Hanging out with Justin

Last night I was able to spend the evening with our nephew Justin, Jon's sisters little boy. We had fun exploring, chasing a flashlight and reading books. One book, a wedding album I had sitting around, lead to a couple cute picture opportunities.

He saw Grandpa Neil, in the bottom right picture you see here, pointed and said "pa pa" then immediately walked to the door and...

We also found the mop and decided our floors needed a little help!

Thanks Justin for the fun evening!

Thanks John!!!

One of John Olson's (Shelley's dad) many, many, skills is plastering and finishing drywall. Naturally during Elissa's birthday party last weekend I hit him up to help us finish our drywall soffit this past week! He cheerfully obliged and came over 3 times this week. Just one more sanding, a couple coats of paint and it will be finished!


**BONUS**

Margaret is enjoying a great indoor winter activity. Pretty soon she'll be knitting up a storm!

Theatre-in-Progress

A few of you have been requesting pictures of our new house. This is a normal request...but if you think about it, do you just take random pictures of your house? It never seems to be a convenient time to snap pictures of the house...until last night.

Here is our theatre-in-progress basement renovation project.

We have stripped the inviting green vinyl wall covering, taken down the warm, yet obtrusive, florescent light fixtures, installed recessed lighting (very difficult in an existing drywall ceiling to run the electrical wires to and from), painted, and are now finishing the soffit around the perimeter of the room which will have recessed lights underneath and accent lighting on the face (it also houses all the wiring for the lights and audio cables for the projector).

The wires hanging down from the soffit with power the recessed lights.

We'll share more pictures of the finished product...hopefully soon!

Lost and Our Basement

No, we were not lost in our basement, but we did watch the season premier of Lost in our in-the-process-of-updating-and-almost-done basement yesterday evening. To celebrate the return of Lost to our weekly lives, we invited some friends over to try and unlock some of the mystery together. I think this picture captures the moment well!

(It was a last ditch effort to capture us being together after watching 3 full hours of Lost.
Note: Pete was here, just didn't make it in this picture!)

We also had Noah join us. He is a cutie, we even caught a smile!

Oliver's Overnight

Our first time taking our fabulous nephew overnight - was a success! Besides a few hours of lost sleep, I enjoyed spending time with him playing, running around, and even changing a diaper or two. Thanks Oliver for a fun evening and morning. I'm sure we'll be able to do it again soon.

Do Not Attempt

Disclaimer: I know this is not the smartest with below zero temperatures and black ice covering the highways, but I couldn't help but sharing. I WAS careful!

As I was driving home from work yesterday, I encountered a long plastic piece that was probably once attached to something on a different vehicle for protection, like a refrigerator or pile of lumber. No hard evidence except that, once the wind got a hold of it, the plastic was carried over the median and became affixed to the front of my car. After a long day (and week) I found this amusing and had to share!

Who knew they knew

As a kid I loved playing the classic video / choose your own adventure game, "The Oregon Trail". You never knew when you would be fording a river, find the need to go hunting, or pick up a few necessities at an outpost. And the explorers of that territory... Lewis and Clark.

I tell you this to lead into my own adventure last week of driving 5 hours (each way) to North Dakota for work. When we arrived to the hotel, my coworkers and I checked in and made our way to our rooms. Come to find out, the hotel had recently remodeled and created a few signature rooms. As I passed the other rooms I noticed their themes - golf, outdoors, fishing, sports - and then I came to my room. It was none other than the (loosely themed) "Lewis and Clark Outpost". I wasn't able to explore the outpost(hotel room) as much as I would have liked, but I did manage a few pictures. We didn't have to take a compatibility test, but we all seemed to get a very fitting match.

2nd Annual Winter Re:Play

Playing in the snow is one of our favorite things to do in the winter. So, for the second year we invited our friends from Chicago to our cabin in northern Wisconsin for some Relaxation and Play time.

Where did we go wrong?



Here comes...and goes...Super Jamie!

Linnea sporting the chocolate go-tee. Note how she shakes her head at the end. It's her "say cheese" with on kiddie steroids! Cheeeeeeeeese!

I think Chris likes the north woods...and loves his wife!

Can you spy the trail markers?

A majestic pine tree soaking in the sunset



Linnea was all smiles this weekend except when she didn't get her "nem-in-nems." She especially enjoyed stomping around in Ms. Jen's PINK winter boots!

I'm not sure what could be MORE Wisconsin... Badger hat. Check! Camouflage. Check! Cheese at the cabin. Check! Packers paraphernalia. Oops! Jamie knows that nobody sensible is a Packer fan!



Night Vision

Thanks for a great winter Re:Play weekend at the cabin! I am supposed to Photoshop Chrissy and Luke in the group picture since we forgot to take the picture before they left. But as you can see...I didn't. Sorry. But we're glad everyone could make it! And everyone's favorite Christmas gift (except mine in case Jackie is reading this) they didn't receive...


The Snuggie! A.K.A. the lazy man's sweatshirt.