Busy Winter Things

We took a little one day trip up to Minnesota so Theo could meet with the gentleman he is replacing and have him show him around his new unit. Theo loved the facility- it's much newer than his current one, and isn't shared with the Navy and Marines. We took the visit as a chance to familiarize ourselves with the area.

In order to spike the boys' interest we thought we'd venture to the Mall of America's Lego store. Theo quickly looked up travel channel food ideas in the area for lunch and decided he wanted to try a Juicy Lucy at the 5-8 Club.


Mine had chunk of bacon- because if I'm eating a burger, it's gotta have bacon.

The Lego store did not dissappoint. These murals of a Moose and Lake Scene were comprised entirely of legos.

Legos of every color size and shape you can purchase by the bucket.

The boys were pretty excited about this giant Lego Woody. Ben was trying to take it apart, of course.

The outisde of the store was museum worthy.

Here is the town we will be moving to. The lake was obviously frozen over, and hundreds of ice fishermen, hockey players, and ice skaters were taking part in a beautiful winter Sunday.

The park had hockey rinks at the ready- and they were packed.

Driving along the lake.

A neighboring town, possibly where we will send the kids to school.

Bridge over the river.

The residential streets caked in snow.

Another neighboring town's lake, scenic Catholic church in the distance.

Driving between towns.

We barely made it home in time for a huge blizzard to come through, dumping a total of about 16 inches of snow on top of our existing impressive snowfall amounts. Our power went out about 10pm, and we quickly added blankets to the kids' beds, and pulled the curtains shut, even padding some windows with pillows to trap in heat. 6 hours later, when the power kicked back on, the whole house was well below 50F.

The kicker with this storm were the drifts, and resulting sculptures, some 6 feet tall.
Here is the view out our dining room window.

The back porch. Silliest looking drift- about shoulder height! We could barely get Laura outside to go potty.

Trying to get the door open.

And worst of all, my rose arbor shred to bits-- the wood actually ripped. The winds were fierce!
Before I get back to my morning duties, I have to share my latest scarf. It's a beauty! And a steal at $22- the yarn nearly cost that much. This picture is taken at sunset.

Same scarf in the midday sun.

Hope winter is treating you all well!