Welcome to the U-P

*Side Note*  My goal this summer has been to catch up on my blog... well, I have had one issue after another starting with our hard drive crashing, up to recently having issues with blogger not letting me add pictures to my posts.  I think I have finally resolved everything and I am ready to share lots!  Here I go with a few more Winter posts, followed by Spring, Summer, and Back-to-School.

February 13-16:  One of my dear friends has been inviting me to travel to Northern Michigan with their family for about 2 years now.  We were finally able to make it happen.  They have lake shore property in the Northwoods of Michigan.  They  originally planned to live here so they built a huge garage with an apartment above and planned to live there while they built their house.  They ended up moving to Channahon (lucky for me!) and never built their house, instead they use the "Cabin" as a vacation place.  It is in the Upper Peninsula or the "U-P".  I didn't realize what a big deal this was until we visited (and I checked a map to see exactly where we were!)  These people call themselves Yoopers and it is like a whole new culture.  We drove 8 hours north, all the way through Wisconsin until we were in Michigan again.  The U-P is mostly surrounded by great lakes--Superior on the North and Michigan on the Southeast.  If you look at the map below, it shows Iron Mountain--we drove through on our trip; and Houghton--very close to where their cabin is.  You can also see on the most norther Peninsula, Cooper Harbor--we visited here on a later trip!  Ok, enough with the geography lesson... 

We woke the kids up at 3:30AM to get on the road early.  We drove until about 10 and stopped for breakfast.  We caravaned with our friends, the Porentos.  We drove through Milwaukee and Green Bay.  Marc showed the kids Lambeau Field to which Kinnick replied, "Ewww gross, why would you show me that?!?"  As we got into the Northwoods (Upper Michigan & Minnesota) we were in awe of the beauty.  As we started to drive through the little (very little!) Michigan towns, a light snow began to fall that made everything look even more magical.  Erika had told me that there would be A LOT of snow, that it would snow most of the time we were there, that it would be COLD (like negative temps the entire time), and that we would spend all day playing in the snow.  Well, needless to say I was skeptical that all of these statements would be true--but they were!  There was a full 3-4 feet of snow everywhere (I'm talking people's front doors to their homes were half buried!).  It was absolutely the winter wonderland Erika had described and we really did play outside all day long.

Enjoying our early morning drive!

Day 1:  The kids were immediately ready to play in the snow.  They were so excited.  The guys spent quite awhile plowing out the long driveway so we could drive in to unload.  We played outside for a few hours then Scot & Erika went into town to pick up cross country skies (Erika ordered them for everyone ahead of time from a rental place so we could pick them up for our trip) and Marc and stayed with the kids and worked on heating up dinner.  We played hard and slept hard!

This is their drive way in the background.  We had to stop in the cul-de-sac and Scot and Marc had to hike in to get a fourwheeler/plow to scoop the driveway. 

Audrey & Sadie

Day 2:  Scot made a yummy breakfast and then we were back outside for more snow fun!  Saturday was Valentine's Day and the kids missed their school parties the day before so we could leave for our trip.  They were bummed to miss their parties so we planned a little V-Day fun in Michigan.  The kids exchanged Valentines and we had some yummy treats.  We spent our day outside playing (and tried out the cross-country skies on their property) and inside relaxing, playing games, and reading.  We got in and out of snow clothes several times but it was worth it.  The kids loved riding the "Kitty-Cat" snowmobile and Marc & Scot enjoyed giving rides on the real one.  We literally stayed in pajamas all day and added layers when we went outside!  It was a fabulous day.

Scottie & Macey!

Kinnick & Colee

Day 3:  Sunday was Macey's birthday!  When we woke up we sang happy birthday to this sweet girl.  Our family stayed in the guest room.  It had a queen bed and a set of bunk beds.  The girls shared a bunk, Kinnick took the other bunk and Carver slept in his pack & play.  We had breakfast and let Macey open some presents.  After that, we loaded up to go to a sledding hill/cross country ski park.  We went sledding first then tried out a ski trail.  Marc stayed back with Carver to let him take a nap in his carseat.  The kids had a much easier time skiing here because there were trails marked out.  You just put your skis in the little groves and get moving.  (The day before at the cabin, Scot made trails for us to follow--it was so fun but too hard for the kids.  I got stuck a few times!)  We ended our day with dinner out then cake for Macey.  It was another fabulous day!) 

7 kids and 4 adults for 4 days--we had a bit of craziness!

Having a snack and hot chocolate in the Chalet.

We ate at this adorable place--it was decorated with all different kinds of snowshoes and had lots of hooks by the door for people to hang up their snow gear.  We came in from our day of playing in the snow and enjoyed some awesome food!

Our birthday princess!

Audrey, Colee, and Scottie got this cute mitten set for Macey for her birthday.

Day  4:  We left in the morning to drive home so we could make it in time for Sadie's volleyball class that evening.  We finished the last 3 chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on our drive.  This was definitely a trip we won't forgot (and look forward to making again!)