Wisconsin Winter Wonderfulness

With so many Christmas pictures I've struggled getting over the Christmas hump to move into 2014 blogging. Here is an attempt to do it: 

Very picture heavy, not enough words to describe all the fun things I'd like to share and all the memories that filled our few short days in Wisconsin. I considered trying to break our trip into smaller posts, but chose to keep my pictures a mash-up of joys. 

Sweet sleepy dreams post snowy fun. 

Family get together to answer the real questions in life like: "What does the fox say?"

John's younger sister passed away on Christmas Day, it certainly got my family thinking about making the most of opportunities to spend time together. 

 At the indoor playground we were obviously the family having the most fun. We had a terrific pirate ship adventure that other children were envious of.

We drank lots of hot chocolate. 

My mom has aged with grace. I hope these picture makes her smile and helps get her through the struggle of another tax season. 

What's going to work? TEAM WORK!

Snowmen

Snow balls

snow angels

 My boys loved the snow, and I loved sharing it with them. 

 Samuel had his train set out on the ping-pong table and I couldn't help but think of my Grandpa. In his basement at their farm house he had a train table. As far back as I can remember when I went to my grandparent's farm my Grandpa had trains and old metal cars spread out across his table. I turned to my mom and said, "The only thing missing is the plastic cows." With a squeal she went running. She returned with my grandfather's cows, and in that moment, the emotion was too much for me. I was a little girl again looking curiously at an old man's weather worn hands carefully listening for the hum of the train. It was one of the most surreal moments of the trip.

Could have been the Campbelle's Soup kid

Walking in Wisconsin Winter Wonderfland

I tried to help my sister with her hair, and styled it exactly like mine -- it was funny. We are not the same. She is silly, and fun, and loud... the adjectives abound (especially after our 3 hour trip to Kohl's/Walmart.)

Blockus night with chocotinis 

Pajama party under the Christmas Tree. 

gifts

Moments not captured by camera, but certainly not taken for grant it: 

*Church at St. John's in Burlington: It was like stepping back in time. 

*Seeing Emily - someone I missed on my July trip

*Christmas at my Grandma's

*Trying to convince my Dad that Florida is great and that he should come back

*Spending time with my cousins, and watching my boys spend time with theirs

*Seeing my brother, his wife, their 2 boys, and finding out there is a girl on the way!

A tribute to the trees: 

Gingerbread tree

Attic Airplanes

Precious Moments

Blue Christmas

Charlie Brown tree

Snowman tree

Safari Tree

The Mall Tree

Samuel's Tree

Thanks mom for all you did to make our winter experience wonderful!

Love you!