Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

One last post about the SNOW

I thought I was done after I published my last post. But as we were leaving the pizza joint, the heavens opened and it started to snow. For all of the fun we've had in the snow this week, it never really snowed...we were just dealing with the snow that was already here.

I asked Henry if he wanted to play outside when we got home. It took several attempts for me to convince him that I wasn't joking and that he really could play outside. At first, the bigger kids didn't seem too interested, but once they got their gear on, they really enjoyed themselves as well. I figured the late romp in the snow would assist in a good night's sleep before hitting the road.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids enjoying the downpour of snowflakes:

Family Time in Podunk

We have been enjoying our time here in North Dakota. Coming here is as good as going to a cabin in the middle of the woods. But it's even better in that we get to visit extended family.

During the days, we have little outside influences to entertain us. Therefore, our week has been consumed by playing games, doing art projects, baking and decorating cookies, watching movies, putting together puzzles, and playing video games. Oh, and how can I forget...cooking and EATING.

We have spent our evenings visiting with my grandmother. She is 88 years old and currently in pretty good health. She's had some scares over the last few years and there is more family strife than an 88 year old woman should have to deal with. But we found her alert and chatty and enjoyed our evenings with her. Here is a picture of her with the kids:

And here is a picture of 4 generations: Grandma, my dad, me and Henry.

There is a theater here in town, but it is only open Friday - Sunday. We all got extremely excited when we found out that the bowling alley would be open from 3 - 6 p.m. on Christmas Day. We arrived promptly at 3 and set up in two of the 8 lanes available. My aunt and her family arrived and took two more of the lanes...so our family hogged half the bowling alley for 2 of the three hours they were open. Here is a shot of most of the gang at the bowling alley:

The weather has improved and it actually reached up into the mid-20's today. The kids are outside now building a fort and a hill to slide down. I'm glad that Henry got to have the "winter experience". He has a great memory and thoughts of our time here this winter should carry us for a long time before we need to repeat the experience.

One of the movies that we watched this week was Star Wars. Henry had never seen it but Trevor had shared bits and pieces with him. So before the movie even started, the kids grabbed sections of the newspaper, and with a little help from some scotch tape and markers, fashioned their own light sabres. They then ran around the house pretending to cut off each others limbs. Nice, huh?

We are planning a mini-family get-together at the bar uptown tonight, our last night here. Apparently, the bar is the only place you can get a decent pizza. We've been assured that there is a room in the back that we can hang out in so that we aren't actually in the "bar". We've been packing all day...amazing how much stuff gets so strung out all over the place in such a short period of time. The goal is to head out in the morning. We're keeping a close eye on the weather and may wait until a bit later to actually leave, depending on what we find when we wake up.

Adventures into the SNOW

This is Henry's first real experience with snow. Each day, the kids have gotten all bundled up and trekked out to play in the snow. Here is a few pictures of them:

Of course, with the sub-zero weather, they can't spend very long out there. So many long hours have been spent over the last couple of days on indoor activities. Football was on the TV on Sunday and the boys rooted against Minnesota (because of their impact on allowing the Bears to make it into the playoffs).

Henry has mastered the iPhone and pretty much hogs whoever's he can get ahold of to play the various games that are loaded. He's also enjoying playing "buzz" on the playstation that is here. We searched and found the directions for a dice game that we used to play. We decided it was straight-forward enough that Henry could play on his own merits. He won, of course.

There have been board games, art projects, dice games, and several other activities that have kept the kids from going totally stir crazy. And the biggest hit has been the car track Uncle Lester brought that has some kind of "evil" ice trap in the middle.

Somehow, Henry seems to insert himself in the middle of everything that is happening. Here are some of the pictures from the indoor activities.

And the whole clan will be glued to the TV tonight watching Monday Night Football. Why? Cuz Da Bears are playing.

Stay tuned for additional updates throughout the week.

Podunk

Podunk: A small isolated town, region, or place that is regarded as unimportant.

Other than the connotation of "unimportant", that pretty much describes where we are spending the week.

We left at 5:30 a.m. on Friday morning, with the goal of reaching Kansas City, MO to meet Dwight and Belkis for dinner. The temperature gauge in the van read 63 degrees as we pulled away, but would reach a high of 68 by the time we reached Dallas. We made a pit stop there for some Starbucks. Henry had fallen back asleep after our departure and was now awake.

Soon, we reached the Oklahoma welcome center. This is a new state for Henry, so we stopped and snapped this picture:

We had determined that we would try to push through as much as possible, so we had packed a nice little booty of snacks to munch on for lunch. After a tasty lunch/snack of cheese, sausage, crackers and apples, Henry took an afternoon snooze:

We arrived in KC right on time and pulled into the parking lot just as Dwight and Belkis were walking in. They were walking hand in hand and giggling to themselves...the perfect picture of newlyweds (remember the posts from just a few months ago when we attended their wedding). Here is a picture I snapped of them after we enjoyed a lovely dinner at a local Mexican restaurant:

The next morning, we got going at 6:45 a.m. after enjoying a little breakfast at the hotel. We anticipated that the weather wasn't going to be as amicable as it had been on Friday, and it's a good thing.

Here is a picture I took with my phone as we drove down I-29 through either Northern Iowa or at some point in South Dakota. I don't really recall exactly when it was, but it looked pretty much the same all day long. It was not snowing on us, the but the wind was blowing hard and the snow drifted across the road, sometimes reducing the visibility to almost nothing.

Henry's favorite past time during the trip was to watch the thermometer display. He kept a very watchful eye on it and made regular announcements of changes. We watched it fall from the 68 degree high we had in Dallas down to -14 as we arrived at our final destination. Talk about culture shock!

We finally arrived around 8:30 p.m. (after stopping for dinner) and we were all very relieved to have arrived safe and sound. We were also extremely grateful that Uncle Donny had come to the house earlier in the day and turned on the heat and plowed/shoveled the driveway and walkways.

Now, all that was left was to wait for the cousins to arrive. They were on their own adventure driving for the Chicago area under blizzard conditions. Happily, they arrived about 90 minutes later, also safe and sound and grateful for the warm refuge awaiting them.