It’s Football Season In Every Galaxy

If you think the Vikings have quarterback issues, just imagine cheering for the team being led by Jar Jar Binks… …or the team that has to defend against a monstrous greyhound pass rush.

Fall Football, Day 3: Family Football Classic

Today, the Elliots hosted the first Family Football Classic. We ate chili, played some touch football, and watched the Vikings do what the Vikings do best.

There's one particular Viking who is popular with this crowd…


The kids had a difficult time deciding whether to watch the game or play outside in the sun.


After the Vikings game was over, Jason worked on routes with the boys…


…as well as touchdown celebration dances. Karl is demonstrating the classic high-step.


Laura was successful in her goal for football weekend — not a second of football watched. She hid out in Colin and Justin’s room most of the afternoon, tearing through her stack of books.


Thanks for hosting, Jason and Angie!

Fall Football, Day 2: Um Ya Ya!

I’ve attended exactly three Saint Olaf football games. The first was in 1989 to see Tanya when she was an Ole cheerleader. The second was sometime between 1993 and 1996, I really don’t remember — it was a home game and I was probably avoiding doing some homework or something. The third game was today.

I set Karl’s expectations pretty low — Saint Olaf isn’t exactly renown for its football program. Our opponent was Bethel University. They were ranked #5 in the nation, they had a bye last week so were well-rested, and it was their homecoming game.

The Elliotts live right down the road from Bethel, so we dropped Laura off at their house to avoid football with Angie and Adam while Jason and I took Colin, Justin, and Karl to see the Oles take on the Royals (why aren’t they the Bethlies?).



Here’s Karl joining in on the college fight song, “Um Ya Ya!”


Though it probably won’t get as much press as some other MIAC game, I think we probably saw the most exciting MIAC game today! The Oles were down by eighteen points at the start of the fourth quarter, but they rallied and scored twenty to win the game — the go-ahead touchdown coming with 25 seconds left to play. The final score was 30-28.

We’ll savor the Oles’ victory because tomorrow we cheer for the Vikings, and we all know how that usually ends up…

Fall Football, Day 1: Rush City Homecoming

It is a glorious weekend in Minnesota. The fall weather is beautiful, the leaves are changing color (they do that up here in the North), and there’s plenty of football being played. Karl and I are taking advantage of all of the football this weekend with three straight days of pigskin fun. (Laura is having fun finding new ways to avoid seeing one instant of football…)

Up first was the big homecoming game between the Rush City Tigers and the Crosby-Ironton Rangers. My mom was there to document the parade. Laura made a sign and had her face painted to walk with her class down the parade route.


The sign has a catchy slogan: “Bengal or Siberian?”


My dad joined Karl and me at the game while Laura invited Oma over to avoid some football. It was a gorgeous, crisp evening for a game.



The Tigers are having a rebuilding decade (until the class of ’22 starts playing…), so we weren’t surprised that they lost 28-20. But we still had a good time.

Star of the Week

Each student in Mrs. Lundeen's second grade class takes a turn being the "Star of the Week," and this past week's star was Karl. The kids bring in photos, items of personal interest, and favorite books to share with the class. Karl went one step further, though, and played "The Drummer's Reel" and "Malagueña" on the guitar for his classmates.



On Wednesday, Deborah composed an adorable poem about Karl that Mrs. Lundeen read to the class. And Thursday, Deborah and I joined Karl in the cafeteria for a lunch of chicken noodle soup and sandwiches.

Today, Karl came home with the friendship poster that his classmates made for him.

Freedom Teeth

Hey everybody! Laura got her braces off last week, and now her beautifully straight teeth get to take a break from braces for a few years. As soon as all her permanent teeth come in, she'll get a new set of braces to correct her overbite, but in the mean time she gets to enjoy eating popcorn and pizza crusts with abandon!

She was a little nervous before her appointment...


…but quite happy once her braces were off. Now she just has to wear a retainer to keep everything straight.


Since we were so close, we drove to St. Paul to have lunch with Matt (it was Tuesday). Yay for Brueggers!

Here's a reminder of what her teeth looked like on the day she got her braces on last December:

The Defeat of Jesse James Days

Today Matt, Karl, and I headed down to Northfield for a little reminiscing and to watch the annual reenactment of the defeat of the James-Younger gang. Laura stayed home because she had no interest in seeing our old apartment or watching live shoot-em-up action. She also wasn't interested in going to St. Olaf because their library would have very few books for her. Ouch. Oh well, the three of us made the best of it without her while Laura hung out with Pam and Fred.

Our first stop was the St. Olaf bookstore, where Karl got a new St. Olaf football jersey and a Viking helmet. Then we had lunch in the caf (which was ranked the best in the nation by a Newsweek/Daily Beast poll; too bad it was built after we graduated…). Karl got lots of "ahhh, isn't he just the cutest?" looks from all the college kids.

Then we toured the campus. Anyone who's been there knows it's the most beautiful place on earth. Karl was only interested in chasing squirrels, however, and didn't care which buildings we lived in or we went to class, blah, blah, blah. He was a good sport about posing for pictures though.

Old Main

Running up and down hills in front of Holland Hall

Then we went downtown for the Jesse James Days festivities. We watched part of an old-timey baseball game, where people played by 1870s rules. They didn't wear baseball gloves, so the if the ball was caught after one bounce it counted as an out. Pitching was also underhand. And, if you can believe it, it was even more boring than baseball is today.

This is Karl and I while we waited for the James Gang to arrive. It was so hot that the horses sweat, the men perspired, and I was completely glowing.

"Get yer guns, boys, they're trying to rob the bank!" Little did Jesse James know that Northfield had lots of Union Civil War veterans who knew how to take care of nasty bank robbers like them, so the gang left Northfield with one man dead and no money.


By this point in the day, Karl was crabby wreck, so it was time to go home. We needed dinner though, so we took advantage of Laura's absence and ate at a Leeann Chin, which Karl referred to as his equivalent to Laura's IHOP (Subway equals Laura's Perkin's). It cheered him right up!