Back to the Cottage for Scott's Birthday

A couple weeks ago Chelsea asked us if we wanted to go to the cottage. Scott has been saying for years that he wanted to go again in the winter so of course we said yes.

We had originally planned on some winter camping on the North Shore with Blake. This seemed like a cheap alternative. We'll just have to go winter cabin camping closer to Brooke's b-day.

My dad said he would arrive before we did to plow the driveway and get the heat going. He lied. We had to carry in all of our stuff from the road.

After I had brought most of our stuff inside, I hung out with Meadow in the car while Brooke did god knows what.

Brought the rest of the stuff inside, duh.

We thought we would pick up a few groceries while the cottage heated up. We first stopped at Tree Huggers. They didn't have much of a selection being that its winter. I was actually surprised they were open and that they are going to be expanding.

We got some Wisconsin brewskis at the liquor store and a few more things for dinner at Bakers. We're single handedly keeping Superior Street alive. 

When we got back to the cottage we decided to drive down the driveway despite a foot or more of snow. The Insight handled it like a champ.

Brooke told me to check out the sunset.

The lake with no signs of snowmobiles. This would change over the weekend.

I bet you can guess what I did as soon as we got home. 

She's a luminary visionary. 

Meadow on the other hand loves grandma's collection of Mardi Gras necklaces.

When my dad finally arrived he asked what was for dinner. I said Scott was making not-your-normal burritos.

She specifically called them weird. They were just breakfast burritos with sweet potatoes. I couldn't argue against not cooking dinner.

He suggested we go out for Friday Fish Fry instead.

I love this time of year. Wherever you go you can bet you'll see your handful of snowmobilers. 

The Black Forest's new owners are sticking to the not-so-German menu, but they do have some major icicles. Oh, and the food is damn good.

As soon as we got back I had Scott's birthday cake to make.

Sweet!

This year he requested Chocolate Orange Tiger Cake. 

We couldn't quite figure out how to make tiger pattern, but it was going to taste good anyway.

Chelsea was supposed to arrive late at night, but didn't show up until early morning waking everyone up.

They confused me since the whole family was wearing pjs.

I had to finish Scott's cake while he made breakfast.

More marble then Tiger stripes.

Brayden was all over the super-buttery chocolate frosting.

I made crepes with... 

...Maple Grist Pudding. I basically whipped up some crepes to satiate Chelsea's strange taste.

I told her what we had planned for breakfast and she said, "that sounds gross."

By the time breakfast was done it was only 10:00. Whoa.

I'm hardly out of bed normally.

Meadow loves Aunt Chelsea. She never snuggles with me.

You never let her play with a tablet.

True.

A big reason I wanted to come up was to snowmobile. Three Lakes and nearby Eagle River are home to some awesome trails and, of course, frozen lakes.

Who needs a pretty new sled?

Chasing after snowmobiles became a recurring event. Oh, to be a kid again.

After I finished the mountain of dishes we asked Brayden to go snowshoeing with us. 

We told him to lead which was probably a bad idea. He was distracted by everything and kept "falling". 

We didn't get very far before we realized that we weren't going for much of a hike.

I eventually ditched him and went my own way. I was in search of branches for a craft project idea.

Brayden I made our own trail through the neighbor's properties.

The thicket of woods can deceive one into thinking they're all alone. Only one of our neighbors were up for the weekend.

Brayden tried to find hibernating animals. No luck.

I took out my old manual focus nifty fifty. It was a good way to change up my photography routine.

I found some branches.

I had no idea what she had planned for this.

Mr. Mike and Dan had already taken the mobiles out for a lap around the lake.

Chelsea and I took the kiddos for a walk.

Hi Nolan!

How many ways can we entertain ourselves in the snow. Why not connect a dog sled to a snowmobile?

We found a free ice shanty on the side of the road.

There was no room for Nolan so he had to walk. 

See Meadow, even Nolan will walk in the snow.

Tip-up time.

When we went back inside I took off Meadow's coat and she ran around like it was no big deal. I brought her outside to prove that she can walk outside too. Of course she refused.

Dan brought up some home-smoked beef. I made myself a sammy.

Then Mr. Mike suggested we go for a birthday snowmobile ride on the trails.

We first had to fill up the tanks.

And we were off.

Brayden came along for the journey.

Everyone else had brand new snowmobiles. I'm just fine with our vintage rides.

I'm not sure exactly where we were going.

Eventually Mr. Mike took us down a trail to an old deer camp.

What's a deer camp?

We turned back to get us some homemade pizza.

We all worked hard relaxing.

You had made a double batch of  pizza dough.

Yea the dump and stir method. Super hard.

I was more than ready to eat despite snacking throughout the day.

This became the entertainment for the kids all weekend. 

My dad requested pizza for dinner. This is becoming a Northwoods staple. We really need to build an outdoor oven for the summer.

Oh yea cake time. 

Snowshoeing, snowmobiling, homemade pizza and cake. Not a bad last birthday of my 20s.

I didn't get my wish.

Meadow and Brayden just wanted to eat the darn cake.

Chelsea was nice enough to stay home with the kids. The rest of us made a night of it. We started at Pine Sol, I mean Pine Isle.

This place happened to have a vintage snowmobiler league and karaoke. No one was singing so the DJ was just playing loud tunes. One woman LOVED every song and thought the best way to express this was by whistling as loud as she could. We couldn't drink our drinks faster.

After wanting to gouge our ears out we went to the best bar in the Northwoods, Tiny Tap. The atmosphere was much more to our liking so we stayed the rest of the night. I even got to put the dollar I got from Momma Gail on the wall.