Winter photos

I've had several requests for new photos of the Saveraid children- or maybe you're yearning for a photo of Travis now that he is 36?  Speaking of turning 36, Elisabet recently asked me "Mom are you 63 or 36?" I guess anything over 15 seems old to her.

We've had quite a winter of snow and cold.  Actually the cold has been less severe, except for a brief spell a couple weeks ago of negative temps, but the snow has been epic.  Well, maybe not epic, but impressive.  One morning I was walking with Leif and Hanna down to their bus stop and the towering snowbanks on either side of the sidewalk was pretty imposing.  At least waist high on both of them.  After a thaw last week that finally put a dent in the snow cover, we had another 15+ inches fall on Sunday and Monday.  The official total at the MSP airport was 13, but we measured 40 centimeters on our table on the back deck (the only ruler I could find was Hanna's from Switzerland).

Leif, Hanna and Elisabet participated in a ski league this year.  We load up the car with 5 pairs of nordic ski, poles and boots and head to Como Park for the afternoon on Sundays.  This year they had 130 kids sign up- that's what happens when you have a couple of good snow winters.  All 3 of them really enjoyed improving their skills on cross country skis, particularly going as fast as possible down the hills.  Leif is starting to work on his skate skiing technique.  I'm looking forward to taking him out with me to the groomed tracks as he learns.  They skied the evening luminary Loppet in downtown Minneapolis at the beginning of Feb.  It is a weekend filled with ski races- skijoring, freestyle, classic, junior and sprint races and part of it goes along the lakes in Uptown.  For the evening ski, the track is lined with ice luminaries and with good weather this year there were around 9,000 skiers.

winter

New addition

If you haven't heard by now, we have a new addition to our family.  Wren Louisa was born on December 2, just in time for one of our first big snowfalls.  Since her arrival, she has been loved, kissed and hugged daily by her older siblings.  We have all been marveling over her tiny little person- all 5 lbs 13 oz of her at birth.  She has long fingers and toes, a small dimple on her left cheek (possibly the one Hanna left behind?), and quite a bit of blonde hair.  Elisabet wonders if she will have green eyes when she is older, although they are blue right now.  This is likely because we recently discovered that Elisabet's eyes are turning green so she inspects them daily to note changes.  She is quite pleased to discover something she shares with just mom.

Leif's 11th birthday and Christmas went by in a flurry.  We had a huge 18+ inch snowstorm the week after Wren came home and since then we have been digging out.  It looks to be a great winter for snow sports.  Leif, Hanna, Elisabet, Travis and Papa went skiing at Afton Alps and had a fantastic time.  Travis and Papa spent the day trying to keep up with them as they bombed down the hills.  They also all went ice skating at the local outdoor rink.  This weekend everyone will start nordic skiing with the MN Youth Ski League.  It will feel good to get back into skiing shape!

We celebrated an early Christmas with Travis's family and then we had the special treat of getting all the Haslers together at Christmas this year.  The three newest grandchildren got to meet one another, and we had several evening gatherings over great food and wine. It definitely seemed as if we had really multiplied this year!  But the chaos of all the cousins is lots of fun.

Here are some photos of the various events:

Wren's birth


Birthday and Christmas

Saying goodbye to summer

A late posting of pictures from our trip "up north" to the Gunflint Trail, a road that winds it's way through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area from Grand Marais.  The drive from Duluth north follows the shores of Lake Superior (Elisabet must have asked us 30 times "is this the largest lake in the world???".

We enjoyed spectacular views of the lake, the birch/pine forests and exploring the northern reaches of MN.  We even took our canoes across the Gunflint lake to a picnic spot in Canada.  The weather wasn't very summery, in fact it was extremely windy and cold, but we still managed to find plenty of things to do.  And we could always warm up from being outside by hopping into the Jacuzzi tub (or zoo-cozy as Elisabet called it).

A long overdue adventure

We're not sure how it happened, but we're a little embarrassed to have lived in Minnesota for 5 years (minus one of those in Switzerland) and never taken a trip to a lake cabin in the state.  So after a year of more "exotic" travels, we dedicated this summer to more local explorations.  First up was a trip to Lower Whitefish Lake north of Brainerd, MN with Papa and Nona, Aaron, Melissa and Jens.  Melissa's relatives generously let us stay in their lake house, newly built and beautifully situated on the peninsula.  The first day's weather was windy and cool, but that did not stop the kids from donning their swimsuits and jumping off the dock.  There was a great variety of floating rafts- alligator, turtle, lounge chair, etc to keep them occupied until the teeth chattering set in.  In addition to hours of swimming, we also tried out "Big Mable" an extremely large tube for pulling behind the boat.  The girls screamed for us to go faster while Leif shouted slow down.  Jens enjoyed watching all the action from the boat, although he also thought that caution was preferable to excessive speed.  All three older kids tried water skiing- Leif and Hanna were successful on their first try and skied across the lake on a pair of classic wooden skis.  Then uncle Aaron got up on the slalom ski to show them what they can aspire to.   Papa brought their kayaks and they were fun for exploring the shoreline and finding a quiet bay for fishing.  Travis caught quite a few fish, including a small muskie.  Everyone was successful in catching numerous sunfish, rock bass, and a couple large mouth bass.  Leif even learned how to remove the hook and get the fish back in the water all by himself.

The entire picture story can be found here.....



.... and for those of you surprised by the change in my appearance, it's a girl.  Due in December.  Jens is expecting a sibling as well (sex unknown) in September.  More adventures and an expanded 'cousie' club to be had in the future!

Cousins

Kate and Willa flew out from California to visit us last week.  What a fun time having all the cousins together to play.  Elisabet was excited to finally meet Willa "in human" rather than over Skype video chat.

They certainly all look related.....

and more.....

Willa's first visit to MN

Workin' the cattle

School is out and it's time for summer fun.  Our first trip was loading up the kids and aunt Gloria to drive to the ranch in Iowa and work the cattle.  Baby calves ranging from 1 day to 2 months old needed to be vaccinated and tagged.  Saturday started off with an early morning thunderstorm, 1 inch of rain and lots of lightening.  During a break in the rain, Craig headed up to the barn to get the cattle up into the sorting pens.  Four neighbors came with their horses and rounded them up- this was also the moment it decided to rain and thunder dramatically again, so we stayed in the house and watched from the window as the cowboys braved the inclement weather.

Each person had an assigned job:  Several men on horseback bring the cow and calf pairs into the first sorting pens, then a couple guys in that pen separate the cows out and funnel the calves into another pen, Cody gets the calves up and into the chute and calls out the sex, and Travis lowers the head gate on each calf (one at a time). Craig administers a couple shots, dewormer, and then tags their ear with a number- right ear for bulls, left for heifers.  Marta is in charge of filling up the syringes with dewormer and replacing needles, as well as recording the sex and ear tag number of each calf.  Leif started off loading the tag "gun", but then switched to helping Cody in the calf chute.  This is tough physical work and due to all the rain, extremely muddy.  After being slammed against the fence and having his feet trampled on by numerous calves, Leif decided to switch to manning the bar behind the calf.  Once the calf is immobilized by the head gate, Leif slid an iron bar behind them to prevent them from backing up or another calf from coming up from behind them when the gate was released at the end.  Gloria helped out as well with both these jobs, which was evidenced at the end by a coating of mud on all her clothes.  Hanna took on Leif's job of loading the ear tagger, and then relinquished it to Elisabet after about number 50.  Elisabet took her job so seriously she did not even take time for a joke or a smile.  During this whole process, cows are bawling for their calves and the calves are bawling for their mothers- it's nearly deafening!  120 calves (66 bulls, 54 heifers) and 3 hours later, we were finished.

photo slide show:

Spring time fun

New kittens, a trip to Madison, a birthday for Hanna, and homemade popsicles.  Enjoying spring in the upper Midwest.

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springtime fun