So anyway.....

....we are still alive and kicking, just haven't felt the blogging bug. So for the select few who care, here is a condensed version of what we have been up to lately.

Courtney's 34th birthday! We went to the Wagon Wheel Cafe for breakfast and stepped back in time about 20 years. We then wandered and explored the Red Jacket Trail for a while and for dinner (or supper for you locals) we tried the Kaiserhoff in New Ulm. Oh, how we love you spaetzle. We then had our own little birthday party at home with bowling, ring toss and zebra cakes. We love Courtney!

We also explored a little park in the middle of nowhere called the Rush River Valley Park. It was so pretty with this little river and sandy warm banks. The kids loved the sand and all of the random logs to crawl on. There were also tons of ladybugs. They swarmed us and the car. We took about 5 home with us.

We were so lucky to have my mom come and visit us!! We loved having her here even though the kids gave her their colds. I just realized we didn't take any pictures while she was here. She was also nice enough to stay with the kids for a few days while Court and I went to visit
James and Wynn in Portland, ME. We could have stayed forever visiting all of the bakery's, cool restaurants, bookstores, beaches, lighthouses, state parks, ect, ect. I think we would go and live with them for a while if they would let us. (how about it guys? we could all fit!) We then drove up through New Hampshire to Montpelier, Vt were Court met his old BYU professors for some consulting work. Vermont was so quaint and the towns were tiny, but we might go live in Burlington too.



We then were blessed with more visitors because Dennis and Linda made the drive out in their new sporty car. I guess they wanted to see how it would handle an 18 hr. drive. It was so nice to have them here and we had fun exploring Mankato a little. We also had a tasty thanksgiving dinner with them before they had to leave. Court made us some scrumptious pies.



The Friday after thanksgiving we found a tree farm and cut ourselves a little Christmas tree. It is by far the best looking tree we have ever had. It looks fake it is so perfect. We had fun looking for it in the great big forest....or a field on the flat prairie.

So anyway that is our life so far. We had our first real snow the other day accompanied by freezing cold air. I walked Avery to the bus stop last week at 5 degrees and it hasn't broken 25 all week. Oh well, we knew it had to happen sometime.

Here are also some random pictures of Wilson. He seems to get the most camera time these days. Or should I say "woo-woo" as he calls himself. Lately he discovered the backpack Avery used to love when she was little, markers, and my mascara. We still think he is so sweet.