Jonell and I are blessed to have 8 nephews and 2 nieces. The past week or so and week ahead, we will have seen all of them and have most of them at our house. With Fall, Winter and Spring being jammed with school and busy season at resort, we don't see them as much as we like.
Last week we had our nephew Reagan for the week, joining Jon for a shooting camp in DL. Nice to have a sheet of ice for a few weeks, not more than 4 hours away. Fun watching them both play at night.
Middle of the week we had nephew Joey who was doing dance camp and then my sister came with the rest of her four boys for the weekend. Jonell's brother's kids met up at the final session to watch Reagan and Jon.
Friday night with 7 of the 8 boys at Hotel Shoreham for pizza. Jack sporting the cowboy hat, ready for the trip to CO.
"Auntie Jonell, can we ride in the back of the pickup to the playground" No, says Jonell. "Uncle Jay, can we ?" Absolutely, for sure.

When Jon got home from the last session, he took a five hour nap. When he woke up the first thing he did was tape his stick. Next morning, on the court, with the cousins. We expected him to take a break after four weeks of 6am wake up and last week, not calling it a day until 11pm but Jon totally loves what he is doing.


Basketball to keep it fair and honest. Marco plays hoops in the winter in I Falls.



Marco is turning in to a solid runner. Going in to 9th this year and will most likely be #2 on his team for cc. Saturday morning Marco had a 5km run planned and wanted to go on the trails so I took him on the Citizen/Kids Comp loop and I biked while he ran. Beautiful morning with sun shining, 50 degrees and no deer flies.


Sunday, Jonell went over to Park Rapids area to pick up Grant and Garrett, the other two nephews who are doing a hockey camp this week with Jens. I went northwest to Turtle River State Park for the Prairie Rose games mountain bike race. Beautiful day for racing. Incredible park and facilities. The ND surplus is being spent well. Since I was last there, the Park has some really nice upgrades. Not crowded, very peaceful and well maintained. Was a fun course, bummer not more people but had a good ride, riding steady the entire time with Brian Abraham who went to school at UND I think and now ripping it up on the road in WI. Don't usaully run the hr monitor when racing but did this time, keeping track of each lap etc. Splits were pretty even and hr higher on last lap so that was good. Since the dnf at WORS cup, I haven't done a full xc since Spring Cup. Yikes!! Finally feeling better and relieved to have all the tests come back negative. Jonell thinks I got bit by a spider. I think I was taking too much cod liver oil. Not sure. Some times you get touched by a weird bug and does funny things.
Didn't look at the jersey in detail but I grabbed the one that didn't have the zipper so I had to use safety pins. Hope I don't get kicked off the team. Full report in skinnyski report on Wed.
I have some good memories of racing in the ND. The courses have always been sweet and fun to hook up with different people. Two years in a row Prairie Knights Casino did this race off the banks of the Missouri, south of Mandan. Had a huge cash purse. Never a ton of riders but the second year, Jeff Hall, Steve Tilford, Doug Cambell I think it was, a ringer from SD, Don Schimachel, and bro in law Nate Birkmeier to name a few, were there and was a riot. They did the awards in the casino and called us up to pay out the prize money on the main stage where Ronnie Milsap and people like that play. Was in $20 bills to make the $500 look more than it was. We feasted on a huge buffet with crab and lobster. I remember a lady asking, what machine did you win that on and I said a custom built Croll, mam. Probably the best course was at Fort Ransom, just south of Valley City. Super cool singetrack, climbing, prairie singletrack really fun course. Unfortunately, I think they only ran it one year. The ND state champs those two years had over 100 rider. Too bad the numbers have fallen off. Course like yesterday are ideal for across the board riders.

Greg Ames and Steve Wenzel post race, sporting old Loppet shirts. Fun to hook up with Steve and other riders that have been out to Maplelag. Kriston's sandwich for the ride home hit the spot.

Off to CO tomorrow night with Jack for Nationals on the weekend. Should be awesome. Going to try and hit some museums on the way out with Jack and maybe look for some fossils if I can remember the places we stopped at when I went on geology field trip back in college.

It has been a great tour de france to watch this year. Hopefully there is no big blowup dope scandal like recent years. With that said, I am holding my breath on today's stage winner in the TDF. Had that look like "I hope I don't get busted". Don't like to be pessimistic but just seems a bit too good to be true. Didn't have the emotional passion at the finish like you think someone would have winning a big mountain stage in the tour.

Couldn't ask for a better night to check out the full moon. Was ready to call it a day but saw that moon shining on the lake so had to take a trip with a kayak. Didn't run in to any campers or counselors that snuck out skinnydippin' so that was good. Close to 30 years of having camp in the summer, you can imagine the stories.



Jack doing his thing. Was stumped, took a half day break, took it all apart, got it right and today he finished it off. Nicely done Jack.
Jake sent me a few pics from Durango area:


Lars ready to jump off of Bakers bridge near Durango.
Jake opted for half way down.
Jens has been rippin' up the singletrack like a whippersnapper. He sneaks out during the day and makes up his own loops then we ride in the evenings, and he shows me the loops he has made up. "Jens, why are you going backwards on this section" "because the jumps are cooler" "Jens, you can take the ski trail back to the top" No Dad, the ski trail is boring.



The jammie threads were on for the night but the green crocs and a helmet, good to go.
Built a couple berms where the track meets the trail. Works pretty good for the mini but need to build them up a bit more before we cut the racers loose.
Jake and Lars did the stxc last night. Todd Wells was there and won but not after Lars took the holeshot and won $20. Flatted so had to call it.


They did call ups so Jake was called up near last but no worries, just started out slower and moved his way up and placed 17th. Didn't get lapped on the four minute laps so that was good. Great training and said he felt solid. They are doing some longer rides on the weekend so I am sure they will have a blast.

Not sure if the Devo thing was going to happen this year, but a Anthem frame showed up last week along with a couple kits from Giant. Got the frame built up, using components from the Salsa frame....just in time before Jake went to Durango on Monday to train with Lars Ellefson. I will hook up with them next week in Winter Park. Giant is providing the frame and still working on the component side of things. Sponsorship for MTB teams was tough in the fall when the economy blah blah and SRAM totally focused on road when Lance made comeback news but of course they still did Sea Otter and can't believe they would short change a jr development program. Anyways, I have been in contact with John Kemp, the director of Team Devo since the Fall and he said to keep patient and we did. Nothing can stop a person from racing as far as sponsorship is concerned so Jake was flying the Maplelag team colors and rode the anthem I got in the Spring while we held tight. But now for the rest of the year he will be with the Giant kit and will be nice for him to have the support at US Nationals and the MT Snow National, the selection race for the worlds team, which we plan on attending.





Shout out to Craig Benson and Dallas Scheet at Paramount Sports for all their help the past few years, setting up the bikes and keeping the wheels moving. Paramount one of the sponsors of course of the Maplelag team.


Of course it will fit in the back, CB says to himself smiling after the lady thought otherwise.
MR D after getting things dialed.

Talked to Jake tonight and he did a hill climb race outside of Durango this morning with some of the local jrs. Being only the second day there he didn't go all out, just getting used to the sustained climbing and the altitude. Said it doesn't seem to be affecting him yet. Doing some other riding for two a days and what not and having a nice training camp with Lars while checking out the rest of the scene. Of course, the riding is awesome.
He is racing the local short track tomorrow. Todd Wells sometimes shows up if around and other big dogs throw it down. The deer flies are biting real good Jake! Big thanks to the Ellefsons for the hospitality and what not.

Awesome fourth of July weekend. Great weather Fri-Sun, good food and fun times and a little riding of course. All nephews and nieces on Jonell's side hooking up at the lake cabin 30 miles north of here on south twin at the lake cabin.

Friday night bingo at Pinehurst. Bingo is huge on the rez. Broadcasting from the casino.
Jake and Grant learning how to do hobos at bible camp and led the charge on Friday night.




Beautiful riding in the White Earth State forest in the mornings. No traffic and all the atvs in the areas must of been elsewhere. From cabin to high point on Norris trail, 500ft change in elevation, topping out at 2000ft and some pretty nice long gradual climbs for this neck of the woods and hard, fast conditions. Almost up to Zerkel on Saturday. Still quite a few trails I haven't checked out. Could easily do 3-6 hour loops without double tracking.
Marker for Waptus trail.
All the kids. Lots of water time.
Getting ready for the float. Norsk flag waving off the sailboat. Did you see the little flags at the finish line in the tour? Watched the last k tonight.

Max the puppy to add to the mix.


Have to say we were waving the flag nicely.

First time skiing for Jack and up first time. Little curled over but better the next day.


Jens on the rope swing. Jon setting up for one ski.
Kaboosh!




Pump in the red cabin. Still works as good as ever.


Quad trail riding Sunday morning. 2 min intervals.
Never have had issue with the atv scene.
Soccer, baseball, football, badminton....and water balloon fights in the water keeping kids active. Doesn't make much sense but works pretty good actually as the balloons don't break as easily and get more mileage. Easier on the fill and tie action.



Barrack and his friend got a paint job before the summer and looking good.

Hard to believe a week a go we were down in the cities. Week zipped by quick. Went down last Thursday for hockey tourney in Blaine with first game Thursday night. Jon was skating with the Fighting Loons, team based out of Bemidji with mostly northern kids and probably half from borderish towns in MN and also the Canadian border town of Fort Frances. Stopped in Elk River on way down and hooked up with the Warner family and Jake went down with Tom and Trent to race the Thursday night race at Buck. Jake said the race went okay for him. Hot and hard, good training. Jake went back up with Warners to spend the night. Thanks folks.


After Jon's first game, which they won against a good cities team, we caught some of the Thursday night lights racing at the velodrome. Never been there before and we enjoyed checking out that scene. Very cool.
The tourney consisted of teams from birth date 2000 to 1992. Jake's good friend Ethan skated up with a 1992 team based out of Fergus Falls and we got to catch some of his games. The super rink is a amazing facility with 8 rinks all connected toghether.
Jon skating through traffic.

Getting ready to take a tough angle shot. With his Moorhead team, they thrive on dumping the puck with a stiff forecheck and physical play. With the Loons team, Jon skates with the puck a bit more and seems to be in this position a lot. Worked out pretty good most of the weekend, scoring a few goals and getting the puck on net and juicy rebounding for a team mate to knock it in or passing it over to the slot for a crasher. The fourth game on late Saturday night was the most exciting. Jon put two in early in the first period to give the team a lead but the Siouxland Buffalo came back to tie it up and at the end of the third it was 4-4. Went in to ot, no scoring and then shootout which they lost. Tough loss but fantastic game to watch. Stayed at Jonell's sister's over the weekend and non stop action with the cousins playing shinny, football, baseball, basketball....

Goalie Grant, from Bemidji, had a solid weekend. The team in whole started to gel after not much practice beforehand and fun to watch the styleo of each player. One more tourney in Duluth not til August.
After one of the games we dropped off Jack and Jens with the Matt Johnson family so they could help Cole celebrate his birthday. They spent the night had had a good time.
Sunday morning Jake and I went down to Mankato for MNSCS #4. I was on the sidelines, sitting another one out as I work out the funk. It was a good time nontheless, taking in the racing action and was fun watching and cheering Jake. Jake had one of his best races of the year rolling across 15th A great course to take in the action. There was only a seven minute span I didn't see him and most of the time it was 30 sec to 4 minutes about 6 times during a lap. Just as I enjoy watching ski races and the different techniques, same goes for bike racing. Everyone has there own style.
Rich Omdahl having a gay old time as he sets things up nicely. I pretty much caught all of the Elite riders and most of the Comp riders. Rich ripped the quick release section faster then anyone, I would have to say.

Chris Fisher with a sweet remount after having to jump off because of a downed rider. Hand on the rear brake, keeping steady from grabbing the root. Section is much steeper than it looks. Jen might not approve!



Jake ripped through pretty darn fast.
Said it was crazy following Tommy Miller on the first lap. Both he and Heath pulled him around pretty good.
Greg Blasko absorbing as usual. Greg hears it all. Doesn't get the credit he deserves. Nicely done Greg.
Good to be back home enjoying the beautiful summer we have had this week. If one of the boys has a friend over, then everyone wants to have a friend. Just fine by us. What summer is all about. Jake caught a dandy largemouth and was pretty stoked about that. Fried it up and thought it was some of the better tasting freshwater I have had in a while. Jon missed the picture because he was sleeping. Last week of waking up at 5:45am for him which will be nice.
More friends over, enjoying supper after some sweet riding with the Wenzels and Jamie B from Fargo.


With all the rain in June, the underbrush is going gangbusters. We started brushing out some of the singletrack sections that have grown over. Peter pretty much spent the whole month of June weed whacking. Works 4 hours a day times five days a week equal 80 hours of weed whacking.
Peter has it figured out. Has a leather belt to keep the mixed gas and water jug close to the body, the baseball cap on the cutter, and bug dope in the back pocket. 73 years old and still going strong. He doesn't need to take shots of juiced wheat grass at a juice bar, he gets it breathing in the mist from mowing down 100's of different wild grasses and what not.
Jake following behind with the blower, clearing the grass away. Jake has been working on the new singletrack quite a bit since the last few weeks of school, getting the riding done before school so he could work on the new track in the afternoon/evening. Nicely done Jake. Probably on hold for a while withe mosquitoes getting bad and deer flies ready to cut loose. We have a Chinese boy coming next week to work for a few months so will try to get out with him.
Have a safe and happy 4th.

We kind of forgot what summer was like until this week. It hasn't been as hot as forecasted but good summer warmth, just a little humidity and pretty much perfect evenings with calm waters. Mosquitos not an issue really so being outside until dusk has been fine. We opted out of baseball, soccer, etc. and doing required swim lessons in the Fall so nice to have the evenings with not much going on generally besides the hockey stuff and bike racing.

Jens said if you kiss a fish its good luck for catching more fish. Never heard such a thing but he said that is what he heard in Mexico.

It must of worked because we were nailing them pretty good last night. I was all pumped to clean them up and make some fish tacos but Jens let the 9 we caught go.
The water has warmed up nicely and temp is ideal for swimming.
Jonell said you make gingerbread houses in the summertime when you are too busy in the winter being run by a ski resort.



Think we are at or near 6" of rain the past 10 days and combined with the dam, Big Sugarbush unloading some water, our dock went under again. Three of the counselors came over and helped pull it up. Most of the male staff is from Spanish speaking countries. The counselor we met in Sayulita isn't here yet but word got around that we met up and has been a riot talking about that. Great staff, fun to visit with.

Couple afternoon thunderstorms keeping things honest. Was fun watching this bank of clouds roll in, big time winds and then downpour. 2 hours later completely clear.
Jens had a friend over for some playtime. When I picked up his friend, his dad was loading up a dirt bike to head over to Paul Bunyan/Akeley. I didn't get a chance to talk to him where he goes exactly but will be interesting to find out. Jen's friend hadn't bmx much but races dirt bike so the handling is there.

Heading down to the cities for the weekend. Jon has hockey tourney and Jake will probably hit Buck Hill and we will both go to Kato. Should be fun.