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 .

  We had yet again another big snowstorm here. I love the snow, but after dealing with our car constantly getting stuck I'm over driving. I think you just need to bite the bullet and get a fat bike for the work commute. The snow was perfect for a snowman. The kids love the slide and fort half of our new-to-us playset in winter.

  We went big for my birthday cabin weekend this year. Scott even said, What is this your 40th birthday? Usually we just do one or two nights somewhere but this year we did 4 nights.  I figured we wouldn't be traveling quite as much this year, so we could splurge a bit for Brooke's birthday weekend. We started our first night at a  yurt in Cable, Wisconsin  to break up the drive.   It was a pretty hike in.  They insisted you'd need snowshoes or a fat bike, but really the trail was tamped down so much we could've used just boots. I had no idea we would be staying in the middle of miles of skiing and snowshoeing trails. You can snowshoe or ski right up to the yurt.   

The kids like getting up early these days. And by early I mean 8:00. Theo has also decided he's suddenly too big for his high chair. Isn't that late for you? For me that's way too early.

Friday night we went to the mall in hopes of seeing Santa. We made it too late. Meadow would have to write him a letter instead. She asked for a white dress like the one Elsa wears in Frozen 2 and a crinkle cutter for Theo.

Jolly old St. Nick made a return visit per the usual.

Friday Scott's birthday means cottage weekend. This time we were prepared ahead of time. We brought all our groceries knowing we would get here late. Then we went to bed right away in the 40 degree house.  The next morning the deer were excited to see people. I noticed two of the little ones were a little on the chubby side. Sorry Dad, but you need to stop feeding the deer. Your mom claims they are pregnant. They seem too small for that to be true. Of course the first thing Meadow wanted to do in the moring was puzzle. Meanwhile,  I prepped egg waffles. With our Christmas money this year we finally got ourselves some skis. I hadn't cross country skied in a long time and this was Scott's first time. We were too embarrassed to test it out in public, plus there isn't much snow left at home. On the lake it is. I tried a few trips back and forth down the driveway. Meadow had her little skis on for less than ten minutes. Meadow kite...