MN Thompson's

Megan surprised us by bringing home some critters from school. She was one of the lucky ones who got to bring home beetles that they had been observing. And she got to bring it home in this big plastic container – with NO TOP. She said they don’t climb out. Uh huh, Beth was not convinced. And it was fun that the more we looked in there, the more bugs we saw that weren’t part of their experiment. Look how cute they are snuggling in the corner. They lasted indoors for a week longer than Beth wanted, and now I hope they have dug deep in the ground outside because the cold and snow is a comin’.

Not only do we have bugs, we also have an infestation of pumpkin-squirrels! What else do you do with a monster pumpkin besides put it just beyond your back porch and sprinkle with bird seed every so often.

Ever see a pumpkin with a tail?

Ok, while I’ve got the pumpkin theme going I’ll include just a few more.

Here we are visiting our friend’s monster pumpkin (he is the one that gave us the seeds this year). His pumpkin ended up over 1400 lbs this year and was his largest ever!

This is the smaller of his two pumpkins in his truck in our parking garage at work. He had people guess the weight of the largest pumpkin that they could see from our office windows.

I had a few more pictures from the races last month. Here Colleen and I are right after the color run. What? You say there is something on my nose? Huh? Mind your own business.

And here we are at 6:30 a.m. waiting to start the Minneapolis Marathon’s “short-cut-to-the capitol” 10-mile run. Insane how many people get up so early to make this such a fun day!

Colleen has been absolutely loving her painting class this year. And her projects have been turning out amazing. Here is her “warm-cold” (or hot-cold? something like that) – it got chosen for a big display at school.

She did such a good job painting that I took her out for donuts 😉 Colleen and I have been going to church (she needs to take notes during a dozen sermons this year as part of confirmation). Every several months I take each of the kids out one-on-one to talk about dreams and how the year is going. Colleen and I went to Yo-Yo Donuts recently. Yummy – check out the s’more donut!

As if the donut wasn’t enough, we got a box of pumpkin cookies from St. Louis too. The kids’ first guess was Halloween socks or shirts. Nope. It’s hard to beat getting a box filled with cookies! Grandpa has it all figured out – cookies are awesome!

Would you give these two candy? Or would you scream and run?

Here’s Orca’s costume. I had nothing to do with this. I think I’m the only person who owns a “Purdue football” (footall?) shirt. It was on sale at the Purdue bookstore. Wonder why? There’s no way anyone would buy one of these (or want to be seen buying one of them), and of the people who buy them, I can’t imagine there are many who don’t soon burn it! Basketball season should be fun this year – the team is looking good!

We finally went to our first men’s gopher hockey game. They won the game we went to, but our favorite part was watching six kids all jammed in the penalty boxes. Boys will be boys. It was fun to watch.

I love this picture of Megan in the fall. She’s not a fan of having pictures taken of just her that will be shared. She was helping me a ton this day – taking care of my fall chores outside. She’s an awesome helper and good at keeping me company. We gathered a bunch of sticks and built a nice camp fire too!

Warm fire. Check. Legs up. Check. Beer on table. Check. Book in hand. Check. Loving a beautiful fall day. Check.

We kept the trampoline up until they could jump in a bit of snow. And then I rushed to take it down the next weekend (forecast is calling for 7-10″ of snow now – not sure when I’d get another good chance to get the trampoline in before winter!)

Winter is coming! Boo!
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Up until today we have had no snow on the ground recently. Our biggest snow fall all year was only 4″. It’s been in the 50’s and 60’s the last few weeks. But today…March 22nd…we are supposedly maybe getting our biggest snow fall of the season at a whopping 5″. Crazy winter. It’s been so nice that just this week Megan helped me get out all of the lawn furniture and we setup the trampoline! Things changed fast today 🙂

Christopher reads for an hour or two most nights and is always asking me to get books for him from the library (all of our kids are good readers but he’s been in “the zone” for a while). I helped him clean up his room this month. Every time I reserve books for him from the library they come with a little slip of paper in them. This isn’t even all of the slips we found (just in his room!). And most of these books are hundreds of pages.

With the spring thaw Megan was excited to see what the ice dams were making for her! Not sure if she decided this was a better treat to eat or weapon!

I’m glad the postman hasn’t figured out yet was is in the boxes we get from St. Louis around the holidays.

It was great weather for the Get Lucky 1/2 Marathon. I was just about the only one not wearing green. I’m in training – I ain’t got no time to mess around running 13 miles in a sports coat or carrying a pot of gold (note: this course was an out-and-back so I got to see this leprechaun several miles back and he was missing his jacket, and his pot of gold was no where to be found). Despite my strict training regimen, I did partake in the pizza and Finnegan’s beer afterwards 🙂

Dang leprechauns visited our house again in the middle of the night. Nothing but trouble (and sugar).

Lightning is imminent? If I have the kids jump long enough on the trampoline, and I run a cable to our house, think I can generate enough power to cover some of the lights they never turn off?

I’ve been taking the kids out one-on-one with me to talk about their dreams for the year. Megan and I went to Yo Yo Donuts this weekend (Christopher was camping, and Colleen had dance competitions all weekend, so it was just Megan and me). We talked about some dreams, ate donuts, got a 99 cent tiny ice cream cone for her too, bought goo at the running store (she likes picking out the flavors – which I let her try before I run), looked at bike helmets, and I let her pick out an air freshener for my car. She’s been talking about buying a Christmas Tree air freshener for my car (not because my car stinks – but just because she wanted one). She ended up picking a purple tree (actually, a 6-pack of purple trees) that makes my car smell like a candy factory. Wow – those trees are powerful. I’m worried I’m going to smell like a big fruity lollipop every time I leave my car. Fun times.

She loved the size of this cone. Perfect!

We weren’t sure what this car freshener would smell like? I’m glad she didn’t pick that one!

…weather. I know. Weather, weather, weather. That’s all we talk about. I might as well perpetuate that stereotype by writing about it and sharing several pictures. It’s cold. Cold, cold, cold. And snowy. Cold and snowy. Brrr. Yesterday’s paper said this is the 4th snowiest winter on record and the coldest winter in 36 years. Brrr. Interesting, even though it has been so cold, only one single-day record was set this season…and that was for being warm…a 47-degree high on December 28th, 2013. Crazy. Crazy cold. But I still like it. And I’m fine with shoveling. Maybe it will kill the chiggers in our backyard 🙂 Did you see the picture from my phone of the crazy -21F (feels like -42F) weather forecast and it says “Fair” – uh? What?

I’m proud to announce that we won the 2013-2014 neighborhood Christmas light challenge once again. It took until mid-February but we outlasted all other houses down the entire length of our street and turned our Christmas lights off last once again. Sweet. Where’s our prize?

And check out that view from the top of the IDS building that I ran up 50 floors. You can see the Metrodome with the roof already gone (by now the entire building has been destroyed as they prepare to build a new stadium).

I had a great trip to Vail, Co. My 9th year in a row going out there. Beautiful scenery. Good weather. Didn’t get that 1′ of snow that I was hoping for but it was still great conditions in most areas.

Christopher is now officially a boy scout. He crossed over the bridge. Woohoo! And I snuck in a few photos that were recently sent to me from past scouting events. What’s that green stuff we’re standing on in that one photo? And his basketball team made it to the final four. They played their best game of the season to advance but then got beat by a really good team. Christopher played a great game – got several rebounds and played tough defense on some of their best players. We went out to dinner last night and he didn’t finish his pasta (which was a fairly small portion to begin with). That’s not normal so I asked him what was going on. His response shocked all of us…a day we thought we’d never see coming…he said there was too much parmesan cheese on his pasta. Our jaws dropped. We were all stunned 🙂

Colleen is still dancing up a storm and did great in all of her dances at the competition last weekend. And Megan talked mommy into making crepes this morning – her favorite 🙂

Happy Birthday Grandma! Enjoy your special day 🙂