Despite a super cold weekend and a lot going on back in Minneapolis we spent Scott's birthday weekend at the cottage. I immediately got to my project of untangling one of our kites.  I was super grateful that we got to get out of Minneapolis a few times during the worst of the ICE immigration crackdown. During the week I was watching Theo's school each day. His school is something like 60 or 70% immigrants. Up here we could pretend things were normal in the world. Yeah, I guess you could say it was cold out. I tried out the throwing boiling water in the air trick.  I wonder how often people get scalded doing this. I'm a bit of a worrier. You thought this was going to keep us indoors the whole weekend? No one was out. I have never heard it so quiet up here. I thought I was hearing branches snap but I guess it was sap freezing.  This is how I looked after walking down the street and back.  I guess this would be a good weekend to puzzle.  I can't really remember wh...

Last year we made a trip up to the Gunflint Trail and Voyageur Canoe Outfitters for Brooke's birthday. Due to a faulty pump the VCO folks provided us with a complimentary stay in 2026. So with the kids off in mid-January we took them up on that. We stopped for the night at Blake's house on our way to the Gunflint. He had recently acquired my Grandma's old Apple computer.  The kids were blown away by the old style computers. Then they decided to write a story and were sad that it couldn't be saved.  Blake's winter project this year is working on his library.  When we arrived, Daniel was working on wallpapering the vestibule.  I didn't know you could wallpaper with fabric.  I think this was the wallpaper . We decided to get breakfast at Uncle Loui's in Downtown Duluth. This place is still great. Meadow approves.  Theo needed to use the bathroom just as we were driving by Gooseberry Falls. Was a good excuse to also check out the falls.  Getting down to t...