Here Fishy Fishy

Den took a friend out on the Rum River the other night in his little river boat....they had some pretty good luck! These two walleye were quite a catch, unfortunately, since all our fileting knives are up at...you guessed it, THE CABIN!.....we really couldn't do much with them. Being the good man Den is, ahhhh-say it with me, Den let Todd take the fish home with him to enjoy. Hmmmm, I wonder what Den will get for Fathers Day this year???

Look Mom, No Training Wheels!!

So, little Ben, our creature of habit, who likes no change......well, he finally started riding his bike this spring, with training wheels of course. Dad always like to challenge him a little quicker than I do.....Wil would probably still be on training wheels if it were up to me LOL....anyway, after having a few weeks of enjoying the safety of riding his bike along with the training wheels, Den decided to "bend" the training wheels up, vertically I would say, but about 2" he would say. I was furious, kept my mouth shut and went inside. Last I saw, Den was hanging on to the bike, trying to talk Ben into going down the drive, and Ben was adamantly saying no. About 10 minutes later, Dad and Ben come in, Dad says there was no luck. I smirk, to myself. Then Ben comes up and asks me to come out, he wants to show me something. Sure, no problem. This time of year, Ben always has something to show you, be it a new rock, a worm, a bug, a turtle, something he built, who knows!! So, I go out, needless to say, I come back in to get my camera.....and this is what I saw.......

30 minutes later, the training wheels were removed, permanently. Ben's favorite thing to do is hot rod thru the yard and stand up on the pedals as he speeds down the hill, past our house, giving his mother a heart attack.--but with a helmet on.

I must say, I was very humbled, no more smirking to myself, and had to admit, Den was right. This time :o)

A Day at the Aquarium at Mall of America

One of the perks of the Mall of America is the Underwaters Adventure Aquarium. It is really neat to go thru, and you are in tunnels that go right thru the aquarium. So all the animals are swimming all around you, except below. This is all in the basement of the Mall. So, one day when the kids had no school, I signed them up to help feed the sharks! We went in for a tour, "Behind the Scenes" where they show you their lab, above all the tanks (which is where they feed the animals) and the kitchen, where they store and prepare all the food. This was really interesting, and they only take 4 people for the feedings. I snagged that opportunity up quick! No camera's were allowed down there, as it was the basement of the mall for security purposes, so the only pictures I can show below is from when we were finished and went thru the tunnels.

We were feeding the sharks mackerel and squid. They gave us long tongs, and we tapped the water to get the sharks attention to come eat, and when they would, we would hold the tongs down, and they would come up and snatch the food away--just 3 feet separating us from them. All 3 tried it, however, I did hang on to the tongs with Jacque and Ben just to make sure they didn't get tugged in!! As we were feeding them, this VERY large sting ray clinged to the wall below us, and kept lifting itself up and out ( so you could see him mouth underneath him) and would slide up to the open air a good 10 inches, trying to get the squid from us. So weird. They said that is how they feed the sting rays, and this one was still hungry!

So below are some pics of the kids as we finished up going thru the aquarium......

Typical teenage grin :o) Don't ya just love em' !

A sea turtle swimming by.....

It's a little freaky seeing a shark swim over you....

Some very large sting rays and sharks.....

OUCH!!!!!

Well, a few weeks ago, we were over at a friends house for dinner, and the kids took their scooters to play on. This is a fairly new neighborhood, so all the sidewalks are new, however, where the road meets the sidewalk, that has not been leveled out smooth. Point is, there is still about a 3/4-1" rise from the pavement to the sidewalk edge. Obviously, from this picture, Ben was unaware of that :o) He took a pretty good fall, head over the handle bars and ended with this skid mark. He wasn't very happy, unlike this picture, which was 1 week later. Wil did come to his rescue and brought him to us, and after that, Daddy worked a little magic on him and made him feel better. All is well now.........