Today was our final day at the Heartwood Cabin we had been staying at. Even though we woke up to a light misty rain, Kristine and her dad were able to get in another good (albeit slushy) round of skiing while Analise went ice skating, and Josiah and I went sledding. Right now, we are back in Shell Lake where the rain has started to mix with snow, and there is a forecast of maybe an inch or two of snow overnight.
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Kristine cross country skiing in the light rain (video):
Analise and Josiah had such a blast this morning sledding. I posted one quick video earlier today, but here are a few more really good videos of them having fun. We went sledding for almost two and a half hours without them even once complaining about the cold. They were having so much fun!
Analise super far sled almost to the football field video:
Josiah and Analise on the big hill video:
Two person sled launching on the big jump (at the very end of the video):
After lunch, we packed up and headed even farther into the northwoods to a rural retreat center where we are having a mini-vacation tonight. Kristine and her dad went skiing for over an hour on the trails while the kids played legos inside. I biked up from Shell Lake to join everyone shortly before dinner. Then after a fancy dinner, we went ice skating – Josiah’s first time on skates.
We are heading out the door for a mini-adventure in an even more rural area of Wisconsin, but this morning we had an awesome time sledding for nearly two hours! Here’s one quick video of Analise and Josiah on the hill next to Grandma Sandy and Papa Dale’s house!
Yes, it’s possible – but only if you can find an indoor pool! One of the attractions in Shell Lake is the indoor pool complete with a couple water slides at the town’s only hotel. Kristine and Grandma Sandy took the kids today to meet up with our friends Allison and Judi for an afternoon of swimming and sliding fun. See the pictures and video below!
We are having a blast up here in Wisconsin. It was a long drive, but the kids have already gone sledding and skiing! See the pictures and video above.
We made it out of Alabama just in time – staying to have a nice relaxing white snowy Christmas morning with family followed by a drive up to Nashville to hang out with our cousins before finishing the rest of the drive up to Wisconsin to spend a week with Kristine’s parents in Shell Lake, Wisconsin. We heard that the roads in Alabama Saturday night and Sunday were treacherous. The roads must have literally been freezing behind us as we headed north.
As soon as we left our house and climbed up to the top of Vestavia Hills, there was quite a bit of snow coming down, much more than we had expected. There was maybe a half inch to an inch accumulating on the grass and even a little bit on the roads (Vestavia Drive / Shades Crest Rd). The snow died down a bit as we headed north on I-65, but the snow that had fallen earlier was amazing (see the picture and video below).
We had a great time visiting our cousins in Franklin, TN just outside of Nashville. The kids were happy to play inside with all their new toys while we chatted over some yummy snack foods. Kristine and I tried Boiled Custard for the first time, and it was delicious!
It snowed the entire time we were in Nahville, and the roads were very slick. We saw several accidents on I-65 including one car that swerved from the southbound lanes all the way across the median and then across the northbound lanes immediately in front of us finally coming to a rest just off the shoulder of the road pointing in our direction. I can’t imagine how scary that must have been for them.
As soon as we crossed into Kentucky, the slick roads simply became a little less slick because of all the salt on the roads. Then by the time we made it to Indiana, everything was dry and we were able to make up time all the way to Chicago. Josiah woke up as we made it into town, so he got to see several trains, several subways “L trains” and the tall skyscrapers including the Sears Tower. Once we made it through downtown and out towards the O’Hare airport, we got caught up in quite a Lake Effect snowstorm. This is us driving on I-90 near the O’Hare airport and Elk Grove Village.
As soon as we made it out of the snowstorm, it was pretty uneventful all the way to the Wisconsin Dells which we made it to by 5:45AM. We slept for a few minutes in the parking lot outside McDonalds and then went in at 6AM for a breakfast.
As the sun rose and we left for the final 3 hour stretch, we were greeted with snow everywhere AND cold, cold, cold temps. Check out the temperature sequence on our car thermometer as we went descending down into one of the lower valleys.
Finally, it wouldn’t have been a 20 hour drive w/o capping it off with a 60 mile bike ride. Read all about it on my cycling blog soon.
So this post is about a month late, but after seeing some of the pictures and videos, I thought “better late than never”. We had a great trip up to Gatlinburg in early November. The fall colors were absolutely beautiful, and the kids enjoyed the snow at the top of Clingman’s Dome. My conference went well, and I got a chance to do some fun biking, too.
Welcome to Gatlinburg video – Kristine and the kids at the Pancake House while I’m at the ACM conference.
Riding the Ober-Gatlinburg gondola.
Josiah videos Analise and Kristine riding the chair swings at Ober-Gatlinburg. Josiah was not old enough to ride with them. He did a great job on the video though!
Briarwood Presbyterian, one of the churches less than a mile from our house, puts on a walk-through nativity every Christmas. We have enjoyed our yearly trek through the Nativity. It is very exciting for the kids with live animals and live people acting out the story of the birth of Jesus. We went on Thursday evening with friends and had a great time. Check out some of our pictures from the evening!
