for a pontoon boat ride with Gramma in the afternoon. The highlight for the kids was swimming in Woods Bay. The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever. They swam around without too much help from us and enjoyed the warm water. That night, we headed over to Owls N Things for ice cream cones. The kids had their favorite flavor mini cone of “Superman” (Fruit Punch) while Vicki and I shared a S’mores flavored ice cream.
We woke up Saturday morning ready for the race. Gramma and Grampa ate their granola bars and were pumped for the race. They had trained all summer for it and the goal of winning their age group. Vicki was running in her first running race. The last 2 years, she walked the course. I had the challenge of pushing the kids (in the double stroller) through the 5.5K race course that included multiple hills including a ½ mile section on dirt through the woods and up a hill. The runners started first and the walkers started 1 minute after. There must have been around 40-50 runners and 25 walkers. Weather was ideal with temps in the mid 70s at race start. Vicki and I had made special shirts for the Sholom Shores running team. We had seen the Remer High School team last year sporting shirts and wanted to do something similar this year. Each shirt front was unique with the same logo on the back of all shirts (Sholom Shores Running Team Established 1994). See the pix below to see the actual logos on each person’s shirt.
The race started and the fast runners went off. There were about 6-8 high school runners along with a few other fast runners. I started in back with the kids (gave the kids each fruit snacks at the start) and started picking off other runners. I wanted to save some my energy for the off-road hills section. During that section, I had to push the stroller with two hands and ran on my toes to get traction up the hill. Once we hit the pavement, I was exhausted but still had about 1.5 miles left. I opened up 2 granola bars (once for each kid) and gave them to the kids to get them through the finish. We finally finished the race in around 14th place (according to a guy we passed). Our time was 25:43. This is about 2.5 minutes slower than when I run the race sans the stroller. We finished in 3rd place in the 30-39 age group about 3.5 minutes behind 1st and 2nd place. We went back to run back with Vicki to the finish. The kids cheered on Mommy to the finish. The walkers finished roughly 10 minutes later and we saw Gramma and Grampa. Gramma passed Grampa with less than ¼ mile left and finished under 50 minutes. Grampa was 20 seconds behind. Gramma won her age group and Grampa finished 2nd again (to the same guy from last year). Following the race, we enjoyed snacks and waited for the awards ceremony.
That afternoon while the kids napped, Peggy and I kayaked over to Luscher Park to watch the Waterama water ski show (sorry no pix). The show was good but unfortunately the kids missed it. After they woke up, they came over to the park to play games and had a great time. For dinner that night, we had a fish fry and cooked up some French fries, bass and sunfish. Following dinner, we had a bonfire and ate s’mores.
On Sunday morning, I hooked up the web cam that Marc bought the parents and talked with Marc and his family. It was neat to see Max and Coral. The kids were mesmerized by the video and didn’t know what to think about it all. Pretty neat! We headed back out on the boat for some more swimming in Woods Bay and then came back around noon to head home. The kids took a nap near Crosby and woke up near Princeton.
We crashed hard on Sunday night after a fun filled weekend. On Monday, the kids and Vicki went to Kelly Park while I went to work. Not fair! J
Actually, I went blading on Monday morning at Cleary getting ready for this Sunday’s St. Paul Inline Marathon. After skating, I stopped at the new house and took pix. The roof was going up today. 2.5 months until we move into that house or earlier (if we choose another house).
Wayne and Carol are heading over here on Thursday and have a busy weekend planned. Prior Lake Lakefront Days and Shakopee Derby Days are going on this weekend along with inline marathon and more.
Well that’s it for now! Talk with ya next week.
Kids enjoying some tootsie pops following games at the park.
Captain Riley on his mighty kayak
"Are we there yet Gramma?" as the we headed to Woods Bay.
The Spieler family swimming.
Gramma Peggy accepting her 1st place medal.
Grampa Milty and his sidekick.
Can you say Cheese Puffs?
And another house picture........
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