Thanksgiving

This year as much as ever... thankful for the health and one another.

An oddly quaint Thanksgiving, but we made it one to remember for positive reasons as well.  E & I took over the menu and prep work (with a little ingredient and recipe curation help from our German friends at Hello Fresh) and ran a tight kitchen in the days leading up to the feast meal.  Linds was the stuffing extraordinaire and S was the master of the mashed potato but E and I tag-teamed the rest (turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy bread, Brussels sprouts, and apple crisp... oh my!).  

After stuffing our faces, we walked it off with Buster, dropped leftovers, dessert and drinks on the front steps of family and friends, and snuggled up to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on the big screen.

COVID Lockdown 2.0, Week 1

And we thought things were bad in March when quarantining amidst COVID pandemic fears...

There were 25,000 cases in the US when the country first began "safe in place" orders.  On November 18 when MN Governor Walz instituted a second statewide quarantine, cases in the US numbered more than 10 million.  Deaths in MN were quickly approaching triple digits daily.  

Thankfully, our family has been diligently cautious and has no high risk factors.  Virtual schooling, "pauses" from activities like sports, and distancing from family and friend has been incredibly challenging. 

This said, in our bubble, life has been kind of great.  We know the drill by now.  We lock-in, embrace the slower pace and our time together, find safe ways to get take in Mother Nature and creatively drum up family fun once the daily meetings, chores and virtual classes are done.

Week #1 of 2.0 highlights were seeing an owl (Great Horned? Barred?) after a hike at Fish Lake, a Lego Master competition, canoe fishing on November 26th (!!), a Punch Pizza party in the car, a driveway bonfire, and garage pickleball.

Twas the month before Christmas

Not a whole lot going on these days, so the gang got the tree up and decorated... before Thanksgiving even!

Lego Land

S's impressive Lego "shelf of fame".

Idols

My biggest coaching coup of the season was building a relationship with Wayzata's Jenna Johnson (the D1 Utah-bound, #42 ranked senior in the country) and the team's girls.  Jenna joins practice every few weeks, and always brings a friend.  This week it was MN's #2 ranked junior, Mara Braun (hopefully a Gopher in 2022?!?) and Caroline Bokovitz (coming off nearly two full seasons on IR).  The varsity girls always have tremendous wisdom to drop, and the middle schooler are complete sponges.  We're so lucky to have Jenna & Co. with us.

Lakeville Classic 6-2 Champs

E's upgraded Wayzata 6-2 squad is going to be a force to be reckoned with.  They're not particularly fast, nor are they tall, but they fight, have great basketball IQ and lofty goals.  The team opened up the season going 1-1 in an exhibition double header playing up against 7th graders, and then ran the table at the Lakeville Classic knocking off Rochester Mayo, Moundsview and Farmington to take home the gold.  

Evie picked up where she left off last year as the team's floor general with a number of heady assists, and got her shot going early as well.  Her new teammates were key contributors, and several of the team's vets showed off new and improved skills as well.  

OMGBAA 4-1 Champs

Sawyer's hoops squad has taken some serious hits over the past two seasons, each year losing over half of the team's offensive production and two of the teams top four defenders.  Defending their "state title" will be even harder this year, but I wouldn't bet against them.  It's fun to see Sawyer start to embrace even more of a leadership role, especially vocally.  And, to see her patience and ability to build teammates up and make them better.

The squad started the season 3-0 with wins against Shakopee, Centennial and Edina en route to a first place finish in their opening weekend tournament in Maple Grove.

Sawyer set the tone taking care of the ball on O, and with excellent defensive feet, positioning and talk.  Several of her teammates rose to the occasion as well.  It's going to be a fun season!

Speed Racer

Check out North Woods Elementary's fastest 4th grader with a school record 126 laps at this fall's pacer run!

Hollow-een

Erring on the side of caution, this year's Halloween festivities were locked down for the Backer crew.  No trick-or-treating, and no handing out candy from the front porch.  :-/

Instead, we spaced piles of candy in chalk-drawn pumpkins six feet apart in the driveway, for those that choose to partake, killed the lights, and celebrated indoors with decorated bedrooms, pumpkin carving, a candy ice cream sundae bar, a scary-ish movie (Beetlejuice) and a few games. 

Fall Stars

AAU hoops took advantage of school ball's hesitation to get sports rolling as they sorted out COVID procedures to return to play and created a brief fall "season" for the new 2021 rosters (six months sooner than than these teams would normally convene).

E's new Stars squad looks like they more of a force next season, winning all three of their games against same age competition, and losing by just a few buckets 43 Hoops's top 7th grade team (i.e. a year older than E's squad).  The new crew is deeper at PG, so E was able to spend some more time on the receiving end of assists and stepped up her PPG, which was fun as well.

Looking forward to spring!

Top Golf

S & I played hooky one brisk fall afternoon and hit the Top Golf "courses" for a much needed escape from our screens.

BDO 2020

This year's Boys Day Out was a little more socially distanced, but still had all the traditional elements... cold weather, Gopher football, competition and Jameson.

COVID-19 concerns had the Big 10 closing stadiums to fans, and the rest of the country closing their houses to parties... so, we improvised and watched the game from the Furber garage (after 90 minutes of ugly paddle ball at Minikahda and before 90 minutes of uglier H-O-R-S-E in the the dark in the Furber backyard).

The #18 Gophs hosted College Gameday for just the second time in program history, but failed to play up to expectations and lost 49-24 to #15 Michigan.