Hard Water Season

Finally!! It has been cold enough that the lake is solid enough to play on. S loves it; he can run free.

 

Ski School

We took the boys to Theodore Wirth park for a cross country ski lesson. It snowed hard the whole time we were there and it was absolutely magical. The boys did well and had a fun time.

 

Snowballed

CP got out the snowblower to clean up the driveway. When he pulled the lever to make it throw snow, there was nothing. We discovered that the cable was pinched. When he pulled the lever again, it went. I was standing right next to it and caught all the snow that was in it.

 

Christmas in IL

We went to IL to Nana for Christmas. A hearty breakfast at the cafe got us ready for some landscaping work.

The same windstorm we had in MN also took out half of the pear tree.

 

Santa

We hit the fancy mall for lunch @ Cov and some x-mas shopping.

JP was fired up to talk to Santa.

 

December Windstorm

We had a crazy storm/hurricane blow through. This is the weather site we used to pull up in NE to check on the likelihood of tornadoes. I've never This is typical for August, not mid-December. Especially for Minnesota!

Lincoln had some wind gusts over 100 mph. Here it was quiet all day and then the wind howled for five minutes and it was over. All the neighborhood trees survived it, but one of out pots did not. The airport recorded some 75 mph winds, and there were several tornadoes in the southeast corner of the state.

JP had a spare pot and was able to stuff all the greenery into it and it looks nice again.

 

GP Junior Year

Since GP is at school, we don't get many good photos of him. This is his frat photo for this year. Sharp looking kid, if I do say so myself.

 

Ski Weather

 JP has been itching to try out her new cross country skis since we got them two months ago. Friday night at 9 PM during the storm, she couldn't take it any longer. At this point we had 8" of fresh snow on the deck.

Saturday & Sunday delivered perfect post-storm weather: sunny, 30°, and zero wind. We hoofed it down to the lake and tried it out in the daylight. Super fun!!! We barely know what we're doing, but we're able to stay in the grooves and slowly make our way down the path. The bike path is plowed by the park dept. and the walking path is now the XC ski path. We ran into some other skiers and everyone was enjoying themselves.

Snow!

Friday, we had our first real snowstorm of the year. We have been enjoying the mild weather, but everyone has been itching for some snow. Especially JP; she wants to put her new skis to work.

S LOVES the snow. He whines at the door to go out. He's content just sitting outside watching it come down.

It snowed all day until midnight. We ended up with just under a foot. St. Paul got 21". The roads were a mess, but by Saturday afternoon, everything had been plowed and back to normal.

Nothing is prettier than a the morning after a big snow that has stuck to everything.

 

Whirlyball!

What sort of activity can you do in the Twin Cities when it's dark & cold outside? Whirlyball! It's 5 vs. 5 in bumper cars as each time tries to hit a small target with a wiffle ball, using jai alai scoops to fling the ball. Very fun!!

 

Excelsior Cristkindlemarket

We ventured out to Excelsior (15 min west of us @ Lake Minnetonka) for their Cristkindlemarket Christmas festival. They had 20+ tents setup at the lakefront park selling all sorts of Christmas goodies. We got to meet Minnesota Krampus (!!!). 

After the market, we explored downtown Excelsior. They have a ton of fun shops.

 

X-Mas Tree

One of the fun things about the neighborhood is that we have a boyscout Christmas tree lot a few blocks down (the hill). CP came with us to pick out this year's tree. What seemed like a short walk there was a lot longer on the way home carrying the tree uphill the entire way. I'm glad CP was with us to help out.

 

Interstate SP

The Gs came up for a beautiful fall weekend. We went up to Interstate State Park (MN side) and then came back down the river for some shopping and lunch in Stillwater.

No trip is complete without a stroll along the lake. The nice thing about this time of year is that the sun comes up late enough that a sunrise walk is easy to hit.

 

Ice Pucks

The lake froze a little bit then we had a windy day that broke it up into dinner plate pieces. Then it snowed a little and refroze after that, leaving ice pucks embedded in the new ice.

 

Thanksgiving 2021

JP has worked out that making a turkey roulade makes a whole lot more sense than an entire turkey. It's big enough for two four-person meals. No bones, no grease, no endless leftovers.

GP came home for Thanksgiving and we had a blast. 

 

Reindeer @ Bachman's

We have two incredible garden centers near us. We stopped in to check out the holiday décor and found out they had reindeer out back. JP was loving them.

 

Fall Dog Walks

Fall morning dog walks are the best. Minnehaha creek is still down, but it's flowing.

 

Room with a View

We are in the process of remodeling at work. I snuck in for a peek at my new office. From my desk, I can see outside!! It's not a lot of a view, but I can tell if it's light or dark, or sunny or snowing. My old office had no such view and I was always amazed when I walked outside and found that it had snowed 4".

 

New Closet

We wrapped up JP's closet transformation. Everything that was cedar is now white and clean. It looks really nice and it's a lot brighter.

 

Halloween

Halloween is a big thing in the neighborhood. This place had a full-size ghost ship in their front yard.

We had a few pumpkins and JP's steel jack-o-lantern with a new firepit that we scored from the neighbors 3 doors down that moved out. It was a perfect chilly evening to chat with all the neighbors.

 

Fall Morning Lake

Weekend morning dog walks are special because not only is the coffee shop open, but it's light out. Weekday dog walks are in the dark with homebrew coffee.

Lake Harriet is shedding her warmth to the cool mornings. JP is reluctant, but I think she realizes that it's time to put her paddleboard away for the season.

 

Fall Colors

We were afraid that the dry summer would inhibit the fall colors. It was a slow start, but the maples did not disappoint us.

The neighborhood is aglow with red, orange, and yellow.

 

Wedding Friends

Funny - we have all been neighbors at some point.

Weddings are so fun!

 

KG --> KO

My flight from Louisville Thursday night was cancelled, so we drove to Indianapolis to catch the first flight out Friday AM. I booked my ticket from Indy to Minneapolis and then to Lincoln, in case there were any more delays Friday AM. The flight was on-time, and JP picked me up at the airport and we headed directly to Lincoln for KG's wedding. We picked up D & MN in Omaha along the way and we all stayed downtown Lincoln for the weekend. Fun times!!

The wedding went off without a hitch, and everyone had a great time.

The reception was in the Grand Manse - an old swanky venue downtown. This is the elevator. Everything is still the original decor.

 

Mowers Then & Now

After a year off due to the pandemic, the annual mower show (GIE) came back to Louisville. There were a lot of cool mowers to see. Here are the highlights of the show:

This is an old-school autonomous lawn mower. It makes tall grass short on its own. It also fertilizes the grass.

This is a future autonomous mower. It also makes long grass short on its own. It does not fertilize the grass.

 

Bear Head Lake SP

The warm food dinner recharge the night before worked like magic. The following day was perfect and we went for an eight mile hike to the far side of the lake. There was a primitive canoe-in campsite that would be fun if/when we return. 

There are some other smaller lakes in the park that are spectacular. 

Our campsite was across the road from this view.