The Wojos

Farewell

On Thursday, February 10th, my mom's side of the family lost a husband, a father, a brother, a grandfather and great-grandfather, an uncle and great-uncle, a friend. He will be dearly missed by those who love him and remembered by many. Farewell, Dodo. We love you!

Sledding Party

Last weekend was the Beaudoin family's third annual sledding party. It was a cold, cold day (see their breath?), definitely our coldest yet, but we braved it for the fun of it all. We had a good turnout again, and the sledding hill was great! We ate our hotdogs, drank coffee and hot chocolate, and warmed up by the fire. Later, we also had a nice, hot supper of chili, pulled pork, and homemade eggrolls in the house. (Think we over-do it much when it comes to food?!) Then his sisters gave my dad a gift for his 50th birthday (an engraved pocket knife) and we sang to all the February birthday people in the family. It was a long day, and we all left exhausted, but it is always so much fun that it leaves me looking forward to the next sledding party!

Relaxing by the fire? Andrew looks relaxed, but Curt... not so much.

A group photo

Mom and Dad going down the hill on the toboggan, with a little help from Ben

College Reunion

A couple weekends ago we had our yearly winter college reunion. I call it that, but only three of the people at our house actually went to college together: Curt, Cody, and Brendon. Andrew and Brea came, and Cody brought his family, Sarah and Kennadi. We shared some good meals, a lot of laughs, played games, and played with the kids. It was great to get together, and we hadn't seen Brendon in quite a long time, so that was nice. He and I went to an Evangelical free church service on Sunday morning. The service was interesting and different, and led to a deep and thought-provoking conversation afterwards. It was a new and really good experience for me, and I appreciated him taking me.

Reading - one of our favorite things to do. I will be so proud if my kids keep their love of reading for life!

Curt and Brendon playing Cribbage - a battle of wits

The boys spent that Saturday at a snow golf tournament. Yes, it's just like it sounds: shallow holes are drilled into the ice, and they hit tennis balls into them with their clubs. Curt decided that they should make a spectacle of themselves and wear costumes, so he dug a bunch of stuff out of the basement for them to put on. They really got into it, and they said they had fun with people's comments and goofy looks. They even won some prizes, and some of the organizers said they'd try to promote costumes in the future!

The babies. Well, not mine anymore. :(

Kennadi, 9 months, and Carter, 14 months

Jackson's Third Birthday

Our little boy turned three on Friday, February 11th! It is so hard to believe that much time has gone by already! We celebrated by going out for Chinese food and taking the kids to one of the waterparks in Brainerd. Curt would have preferred to stay home, doing the same old thing we do every other night, but I forced him to do this as a family. It did end up being really fun, and even Daddy had a good time (which I will remind him of in the future as needed). It took Jackson a while to warm up to the water, but once he did, he was comfortable playing even while we weren't right there with him (which took me a while, too). Carter wasn't a huge fan of it at all, so Curt and I took turns holding him and walking with him. A bit later in the night, he did tolerate sitting in the shallowest part of the water and touching the water that came out of some jets, and both of the boys loved being in the hot tub. I was worried that it wasn't safe for them, but it wasn't nearly as hot as a personal hot tub, or even those in some hotels. It led to the outdoors, and they liked that part, too. They didn't want to get out at the end of the night! It was late by the time we got home, but I still thought it was important for Jackson to have his birthday cake on the night of his actual birthday. I learned my lesson when he started to throw fits about wanting more cake when it was way too late. He couldn't have cared less if we'd done it the next day, since he'd fallen asleep in the car and forgotten all about it by the time he woke up at home! Anyway, we did enjoy more cake the next day, and he opened his presents that morning.

See how delirious with exhaustion he looked? What was I thinking?!

One of his presents was this giant ape. I couldn't get him to take it down from his face!

Opening J's birthday presents from Auntie Sheila (yep, Christmas paper in February! You can do that with kids!)

Wojo Weekend

Unfortunately, I don't have enough pictures of our belated holiday celebration weekend with the Wojo family. We had a great time as usual, playing games, eating, and talking. We got a babysitter so the adults could go out for supper that night. It was Matt's year to choose the place, so he opted for St. Cloud, which is just over half an hour from Mom and Dad's. He'd really been looking forward to Red Lobster, so he was bummed when the first car got there and found out it was way too busy to fit in our group of twelve. I suggested Granite City, which is always delicious. We figured it'd be busy as well, but they were able to accommodate us. The boys were excited about the free beer samples, everyone enjoyed their meals, and Curt entertained us (well, most of us) with his buzzed antics. When we got home, there was more drinking and lots of games. We had some laughs at the expense of Curt, as well as some other good times. It's always fun when all of us can get together, and we're looking forward to our next adventure - a 5K in Duluth in April!

Jackson & Maddy doing puzzles with the help of Uncle Matt

Erin and Codie enjoying a card game

Fun at Home

Reading books together in the chair. Carter likes them well enough now to walk up to us with books in his hand and make his grunting noises to indicate that he wants us to read to him.

Reading and getting silly with Daddy

Hamming it up for the camera

New Year's Day

Every New Year's Day, the Anderson side of my family (Mom's side) celebrates Christmas. Since everyone is so busy during the holiday itself, we decided several years ago to just move our celebration the day everyone has off a week later. It works quite nicely. This year we had our eating/gifting/hanging out day at Brea's house in Hudson. Andrew, Brea, and Ben prepped stir-fry ingredients, and the boys made it to order for each of us. There were also eggrolls from my aunt Pam, and cream cheese wontons. Everything was delicious, and it was fun to see them having a good time getting everything ready together.