Benziger babes

Theo started 3rd grade at Congdon Park Elementary in fall 2021. He is 57 inches (4' 9", 95th percentile) and 72 lbs (76th percentile) with a BMI in the 40th percentile, hence his soccer friends gave him the nickname "skin and bones." For his birthday this summer we decided to take a few kids to Duluth's Zero Hour Escape Rooms. Theo and his friends were "trapped" in a sinking ship on Lake Superior and had to solve two dozen riddles, locks and codes to escape to the lifeboats. They had so much fun and made it out just in time! We went back a month later to do another escape room.  He started last year in hybrid learning for 2nd grade and then was in distance learning with Seth for a few months before  going  back in person. He jumped ahead a grade in math and gets speech help to help him slow down when he  talks  and  pronounce  his "R's, S's and Z's" properly. He was officially diagnosed with red-green colorblindness (deuteranopia)...

 Sometimes life give you lemons and so you make lemonade. A great weekend at Sugar Lake Lodge, Grand Rapids, MN COVID-19 continues to spread. Declared a pandemic in March 2020, it remains a significant cause of death worldwide and is stressing the hospitals and nursing homes across the country as a new wave begins. If there is one thing COVID-19 has taught us is that we need to be flexible. We started with the alpha variant and now the delta variant has taken over. While break through infections in those with prior immunity does occur, the vast majority of those hospitalized and dying currently chose not to get one of the three FDA "approved" vaccines. Over half of eligible Americans aged 12 and up are vaccinated, yet globally we are no where near that percentage, which sadly means there is lots of tinder for the COVID-19 wildfire and this pandemic is going to be a lot worse before it gets better.  Speaking of wildfires, our much anticipated trip to Duncan and Rose lakes in t...

The most important things in life are not things. They're the people and places and memories and pictures. They're feelings and moments and smiles and laughter. In this busy world we live in, sometimes we need to slow down and spend time with the people we love and live in the only moment that really matters: now. Over the past nine days we disconnected from social media and the internet. We packed the car and drove west to see some beautiful natural places. Along the way, we made memories to last a lifetime. You only live once but if you do it right once is enough.  The journey west never gets old: from the tall pines of northern Minnesota to green corn fields and grass prairies of the plains where the horizon seems to stretch on forever, over and around buttes and rivers, through tunnels and around the needles of the Black Hills of South Dakota, and finally past the ranches of Wyoming until we hit the impressive Rocky Mountain range bursting up from the horizon in Colorado. A...