Grammy's Birthday

We woke up Monday morning to a rather awful weather forecast for the following day (when we planned to head home). There was a winter weather advisory with blizzard conditions in the cities from 9am to 6am the next day. Usually this would mean that for the millionth year in a row, we  would bail on Grammy's birthday and head home early to beat the weather. But not this year. We had promised Grammy a celebration at the cabin and it was happening! 

After examining the forecast and the radar, Mike sighed and said "we better hit the road early tomorrow." I looked at him in shock and said "that's not what I expected you to say." I was completely prepared for him to suggest we contact the cabin owner and see if we could extend our stay an extra night. Honestly, that was all the permission Mike Vanneste needed. Within the hour, he had done just that and we were excited to spend an extra day up north (on top of the extra day we got on the front end of the trip).

We spent the morning making Grammy's birthday cake and testing out Fiona's new modeling clay. Then shortly after lunch, Auntie, Grammy, and Grampy arrived! The kids had to give the grand cabin tour first (mostly to show off their rooms and the pool table) and then out we went to the sledding hill. It has gotten colder overnight and we discovered that the snowbanks at the bottom of the hill that we had been going through the day before were now solid ice launching pads. We learned this because Grampy went sailing off of one! 

As I warned the new sledders about the various obstacles, Auntie jokingly told me that I forgot to mention the fire pit. I told her that I figured if you missed the septic tank pole and the snowmobile trailer, you'd also miss the fire pit. [Fact: I had to text Auntie the next day because the girls had crashed into the fire pit. So many obstacles. So much fun!]

When Mike had talked to the cabin owner earlier in the morning to extend our stay, she mentioned that there were sleds in their shed and to feel free to use them. She had failed to mention that there was also a toboggan! GAME ON! We had so much fun sledding, but after watching Gpa launch off the jumps, Gma decided that she didn't want to kill herself on her birthday. So while Mike hung out at the hill with kids, the original Johnson four went for a walk on the lake. It was a perfect day and a great walk. We even got a visit from Mike and Fiona on the snowmobile!

Then we were back inside to play games, shoot some pool, make animals out of clay, and enjoy the fireplace. Meanwhile, I had the important responsibility of making Grammy's birthday dinner. We couldn't take her out to eat (all indoor dining in Minnesota was paused), but we could make her dinner in a different location. Quinn helped me (we had to make several game time substitutions with what we could find the spice cupboard), but we made brown sugar baby back ribs and cheesy au gratin potatoes. My dad said the ribs were better than at the Forest Lake (which is high praise). We ate sooo much - but still managed to squeeze in birthday cake. After we sang to Grandma, that is. 

We went back outside after dinner to enjoy moonlight sledding and walking (or to work off all that dinner!) before we said good-bye to our visitors. Grandma sent messages to the kids the next that that it was one of her very best birthdays. We are all quite proud of ourselves that we made not one, but two, December birthday people feel very happy and loved.