Wisconsin Winter or Winter Near Winter, Wisconsin

Late last week, we drove up to our place in Wisconsin to enjoy some of the winter fun here. On the way, scenery along the Mississippi river south of Lacrosse was pretty this time of year.

Will, Sandy and Anders came to visit us for the weekend. The fun started with a required Friday night fish fry at one of our local restaurants.

Anders and his mom enjoyed the fireplace Saturday morning. Anders is holding a "snowman kit" that I bought. I suppose one could just use natural things, but the plastic carrot nose, pipe, buttons, and eyes, along with a scarf and cap will be good resources for snowman building for a long time. Besides, Anders thought it was a fun item and that is good enough for me.

I had gotten a new bread machine for Christmas to have at the lake. So, I thought Anders and I should make some raisin bread. He did a great job putting all of the ingredients into the baking pan. Then later, he and I enjoyed watching the machine mix everything up.

He is very careful with the "dumping", and having your mouth open and sometimes your tongue out helps too.

Anders has gotten to be quite the puzzler.

While mom and dad did some cross-country skiing, I took Anders for a long pull on a sled down our lane and back across the lake. After that, Grandma treated him to a nice warm dip in the tub. I'm not crazy about Macaulay Culkin, but I have to admit that this picture reminds me of him in Home Alone. Anders is definitely cuter and will grow to be a much nicer boy.

The next day, I showed Anders how we used to slide on scoop shovels when I was young. We didn't need saucer sleds! We just sat on the shovel, hung onto the handle, and pointed downhill. As long as you didn't spin sidewise or get backwards, it worked great! If that happened, you often enjoyed a bailout or tumble. With a little practice, you could learn to keep the edge from digging in and do a complete spin. Give it a try! I highly recommend it.

You may have seen the earlier pictures that Sandy posted of Anders' outing on the cool little snowshoes that his dad made for him. Here he is trying them out again on our lake.

It got warm enough on Sunday to make a snowman and try out the snowman kit. See! It does work well. Anders liked it!

While dad and mom loaded the car for the trip back home, Anders practiced driving. I don't think he actually drove home, though. Rather, I imagine he was asleep by the time they got to the end of our lane. What a fun and rewarding weekend it was for us for them to be here with us.