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:
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| The view of the cabin from the lake |
Seeing some wildlife after a trip to town for groceries.
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| 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:
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| Sisters! |
Campfires:
Cousin time!
Fishing
Jet Skiing
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| Young driver!! |
Tubing and playing on Big Mable
Attempting to ski
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| Mason's first time trying |
Hanging with uncle Bruce
Playing on the sandbar
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| 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.
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| What a view! |
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| 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!!!
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| 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!!
