Sondre's year in Minnesota: The time is drawing near.....

Dear Lerhol Family and Friends,

Well, this is the second to last blog of my blogging career. The last blog will be after Sondre leaves on Monday, June 25th, 2012. We plan to turn all of the blogs into a book so Sondre has a keepsake from his year in the US.

Since the last blog Sondre has graduated from high school and participated in the finals for the Minnesota State Rugby Championship. Not a bad line-up for his last few weeks in the United States!

Graduation:

Sondre was one of 750 students to graduate in the Minnetonka class of 2012. It was a very nice ceremony and there were many memorable moments.

The keynote speakers were great, including a teacher selected by the students, a student speaker, also selected by the students and two masters-of-ceremony that were students. The choir and orchestra were amazing too. It was a lovely night…

This is a shot on the video screen of Sondre during his volunteer event.

A shot of the football team....look for number 98

One more graduate in the family.

The traditional cap toss after it was announced as the graduating class of 2012

After the ceremony, the kids were all whisked-off, by school bus, to a secret location for an over-night party. They arrived back at the school at 6am and we learned from Sondre that they went to Brunswick Bowl in Maple Grove for a night of games, food, prizes, and I guess, a hypnotist too. Sounds like it was a lot of fun. Sondre ate breakfast and went right to bed to catch up on his sleep when we got home.

Rugby:

For a kid who never played Rugby, he did all right! The Minnetonka team made it all the way to the state finals. This first series of pictures is in the semi-finals vs. Duluth. Minnetonka won in a hard fought game.

Take a close look at the cotton in Sondre's nose...I told you this was a tough sport.

Check out the lady referee in the yellow jersey!

Well if Rugby had not worked out for Sondre...I guess Cheer leading could have been an option.
He is nearly doing the splits!!

Stud.

Sadly, they lost in the final game to Edina in a good match. It was a very emotional ending to a great season. The players on the Minnetonka team were amazing and accomplished young men.

Yep...another bloody nose.

Sondre had an entourage of family and friends watching his last game.

Frank consoling Sondre after the loss.

All smiles after the game...and after a great big cheese burger at the "Golden Nugget"

After the season ended, there was an end-of-the-season banquet where Sondre, was named the MOST IMPROVED VARSITY FORWARD. Not bad for a kid who had never played Rugby before.

A day on Lake Minnetonka and Family Game Night

As usual, a day out on the boat with the family was fun.

It ended with a night of board games. One of our favorite games is called “Smart-Ass” (Torstein…you know this game because you won when you were here over Christmas).

The way the game works is that you pick a card and each card has a topic on it that your opponents have to guess. The cards are completely random and when it was Sondre’s turn, he picked a card with a topic he knew a “little bit” about.

The first clue was “the Country colors” are red and blue…YEP you guessed it. It was NORWAY. What are the chances? For the record though, I won the game…I have a "steel trap" for useless information and can recall it easily…even though I can never even remember where I put my car keys.

This weekend Scott, Alex and Sondre are going to our cabin to celebrate Father’s Day with Scott’s Dad and three brothers. They will probably do some boating, fishing and maybe even some jet skiing. I am going to Duluth to watch my sister Katie (aka Kiki) run in Grandma’s marathon in Duluth. Now, I am the only “Grade Girl” who has not run a marathon. Oh well, I am good at other stuff. J

Next up…fodder for my next blog will be Sondre, Kevin and Christian’s graduation party and our good-bye to Sondre. Sondre will be a guest “blogger” in my final blog too…so something extra to look forward to.

This is just a cute picture of Maxwell....proud Grandma!