***Seriously guys, I am close to running out of sunny day memories (as I am SURE it's getting old) but.... one of the last few left include Labor Day Weekend.
Aaron, Avrie and I packed up to spend a few days up in Crosslake at The Evenson's NEW spot on Crosslake, their cabin!! We like to call it "Auntie Krissy's cabin" Brad & Kris have been DREAMING for a house up in the Brainerd Lakes Area and now they have it and it's AWESOME!
There's room enough for an entire crew in this great home w/ a large screened in porch, that's set in a quiet bay JUST around the corner from Denny Hecker's place (click HERE for pictures of THAT mansion! Yoowzaaa). Back to Brad & Kris's place, additionally, above the detached garage there is another huge living space with a full bathroom, three bedrooms, a cozy loft and a kitchenette. This is where we camped out for the weekend- so nice and so fun!
[weekend digs]
All weekend long, we spent time on the boat touring the lakes, sipping on cocktails and hanging out at the sand bar which is within eye sight from Brad & Kris' dock.
[@ the sand bar, playing 'cow'] One particular day that we were on the sand bar, a big storm rolled in late afternoon so we ended up saying bye bye to the water for the rest of the day and before I knew it I was saying bye bye to everyone else and making my way to my bed.
[margarita induced selfies- hehe] Let's just say that Kris makes a mean, VERY MEAN, batch of strawberry margarita's! I think, no- I KNOW, we were all in bed by 9pm (me 8pm!) feeling like it was midnight, YICKS!
[said, mean margarita] I think we had a rainy day in there which is when we spent that time check out the shops in town and visiting The Chocolate Ox, a popular tourist's pitstop for candy, ice cream & any other treat you can imagine. In my mind... it is the be all end all of ice cream they have... wait for it... ROOTBEER FLOAT sherbert!
[AV and i LOVED it!] With the weekend being SO long ago it's hard to recall every little detail but I do know that we really enjoyed being able to spend time with family at Brad & Kris' new "fun place". Avrie LOVED (always LOVES) spending time with her cousins.
Grandma & Grandpa Sonnek were also up for the weekend, so it was that much MORE of a bonus to see the Minn Lake crew, outside of Minn Lake.
[my family was cute this day... me... not so much! LOL!]Ok, now- this is me, officially, saying goodbye to Summer 2013. :'(
***
AND THEN... lets fast forward to winter... more specifically New Years Eve in Crosslake where it was -27 at one point... yeah, you read that write, it was NEGATIVE-TWENTY-SEVEN! That's roughly... a 100 degree difference from our previous Crosslake visit. ICK. We still managed to have a TON of fun. It was a great weekend, with a great group of Evensons & Sonneks!
The Holidays were truly a blur so I am having a hard time remember exactly which day we headed up but I do know we arrived just before another snowfall. Upon arriving to the frozen tundra, we unpacked all of our gear, make ourselves at home in the basement and settled in for a cozy winter weekend at the cabin.
There was a lot of snowmobiling on behalf of the guys. Hannah was out for a little while too- frostbite had her keeping inside more than being out on the trails. Kris was also out for a while too- but a minor run-in with a tree (THANKFULLY she is OK!) had her in the cabin and off the trails for the most part as well.
[right: Avrie headed to the cabin! #pumped]
[left: Avrie on the way home... #pooped]
Avrie had a BLAST with her favorite cousins; they watched both Despicable Me 2 & Monster's University at least 10 times each. They played games, ran around the cabin, played hide & seek and Avrie seemed to pick up a love for wrestling- every time she sees Ethan (our little wresting champ of the family) she wraps her arms around his neck and tries to take him down. She's going be that girl that likes to hang with the boys and play rough (greaaaaaaaat!) ;)
For New Years Eve we ventured out to a cousin's place for a little visit. Afterwards we made it back to the cabin to get comfy, snack and play games as we rang in the New Year. It was complete with an intense game of Girls vs. Guys of Taboo, beer, wine and mimosas and the ipad!
[no TV = downloading a New Years countdown app] Again the details of the weekend are a little fuzzy as it seems all we did (in good company of course) was eat & drink to keep warm! Avrie stayed up late on NYE and was in bed at 12:02am!
And that, my friends, is how we ended our crazy busy Holiday season (which i have yet to share, HA!)
Before I go, now would probably be a good time to introduce you to the newest "member" of our family, since you will likely be seeing a lot of her in upcoming posts...
..Aaron's new ski-doo, purchased right before Christmas. Aaron is pretty happy & excited about his new toy! He has had a lot of fun already this winter hitting the trails up North & around home here. Aaron will be traveling out West later on in February for a trip with his buddies to the Big Horns.
***
Thanks SO much for hanging in there while I caught up on our summer events on 2013. I will try to piece together Fall, specifically harvest & Thanksgiving and then moving into a full/quick Holiday (christmas & all things related) recap- then... then... I can quick get us up to speed on the month of Jan and the BAM... we are right into the new month of Feb that will be arriving THIS weekend!? 2014 is already full speed ahead!
