Family
Heartfelt updates about family milestones and everyday moments. From taking Mazie to college and annual visits to the Renaissance Festival to Swedish‑pancake breakfasts and VR outings with the kids, this category celebrates togetherness.
Won afternoon game of Trekking the National Parks. Me 47, Tyler 42, Mazie 36, and Tammy 33.
Mazie took this hilarious photo of Lucky today. Love it. 🤣
Mazie cross country meet today In Chanhassen. Running 5k. 👏
Tyler defeated Monk Maz Koshia and got the Master Cycle Zero in Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It is amazing to me how far the story goes in this game.
First Day of School
Today was the first day of school. First day of school during a pandemic. First day of school via distance learning.
We still kept tradition. I made chocolate chip pancakes and fresh whipped cream for breakfast. We went out front for all the traditional first day of school photos.
But then things were different. Instead of going off to school, we went back in the house.
Mazie and Tyler each have a space setup to attend school. We made sure they were ready. Last minute I realized they needed extension cords. Then I went upstairs to my office and got to work. They all connected via Google Classrooms for their classes. And we were off!
Tammy helped with anything that wasn’t working. Both kids had a good first day. Mazie had one teacher that couldn’t figure out some technical issues. Tyler’s class seemed to go really smooth. They both were uploading videos they took to Flipgrid to share with their classes.
Overall I would say first day of school via distance learning was a success!
Family movie tonight, National Treasure. Tyler’s pick. Fun story. 🍿
FC Bayern Münich celebrating their Champions League title! Great game! Nueur: “A human brick wall.” 21 consecutive wins. ⚽️🏆🇩🇪 Tyler was in full Bayern kit for the game.
Mazie’s garden is thriving, and now it has an official placard. She has a real knack for gardening, and seems to enjoy it a lot.
Tyler got the Collectors Edition Yellowstone Monopoly while in Yellowstone, and then played it a bit in the RV while driving in Yellowstone! Very meta!
We all had a great morning fly fishing on the Gallatin River! Tammy caught 2 trout, Tyler got a little Rainbow Trout and Mazie had a bunch of bites. I got a Rocky Mountain Whitefish that gave a lot of fight. Gallatin River Guides were great. 🎣
Photos of us and our llamas as we get ready for our hike with Montana Llama Guides! 🦙
Tyler and Sunny D
Mazie and Ian
Jamie and Angelo
Tammy and Theo
RV Learning: Mind the Main Power Switch!
We’ve had our first mis-hap of our Yellowstone Road Trip and we haven’t even left the driveway yet!
Last night a big downpour came through and I left the windows open in the RV. I woke up and was worried things would be soaked inside. But, that really wasn’t a problem. The side windows didn’t let in any rain, they just slant out and don’t really open up. However, some rain did come in through the top vents which I had left open. But not a lot, and a quick paper towel was able to wipe it all up.
The bigger issue was last night I asked Mazie to turn the lights off. Which she did, I saw them go off. However, I didn’t consider that how she turned them off was to turned the main power for the RV off! So everything was off, including the refrigerator, which we had loaded just a couple of hours earlier.
So, this morning when I couldn’t get anything to turn on I thought it was maybe a tripped breaker. But then I looked at the main power switch and noticed the red light was off. Uh oh…
We are adding a quick trip to the grocery store before we hit the road… 🛒😬
Mazie is growing some peppers, Brussels, herbs, and other food in a raised garden bed this summer. She loves to tend to the plants and even likes weeding. She’s trying this out with an eye towards a full garden in the future.
Game of Life with the kids tonight. 🎲
Dad: $2,710,100
Tyler: $5,000,000
Mazie: $3,300,000
We watched The Biggest Little Farm tonight. This was part of a school assignment Mazie had to watch one of a list of movies and then write an essay on it. We all enjoyed it. This type of farming is a hard path, but a rewarding one when it works.
Tyler has gotten to Calamity Ganon in Legend of Zelda. Super difficult stage. He’s not going to finish him tonight.
Family was craving for some Pavarotti ice cream tonight so Tyler and I made a stop at Sebastian Joe’s! Cold day but they were doing a steady curbside pickup business.
I am so excited to hear that Bundesliga is resuming the season! Tyler and I will be cheering for Bayern on May 17th! ⚽️
Osmo Coding Duo
Osmo was running a sale recently and I decided to fill out our collection. We got the Hot Wheels™ MindRacers which I didn’t think was going to be that fun, but surprised me by being super fun to play together. I also ordered Coding Duo, in part because we already had Coding Awbie and Coding Jam, so Coding Duo was just another $15 to get two pieces to put it all together. Tyler fired up Coding Duo and has been having a lot of fun with it, and I am very impressed with what a learning experience this is.
Coding Duo uses all of the control pieces of both Coding Awbie and Coding Jam, and introduces the idea of having two characters that you write sequences of code for independently. To play the game, you have to write a distinct sequence of actions for each character, and to make it even more interesting each character has unique capabilities. To complete the levels, Tyler learned a bunch about debugging, getting the programs to interact with each other, and building complex sequences that interact with each other. You can also have two people play together by each writing a program of their own.
It is a very impressive learning environment. I would highly recommend it for any kids that want to explore logic and coding concepts.
