Flying the coop and other January adventures.

January has continued to be relatively mild, although it seems more like winter than 3 weeks ago.

Little Rascal pauses to soak up the sun during a walk to the mailbox.

Ben and Jen came up to stay at my parents' new vacation lake home 2 weekends ago.  Dane and Nora joined them in a "cuddle puddle" during a Culver's lunch break.



Two bluejays visited our birdfeeders the other day.  I grabbed my phone to snap a picture of the two of them together, but I shot the picture through the screen.  When I readjusted to get a better picture, one flew away. 



Last weekend, we visited the cousins (and aunt and uncle).  The kids had a great time making slime!

Ellie

Nora

This week we inherited a rooster to save him from a worse fate.  Meet Emilio!

He likes to watch us out the window of his coop.  We hope to find him some lady friends tomorrow to keep him company and provide us with fresh eggs!

A quick video from our ski outing yesterday.  Listen for Nora's sweet giggle!

A beautiful winter

Our mild temperatures and lack of snow make it hard to believe it's January here!  Normally the first few weeks of the year bring subzero temperatures, and the ground would normally have a foot or two of snow!  We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and did some exploring and playing outside.

Three kitties up one tree!

Walking the frozen creek.

Racoon prints on the ice.

The kids loved this old willow tree with its broken branches falling back to the ground.  It made a perfect little fort!

Mike thought it was perfect for climbing.



Looking back at our place from the "fort" which happens to be just a few feet over the line fence into the neighbor's land.  Otherwise, most of what you see in this picture is our land.  We have to pinch ourselves after living in a little suburban lot in Nevada!



Some folks are still brave enough to be out on the lakes after many days above freezing temps and some record highs.  (Some towns in MN hit 60 degrees this past week!)  I never realized what a culture the whole ice fishing scene is until moving here to Minnesota! 

We went to Grampy and Grammy's new vacation/eventual retirement lake home yesterday evening to help them finish up some cleaning and moving in a few things.  Nora helped scrub the fridge.

Dane found a doorway perfect for playing Angry Birds.

Nora loved the newly installed fireplace that we fired up for the first time last evening!

Pretty Miss Posey.

This morning's beautiful sunrise. 

A little chickadee outside our window.  The birds haven't flocked to my birdfeeders as much this year since the ground is still open.

Family

My dad's father, Grandpa Stockwell, passed away December 22.  While it is sad to let him go for good, it is so wonderful for him to no longer be confined to his failing body.  It was so wonderful to see so much family at his funeral.  It's sad that we couldn't get so many of us together while he was still with us. 

 Twenty-nine of Grandpa's thirty-three great grandchildren.

 Eighteen of Grandpa's twenty grandchildren.

 Grandma and all eight children.

Dad and his siblings.