celebrate

This past weekend we celebrated Jocie's birthday along with Myles's almost birthday at my mom's place. As some of you know, she lives on a lake in northwestern Minnesota. It is beautiful and relaxing and one of my favorite places on earth. Some people might think it wouldn't be fun to go to the lake when the temperature gage reads -20 . But honestly, I love going up to the lake in the winter just as much as the summer. The coffee brews longer in the morning, the cozy fleece pajama pants stay on all day, and the fire is always roaring in the evening. Because we are not out on the pontoon or lounging at the sandbar, it forces you to visit longer with your family and just be together. It's the best.

views of my mom's place . . . I really need to burn more candles at my own house . . . it's just feels so cozy.

While the rest of us lounged around the house on Saturday morning, Carl hopped onto his snowmobile to find a good place plop his ice fishing house down. Carl's two favorite things to do in the winter is ice fishing and snowmobiling - so he was pretty much in heaven :)








The birthday party officially started when Grandma, Grandpa, Dana and Ryan got to the lake. There were games to be played, good food to be eaten and fun to be had!

(only one candle left . . . you know what that means!)

Oh yeah, and cake to be tasted . . . for the first time.

Yes, there were presents to be opened, fish to be caught, snowmobiles to be ridden, and wine to be drank (or is the right word drunk . . .?) it sounds cliche, but the best part of the weekend was just being in that cozy little cabin, celebrating the lives of both Jocie and Myles.