Christmas Photo Shoot 1--Dan and Natasha

Jake on National CBS News...

It turns out that CBS National News with Katie Something or Other picked up the local WCCO news story on Jacob's 4th Grade Teacher, Joel Nydam. Jake appears twice in the news story, once towards the middle and once at the very end as he is walking out of class. Click here for the link to the CBS story.

WCCO TV Visits Jacob's 4th Grade Class

Last week, WCCO TV visited Jacob's 4th Grade Class for a story on Jacob's teacher, Joel Nydam, and his involvement with the Gold Star Registry program. The Gold Star Registry is a website where teachers can "register" for various school supplies to assist them in their classroom.

Joel, a Northwestern College Alumnus, is an awesome teacher and very popular among both students and parents. Kenzie also had Joel as a teacher during her first year at Otter Lake where he was very instrumental in her integration into a new school. Jacob is now blessed to be in his class as well.

Click here for a link to the news story (you can see Jacob behaving himself as usual, both at the beginning and towards the end of the story).

Here is a slideshow of interesting pictures.

First Gopher's Hockey Game

My next door neighbor Todd is new to my favorite person's list as he had an extra ticket he gave me for the Gopher's Hockey game against St. Cloud State Huskies. Mariucci Arena had all the college atmosphere I had expected. Having been to many sporting events, college and professional, Gophers Hockey is by far the best ticket in town.

The Student Section was on it's feet the entire game. They looked like they had a lot of fun but made me feel old as it's been a few years since I've worn my college-colored striped overalls and sang a song about a goalie "you suck....ALL...NIGHT....LONG" in chorus with 1000 0f my friends at a hockey game. Kids.

Here, the Gophers' Student Section serenades St. Cloud State's Goalie with the "Sieve" Song. (Their other favorite chant about St. Cloud's goalie was "GO-pher RE-ject.") As a 36-year-old father though, I can't help but think, "Hey, that's not very nice. How do you think that makes the poor goalie feel?" After all, "sieve" was a bit harsh, he just let more goals in than the Gophers....ALL...NIGHT...LONG!

The traditional meeting at center ice following a sweep.

Post Game Celebration

Kenzie & Dan: Photo Tour of Minneapolis

IDS Center (Dan)

Historic Foshay Tower (Dan)

35W Bridge, Erected 2008.

Minneapolis Skyline from Stone Arch Bridge.

Stone Arch Bridge (Dan).

Stone Arch Bridge (Dan).

Stone Arch Bridge (Kenzie).

Stone Arch Bridge (Dan).

Dan & Kenzie: Photo Tour--Walker Art Center Sculture Garden

A photo tour in the Twin Cities is just not complete without a trip to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center.

Kenzie, of course, adds her own flair to the sculptures.

I, on the other, hand, can't grasp art unless it's functional. So here I am doing my morning pull-ups.

And I can't say that I understand what some sculptures are supposed to be either. Kenzie and I decided that there is a lot of left over scrap metal that artists collected, welded and painted and called it "art."

The Cherry and Spoon, of course, is a classic. Here is Kenzie's photo in b/w.

Minneapolis Skyline (Dan).

Kenzie in twisted, painted metal.

Kenzie on the Walker Bridge over Hwy. 94.

Cool Kenz.

Kenzie & Dan: Photo Tour of St. Paul

Kenzie and I took our 2nd annual father/daughter trip a couple of weekends ago. We decided to hang out close to home this year to take a photo tour of the beautiful cities right in our backyard. It is interesting to see both the shared and different perspectives of the same scene. Here are a few of our photos of St. Paul.

Skyline from Harriet Island (Mckenzie).

Skyline from Harriet Island (Dan).

Boat from Harriet Island (Dan).

St. Paul Skyline/Black and White (Dan).

St. Paul Skyline/Color (McKenzie).

Mickey's Diner (Dan).

Puddle Jumping with Katie

We finally had a nice, warm, drizzly day for Katie to try out all of her rain gear!

Katie in her slicker and umbrella.

Fun jumping in puddles!

More Puddle Jumping.

Froggy Boots.

Kenzie's 12th Birthday

Kenzie turned 12 at the end of August and celebrated her birthday (one of her parties) at our friend's cabin over Labor Day Weekend.


Her other party was a water war with her friends who are here enjoying a more docile moment of her party!

I spent a good part of my time at the party filling water balloons. Kenzie's friends were kind enough not to bomb their ammunition supplier!

Water Bazooka Birthday Girl!
"Hanna," one of Kenzie's well mannered friends!
Katie.

Prayer needed....

A friend of mine from high school and her family could really use your prayers right now. Here is a link to their blog. http://thebrokeringfamily.blogspot.com Thank you.

Pine Tree Apple Orchard

Last Saturday, I decided it was time for Katie and I to spend some FUN time together. We spend most days together, but usually stick to our routine. I thought it might be fun for both of us to visit the apple orchard since I hadn't been to one since the last field trip I helped chaperone (maybe Kenzie's 1st grade trip). It was Katie's first visit. Because of my lack of experience, I didn't realize that apple orchards can be very busy on Saturdays! The lines for everything, including the shop, were VERY long! Long lines and three year olds don't usually mix very well. I asked her if she would rather go on a wagon ride or get a snack (since the line for both was long). She chose the wagon ride. Of course AFTER the wagon ride, she was ready for the snack. Because I was tired of holding her through the first long line, I asked her if she would like to wait in the LONG line for a snack (emphasizing the word long), or get a snack with Mommy on the way home. Fortunately, she chose the non-line option. We stopped at Cub and picked out donuts that were definitely not the yummy apple cinnamon ones we would have found at the apple orchard, but there were also no lines at the Cub bakery! At least SHE didn't realize the treat we were missing.