While We Wait for Spring

Alida Skis

And Ben Skis Too!

Merry Christmas!

The shoes she wanted!

 

The headset he wanted!

The hoverboard Elaine wanted...

The Christmas Morning Rolls I wanted!

 

Dinner and Family that everyone cherishes.

 

A perfect reindeer cake.

 

Made better when made by the ladies.

 

The hoverboard that it turns out everyone wanted.

Remembering the Reason

Christmas Eve Candlelight Services

 

Where I don't think they actually ate the candles and we didn't drip wax everywhere!

Preparing for Christmas

The Kristkindle Market

 

Half a door decoration for school

 

Cookie decorating

 

Gingerbread House building

 

Eating the cookies watching Christmas movies.

 

The Candy Cane bread

 

And a dance party.

Out of School

Then we pulled the kids out of school the last day of the first week, to head here.

 

Where we had dinner in the lodge my parents honeymooned at 55 years ago.

The Walleye Chowder was amazing.

 

We stayed in the bunk-house, which was surely a bit more primitive than the lodge.

 

And we took a selfie after being outfitted and left right here.

 

With nothing but us for three days, we paddled.

 

I carried a canoe on my head down these stairs.

 

This picture right before Elaine screamed and disappeared over the edge.

I was in the process of throwing my camera down and diving over the edge after her when she popped up off a ledge laughing.

 

Then we made camp and watched the sunset,

 

while dad and Elaine went fishing.

 

Then we settled in.

 

And woke.

 

And we were quiet.

 

Then we were off.

 

Off, to spend a little time in Canada.

 

And we waited out a storm over lunch.

 

Camped and went swimming.

Patric says those are entirely fake smiles--it was a little cold.

 

We had dinner at sunset.

 

Woke and did it all again.

 

Day 2: Tubing

And on Day 2: We took our time getting out in the morning and chose to tube for the majority of our day.

 

Pushing each other off the top for a good start at things.

 

Getting ready to go with mom and dad (the added weight can't be beat).

 

 

Seriously--we knocked through barriers, and if you can hear Patric we overtook the boys.

If You Can't Beat the Snow

Go Skiing

Two and half hours to the north and we found the perfect spot for a long weekend.

 

And even this guy lost his inhibitions for a few hours.

And all that gear for deer hunting came in quite handy. 

 

Ben--after finding the poles, just making it out of the shed was a task.  Probably because putting your skis on right there isn't really the plan.  But who could wait?

 

After ski school--still all smiles.

 

Then we hit the lifts.

 

Alida, just like riding a bike, preferred to be alone for a little bit while she figured it all out.  Then she arrived as if skiing since she was three.

 

Ben will tell you he loved it, and he loved falling down the most.

 

Elaine stayed close, as she prefers her dangerous activities to be controlled.

 

Nick--always doing things his own way.

Way Back 2017: Ice

That didn't take long.

 

That's looks almost as if it is being helpful to one another going on there.

It's not.

The boys pretty much hit the ice and turned it into a battle of some sort.

The girls, took to it immediately, had no learning curve, and giggled.

 

 

 

But don't say those girls don't have a sense of humor and are sweet to each other all the time.