Up North and Inside

Serious firemen

Subtitled: It Was So Cold That My Dad Blew the Girls' Minds By Telling Them That It Was 100 Degrees Warmer Inside Than Outside

We woke up the day after Christmas and it was -32 outside. Actual temperature. It was even colder when you factored in the windchill. A good friend of Mike and mine (mine from high school, Mike's from college) and his family were back in town for the holidays. Roy and family currently live in Hawaii, so we don't get to see them much. Their little guy, just like ours, needed a place to get the wiggles out. So we met at the Children's Museum and let all four kids run like crazy for several hours. And while they ran, we got to catch up with our friends. Everyone was happy!

Practicing vet skills

Dec and Dylan enjoyed exploring, Bugs attached herself to the sweet toddler from another family, and Quinn happily cooked at each and every kitchen in the place. Bridget and I sat in tiny chairs to chat while Quinn served us delicious meals. Eventually our people got really hungry, so we headed out and swung through Subway on the way back to Gma and Gpa's. The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys, building Hot Wheels tracks, building a gingerbread house, and watching a movie. Once the kids went to bed, we pulled out the game Smart Ass and played a few rounds. It was fun - but just couldn't top the hilarity of Fun-Employed from the night before.

Wednesday was more of the same as the crazy cold continued. We took Grandma with us and met the cousins at the Children's Museum. Mike and my dad headed off to play pool since it was too cold to go ice fishing. We had a blast playing with Hux, Otto, and Milo - and since I had fed them before we went, we stayed for another hour after the cousins left for nap. That night, the kids got a Dad/Grandpa night and the Johnson ladies took my mom out for her birthday. We had a great girls night out and the kids had fun on their adventure too!

Cute chef

After a delicious birthday brunch on Thursday, we headed back so Mike could work on Friday. Karma repaid us in spades for the super uneventful, pleasant traffic drive north to start the break. We got stuck behind a couple fish houses (and drivers who clearly didn't know how to drive them), a couple snow plows, and unexplained traffic snarls. But we made it and were happy to be home.

The kids were also happy to discover that Santa had indeed come and left a couple stuffed kitties and marble run expansion set under the tree. We survived the brutal cold up north and managed to not suffer from the cabin fever that some of our friends went through. We were also grateful that our break (and the fun) was not quite over yet.