Thursday, February 27, 2014

Spring is...No Where in Sight

Summer will eventually be here, long and hot, right? We can delay our warm weather hankering a bit longer, can't we? Bah, those are just platitudes; we can't do a damn thing about this awful winter...except enjoy it!

Easier said than done for me, but the kids seem to have a better time of it. I'm glad some neighborhood kids will sometimes stop over and Julia and Finn will go play as a group.


Giant piles of snow alongside driveways seem to be a common wintertime gathering place for kids. Julia and Finn first built a fort in ours and then they kept fixing it as more snow fell and temperatures fluctuated.


A solo hike along the Kinni when the temperatures weren't terrible allowed for some nice cold-weather views.

We do a pretty good job of staying busy in the house too. Finn's been finding computer games to play online as often as he can.

Skippy is always on the lookout for sunny patches. She likes to bring something to chew on to pass the time soaking up the warmth.

Sometimes family time in the living room works wonders. All three ladies are somewhere on the couch: Amanda, Julia, and the dog. Meanwhile, Finn enjoys an umpteenth perusal of his Lego magazine.

Finn participated in the Westside musical this year for the first time. And for the first time, Julia didn't. She decided to take a year off and just enjoy watching it. The pictures taken during the performance were quite pulled back and so you can't see Finn individually very well. Instead, you get to see him getting his makeup done by a 4th grader.

The kids are usually ready in the morning well before I am. Not only are they surprisingly on top of things on school days, but they aren't at each others throats either. I sometimes find them sitting in Julia's room like in the picture below. Julia playing on her tablet and Finn perched behind her eating breakfast and watching.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The Kauth's Christmas: A Ten-year Look

2004


2005


2006


2007


2008


2009


2010


2011


2012


2013

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

NovEMBER Visit

In November, Ember visited Wisconsin (hence the ultra-clever blog post title). It had been awhile since she had seen the kids, but they quickly bonded and made up for lost time.

Ember brought some rocks for the kids that she had collected on a number of her mountain climbing adventures.




Julia had to show off her long candy wrapper chain.

After posing for a nice picture, the kids and their aunt had more fun with the crazy shots.



I needed to get in on the fun too!


Though she only stayed with us for a little over a day before she headed to central WI, we found some time to do a little fall hiking around River Falls and nearby.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Scooting the Scans and Scads of Scampering

We hit a milestone with Julia's October scans. She's been going to Children's every three months since Summer of '11 for post-cancer treatment procedures and blood work. This now marks the stretching of that time-frame out to six months. Of course the real good news is that the abdominal ultrasound and chest x-ray showed nothing of concern. She also finished up a two-year physical therapy study by getting a good workout.

Julia's way too big for the toys, but since there was no one else around, she had to give 'em a whirl.


Because she couldn't eat anything until after everything was done, we let her choose whatever she wanted for breakfast. She waited, somewhat impatiently, for her late morning breakfast of Pringles.

And back to the regularly scheduled hiking! Earlier in the Fall, before the leaves started to change and while we had one last burst of warm air, the kids and I had a picnic at Kinnickinnic State Park.

Post-picnic, we walked down the hill to check out the busy St. Croix River.




We dried off by hiking some of the trails before heading home.


We make sure we never neglect the hiking within city limits either. Foster Cemetery is fun to check out during each season.


And along the Kinni always provides for a quick, scenic walk.

Julia saved up to buy her first MP3 player. She was so excited to be able to get her own music and listen to it whenever she wanted.

Finn still lives and breathes legos. He also dreams them. He fell asleep while looking through a catalog for the hundredth time.

Click here to see what Julia looked like when she found out what animal she was posing with at Como Zoo.

Up close and personal with a big cat is always a treat.

And while the leaves were falling outside, even a few giants ones fell in the conservatory.