Christmas Card 2.0

Welcome to "Blogging with the Smiths". If you are not one of my 3 faithful subscribers then you probably found your way here by way of our Christmas card. If you are wondering about our card last year, well they were never sent out. Kim vetoed sending them in March like I did a few years ago, especially since they were the kids playing in the snow, but now that I think about it we had snow in April here so it shouldn't have mattered. This years picture was taken at my parents house at Thanksgiving. The "Maroon Out" shirt is a Texas A&M tradition for the big against Texas. Kristi has now included all family members in the tradition. We were just happy that Will would actually wear his shirt this year. If you so choose, you can subscribe to this blog. The description of the blog used to say that there would be weekly updates, but that just wasn't happening. The goal for 2009 will be a couple of updates a month. Hope you enjoy.

D-day in October

At the end of October our family went to Disney along with Kim's mom and family friend Steve. We had been planning this trip since last Spring. Last year Kim stumbled across a website which is an unofficial Disney discussion board. It is here that she began planning our trip. On the DIS board there is the DIS unplugged podcast that is aired each week. As the months leading up to our vacation Kim began planning our trip. Those who planned the actual D-Day invasion would have been very impressed for her organization skills and contingency plans. If you are thinking of taking a trip to Disney in the next year let Kim know and she would be happy to offer any suggestion or even generate an itinerary. I would appreciate this because it might placate her desire to return if she can at least plan another trip for someone else.

Everything in Florida worked out perfect. The only thing that could have been improved was the weather. Thankfully it did not rain, but on some days it was pretty cold, even for Minnesota folks. Our good friend David M., who is going to school in Tallahassee came and stayed with us for a few days. It is always a treat to see David. This time was an extra treat because he had never been to Disney World. Beside seeing David get so excited going into the different parks, another fun thing we did with him was to ride Segways at Epcot. We got there at 8:00 and did an hour of training then got to ride in the park for an hour before it opened. That morning was freezing!!!!! Very cold and winding. Even David who lives in Florida said it was cold. See pics and videos





We attended the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at Magic Kingdom. Maybe the cold weather had something to do with it, but Kim and I both thought it was over-hyped and over priced. Wait, it is Disney everything is overpriced!!! OK over-hyped. Will went as a dog and Ilee as a Princess. The picture of Will with other dogs was at Downtown Disney on Halloween. The other dogs in the picture are Lego's!!!




As I said before, Kim's planning was excellent. We used our fast passes to perfection. Some of the highlight rides for us were the safari, Mt Everest and Lion King at Animal Kingdom. The kids road their first roller coaster at Magic Kingdom which was the Barn Stormer. They did graduate to Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster. That is the two thumbs up they are giving in the pictures. Epcot was a lot of fun also. The favorite rides were Soarin' and the Test Track. Enjoy the pics.

Burrito Union

The second weekend of September there was an event called the Burrito Union 10 triathlon. The race was held at Pattison State Park just south of Superior. Cadesdad, his wife and I form team "It Looks Like a Deer" Instead of summarizing what a great day we had, I have listed what Cadesdad wrote up which includes pictures and a video. His site blows mine away.

http://www.thecorrigans.net/serendipity/index.php?/archives/35-Burrito-Union-10-hr-Triathlon.html

Ok. Here is my perspective for the day. I haven't read what Cadesdad said in a while so I might repeat a little. We loaded up Cadesdad's Subaru with two bikes on top and mine in the back. First thing first, Shawn needed some coffee. We tried a place in Duluth, but it was closed. Then we tried the Red Mug in Superior. That was closed also, but some of it workers were heading out with a a box of supplies. I think Cadesdad joked that it would be funny if they were heading to the race. We ended up getting our coffee at Big Apple Bagel which took forever it seemed.

We got out to Pattison Park with plenty of time. We set up the tent and got our gear ready to go. The decision was made the night before that Shawn would do the swimming and Cadesdad and I would trade off between the ride and run. The first round Shawn was great in the water. She did mentioned the water was cold and did not feel like the 68 degrees they said it was. Cadesdad was very bundled up for the 14 mile bike ride. I thought he seemed a little over dressed, but he didn't think so. When he got back he was dripping wet and realized was wearing to many layers. The 3 mile run was in the woods and was very scenic. As the day continued Cadesdad and I kept rotating. After the third swim for Shawn, she said she was too cold and had to do something else. She ended up doing the run and Brian did the swim. As I rode the bike leg I kept thinking that I would have to get in the water next. Anyone who knows me, knows I am an awful swimmer. When I arrived back to tag off to Shawn, Cadesdad was still wearing his wet suit. He said that he did not mind swimming again if I didn't mind riding again. At this point I did not know if he was telling the truth or knew that I didn't want swim. After several exchanges of "Are you sure?", it was decided that he would swim and I would ride. As for the ride, it was bad going out but coming back it was a long upgrade finishing off with a steep incline. The weather had been good for most of the day. I did get sprinkled on a few times on the bike until the last round. I now have learned that I can now ride in pouring rain. At the time it was miserable. When I got back to tag off I climbed into the hot tub clothes and all in order to warm up. I think it even hailed a little as Cadesdad finished the last lap. All in all I thin we completed 6 triathlons and finished somewhere in the middle. I think the Burrito Union will become an annual event for team "It Looks Like a Deer". Who knows, maybe next year I will get in the water. It certainly was fun hanging out with Cadesdad and Shawn.

Still catching up.

Just when I thought I was on the blogwagon I fell off. I need to get in a few more updates because our Christmas cards will be going out soon and the traffic on the blog site will really pick up. I might be a little too optimistic.

Random update
In September, Will entered 1st grade and Ilee continued with pre-school at Kinder Corner with Mrs. Peller. As we did with Will, we decide to have Ilee repeat pre-school again. She, like Will, has a summer birthday. (see previous birthday posts).

Adios Champ

In August we got another foster dog from RAGOM. His name was Champ. Champ was good dog. He did need to have surgery on both his hips. We kept Champ for about two weeks while an appointment could be set up in the Twin Cities for the surgery. If you are looking for a dog, especially a golden retriever check out the RAGOM website. A date was set for Champ to be taken in Twin Cities. The plan was to take Champ down in the morning and then go to the State Fair. We made it to Cities and dropped off Champ. Fostering dogs can be rewarding, but giving them up is always the hard part.

The weather that day was questionable for a day at the fair. in fact it was pouring in the morning. We made a decision to not go the the State Fair, but to the Mall of America. We had fun time. The kids had fun riding some of the rides. Will rode his first roller coaster. This was training for our fall trip to Walt Disney's World. This posting not only includes a montage of pictures, but hopefully my first posting in youtube.

Soc-it-to-me-coach

In August, both Will and Ilee played soccer. This was Will's 3rd season playing and Ilee's first. Will moved up to U8 league. In this league they play with 6 players on each side with one being a goalie. In the U6 league which Ilee played in, they have 4 players on each side and no goalie. Their field is smaller than the U8. Keeping the coaching tradition alive I was the coach for both. I had coached Will's team the first two years. Our week for the month of August was practice on Sundays. Ilee had games on Mondays and Wednesdays and Will had games on Tuesdays. His season went through September. Both kids had a fun season (so did the coach). It seemed the soccer camp at the beginning of the summer paid off, especially for Ilee. Ilee finally learned by the end of the season that she was not suppose to throw the ball into herself. You can see from the pictures that she needed a little restraint.

Back on the Blog bandwagon

So it has been quite awhile since the last blog entry. Over the next couple of days I hope to update what has been going on over the last few months. Following the Brewhouse triathlon was Will's birthday on the August 7th. He had few celebrations over three days. I was is Will's golden birthday. On Thursday, his birthday, Will got presents from us. On Saturday he had a kids birthday at Hartley Nature Center. Then later that day we had extended family over for a cookout and cake. The cake was given to Will from our neighbor Jay.

BrewHAHA

On August 3rd was the 22nd annual Brewhouse Triathlon was held at Pike Lake in Duluth. I did this race two years ago with Cadesdad and mom and couple of highschool friends. Cadesdad and I had a friendly bet on who would win between the two of us. I must mention that Cadesdad is a professional tri-athlete and his wife is even better. Needles to say Cadesdad won the race two years ago.

Last year I was not able to compete because we were in the cities. So this summer the battle was back on with Cadesdad. My worst part of the triathlon is swimming by far. This year I thought I was better prepared but when I did a practice swim on the Wednesday before the race at my parents place at a local lake and my performance was abysmal to say the least. I was forced to admit that during the swim I expected to see every kind of stroke. My goal was to have a little more of the crawl stroke then two years ago which did not exist. The other downer is that Brian is able to crawl the whole way in the water. I knew that would be behind from the beginning.

The swim went as expected. I used every stroke I could think of, yes even the side stroke. When I got out of the water the race really began for me. My transition to the bike went well for me. The bike portions was about 10.5 miles, by the way the swim was a 1/3 of a mile. The biking went well. As I pulled into the transition area I saw Cadesdad heading out on the run. I yelled "you better run fast" or something obnoxious. During the transition from bike to run I had trouble finding my slot with my shoes. I finally found the shoes and hit the pavement. The run was 2.5 miles. As I was getting close to the turnaround I saw Cadesdad and was able to pass him right after the turn. The picture below is one that was in the Duluth News Tribune. The caption under the photo has me from Eagan. You can see Cadesdad in the back ground in the blue and white stripe shirt. When it was over I was able to sneak out a victory by about 20 seconds, but afterwords I found out that Cadesdad had issues with his biking shoes in transition as well as not be able to find his slot for the running segment. In the end his wife beat both of us hands down.

The neat thing is the three of us will join forces on September 6th for the Burrito Union 10 hour triathlon. It should be a great day with great friends.

The Tall Ships Cometh

Last weekend in Duluth three tall ships came into port. The ships were replicas of ships from the 1800s. VisitDuluth was the sponsering agency. Check out their website for the event. They have some great pictures of the ships. The ships arrived Thursday at 4:00 and went through the Lift Bridge at the same time. Apparently there was close to 100,000 thousand people down watching the ships come in. The interesting thing is that Duluth has only about 85,000 for a population. The newspaper reported there were thousands of tourist from out of town. The plan for us to see the ships was to go Firday morning. We were hoping to get there before the weekend crowd. The plan did not go well. The family arrived to Bayfront around 10:00, so did several other thousand people. We parked a ways down from the DECC and headed to the massive crowds. There was a massive line that was on 5th street heading towards downtown. We were not going to wait in that line. We ran into a a guy who was walking the opposite direction and said there was a shorter line behind the Aquarium . We decide to go there and take our chances. We waited for about an hour and 20 minutes. We told the kids it was good practice for Disney World (for which we are going to in October). We got on the Pride of Baltimore. The boat was interesting. Apparently it was used to represent La Amistad. This was the only boat we made to over the whole weekend.

Garden update.

Wanted to update everyone about the garden. Things are growing. We have radishes and lettuce so far. The radishes have been rather hot and no one here is much of a radish person. The lettuce has actually been very good. Had a piece on my sandwich today and made a salad with my dinner. Nothing yet regarding tomatoes ore peppers. Kim pulled up a carrot which has a ways to go. I included a few pics.

Camping on Fish Lake

On Tuesday of last week I took Will and Ilee on an overnight to Fish Lake. Fish Lake is about 25 minutes from our house. This is the main lake we fish on usually. Will and I camped on an island last year on Fish Lake. This was Ilee's first time camping out. The tent in the pictue is one we bought two years ago for "family" camping. Will and I tried to set up the tent on Saturday in our living room. We realized quickly that it was not going to fit. The tent was 13 x 13. On Sunday we set it outside. On Tuesday the whole family headed out to find a good island to camp on. Kim came with us to help set up the tent, because it is too big for one person to set up. Unfortunately Kim wasn't going to stay because someone needed to stay home with the dogs. She gladly volunteered. We found campsite number 8. It was a great site for camping. See pic.



After getting the tent set up we took Kim back to shore and headed back to the island to make dinner. We had hot dogs and mac and cheese. We then went out to fish from around 7:00 until about 9:00. Will caught a nice crappie. We headed into shore before it got dark. We started a fire and had smores. It was a cold evening and fairly buggy. We hit the tent around ten and quickly went to bed. Ilee woke up a few times but Will slept through the night. We got up and had breakfast cereal and scrambled eggs. We then started fishing around 9 until 11:00. Each kid caught 4 fish each. I caught none. I was acting as a responsible guide and let my client castch the fish. We had a great time and hopefully will get out one or more times.

LaCrosse for History camp

Last week (July 14th-18th) I was in LaCrosse for my 3rd year of a Teach American History grant. This is actually the third TAH grant I have been involved in. They have been the best professional development for history then anything I have done. An exception might be grading AP exams. The time in LaCrosse went well. Kim and the kids were suppose to come down at the beginning of the week and stay a couple of days. On Saturday the day before we were to leave Kim's mom had surgery because her appendix had burst. Kim and the kids stayed in Duluth to help her out. One of the highlights, besides all the history I learned, was going mountain biking at the top of the bluffs. See some pictures below of the bluffs and where I rode. Love Google Earth.. I will include a few pictures later. Came home Friday just in time for Will's T-ball game. Will went 3 for 3 with out the Tee. He only has 1 more game left which is this Friday.

Last week (July 14th-18th) I was in LaCrosse for my 3rd year of a Teach American History grant. This is actually the third TAH grant I have been involved in. They have been the best professional development for history then anything I have done. An exception might be grading AP exams. The time in LaCrosse went well. Kim and the kids were suppose to come down at the beginning of the week and stay a couple of days. On Saturday the day before we were to leave Kim's mom had surgery because her appendix had burst. Kim and the kids stayed in Duluth to help her out. One of the highlights, besides all the history I learned, was going mountain biking at the top of the bluffs. I will include a few pictures later. Came home Friday just in time for Will's T-ball game. He only has 1 more game left which is this Friday.

Soccer Camp

This week has mainly been about soccer, at least in the morning. We signed the kids up for a soccer camp at East High School. It is a neat how it is set up for the kids. They run a morning session and an evening session . The kids have been in the 10:30-12:00 session. The camp is run by two English players and one Australian player. They are assisted by the East girls high school team. The camp is a fund raiser for the girls program. We were not sure how the kids would respond to the camp. On Monday morning they both were dressed with shin guards on by 9:00a.m. ready to go on Monday. You will notice Will is wearing his new Nike green shirt in some of the pictures. He liked the shirt so much he wore it the first two days. (we did wash it Monday night) Ilee has really gotten into playing soccer. You will notice she is one of the smallest on the field. They combined the 5, 6, and 7 year olds in one group. As many of you know, Ilee just turned 5 on the 28th. Will continues to get better. He is more reserved with his intensity. They both have enjoyed it and I think it will help when they start playing in August.

Heading to Mankato for the 4th

On Wednesday the Smith family headed down to Mankato to spend the 4th at my sisters house. We had stopped by her house last summer on the way back to from New Mexico and went to St. Peter for a 4th of July parade.

On the way down we stopped by the Tanger Outlet mall. for about an hour. Will actuallby liked a shirt from the Nike store, which is unusual for him. When we find clothes we think he will like he usually will say "I'll think about it" You will see the shirt later. We got in Wednesday night and had pizza. On Thursday the whole group went to Waseca Waterpark. The waterpark was fun. The water was fairly warm, but there was a good breeze which made the air cold when you got out of the water.

The next day we went to St. Peter to watch the parade. The parade lasted about two hours. The kids got a lot of candy and saw lots of interesting vehicles. My sister took the pictures so you can follow the link if you want to see us at the parade.

View parade pictures

4th of July in Mankato

On Wednesday the Smith family headed down to Mankato to spend the 4th at my sisters house. We had stopped by her house last summer on the way back to from New Mexico and went to St. Peter for a 4th of July parade.

On the way down we stopped by the Tanger Outlet mall. for about an hour. Will actually liked a shirt from the Nike store, which is unusual for him. When we find clothes we think he will like he usually will say "I'll think about it" You will see the shirt later. We got in Wednesday night and had pizza. On Thursday the whole group went to Waseca Waterpark. The waterpark was fun. The water was fairly warm, but there was a good breeze which made the air cold when you got out of the water.

The next day we went to St. Peter to watch the parade. The parade lasted about two hours. The kids got a lot of candy and saw lots of interesting vehicles. Below are some pictures taken from me at the water park and the parade. The other slide show is from my sisters

Munger Trail

On Tuesday June 30th we went out to the Munger trial. The Munger is an old railroad track that has been converted into a paved trail. The trial itself goes all the way to northern part of the Twin Cities. Sometimes Kim and I will rollerblade to Carlton which is about 17 miles from Duluth. We didn't go that far on Tuesday. We had a nice 10 mile round trip. Kim pulled Ilee in the two carrier and will rode a tandem attached to my bike. We brought picnic lunch and ate on a nice overlook.

"Down by the lakewalk"

Today I took the kids to SHS to finish getting my room picked up so the custodians can pull out everything in order to redo the floors. My goal is to get back in August an do some organizing and cleaning before the school year starts. When we were at school I was talking to a counsler I carpool on occasion. She mentioned something about renewing her license. When she said that I had a sudden pit in my stomach. I remembered that mine was also due. This was not a surprise to me. In fact before I went to Kentucky I had my fingerprints taken, must do this if you live out of state, and I had also ordered my transcript to show I completed my 6 credits. I had intended when I got back from Kentucky I was going to put everything together. I obviously spaced that whole plan. I was able to get in the mail today (it had to be postmarked by the 30th)

In the afternoon we took the kids down to the lakewalk because it was so hot in Duluth yes we hit the mid 80s. This was Lexi's first time(we think or at least with us) in the water. She did great and loved the water. Beware there are a lot of pictures of the dogs shaiking off the H2O.

Ilee's B-day

We had a good week. It started with going to The Edge waterpark on Tuesday and finished with Ilee's kids birthday on Friday with a trip to the zoo in the middle.

On Tuesday the family went to the "The Edge" waterpark. Sorry no pics. On occasion the The Edge sends out emails with discounted rooms. I think it is there attempt to bring in patrons when they're not full. We had a great time going in the pool and water slides. The Edge is small when you compare it some of the waterparks at Wisconsin Dells, but is a perfect size for our kids.
Will and Ilee went down the waterslides with tubes. Will even went down by himself!!!! Much better then the running race last week.

On Thursday I had all day training at the Board office for Inspiration software. I will be getting an active board for my room this summer. The active board is like a smart board, basically same product different brand

Kim took the kids to the Lake Superior zoo while I was in training. After I heard about the zoo day I asked if she took any pictures for the family blog? Sorry no camera made it to the zoo which means no pictures



Needed to finish this entry. Below are the pictures from Ilee's birthday she had at Country Lanes Bowling alley. She had five friends attend. They all seemed to have a fun time bowling and eating cake. Speaking of cake. Kim decided to be very adventures and make a Belle cake. Check out the pictures. I think she did a great job!!!! You can order your own Princes cake for your birthday. I have to thank my sister Kristi for suggesting to post pictures from Picasa to share more pictures. Below are some pictures from Ilee's family birthday. Ilee had really wanted a Belle dress. In the pictures you can see a Belle dress she is holding and then trying on. The dress was made by Ilee's grandma. We had a great time with family that night. Played Wizard, Trivia, and a practice round or so of Catch Phrase. Ilee is happy to be 5 now. Very easy to hold up 5 fingers to say how old you are when asked.

Running Weekend

Big running weekend, Grandma's marathon. On Friday afternoon there was the whipper snapper race for kids down at BayFront. Both Ilee and Will raced. Both had some hesitation and apprehension but both did well. Will was on his own and was a little more nervous as the picture shows.

We picked up our race packets and Cade's dad full marathon packet after the race. The D.E.C.C. was crazy busy. Got home about 4:00 and practiced baseball with Will. He had a game at 5:30-6:30. Cades dad met us at the game. Will had a good game and actually had a ball hit to him that he stopped. After the game we all went to Bulldog for dinner. All you can eat spaghetti, which was good. The 75 cent meatballs were a little overrated.

On Saturday the half marathon started at 6:30 and the full marathon started at 7:30. I got up at 4:20 and was at UMD at 5:00a.m. to catch the bus up to the starting line. Weather wise it was a good day to run low 60s at the start. I was very happy with my run. My goal was to finish under 2 hours. Right from the beginning my right knee was sore. This is the knee I had scoped last year. I think there might be some more cartilage that needs to cleaned out. My training runs had been at a 9 minute pace which would put me a few minutes under 2 hours. As the run proceeded my pace was actually faster than 9:00 minutes. I figured I would try and build up a cushion for the end when I would be slower. I finished with a 1:52 time which I was very happy with. Kim and the kids came down to cheer me on. After finishing the race we watched the winner of the full marathon run by. Notice the similar running style between me and Lamech Mokono. The crazy thing is he needed only about 22 more minutes to run 26.2 miles compared to my 13.1 miles.

The Smith family then went to wait for Cades dad finish the full. Unfortunately we did not communicate what he would be wearing and ended up missing him go by. We ended up running into him walking back to the car. Will post some other marathon pictures on Monday.

First blog

Well here we go. This is is our first family blog. My APUSH blog has been such a success (for my two subscribers) I thought I would create a family blog to let our friends and family know what is going on with our family. For us the summer started this week. We officially got out of school on the 12th, but Kyle had to go back to school on Friday to finish grades and Kim had ACT tests to organize for the Saturday test she was in charge of.

Ilee finished her 1st year of pre school with her new teacher Mrs. Peller and Mrs. Hill. She had a great year. Ilee will be attending KinderCorner next year again.

Will finished his first year as a kindergartner. He had a great year and loved school. He will be in 1st grade next year. Will has been playing T-ball. It has been fun watching him learn the game. We have been starting to practice more in the yard since during the game he will get two times to bat and rarely does the ball make it past the pitcher's mound.

This picture is from Will's Sunday school concert.

The first few days this week we have been working on our new garden. Last fall Will went to his friends Hunter's house who had a garden. All winter and spring Will has been talking about building our own garden. So after several trips to Menards and Home Depot and three days of working out back this week we now have a garden. Will had been growing cucumbers, carrots, mini pumpkins and peppers inside. We also have a strawberry and a raspberry bush. Will was so excited to have a garden he invited out neighbors over to see it. Stay tuned for updates in the garden.

Tomorrow is a big day. Kyle is running Grandma's Half Marathon. Cade's mom and dad are coming up to run as well. Cade's Dad is running the full and Cade's mom is running the half. Kyle is hoping to stay up with Cade's mom and finish in 1:50 or so. Just as long as it is under 2:00