We spend most of our free time on one adventure or another. Whether it is checking out a new vacation destination and marking another state off our list, or trying out something new, there is never a dull moment-and we wouldn't have it any other way.
OK, let's pretend that it hasn't been over 3 months since there was a post on this site. I promise you that our adventures have continued. The craziness that is our life is part of the reason that you haven't seen anything on here for a while. So, please accept these apologies and enjoy these pictures.
Our boys are so lucky to have Great-Grandparents that the have been able to spend time with. This past weekend, we travelled to Elsie to celebrate Thanksgiving. We also took the opportunity to take some new 4G pictures.
Here is the whole family:
Yes, I am there, I just decided to hide behind my dad, I guess!
The Hansons:
My grandpa was born in the house where my brother and his family live now
The Oslers
The kids all LOVE my grandpa's train collection
Me and my Grandma Lorraine.
According to many in the family, we are more alike than we care to admit. :)
I count my blessings that our children get to meet and spend time with these amazing people. We also have Bryan's grandfather living here that they get to know as well. I hope that many of you have had the same fortune in watching generations of your family enjoy each other.
During our trip to North Carolina, we received an offer that we couldn't refuse...a trip to visit Bryan's aunt and uncle in Wisconsin with both of his brothers and families. After some deliberation, we decided to do it. This is the story of that epic decision.
We loaded up in a Honda Pilot (8 of us!!) for the adventure. Most people thought we were crazy, and we probably were, but it went better than expected. Maybe it was because most of us had lived together for about 6 weeks last year. We ate lots, sang even more (favorites from the trip were Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker, Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond, and Running out of Moonlight by Randy Hauser) and shared lots of laughs. There were a few minor screams and disagreements, but overall it was quite good. We drove for 36 hours and 15 minutes over the course of 4 days. Lots of time to make memories!!!
Now any great trip comes with stories of things that didn't go exactly as planned. This one was no different. We kept our options open as far as driving through the night or stopping and staying at a hotel. About 9:00 at night, we decided that there was no way we were going to be able to drive through the night. We decided to get a hotel room in Albert Lea, MN. Plus, this made it so that Craig could get his cheese from the dairy (or cheese factory if you are a Wisconsinite) that he always stops at. So Laura pulls up hotels and makes a reservation...non-refundable of course. In the confirmation, it talks about the SPAM museum, then I realized----I had just made a hotel reservation in Austin, MN. After a quick look at the map, we were relieved to see that it was only 25 miles past Albert Lea and on the same road so we were OK. That wasn't the case when we went through Albert Lea and saw the signs to Minneapolis/St. Paul and the road we were supposed to take to go to the dairy. OOPS!! So, we took a different route and found a different dairy to stop at, the Wisconsin Dairy State Cheese Company. What a cool place! They had windows into the factory so the kids could see the cheese being made. They had fresh, warm curds and any flavor you could imagine. It was very good. We loaded up with more cheese than anyone could ever need and headed to the cabin. (We did end up going to Craig's dairy on the way home and had the most delicious ice cream that I have ever tasted! We bought another ridiculous amount of cheese at the Burnett Dairy Cooperative, too.)
Finally, we arrived at the cabin and met up with Bryan's other brother Anthony and his family:
The view of the cabin from the lake
Seeing some wildlife after a trip to town for groceries.
No one believed us that we saw a bear! Sam loved the bear statue at the cabin.
Once we got there, the days just blended together we had a blast boating:
Sisters!
Campfires:
Cousin time!
Fishing
Jet Skiing
Young driver!!
Tubing and playing on Big Mable
Attempting to ski
Mason's first time trying
Hanging with uncle Bruce
Playing on the sandbar
How many people can this hold???
On the last night, we lit off some fireworks to celebrate the good time. We were sad to leave such a fun place, but it was time to return to reality.
What a view!
Mason's photography!
Knowing that it was going to take us two days to get home, we started to think about how to make one more big memory on this trip. Then we decided...let's go through North Dakota and knock another state off the list! So after our stop at Craig's favorite dairy (which has changed a lot in the 7 years since he has been there), we headed to North Dakota. We enjoyed the change of scenery. We stopped and ate in Oakes, ND. It as a very nice little town. We enjoyed chatting with some of the locals and trying some delicious Knethla Soup. YUM!!!
Proof we were in North Dakota
All in all it was a great trip. We were probably crazy for embarking on this trip together, but I am so glad we did. Apparently we didn't get too tired of each other because we were sitting around telling stories after we got home and some of us even went to the movie together last night. It will be a trip to remember for a long time!!
Three years ago, we fell in love with South Carolina during our visit to Hilton Head Island. If we didn't have a goal of getting to all 50 states, we might have just made it our only vacation spot. This year when deciding where to go, we remembered that great trip and decided to go to North Carolina in hopes that we would enjoy it as much. We were not disappointed. Not for one second!
As with most trips that we have taken, our favorite things were free, cheap or food-related. :)
The adventure begins:
Getting there
The trip to North Carolina started off bright and early...yes, the clock says 3:48 AM!!!! However, the airport is quite peaceful at that time and the boys were great. Now the 2 hour delay in Chicago...........YUCK! The boys were good, though. Thank goodness for nice strangers to meet along the way.
Atlantic Beach, North Carolina
Our condo at Ocean Sands for a few days at the beach:
Walking to the beach (literally in the backyard of the complex)
Beach bums
When we weren't at the beach, we enjoyed the pool at the condo.
Aquarium
This was a great aquarium. The boys enjoyed petting sting rays and all of the different types of crabs that they had in their hands-on exhibits. We even got in 1/2 price because of our membership at the Riverside Zoo here in Scottsbluff. BONUS!
Cool sand sculpture
Delicious food
We didn't starve while we were gone. In fact, almost everything we ate was perfect!!
Our favorites in:
Atlantic Beach
The Shark Shack-fun outdoor setting with great fresh seafood
Amos Mosquito's-YUM!! Perfect Seafood topped off with S'mores
The Pig-More delicious BBQ and GREAT Macaroni and Cheese
Megalodon Fossils
The North Carolina State Maritime Museum
This place is awesome for a free-will donation museum in Beaufort. They have lots of remnants from Blackbeard's ship. The boys loved all of the pirate things. Beaufort was full of historical homes. The oldest one we saw was built in 1768. WOW!!! What history these homes have seen!
ARRRRRGGHHHH
Fort Macon State Park
With our little history buff, we decided that it would be good to take in some of the history of the area. Fort Macon was just down the road from Atlantic Beach and was awesome. Especially for being a free state park.
Love this sign.
We found it interesting the the Fort identified the Civil War as the War Between the State. It is interesting to view things from a different perspective than we have been traditionally taught.
Fun in Raleigh
One of the great parks in Raleigh. It was right next to North Carolina State University. Lots of fun things to do for free!
What a fun place! It had so many cool exhibits that we hadn't seen at other children's museums before including a savings themed "Moneypalooza" and also a hockey rink. Mason even got to use a real saw in the building area. Very cool. The boys loved it!
We also went to the North Carolina Museum of Science and History. It was another amazing free-will donation place to visit. It had 4 stories of exhibits and we could have spent hours there.
Rivals
We couldn't drive through Durham and Chapel Hill without stopping to see the homes of some great NCAA basketball moments. The only question is...
Duke....
or North Carolina???
Heading Home
After a great time in North Carolina, we had to come home. We had a long layover in Chicago so we took the chance to go and have some good pizza at Gino's.
This is shortly after Sam decided that it is OK to smack the flight attendant on the backside as she walked by. What are we going to do with this kid??
Ahhh...Vacation
If you couldn't tell from the gushing, we LOVED our time in North Carolina. The people were so nice. We've travelled many times and encountered a few nice people along the way. This trip there was always someone there to chat with, get information about the area, or just comment on how great our guys are (of course we agreed with them!) We will be back at sometime in our lives. Who knows, maybe sooner than later. To end, I'm leaving you with one of our favorite Eric Church songs...after being to his home state, I love the song even more! Goodbye Carolina!
Special Birthday Breakfast (yes, that's a chocolate long john from the Gering Bakery)
Mason turned 7. Wow. Can that be possible? How is it that we are old enough to have a 7 year old? Well, enough about us...on to the fun of celebrating his birthday. Here are some of the highlights from his party:
Opening presents with cousins!
Dueling cakes:
My kind of Fruit cake
The real cake (Grandma Lorraine's recipe of course!)
Swinging with Grandma Sue
Batting practice...notice the catcher protection-can't beat a shield!
This past Tuesday marked the 1 year anniversary of us living at our house. In following with our tradition of spending lots of time on the road, Bryan was in Omaha-just like he was the first night we lived here!!!
Here are some pictures of our home...just in case you wanted to see it.
Move-in day! Note the lack of any yard...our biggest project.
Unpacking a few boxes:
SNOW!!!!
Snow day!!! 4/10/13
1 week later:
Still snowy. What an April
Now, since this is Nebraska, I had to post this picture too:
Yes, this was on the Sunday in between the two previous pictures. Only in Nebraska!!!!!
Some of our projects:
Quality dirt to grow a lawn
The dirt worked! And the watering, watering and more watering. Starting a lawn in the middle of a drought is not the greatest plan that we had!
Creating a raised flower bed
The (almost) finished project
Bryan's winter project was putting up trim. It looks so good!
Since we are living on a farm, we felt we needed some livestock.
So we got some chickens.
We love our house and these are just some of the reasons:
Snowball fights
A living room big enough to have birthday parties in with room to spare
Land to go fly kites
Space to carve pumpkins
A place for the boys to grow up happy and enjoying outside
Dining space to host Christmas Dinner
Beautiful views to remember how much we are blessed
