Klund's Photo Blog

Tracy the T-Rex

2011-02-20T10:59:00.000-06:00

Michelle does presentations at the kids' schools every year. Initially she focused on dental health, but by now all the kids have seen her enough that there's not too much point in going over the same thing. She has a collection of real and replica animal teeth that she now uses in her presentation. This year we also made a model of a T-Rex mouth using pool noodles and PVC piping.

How many third graders can fit in the mouth of a T-Rex?

Enough for a good meal.

Some kids are scared about getting eaten, and some aren't overly concerned.

Mr. Francis did his best to protect some of the kids, but once you're in the mouth, you've probably already lost the battle.

Grandpa as musical instrument

2010-12-23T19:37:00.001-06:00

Yay for hearing aids!

Halloween Fun Run

2010-10-30T14:50:00.000-05:00

A whole bunch of Lunds raced the St. Peter Halloween Fun Run today. Everybody finished the whole 5K, and all the parents, kids and grandparents were amazing! The race was a lot of fun, but I didn't bring any recording devices to prove it. Once we got home we took some pictures of the best finishers in town.

Here's the whole group, still standing.

We broke up into teams before the race started. The (unofficial) winner was this guy:

He didn't register, though, so all he gets is a moral victory.

The official winner of the Lunds was the short guy in this picture:

He beat me by about a foot. I just couldn't catch him at the end.

Koleman was in a team by himself, and came in shortly after Kelson and I.

The next group, hot on Koleman's team, was a dangerous cat and dog team:

Every good train needs its caboose, to make sure no stragglers get lost along the way. Grandma brought a clown for a walk/jog, and they finished in style, with a crazy sprint to the finish line.

Here's a re-creation of the entire race:

And some ... candid photos. Michelle and Eli caused some problems on the course with their dog-and-cat games.

Dog in the air!

Proud finisher!

Strong finisher!

Action shot!

This was how close the finish was between Kelson and myself. Next year I'm going to shove him over and beat him!

All pirates are dangerous with their hooks.

We didn't realize how many people would be running with crazy outfits. It was definitely a fun run. I'm guessing next year we'll prepare more and have a cool team costume. It'll be awesome.

Tree Monkey

2010-10-15T20:36:00.001-05:00

Sometimes you need a tree monkey when Geocaching. Eli fits the bill.

For Scooter

2010-09-20T09:46:00.000-05:00

You know why.

I don't know if I blogged this before

2010-09-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

but I really should have.

My football camp

2010-09-10T17:36:00.000-05:00

Martin loves Lego men

2010-07-09T13:11:00.001-05:00

Once again Martin poses in front of a Lego Star Wars character. It is his weakness.

???

2010-06-28T20:28:00.001-05:00

Went for a walk, found a marching band.

Yes, Eli too

2010-06-20T18:22:00.001-05:00

Thanks for the extra fruit, grandma Karen!

More food

2010-06-20T18:19:00.001-05:00

Apparently Milena isn't the only one with a yummy supper.

Supper!

2010-06-20T18:17:00.001-05:00

Now that's what we call a yummy supper!

Bikes in the air!

2010-06-13T15:14:00.001-05:00

Bikes in the air! Looking like a fool with your bikes in the air!

Grill

2010-05-22T19:23:00.001-05:00

OK, one of these days I'm going to remember to take a picture of food on my new grill. Two successes do far: steaks and ahi tuna kabobs. Maybe tomorrow I'll take pictures of the hamburgers. We'll see.

It's a birthday party!

2010-04-24T14:45:00.001-05:00

What a bunch of young birthday party people!

Location : 601-699 Holly Ln N, Plymouth, MN 55447,

Bubbles!

2010-04-13T17:03:00.001-05:00

Bubbles are cool, no matter how old you are.

Location : 1079-1271 Riverview Rd, St Peter, MN 56082,

Successful expirement

2010-04-12T18:35:00.001-05:00

Goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and caramelized onion pizza on the grill. Yummy for me!

Location : 1617 Riverview Rd, St Peter, MN 56082,

Damn Yankees!

2010-04-04T21:49:00.001-05:00

To show support for the Twins' season and to protest the evil Yankee baseball machine, these kids attack the grave marker of Roger Maris' parents.

Location : 1617 Riverview Rd, St Peter, MN 56082,

Chocolate fountain

2010-04-03T20:25:00.001-05:00

Yum.

Location : 514 10th St S, Fargo, ND 58103,

Huh?

2010-04-03T17:41:00.001-05:00

Johnny is loading a gun with rabbit poop. Hikes.

Location : 2098 5th St S, Fargo, ND 58103,

Hair!

2010-04-02T14:08:00.001-05:00

Just another typical day in Lundville.

Location : 1617 Riverview Rd, St Peter, MN 56082,

Heart to heart

2010-04-01T15:10:00.001-05:00

Charlie and Bella have a serious conversation.

Location : N 7th St, St Peter, MN 56082,

two children

2010-03-28T11:34:00.001-05:00

Playing. Whee.

Location : 35-39 1st Ave, Plymouth, MN 55447,

First cache of the year

2010-03-28T09:46:00.001-05:00

We went to the Luce Line with grandpa yesterday and found our first geocache of the year. Used my shiny new Droid and Koleman's math skills to get close, then Eli made the find.

Location : 601-699 Holly Ln N, Plymouth, MN 55447,

Koleman and Kelson ride!

2010-03-09T15:24:00.001-06:00

Shamus Express! (Milena was there too)

Location : Orlando, FL 32836,

They look happy now...

2010-03-06T20:00:00.001-06:00

... but it was pure screaming terror just a few minutes later.

Location : 14311-14453 State Highway 535, Orlando, FL 32821,

Elephant butt

2010-03-06T16:16:00.001-06:00

You're welcome.

Location : 9701-9799 Greenwood Ave, Tampa, FL 33617,

Snow is gone!

2010-03-04T18:42:00.001-06:00

Finally!

Location : 14311-14453 State Highway 535, Orlando, FL 32821,

Bulgaria!

2010-02-26T10:18:00.001-06:00

Koleman did a school "Tour of Europe" project at school and learned all about Bulgaria. Made a map, a board and a sweet Easter bread. He did a great job.

Location : Traverse, MN,

Eek!

2010-02-21T21:02:00.001-06:00

Floating head!

Location : E Mulberry St, St Peter, MN 56082,

Poor Kid

2010-02-21T21:01:00.002-06:00

I'm not exactly sure what happened to Kelson, but I hope it's not permanent.

Location : E Mulberry St, St Peter, MN 56082,

Awesome picture from my Droid

2010-02-12T14:20:00.001-06:00

This is a brilliant picture that I took, edited and posted from my Droid. I rock.

Location : 1617 Riverview Rd, St Peter, MN 56082,

Food Blog

2010-02-01T10:00:00.000-06:00

I should just turn this blog into a Food Blog. You'd all love that.

See, it's the winter, we're not doing anything, I'm not taking pictures of anything, so there's not much to say. But how about this Brioche Filled with Chocolate Ganache? I'm a talented guy.

Chocolate filling all the way through the bread... and a girl excited to get a slice.

For Martin & Nicole

2010-01-21T16:31:00.000-06:00

Hey! Thanks for the Christmas present!

Crabby Dinner

2010-01-14T13:00:00.000-06:00

This post will be an unpaid advertisement for the Crab Deck in Mankato. They can thank me later.

I paid my first visit to the Crab Deck last weekend, and picked up three Alaskan King Crab legs - one each for Michelle, Koleman and I. Koleman ogles them.

There are lots of cooking options for the crab legs. I went with steaming. We didn't really have a steaming situation that would work for these suckers (each leg was about a pound). I took the biggest pot we had, and then poked holes in a pie crust tin and put that in the bottom to keep the legs out of the water. Perfect fit!

After a minute the joints relaxed enough for me to fold them up and get them in the pot. Koleman is amazed.

And then we eat them!

The Crab Deck is awesome. Lobster, crab, fishies, frog legs, shrimp ... I'm planning on going back to try more goodies. They even carry tuna that is supposedly shushi-grade. Hmmm....

Head Lights

2010-01-11T10:08:00.000-06:00

Santa gave the kids head lights. Why? Because kids think lights on your head are cool.

Plus, you can now read in the dark.

Awesome.

Snowboard King

2010-01-11T10:07:00.000-06:00

Eli got a snowboard, helmet and goggles for Christmas. Cool dude.

We were ready for Santa

2010-01-04T17:19:00.000-06:00

I apologize if Santa's driving was poor after he left our house.

I'm Back!

2010-01-04T10:10:00.000-06:00

Maybe?

Anyway, I'm finally getting my computer back in working order, after replacing a hard drive that crapped out on me. I've got pictures of kids and Christmas and other fun stuff, but for now, I'll just show this:

I don't know at what point my van thermometer just says, "WTF!?", but it can handle these frigid numbers. Unfortunately by the time I got my camera, it had heated up a couple of degrees.

Lucky Grandpa

2009-12-21T09:37:00.000-06:00

Koleman's eye didn't turn black and blue. The mark on his forehead isn't as bad as it was yesterday.

It won't be as dramatic a story now when he tells his friends about how his grandfather tried to kill him.

Kids

2009-12-17T17:00:00.000-06:00

Kelson is trying to not get his picture taken. He failed.

I think this is what all kids feel as Christmas approaches.

Hello? Is this thing on?

2009-12-11T08:29:00.000-06:00

We have two big reading fans. Apparently they have to stick together.

Awwww....

DVD Problems? Or ... Conspiracy!

2009-12-02T22:05:00.000-06:00

We had a problem with the DVD player tonight. Only solution was to take it apart.

See? It's pretty!

Now, clearly Harry Potter couldn't be the problem. He's just too darn cute!

Wait a second! Who is under Harry? JASON BOURNE!

Oh wait, didn't I learn this lesson over four years ago? Guess not.

A Geocaching Day

2009-11-11T20:45:00.000-06:00

Scooter has already blogged about it, but we have different target audiences, so I'll do my share as well. On Sunday Eli and I met up with Scooter, Ming, Logan and Kyle for a day of geocaching. We met for "food" at Cindy's Kitchen in Belle Plaine, and then hit some of the caches in that lovely town.

Our only failure was at the Church of the Transmogrification. Eli explores rocks, to no avail.

Scooter didn't post a picture of the church at this angle, but I will.

I was sure the cache would be in this hole, but it wasn't.

Eli was so excited to get to the next cache that he broke into a run.

Scooter has this picture.

And this one. (yes, that's a two story outhouse. no, the cache wasn't in the outhouse.)

Belle Plaine's Huey!

Eli braves snakes and scorpions to find a cache.

If Scooter doesn't like Earth Caches, why is he taking this picture? Hmmm?

Ming and Logan get ready to join Eli, Scooter and Kyle. It's a mad attempt to completely ignore the 1.5 (out of 5) terrain rating and race away from the cache as quickly as possible. We made this one much harder than it should have been, and most of us were almost killed. Good times.

The group takes a break. Seven Mile Creek park is a great place for hiking and caching, but sometimes you've got to rest after climbing the bluffs.

Eli recreates finding a cache, since I missed the moment of real discovery. Eli's geo-sense was on high Sunday - he found a bunch of the caches.

Funny moment of the day - Scooter tries to find a safe place to relieve himself, but Eli needs to ask him something. RIGHT NOW! Eli doesn't seem concerned that Scooter is having private time.

Isn't trespassing cute?

I promised Eli that when we were done, he could cross the creek on the rocks.

More old summer pics

2009-11-09T11:20:00.000-06:00

Nygaard family reunion. Kelson playing Lazer Tag with Cousin Luke.

Milena in fancy headgear from Aunt Steph.

Cousin lineup, youngest to oldest. The one you might not recognize is cousin Lake.

Eli practicing surfing.

Holy Cow!

2009-11-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

Apparently it was Halloween and I forgot to blog about it. Yikes.

OK, here are four kids:

And a cat that followed us:

Walter is a Good Bear

2009-11-06T08:24:00.000-06:00

Or, as Kelson would say, "The best bear ever!" Most mornings Walter comes out to breakfast with Kelson, and guards Kelson's feet from attack. Frequently Walter stays under the counter while Kelson is at school, patiently waiting for his return. He's a good bear.

Leah's Birthday

2009-11-01T20:10:00.000-06:00

As I was going through my pictures, I noticed a few that I had set aside to post, yet never did. Better late than never.

This summer we went to the Landscape Arboretum to celebrate Leah's birthday. She would have been nine years old.

We had a beautiful day to walk around and enjoy the arboretum.

The kids are willing to pose.

Flower.

Eli shows how scared he is of the water monster in the pond.

Pearl Harbor

2009-10-20T20:09:00.000-05:00

My last Hawaii post, covering our last day in Hawaii. After we left our cottage and headed to Honolulu, we visited the sites on Pearl Harbor. The Missouri is a big battleship. It's cool, and you can wander around a lot more of it than I expected.

The highlight of Pearl Harbor, though, is the Arizona Memorial. As a young country, we probably don't have too many "special" sites (at least outside of the east coast), but this memorial is practically sacred ground.

The movie you watch before taking the boat to the memorial was excellent. A well done piece that set the perfect tone of reverence. So much so, in fact, that even eight year old kids showed solemn respect.

One interesting note, based solely upon my personal observation and no statistical analysis at all, is that the percentage of tourists at the USS Arizona Memorial who were Japanese was significantly less than every other place on the island.

At least there were a few who were sticking up for the motherland.

Hawaii, done.

Tarzan Vines!

2009-10-17T21:07:00.000-05:00

Maunawili Falls Trail

2009-10-17T21:04:00.001-05:00

After we hiked up Diamond Head Crater, we got lunch, and then explored to find the hike to Maunawili Falls. Here's the falls:

In this case, the journey was much better than the destination. Tons of people, no room to move. Michelle surveys the area:

Somehow somebody got a baby stroller here. Either we're complete wimps, or there's a shortcut.

After leaving the falls, and climbing up a couple hundred stairs, Michelle says, "Shoot me now."

One of many "a photograph won't due it justice" views.

An hour and a half of either this:

or a few of these:

And some Jurassic Park ferns.

A good time, a good workout, and muddy shoes.

A True Hawaiian Tourist

2009-10-17T15:12:00.001-05:00

Diamond Head Crater

2009-10-17T15:12:00.000-05:00

Since we were on Oahu, we were required to hike to the top of the Diamond Head Crater. It was a good time. Michelle is happy to get to the top.

You get great views of Honolulu and Waikiki.

And a lovely couple.

A relative sampling of Hawaiian tourists.

The excitement for this trip was after we had hiked back down the trail. While we were eating our Hawaiian Ice (far and away the worst we had the whole trip) a whole bunch of emergency vehicles came into the parking lot. After they milled around (the people who came in the vehicles, that is, not the vehicles themselves) for a while, a rescue helicopter landed.

Some Search and Rescue guys hopped in, the helicopter went to the top of the trail, and then came down trailing a basket.

There was an old Japanese lady who they helped out of the basket. She was able to walk, so obviously she wasn't too hurt, so that's a good thing. It provided entertainment, though.

Hawaiian Wildlife

2009-10-14T13:52:00.000-05:00

We also saw lizards, sea turtles, big slugs and a wild pig. Not exactly Yellowstone.

Terrible Underwater Photos

2009-10-14T13:37:00.000-05:00

I mentioned that I took some terrible underwater pictures while snorkeling in Hawaii. It's true. For example:

It was a cool fish, I think.

The camera I used was a Fujifilm Quick Snap Waterproof camera. Which is probably a better camera if in better hands.

I mean, seriously, look at this terrible framing:

So, here were my problems, in retrospect.

Problem 1. I couldn't frame the picture properly. I know now that I was always aiming too high and to the right.

Of course, I can't possibly screw up the self portrait, can I?

Michelle barely makes it in the photo, though.

Fishies!

This picture would have been amazing, if taken properly!

Wow, it works out of the water, too!

If we were using a digital camera, this would be deleted.

Shark's Cove, from the water.

Again, terrible picture framing.

At least I can prove that we saw colorful fish.

Problem 2: Waves. Made it hard to stay still, and dirtied up the water. Some times were much clearer than others. I think this camera would work much better in calm, crystal clear waters.

Half a fish!

Part of a very pretty bright blue fish!

See? I told you they were terrible.

Problem 3: Me. I mean really, what did you expect?

Whee!

Let's just pretend that this fish was three feet long, OK?

OK, there you go.

Shark's Cove Snorkeling

2009-10-11T22:21:00.000-05:00

One of the highlights of the trip for Michelle and I was snorkeling at Shark's Cove. Lots of fun. Here are people snorkeling who aren't us.

The cove.

The starting place.

I brought along disposable underwater cameras, and I have some really terrible underwater pictures that I will be sharing shortly. You will be underwhelmed, I promise.

Shrimp Truck!

2009-10-11T22:17:00.000-05:00

They give you shrimp. Then you eat the shrimp.

Dole Plantation

2009-10-11T10:50:00.000-05:00

The Dole Plantation. Which makes Hawaii a Pineapple Republic, I guess. From this angle it's hard to see if the Dole flag or the Hawaii flag is higher. They're probably equal height.

Extremely common site in Hawaii: Japanese tourists. It was almost as if the Japanese invaded Hawaii.

A baby pineapple. In 8 more months, you'll be big enough to eat!

The plantation has the world's largest maze. So we had to go in, right?

Eek! A huge snail! The maze is too scary!

Michelle kept me safe, though, and we found all the hidden boxes.

After escaping the maze (32 minutes!) we took a ride on the Pineapple Express. No, really, we did.

Is this touristy enough for you?

How about this?

On the whole, the Dole Plantation was actually a good place to visit. Clearly a tourist trap, but still interesting.

Island Breakfast

2009-10-11T10:39:00.000-05:00

We didn't have a huge kitchen, but we had enough to make breakfast. I was in charge of all the complex cooking on our trip. It involved attempting to make coffee at double strength, since we were espresso-free.

Hot plate!

A better alternative to dining out.

More Hawaiian Religion

2009-10-09T10:07:00.000-05:00

I've discussed a Buddhist temple. And a native temple. Now for the third religious site we visited in Hawaii - a Mormon temple.

Huh?

After our first breakfast in Hawaii, we were driving back to our cottage and saw a sign for the Laie Hawaii Temple. We thought that it sounded like a great cultural site so went for a visit. It was, in fact, a Mormon temple.

I'll give the Mormons credit for this - they've got style. This temple was easily the cleanest, most pristine site we saw on all of Oahu.

We couldn't go into the temple because we weren't cool enough. Of course, Mormons can't drink espresso drinks, so I think I'm OK with how things have turned out. Handing out flowers to young ladies is acceptable.

Here is my favorite part of the visitor center. A young female from the Phillipines showed us the current Mormon prophets. She has so much in common with them.

Rubble!

2009-10-09T09:45:00.000-05:00

I've said it before. I love rubble. Hawaii has rubble.

This is the Pu'u Mahuka Heiau State Monument. A "heiau" is a Hawaiian temple. It's all rubble now, of course.

I told Michelle that they think human sacrifice was performed here. That (along with the lone, muttering-to-self, crazy looking Hawaiian) made her less appreciative of the place. It takes all kinds.

We went on a little path near the temple to find a geocache. Lots of red paths in Hawaii.

Byodo-In Temple

2009-10-08T19:29:00.000-05:00

One of the more interesting sites we vistited in Hawaii was the Byodo-In Temple, near Honolulu. In the memorial park near the temple are many cemeteries which favor a different ethnic group or religion. I thought the Japanese area was the most pleasing.

Here is the temple. It's quite nice.

Lovely and serene.

Buddha is serene.

The koi were serene.

The black swan was serene.

The Zen Gardener with his Weed-Wacker of Death was serene.

The Russians were serene.

How did everything get so serene? By the ringing of the bell. Here is Michelle getting ready to ring the bell.

Now she is serene.

Since I know you want to be serene, too, I will include video of me ringing the bell. The sound of the bell will bring serenity to you.

Now you are serene.

Hawaii

2009-10-07T20:05:00.000-05:00

Michelle and I are back from a week in Hawaii. It was a business trip, of course, but we did manage to find some time to enjoy ourselves. Snorkeling was probably our favorite activity of the whole trip.

Here was our front door during the week:

The wall on the left? A sea wall. The part of the cottage closest to the sea wall? Bedroom. What does this mean? Sea spray hitting Michelle's face at night if the window isn't closed. Not a problem in St. Peter.

Just a random picture from our cottage. Rain forests get rain, I guess.

Another random picture. From a botanical garden.

Eli Does the Hula

2009-09-28T15:34:00.001-05:00

Two posts about kids in one day? I must be going insane!

Pictures of Kids

2009-09-28T15:22:00.000-05:00

Fine. Here are pictures of kids.

Eli makes a Lego car.

Kelson makes a Lego spaceship.

Koleman sits by Walter, Kelson, and the picture of Walter that Michelle painted on Kelson's wall.

Milena shows off a lost tooth.

Paperless Geocaching with a Garmin Nuvi 265wt

2009-09-24T11:48:00.000-05:00

No pictures of kids on this post. No pictures of people, places or things, either. This post should be completely meaningless to pretty much everybody who normally checks my blog. But I am preserving this as potentially useful information for the internet at large.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I received a Garmin Nuvi 265wt for my birthday. If you use GSAK for your geocaching, you can achieve paperless geocaching with a nice little macro. The main question, though, is if the Nuvi can actually get you to the cache. Here are the steps I followed to fairly easily find a micro cache.

First I selected the cache as my destination, with all the normal automobile driving settings. It directed me to the spot closest to the cache.

OK, now I'm about 80 feet from the cache, and need to exit the van and go off-road.

It's time to change some settings. Go to Tools->Settings.

1. Go to System. Change Usage Mode from "Automobile"...

... to "Pedestrian".

2. Go to Navigation. Change Route Preference from "Faster Time"...

... to "Off Road".

3. Go to Map. Change Map View from "3 Dimensional"...

... to "North Up".

Now you'll see a slightly different look in the Map.

Zoom in as far as you can. Now you should see your pointer and the path to the cache. Since I've set North as up, the map stays steady. In the example below, I know that I need to just turn to the right a bit and start walking.

When you get close, you can touch the top green bar, to get to this screen:

Hit the "Show Map" button and you'll get a nice little map:

This is the only screen where I've seen the Distance show numbers less than 30 feet. When I took this screen shot, I was about 12 feet from the final destination of the cache:

Now I'm back to 20 feet away, but I was actually sitting by the cache. I was in some light woods, and the signal bounced a bit, but I was able to pretty easily zero in on the right spot. I left it and came back for a closer look before I found the micro.

And here is the Satellite screen while I was sitting at the cache:

The cache page listed coordinates of: N 44° 20.252 W 093° 57.972, so that's pretty close.

There, I've done my civic duty.

Geocaching with a Garmin Nuvi?

2009-09-16T22:50:00.000-05:00

I was given a Garmin Nuvi GPS for my birthday. It's a cool direction device, which I desperately need to navigate in St. Peter. Here it guides me a few blocks away from my house.

I knew all about it's abilities in that regard. So the real question was this: Can you geocache with it? Well, it's pretty darn cool if you can get all the cache info, including hints and logs:

Hey, we're doing paperless geocaching!

Thankfully this was a super-duper easy cache. I'll have to work with some of the settings to see if this will function as well as the trusty old hand-held to find trickier caches. But paperless is a fun goal, and having the ability to load in tens of thousands of caches... that's kind of cool, too.

Best Concert In The World

2009-09-11T14:15:00.000-05:00

Of course. When it's the Greatest Band in the World, what else would you expect.

Last night Michelle and I went up to Minneapolis to see Snow Patrol at the State Theatre. And it wouldn't be Concert Night if I don't take bad pictures with my lousy cell phone camera and blog about it.

Not that you can tell, but that photo wasn't Snow Patrol. It was their opening act, the Plain White T's. They were fun. Here's another bad picture:

Before the show we ate at Seven Sushi. Sat on the rooftop overlooking Hennipen Avenue. Very, very good sushi.

Here is Snow Patrol:

For all you know, it could be Chuck Berry.

The concert was great, of course, despite having technical difficulties. But I won't complain, because I'm not like that. Here's another picture, which I think clearly shows the greatness of both the band and my cell phone.

Back To School Haircut

2009-09-02T18:44:00.000-05:00

Eli got an awesome cut and color for going back to school.

Balling in the Rain

2009-08-20T16:52:00.000-05:00

Koleman and Eli wouldn't let a little thing like rain stop them from playing outside.

Oddly enough, this wasn't yesterday, but a month and a half ago.

Blogging?

2009-08-20T16:50:00.000-05:00

OK, it's been a month. Why haven't I updated for a month? I don't know. Maybe I was just too traumatized by my family being on our roof.

Pictures of Eli

2009-07-19T16:10:00.000-05:00

Eli at the bat.

Eli makes another geocaching find!

Can you find Smilin' Eli?

Koleman Playing Baseball

2009-07-16T09:43:00.000-05:00

Koleman played Legion baseball this year for the first time, and he really liked it. At the beginning of the year he was worried that he would be the worst player, but he definitely wasn't.

He mostly played outfield and some second base. Here he is ready for anything.

There weren't too many hits for anybody at this level, but he did get a couple, which was good. Most at-bats ended with walks or strikeouts. Here is one of Koleman's strikeouts:

The rest of the pictures were taken by another parent who has a better camera than I do.

This is my favorite picture.

Koleman's team, serious:

And goofy:

4th Of July Parade

2009-07-16T09:27:00.000-05:00

Yes, it was a while ago. I forgot to post my favorite part of the entire parade, the float of the Nicollet County Republicans:

I'm not exactly sure what they intended with this float. There were no people walking in front, beside or behind it. Nobody was sitting on it. All they had was a truck pulling this float that had empty hats. Did the empty hats signify their lack of ideas? Were they conceding defeat? Were they asking for volunteers?

It was a bit bizarre, but in a good way.

If you don't hear from me ever again...

2009-07-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

... it's because St. Peter is about to be eaten by a giant snake. Which will totally suck.

I hope it chokes on the Pearly Gates.

Kelson shows how to hit a home run

2009-07-07T12:46:00.000-05:00

Kelson is very proud of his baseball skills. He thinks he's one of the better players on his team, which he is. For starters, he knows what order to run the bases in. Plus he's bigger than everybody else and strikes fear into their hearts.

See how mean he can be?

Ready position!

Kelson did hit a home run, and was very proud of it:

Two final pictures from Seattle

2009-07-04T16:49:00.000-05:00

Grandpa and his princess.

Michelle loved Dennis' jeep. Very old-school.

Oysters

2009-07-04T16:48:00.000-05:00

Of course we had great seafood in Seattle. One night we had oysters. We started with oyster shooters - raw oysters in a shot glass with a spicy sauce.

Down the hatch!

And on the grill.

Dennis battled the little buggers. They didn't want to share their secrets with us.

Dumas Bay

2009-07-04T16:44:00.000-05:00

OK, it's the 4th of July, we're all pooped from the exciting parade, and everybody is relaxing. I'll see if I can put up the last of our Seattle pictures.

One of our highlights was going to Dumas Bay Park in Federal Way. It's one of those places that you only go to if you have a local person who knows about it. We showed up after the tide had gone out and searched for treasures. There were lots of little crabs that I found to have as friends (until one pinched me).

The kids all had bags to put their treasures in.

We only saw about 10 other people there. Quiet and beautiful.

My dad is heading for Alaska, I think.

Aunt Deanna shows us how to find treasures.

This was a pretty big starfish. It appeared to be wounded, but it was still alive.

Michelle had the camera, so she got to avoid the group picture.

Krazy Kelson

2009-07-02T11:09:00.000-05:00

I was attempting to take a picture of Milena hiding her head, but Kelson got in the way. And then he got goofy.

Apparently he thinks he's cute.

I wonder where he gets it from.

Seattle Amusement Park

2009-06-29T13:14:00.001-05:00

One of the kids' highlights from our trip was the Fun Forest Amusement Park in Seattle Center. It's right next to the Space Needle. Here's proof:

The kids favorite was the Tornado. Lots of spinning. You could hear Milena screaming, "Faster! Faster! Faster!"

Unfortunately, Grandma couldn't go on the ride, due to her cast.

See how sad she is?

Here is one group ready to fly and spin.

Eli's ready!

Grandpa knows how to make it spin.

Here is some action video!

Michelle is obviously greatly impressed by the ride.

Seattle Harbor Tour

2009-06-25T10:49:00.000-05:00

Of course we took a harbor tour while in Seattle. They're fun!

This was our tour guide. We couldn't decide if he was more Topher Grace or Tobey Maguire, so we called him Tophey. Or Tober. Everyone knows that if it actually was Topher, I would be a gibbering idiot. But that's a different story for a different time.

More buildings.

There are lots of meaningful and interesting stories about each of these buildings. Feel free to make some up for yourself.

Random Photos from Seattle

2009-06-24T09:46:00.000-05:00

A trip to a playground led to a geocaching walk on a trail, which led to berry eating.

A fish market? In Seattle? Who'd a thunk it!

"Someday, Eli, all this will be yours."

Ocean Fishing

2009-06-24T09:43:00.000-05:00

Probably the highlight of our trip was going out from Westport to do bottom fishing on the Tequila Too. We left Seattle at 3:30 AM to drive to Westport, ate at a little diner in town, and got on the boat. It was a rocky ride to our fishing spots, with relatively choppy waters. My dad was thrilled, and thought he was on a roller coaster.

I thought I was going to enjoy it, too, but I got seasick. My kind father mocked me for it, saying that "real men don't get seasick". Thankfully Mom reminded us of a time when Dad was throwing up on a ferry boat. He had conveniently forgotten that. While I would have preferred to not be sick, I think it provided for a much better story for everybody else, so I am glad to provide that service.

Koleman absolutely loved it. We stopped at three or four spots and got 48 fish (rock cod, or rock bass, or rock bottom cod, or sea bass, or whatever you want to call them), which was well below the limit for 9 fisherpersons and two crew. When we got to the last spot, the captain told us to "drop your lines and pull them in as fast as possible!" He knew he had found the right spot. We caught 60 fish in 30 minutes. The bottom of the boat was filled with 6-8 pound fish. Very cool.

Here is Michelle stealing all the fish from my uncle Dennis. Michelle caught more fish than anybody else on the boat, naturally.

Mt. Rainier Waterfalls

2009-06-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

More pictures from our trip to Mt. Rainier. Waterfalls!

More water!

Brave adventurers in front of a waterfall.

Cool looking dude in misty spray.

Eli basks in the mist.

Christine Falls.

It started to rain, but we don't care about no stinking rain!

Snowball fight in June

2009-06-18T23:44:00.000-05:00

These pictures were required by law.

Somewhere there are pictures of me having a snowball fight on Mt. Rainier in the summer. I bet I have a parent or two who know where they are.

Action shot!

Poor grandpa is surrounded.

Picnic on Mt. Rainier

2009-06-17T20:16:00.000-05:00

We were in Seattle. You probably knew that already. If not, now you do.

Our first day there we went up to Mt. Rainier. The weather looked good, and we didn't want to miss our chance (little did we know that we would have seven days of perfect weather). We had a beautiful drive partway up the mountain, and stopped at Paradise for a picnic lunch.

We had a huge selection of food for our picnic - sandwiches, chicken, beans, chips, water, soda, beer, fruits, vegies. It was a picnic with style.

Here are some cute kids.

Eli, Milena and Kelson saw the picture of Koleman crushing the Sears Tower, and they wanted to do the same thing. Perhaps they didn't get it exactly right, but it's the thought that counts.

Back From Seattle

2009-06-17T11:00:00.000-05:00

... although a bit later than expected. Here's a picture of the van at a SuperAmerica in Shokapee.

A better view of the problem. Yes, it's 2 AM. Lovely.

I was able to finish putting on the spare tire just as the help from AAA came. He checked the bolts for me, which was nice.

The kids were absolutely excited about the delay.

The good news is that the trip was so fun that this was merely an interesting and funny way to end it. No tears were shed, very few curse words were uttered.

More pictures to come, especially to explain that white box which contains forty pounds of frozen seafood.

Swimming!

2009-06-08T20:57:00.000-05:00

Seriously. They went swimming. It wasn't warm outside, and the pool was at 59 degrees. But all four of the kids were fully submerged in the pool at least once.

Yes, just scream. That is what I would have done. I was smart though, I didn't go in.

I'm pretty sure Koleman got wet after this.

Kelson was the last to get in. He did eventually go all the way in and swam a bit.

This isn't our house, of course. We're pool-sitting for the summer. I was doing some initial pool cleaning and the kids all said, "Can we swim?" I told them they could, but that it would be really, really cold. They didn't care.

Very Strange

2009-06-01T09:43:00.000-05:00

I don't think I mentioned that when we were at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, we entered a very strange exhibit. I didn't see any signs explaining exactly what this was, but I assume it's part of a "History of Bondage" exposition. We left before finding out if it was a hands-on exhibit.

Chicago Panoramic

2009-05-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

My guess is that this won't show up well at all. Too bad. It's a panoramic picture of Chicago from the Shedd Aquarium, looking north.

Beer Can Chicken

2009-05-26T09:29:00.000-05:00

Kind of.

I don't drink beer that comes in cans, so I had to drink a Mountain Dew, and then pour beer from a bottle into the can. Combine that with garlic and other spices, put a rub on the chicken, and dump the guy in the grill for an hour and a half. Nice looking bird!

I've never done this before, but will definitely do it again. Very easy, and very, very moist.

Lazer Tag!

2009-05-20T14:28:00.000-05:00

Eli, Milena and Kelson had accumulated a nice amount of cash between the three of them, and I elegantly suggested to them that instead of going to Target and wasting it all on crap, they could pool their money together and get something cool. I showed them Lazer Tag guns on Amazon.com, and they thought they looked great. So the three of them each put in fifty dollars to buy two sets (four guns total).

They love them.

Although it doesn't seem that Milena is too happy that I found her hiding spot.

The range on these is definitely over 200 feet. Here Eli is taking aim at Koleman, who is in our neighbor's neighbor's yard.

Aiming isn't critical at close range, but you've got to keep up appearances.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my dad when he was here. He brought along his army clothes, and bragged about how he was the only one who has been trained as a killer.

However, he can't match the ferocious intensity of this fighter:

Paper and Imagination

2009-05-17T20:27:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned that Kelson has his own room. He likes it. He can create whatever he wants for his room.

This is something he's been working on for weeks. I'm not sure if it's a jungle, or zoo, or his dream house, but it's filled with animals and vegetation. He can tell you what every bird is, too.

He has even figured out how to fold paper to create three dimensional animals. The dolphins in the pond practically leap off the screen at you!

He's a busy guy.

Koleman in Chicago

2009-05-12T20:16:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Michelle, Koleman and I went to Chicago for Koleman's 11th birthday. It's a new Lund family tradition!

Anyway, here is Koleman on the Navy Pier, in front of Chicago.

Here is Koleman by a large tractor tire at the Museum of Science & Industry.

The Harry Potter exhibit at the museum was pretty good. A bit pricey, of course, but the props and costumes were fun to see for us Potter-lovers. If you aren't a Potter fan, you'd hate it.

This is the appropriate look to have whilst driving a combine.

Why is Koleman smiling? Because he gets sushi.

Koleman the Giant

2009-05-10T18:12:00.000-05:00

He can crush the Sears Tower! Don't mess with him!

To Chicago

2009-05-10T07:59:00.000-05:00

Michelle and I are in Chicago right now with Koleman. It's his 11th birthday present. To get to Chicago we had to drive through a state. Can you guess which state that was? Here's a hint:

Mario Kart Buddies Again!

2009-05-04T10:36:00.000-05:00

I caught them at it again. Another battle of youngest versus oldest.

Kelson just smiles while Grandpa concentrates.

Too bad the screen is so small. It's hard to see how they're doing.

Only a mean, inconsiderate son would do something to point out exactly how well or poorly each of the racers was doing.

Goofy pictures

2009-05-02T15:51:00.000-05:00

OK, these are just goofy pictures that the kids had me take. After geocaching in Rochester, we went to Bakers Square, and while waiting the kids wanted me to play with the color features of my camera.

This is a very powerful picture, if you accept the fact that a kid's cup from Bakers Square is meaningful to your life.

Eli wanted a blue face. He got it.

Geocaching PIctures

2009-04-30T12:08:00.000-05:00

Just some random leftover geocaching pictures.

Milena is looking for a Troll Bridge cache. It was a pretty steep incline under a trail bridge in Rochester. Kelson was too scared to go down it, so it was up to Eli and Milena to find the cache. They found it, but had no way to reach it.

Douglas Trail in Rochester.

Now we're in St. Peter. Posing on rocks while other people look for a cache.

I'm king of the rock!