A Trip To The Cities: Day 4, Swimming with Cousins!

Sunday proved to be another scorcher so we hung out in the best place to cool off: the lake! This is all the kids really wanted to do all weekend anyway. Nothing is better than cousin time.

Ahhhh!

Boy time: Eli, Sam. Jake and Gabe

Sam and Maddy

Grace and Sadie

Floaties!



A whole mess of kids!

We had an awesome trip. Thanks Mick and Mel for your hospitality. In less than a week the big annual family reunion will be taking place. It's time for the 2nd Sperlympics (the last one taking place 4 years ago!). I can't wait to share pictures of that!

What We've Been Up To This Summer: Piano

The kids continued with piano this summer. It was hard getting them to practice, but the rule was piano before playing. We practiced in our jammies most days! Towards the end of July the whining was getting pretty rediculous. It's a good thing we're on a break now until mid-September, I think we all need it!

A Trip To The Cities: Day 3, Part 2, The Twins Game

After our delicious dinner at Wendy's, Cole, Teresa, Duane, Greg, Dennis, Elizabeth, Maddy, Grace, Eli, Sadie and I went to the Twins game at Target Field. The Twins stunk it up and lost to the A's 3-9, but it was fun anyways as it was the kids' first MLB game and they got icecream in a twins helmet and cotton candy. I didn't get any pictures because there was a miscommunication about the camera and it was left in the car. Instead I stole Teresa's.

Cole showing off his new shirt with Teresa.

Target Field

A Trip To The Cities: Day 3, Part 1, The MN Zoo

On Thursday night, we were joined by other aunts, uncles, and cousins: Terri, Duane, Teresa, and Cole, Greg, Lisa, Elizabeth, Maddy, Grace, Gabe, Sam, and Jake! We decided to spend Saturday at the Minnesota Zoo. It was fun, but it was HOT. In fact, it was miserably hot and there were a lot of people so it might have been more miserable than fun, but we all survived the trek. There was a lot of whining (even by the parents!) but icecream got us through!

Sadie was in charge of the camera so here are a few of her shots. I think I deleted about 200 pictures that either came out blurry, were redundant or there wasn't an animal to be seen. It would have been fun to get a big family shot but with 16 people it was sort of like herding chickens... everyone was going every which way!

The dolphin show was great and as an extra bonus there was air conditioning AND you got splashed if you sat in the front rows!

Most of the animals were not moving and were sleeping in the shade, which is what we should have been doing!

Here's a cousin: Jake! Sadie must have liked the goats because there were about 25 photos of them.

Another cousin: Caveman Gabe!

After the zoo, we drove around aimlessly looking for somewhere to eat and eventually found a Wendy's. I'm only telling you this because Eli is still raving about how good the cheeseburger was. We don't have a Wendy's in Bemidji.

A Trip To The Cities: Day 2, Valley Fair

We got up on Friday morning and headed to Valley Fair, which is an amusement park much like Six Flags. The kids had never been and were very, very excited to spend the day there. Eli was looking forward to going on his first big roller coaster. Sadie spent a lot of the day being told that she was too short to ride. Luckily, there were a lot of rides that she could ride and that we could all enjoy.

The lines were short or non-existent on most of the rides. We did manage to get on two rides that broke down on us. One was the antique cars, and the other was the "Linus launcher" in which you lie on your belly and twirl around like you're flying. Dennis and the kids weren't stuck on there for long, but long enough to get uncomfortable!

It was a hot and steamy day so we had planned to eat a picnic lunch at our car and change into our swimsuits to spend the afternoon at Soak City, the waterpark that is inside Valley Fair. It was a perfect break from the heat. There was a splash park, lazy river, wave pool and waterslides (that they were too small to ride). I, however, did not get pictures of any of this because it was wet and I was wearing a swimsuit and my camera was locked up in the lockers.

After we were sufficiently cooled off we rode a few more rides, including "Mad Mouse", Eli's first big roller-coaster. Then the rain clouds were starting to roll in and there was thunder and lightening so they closed down most of the rides. It didn't matter it was 6:00 and we were ready to leave.

By the way, even when you're 40 it's tough being on the small side. Dennis wanted to ride a water ride, but the kids were too small  and I couldn't go because someone had to stay with the kids. He ended up going by himself only to be turned away because he didn't weigh 150 pounds! Now he knows how Sadie felt all day!!

Valley Fair was a blast! The best part? Almost no whining!!! We might have to make it an annual trip.

A Trip To The Cities: Day 1, Fishing!

We spent a long weekend just west of Minneapolis at Dennis' sister and brother-in-law, Mick and Mel's, lovely lake home. We got there a little late on Thursday afternoon, so the kids enjoyed the lake a bit.

And practiced their fishing skills...

The 4th

We celebrated our Nation's birthday starting on Sunday at the parade. Here are the kids with our neighbors. We've seen a lot of them this summer. In fact, I've kind of become a mom of 5 kids.

Sadie, Chase, Spenser, Eli, and Quinn

 On the actual 4th we went to a friends cabin just in time for it to start raining so we sat in the cabin and watched a hotdog eating contest, which is sort of nauseating. Then we went to a pig roast. We finished the night with fireworks of our own...

...and fireworks in the community.

What did you do to celebrate?

Lake La Salle / Itasca

We did our first camping trip of the summer a couple of weeks ago at Lake La Salle recreation area. The area is currently closed after 80mph winds went through that area and all of Bemidji last week destroying property and ripping up trees. It was a quick camping trip, but we filled it with lots of swimming, bikeriding, fishing and canoeing and snorkeling....

I have to admit that my kids are not big lake swimmers because they hate the muck and the weeds. I don't blame them, I hate that too. They usually swim with their shoes on!

I think we're already on our 8th bag of marshmellows for the summer. Who can resist s'mores?

Lake LaSalle is a hop, skip and a jump to Itasca so we headed there for bit of river crossing, and tower climbing.

We ended our day by going to the locally famous Beceida Bar where the kids ate mini hotdogs and played pool.  It was a fun weekend and the weather was perfect!

So I Went and Got a Job...

With both kids starting school in the fall, I knew that I wanted to find some kind of work, but I also wanted to be able to get them to school, be home when they're done with school in the afternoon, and be able to spend some time in their classrooms. This seemed like an almost impossible wish list and I thought so too thinking that I'd end up subbing at Schoolcraft (which I still may end up doing in my spare time).

I will be working for an organization called Peacemaker Resources that focuses on teaching non-violent communication and social and emotional learning to teachers, parents and children. I will be going into a school 2 days a week and teaching about bullying, mindfulness (self-calming, etc.), and various non-violent communication tools to students. 

I feel like I have a lot to learn, but so far the learning has been very interesting and helpful in my own life. I hope I can pass these important life-skills to the students in a fun and interesting way. Wish me luck!  

Camp Oak Hills

The kids spent the week going to day camp at Camp Oak Hills. Camp Oak Hills is a Christian camp and the kids spent the week doing the "usual" camp things: singing, hiking, swimming, arts/crafts, boating, etc. They will both say that their favorite part of camp was the giant slip and slide and ga-ga ball which is a gentle form of dodgeball tag.

This was Sadie's first time going anywhere all day. She was tired by the end of the week and had a few meltdowns, but wants to go back next year.

What did I do all week? Well, I had grand plans to get housework down including scrubbing the outside of the house to rid it of all the pine pollen and doing windows. However, it rained several days, but I can't blame the rain. I have two girlfriends that also had kids in camp all week, so we hung out like we did pre-kids. We drank a lot of margaritas, and exercised every day, and went shopping and out for lunch... It was AWESOME!

I wasn't at camp so I didn't get any pictures. These are the pictures that they sent home with the kids.

Spruce Cabin with counselors Sam and Seth



Birch Cabin with counselors Claire and Napthalie

Father's Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend celebrating dad and hanging as a family. On Saturday, we loaded up the canoe (have I mentioned that we got a new/used canoe?) and bikes and drove 1/2 mile down the road to the state park to spend the day. When we started packing up the weather was really nice. By the time we got to the park, it was overcast and windy. The kids were determined to canoe though, so we put in only to get out 5 minutes later because the waves were coming over and into the canoe. They decided that biking was a much better option.

On Sunday, the kids and I woke up to find Dennis MIA. I assumed he was out for a run. He called later in the morning stating that he was running his marathon. Let me backtrack for a moment here. Dennis has been training for a marathon for awhile, but couldn't decide which marathon to run. Then, he decided that he was going to run the "Dennis Sperle Marathon" because a) he didn't want to pay anyone for him to run and b) he didn't want to run with 10,000 of his closest friends! So, he mapped out his 26.2 miles and ran it. He did great and ran it with an unofficial time of 3:40. After Dennis rested for several hours we went to Putt-N-Go for a little mini-golfing...

And bumper boats...

And ice-cream at the Dairy Queen. It was a fun and relaxing day (for me at least, I'm pretty sure that Dennis was exhausted).

Saying Good-Bye to Auntie Barb

 My dad and I drove across North Dakota on Friday to say good-by to my Auntie Barb who passed away last November. Barb loved lots of things but especially Betty Boop and beauty products of all kinds. My aunt loved to do me up all fancy when I was younger (and would let her) and we both thought I looked great. Looking back and after seeing some of the pictures of me from when Barb got her hands on me, I can say that I looked a little inappropriate (think Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver). Unfortunately by aunt also liked to party and it was the drinking that got her in the end.

My aunts and mom planned a very nice memorial service for her. They all wore green (Barb's favorite color) with Betty Boop on their sleeves.

Mom, Auntie Luci, Auntie Mel, Auntie Dorothy

All of my aunts and uncles: Mom, Don, Luci, Cal, Al, Les, Mel and Dorothy