Snowmobilers

Gail and Greg have been visiting us for a few days of vacation. Yesterday, they rented snowmobiles and spent the afternoon exploring trails in the area. Then they returned to our place for the evening, including a great pork, saurkraut and dumplings dinner, and a couple of card games. (The snowmobiles were a 24 hour rental.) This morning, they were off again for some additional exploring. They planned to take the route through the Chippewa Flowage before returning the machines to the rental location.

Although snowmobiling is not something Kathie and I are attracted to, it was nice to see Gail and Greg having fun.

They're off!

Barnebirke and Sprints

We attended a couple of the opening events for this Birkebeiner weekend in Hayward, WI. The Barnebirkie event is for children of all ages and sizes.

Some of them are pretty good skiers. I read that Anders has a new pair of skis on the way, so I'm already looking forward to his participation in this event a year or two from now. Grandpa and Grandma would be ringing their cowbells for sure.

Some of them needed a little help from their parents.

Some were not really sure they wanted to be doing this at all.

Others had already learned how to work the crowd.

And everyone got a medal for their efforts.

After a break for some cocoa, irish coffee or hot apple cider, we watched some of the sprint events.

The turns at the end pylons were something to see.

Then the sprinters raced on back up Main Street to the finish line.

We and our visitors had a great time on a beautiful blue winter day.

Winter Near Winter

We spent most of the last two weeks of January at our place in Wisconsin, which is not far from Winter, WI. Hence the title of this blog posting. In addition to finishing that puzzle, about which I posted last time, and feasting on fish, about which I posted two times ago, we also enjoyed a visit from our oldest son and his family.

Here is Anders with his mother shortly after donning his PJs for a good night's sleep shortly after arrival.

The next morning, Anders got in some "Josey time", although Josey was not always sure she wanted the attention. I know that Sandy posted a similar picture, but you can't have too many pictures of Anders, you know (and as you will see).

On Saturday, Grandma and I agreed to keep Anders entertained so that his parents could do some skiing. Here I am getting Anders ready for a sled ride out to the mailbox, which is about 0.4 miles from our house. Will and Sandy were departing for their skiing expedition just as we begin our walk. The truth is that Anders was asleep even before we got to the end of our driveway.

He recovered later, though. Here he is with his dad, vegging out on the couch.

It can be difficult to get Will to smile properly for the camera. You have to make him laugh. I think this is one of the better pictures I have taken of him and Sandy.

Anders loves his hat. (We all love Anders.)

I wish my mom and dad could have seen their great grandson sitting in their Amana rocker.

We made another sled ride outing on the lake the next day.

Although Anders mostly wanted to push the sled.

Later that afternoon, Kathie and I went cross-country skiing on a beautiful trail. The snow was different there than in the area of our cabin. Lots of the white stuff was hanging on the trees, and in the late afternoon sun, things had a distinct blue shade to them. Kathie looks good here, eh? (When you spend part of your time in Wisconsin, you have to learn to say "eh?" a lot.)