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.
- H. Ward Miles
- Andrew Carson – we have had one of Carson’s wind sculptures for 20+ years and love his work.
- Brian Schmidt – Mazie liked his work so much she bought a couple of prints.
- Melissa Helene
- Bradley Fritz
- Linda Morvant
- Beeper Bébé
Bringing the hat for Fathers Day. At Mazie’s softball game on 97 °F day. ☀️
Mazie turned 17 today! She is so smart, creative, and energetic. Her big day has been awesome. I’m so proud of her! 🎂🎉
Mazie and I packed rider packets for next weeks Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride today. Our task was unboxing and folding at least 2,000 t-shirts to be put in bags.
Mazie and I at our first ever MN Aurora FC game! Awesome that we get to see women’s professional soccer in the Twin Cities! Aurora v Chicago. ⚽️🎉🙌
Aurora over Chicago 3-1. Final attendance 5,132.
Dinner at Crisp & Green, Mazie’s favorite restaurant.
Mazie and I went on a tour of the University of Minnesota today. It is part of her college exploration and I wanted to show her where I went to school. A lot has changed in 30 years. 😊
Nice night for Glen Lake GAL Softball! Mazie covering 2nd base. 🥎
Edina Art Fair 2022
The Edina Art Fair has returned from the pandemic this year! Mazie and I made a quick visit and the art was great!
Some artists that caught our attention:
Mazie is planting the garden She loves to garden and commune with the plants. The strawberries and blueberries did well over the winter.
At Children’s Theatre Company for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Musical! Tyler is a big fan of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
“Sunshine and Rainbows”, Mazie’s first drawing on Nifty.Ink! I’ve been cajoling her a bit that I think she would find it fun to try, and indeed she did. Within a couple of hours she even sold one!
Tyler did the MEL Science “Tin Hedgehog” project this morning. It was great to see him learning and having fun with it. I had fun too.🧑🔬
These flippers are huge! Tyler’s head provided for scale.
We’re in Nashville so of course we should go to the Wildhorse Saloon and learn how to do the Boot Scoot ’n Shuffle! We all took their complimentary class together and were scootin’ and shufflin’ with the best of them. Mazie was a natural!
Space Camp
We had a fun weekend at Family Space Camp! 🚀 Our program included runs in the Multi Axis Trainer, the 5D weightlessness trainer. We ran an entire simulation of a Space Shuttle mission where Tyler was EECOM, Mazie PAYCOM, Tammy CAPCOM, and I was FDO. I got to do the countdown to launch. 🤩 We got to see an incredibly impressive planetarium showing as well as a great IMAX experience on the International Space Station. We also learned a bunch about NASA’s Artemis program. And the whole time we got to see a real Saturn V and Saturn IB rocket, as well as a capsule that went into space and a moon rock. And we got great astronaut suits.
Mazie did the Multi-Axis Trainer at Space Camp today. She reported it was fun and did not feel dizzy at the end.
Imagine Dragons Mercury Tour
We all went to see Imagine Dragons Mercury Tour at the Target Center. Imagine Dragons is Mazie’s favorite band, and she is a particularly big fan of Dan Reynolds. We got her tickets for the show and let her pick who she wanted to take. Lucky for us, she picked us! The show was great. They played for over two hours and hit a wide array of songs. It was also the most normal event we’ve been to since COVID.
Two minutes on the dogsled trails out with Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge today. We had to stop and start the sled so you hear the “woah” and “hike” commands. Willow and Acorn are the two lead dogs. Tammy and Mazie are in the sled in front of me, and Tyler was on their sled.
Introduction to MrBeast
Tyler is a pretty big fan of a handful of “YouTubers”, and usually at the top of his list is MrBeast. I’ve been more pessimistic about MrBeast and frankly I’m not sure what to think of the whole YouTuber thing. Tyler decided since it was his birthday we would all get a proper introduction to MrBeast.
We started with Curiosity Beyond the Spotlight: MrBeast. I signed up for the free 1-week trial so we could watch the video. Overall, both Tammy and I left with a more positive view of MrBeast than when we started. Jimmy, MrBeast’s actual name, seems like a reasonable person trying to have a positive impact in the world.
We then watched three additional videos from different “channels” of his.
Unbelievable Street Magic! on MrBeast Reacts.
10 vs 1000 Player Manhunt! on MrBeast Gaming.
Hit The Target, Win $300,000 on MrBeast.
After it was all done, we were even inspired to make donations and become part of #TeamTrees and #TeamSeas!
I have to admit, we were actually a bit inspired by his random acts of kindness.
We had Tyler’s birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant, Lion’s Tap! It was our first time dining inside there since the pandemic started. The burgers were extra good tonight. Tammy was really excited! 🍔
