Amanda and Dan's Wedding

Yesterday was my cousin Amanda's wedding in Isanti, the highlight for the kids being the wedding dance. First they had to do a lot of waiting, though, which for the boys (Karl, Colin, and Damon) meant a lot of running, and for the parents a lot of "Hey boys- cool it. Walk. No wrestling!"

First, the two calm children: Laura with Angie...

..and Justin with Jason.

Colin, Damon, Karl (I think Karl's shirt stayed tucked in for precisely five minutes.)

Finally! The Dance! Here's Laura doing the Hokey Pokey.

The bride with Karl and Damon

Mom and I had enough fun just watching the kids.

Honey Harvest

Today we went to Wisconsin to visit Dan, Peggy, and Wyatt because Dan was planning to collect some of the honey from his hives, and Karl had wanted to see firsthand where honey comes from. Before we went out to the hives, though, Karl and Wyatt had a chance to hang out together.

After lunch, it was time to head out to the beehives. Good thing Dan had an extra hat for Karl! Matt just had to do his best to be brave.

Let's go get some honey!

Even though Karl was completely covered, he didn't want to get too close at first. He watched at a distance as Dan and Grandpa smoked the bees to calm them down.

Soon he got braver...

...because he wanted a closer look at this!

After the full frames were collected, it was time to uncap the cells. Dan showed us how to do it first.

And then we got to have a try! It is unbelievably sticky work. Karl even tried a piece of honey-filled beeswax, but decided he doesn't like to eat honey like that. Laura was not too interested in the whole bee-business. Well, she's interested in bees but she had no desire to be anywhere near them. She did supply us with some fun bee facts though; did you know that only female bees have stingers, because they're the ones who go out and collect the nectar, and the male bees stay in the hive to work? And that at the end of the season, when all the work is done, the female bees make all the male bees leave the hive, essentially killing them? Dan and Dad confirmed that yes, bees have a very strange way of doing things.

Once the honeycomb was uncapped, the frames went into the spinner to spin the honey out. Because of our crazy fall weather, the honey was really thick and needed to warm up inside for a while, so we couldn't wait for the finished product. Karl sure had fun seeing how it was done, though!

After we finished with the honey work, Karl and Wyatt went back to playing. When Wyatt turned one last month, he got a new swingset. Karl helped him break in the new see-saw.

I'd say both kids now have a new appreciation for honey, and I'm very proud of Matt for remaining so calm even as bees kept flying all around him!

Autumn Woods Classic 2009

This morning we drove on icy roads, past several nasty accidents, to meet Angie and Jason at the Elm Creek Park Reserve to race in the Autumn Woods Classic. We timed it pretty well, because I had just enough time to pin on my number, tie on my timing chip, and take off my down parka to start the race. It was not a pleasant run, because the paved part of the trail was glare ice, and the dirt part had a layer of snow. Nice. I watched two runners' feet slip right out from under them during the race, so I decided to take this race a little easy...

At the starting line with Jason.

While Jason and I were running, Angie and Matt kept the kids occupied. First they took a picture with the Old Country Buffet bumblebee.

Then they got their faces painted. Karl has a snake, Laura has a butterfly, and Colin has a gecko.

Then they painted rocks.

By this time they had to hurry and get to the finish line to see us finish. Well, they had to hurry to see Jason finish, since he stayed near the front of the pack the whole time.

Jason came in ninth place overall! And this is even though he only sporadically runs and has been sick lately. It's so not fair.

After our race came the kids' 1K race. They divide the kids up into age groups and stagger the starts. Here's Colin getting ready for his race. He got second place for his age group, probably due to that determined attitude that you can see on his face!

Here's Karl at the starting line. He looks very unassuming here, but little do people know how quick he is!

Off he goes!

We're not sure what place Karl got, because they started the age groups backwards of what they should've, and he ended up running into the little kids at the end. We do know that he did very well!

The biggest surprise of the day was Laura, who almost didn't run but decided to after all. Good thing, because she did fabulously! She kept a good, steady pace the whole way, but unfortunately she wiped out on some ice right before the final turn. She was a tough cookie, though, and quickly started running again.

Here's Laura coming in for a strong finish! (We got separated by this unaware woman in the middle of the road.)

All the runners: Jason, Me, Laura, Karl, and Colin

It was a yucky day for a race, but that just makes us tougher runners, I guess. Since it was so cold, we decided to skip the nearby playground and just go home. On our way out to the car, Matt noticed that we had a flat, so to cap off this beautiful morning he had to change a tire. Luckily, Jason and Angie drove by and saw us, so Jason helped out and the tire got changed lickety-split (thank you!). Oh well, we'll just hope that next year's Autumn Woods Classic will be warmer with no snow and ice!

Daddy Time

Matt and Karl have been spending lots of time together lately, since Matt is in charge of practicing guitar with Karl, and they watch all the Vikings games. Since the Vikings played last night, Karl only got to stay up for the first half, but he watched the recorded second half really quickly this morning before school.

Since he had to put his jammies on before the game, Karl just put his Peterson jersey on over them.

Karl and Matt during a practice session.

Guitar Lessons for Karl

Karl was very excited this week when Matt brought home a new half-sized classical guitar for him, since he's been talking about wanting to play guitar "like Daddy, and Steve and Tanya." Today he met with Doug Smith, Matt's former guitar teacher, to see if he's ready for lessons. Doug was impressed with Karl's finger strength and ability to follow directions, so lessons will start right away next week!