Happy Spring!

It’s been an extremely challenging month and a half where this cute little 2 year old wouldn’t sleep. Like taking forever to fall asleep, waking up 1-3 times a night and then for the day by 4-5 am. Add in multiple health issues amongst our family, the passing of my FW’s Grandpa, and a never ending winter of cold and snow, and well we’ve been burning the candles at both ends and the middle. Such is life.

But today, today the hiking trail was nearly clear of ice and snow, so I brought the little early riser (although not as early, knock on wood) with. And what an amazing walk that was! We saw 10s, if not 100s, of thousands of blackbirds coming home in waves, thousands of geese in singles, doubles and flocks, sandhill cranes by the hundreds seemingly in the stratosphere, and dozens of Tundra and Trumpeter swans with Hawks and Eagles soaring around all of them looking for an easy meal. And a beautiful sunrise apropos of the weekend. It all nearly brought a tear to my eye. While I am not a religious man, I do see God’s work often, and how lucky we are to experience it. It’s a great day to be alive and tomorrows looking even better!

Attachments:

1. 

   25381D1F-3934-498B-A2ED-B9C0C5267466-scaled.jpeg
   

2. 

   5F67BA17-0A82-4280-868E-808137EFB0DB-scaled.jpeg
   

How are you gonna tucker him out if you carry him?

Looks and sounds awesome!
I’m waiting to do the same at my Dad’s with my little ones. Gonna be a week or two yet for us. Still lots of snow.

Yeah, happy Spring man! This is such an incredible time of year to see nature come alive after a long winter. My son had sleep issues when he was real little too. It is SO brutal! Hang in there it does get better.

Forsure BW! Spring does refresh a person, great seeing the new wildlife that shows up, I even saw a blue Herron yesterday! I started seeing sand hills about two weeks ago in the St. Cloud area and more and more show up every day. A field just down the road from me had a couple dozen sand hills, geese and flock of turkeys in it at same time, cool to see. Soon enough bud you can turn those early mornings into fishing trips with the little man!

Pic of a yote a couple mornings ago out for a prowl.

Attachments:

1. 

   BED6E563-FC41-4A55-ACC0-C6B0B1B75E25-scaled.jpeg
   

Pailofperch wrote:

How are you gonna tucker him out if you carry him?

Haha yeah 2 miles mostly on my shoulders mainly wore out Dad. But we will be outside as much as possible the rest of the weekend, which should do the trick!

Between all the snow and sick kids for the whole winter I am damn happy it’s over. Getting the boat out of storage on Thursday!

Here’s to your happy spring….just popped today. Bluettes are snapping too. A butterfly even on the bluettes but it left before I could get the phone in gear.

Attachments:

1. 

   340465502_555654530008350_7187655060370626997_n.jpg
   

2. 

   277523829_1584255521949902_619783781440912186_n.jpg
   

lindyrig79 wrote:

My son had sleep issues when he was real little too. It is SO brutal! Hang in there it does get better.

Thanks, I think we are finally on the way out, but that was brutal and no one in the house is happy running on that little sleep. Also, I probably should have titled this Happy Summer, we are just skipping spring this year apparently!

Awesome post, BW! takes those moments to put it all in perspective.

Excellent post, BigWerm! Since it was so nice out on Saturday I took a stroll down by the River and to visit Billy’s Bench. Saw some cormorants, black birds, LBBs, and a big beautiful eagle. It felt good to feel the warm sunshine and breathe in the fresh spring air.

Attachments:

1. 

   Along-the-River.jpg
   

Those two picture is what Life is all about. Its those things that keep us at least partly sane through long winters like this last one.

I can definitely feel you on the kids not sleeping, getting sick during the long winter, and all the chaos that comes with it. My daughters are 3 years and 6 months. The last time they both slept through the night I in-turn didn’t sleep because it was so rare one just assumes something is wrong. The best part about the weather change is they can wear themselves out naturally. My 3 year old will dig gopher mounds until she passes out from exhaustion or ride bike from sun up to sun down while only taking breaks to swing or “work” in the garage. Winter made these things tough, and even though they are outside in the cold too…it is not the same.

I must be one of the lucky ones. My 7 and 5 year old go to bed at 8:15 and i have to wake them up for school at 7:30. Its been like that for a long time.

Yea I got a ways to go!

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_20230410_170952790-scaled.jpg
   

There is a sharp drop off of snow on ground from about the southern Twin Cities and south. South of that, there is virtually none other than the big piles. From about Lakeville and north, there is still quite a bit. And then once you hit about Onamia, there is still a lot. I’ve covered about half the state in 2 days driving. Potholes are bad everywhere lol

It’s definitely been a really tough winter. Our family had it’s fair share of loss, our girls have had some sleeping issues as well. Mostly because ever since school started they have had some type of cold, flu, ear infection, you name it. Add the snow and cold lasting forever and it made for an absolute miserable winter. My wife and I literally apologized to each other for being such crab asses over the past month because of all of it. These little humans are frustrating as hell. Good thing the positives always make up for it with them.

Hope everyone got through the winter and can now enjoy some well deserved warmth.

Happy spring! Last of the snow melted off our back patio last night so we fired up the solo and enjoyed a few brews. That felt great! Mahto, I don’t doubt the frustration of little ones. Been there, done that. But, before you know it they are in their late teens and it’s a whole new frustration! Enjoy it while it lasts.