Winter only comes on Sundays

The winter has certainly been unusual. Last Sunday it was snowy (previous post) but then the rest of the week was fairly warm with a couple days in the mid forties. Then for the weekend the "arctic front" moved in and we got Sunday snow again. Overnight and until about 11am, it was snowing like crazy. When Caleb got home from his morning meetings he said the visibility with the snow falling and blowing was only about 100 feet. We ended up with about a foot of snow. But later this week the weather is once again supposed to be in the 40's. Not the typical Rochester snow that falls and doesn't melt until spring. Sadie and Sylvester loved going out to romp through it all. Sadie had to work a little harder to leap high enough to make it through. Sylvester was so excited to go outside that he was springing around with little leaps.

Cold and Snowy Outside, Warm and Toasty Inside

Last Sunday, we got a surprise when we looked outside. An hour earlier it had been dry with no sign of snow, but then suddenly there were already 2 inches and it was coming down like crazy. We went for a drive to see if we could find any fun pictures. Even in the dark it seemed pretty light because of all the snow reflection.

For dinner we had warm and toasty individual chicken pot pies, kind of a fun change from the usual and just the right size. Sylvester wished that he got one of his own. (sorry Caleb)

Marshmallow World

 Thursday on the weather channel there was an article listing the 5 areas that are the furthest behind their average to date snowfall. The Rochester area was #2. So far the official snowfall had been 1.5 inches and typically by mid January, Rochester has received about 35 inches. There are no complaints about the lack of snow so far. In fact is has been pretty nice.

But Friday the weather decided to help us start to make up that deficit by finally bringing the snow. Time to officially haul out the boots, scarfs, gloves, etc. And the temperatures have dropped to re-enforce that it is actually winter (today in the mid-teens). Hopefully this delayed start doesn't mean it will still snowing in June.

Kansas City New Years

As we headed across Kansas we stopped to visit several grandparents. First stop was to See Grandma Georgie and Bud. This was the first time we had been to their house so we got the grand tour. They took us on a tour of Wamego to see the Christmas lights. We played a bit with Bandit and his toy. It was a good visit. On our way through Topeka we were able to stop and see Grandpa Fisher and Wilma and also Grandma Marcell.

 We went down to the Plaza to see the lights, see the windows at Halls, and stop at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. It was so nice outside that we were able to eat at the tables outside. Such weird weather for December.

We were also able to stop by and see the Kansas City temple in the process of being built. It was a lot bigger than we expected--definitely seemed bigger than St. Louis or Palmyra. It was such a nice day we didn't even have to wear jackets.

You will see that there are no pictures of Sadie and Sylvester with Zoe (Nellie's dog). Zoe has a lot of energy and Sadie and Sylvester are a little more low key. Generally they just avoided her, although once Sadie had had enough and she put Zoe in her place. By late the last night there, Zoe and Sylvester had warmed up to each other and had a good time chasing each other around the living room. Zoe however never warmed up to Caleb. Every time he walked into the room, she would start barking at him. It drove Caleb crazy, all dogs always love him.

We spent New Years Eve with almost every in the family up at the Kearney church building so we would have plenty of space. There was the traditional shrimp, crab legs and steak dinner, followed by some Christmas games and gift exchanging. Some Wii Just Dance, a basketball game, shooting the new rubber band guns, and lots of snacking on the treats we had made in the afternoon. We celebrated New Years "New York Style" ( at 11pm in KC) so that everyone could head home before all the crazy drivers. It was a whole lot of fun.

We had a great holiday and are so glad we got to spend it with family. Happy New Year!

A White Denver Christmas

We decided to drive out a day early and surprise the Ipsons. We are glad we did because the night we arrived we got a foot of snow.

All that snow meant we got to shovel the snow and then we went sledding at Eaglecrest. Good thing we had Kattie's Suburban that we could all cram into. It was a pretty good hill and we all had a lot of fun. Our sledding trains were less than successful and there were several crashes.

Camberly helped Jerolyn make little flannel nightgowns for the twins so they would match the rest of the pjs. It was a challenge because we didn't have a pattern, so we had to make it up as we went along. Some of the other pjs needed a little work too.

Can anyone say awkward family Christmas picture?



Christmas Eve was full of the typical baking fest. Lots of cookies and treats and of course all the stuff for dinner. Kattie and I fulfilled Mom's dreams by playing the viola and violin together.

It made for a different Christmas morning to get up and head to 9am church. Afterwards we worked together to make our traditional Christmas breakfast/brunch. Finally we did the present thing and had lots of fun surprises.

It was a fun time with everyone all together--bowling, playing round robin ping pong, doing Wii Just Dance, playing Stack, sewing baby blankets for church humanitarian aid, and just hanging out.


We got to celebrate Anna and Millie's 1st birthday. It was fun to watch them chowing down on their cakes. Will certainly liked the heavy heavy hangover part of the gifts.

Sylvester and Sadie had a good time too. Sylvester quickly learned where to hangout during meals. The girls on their seats were just the right height for him and the food that fell off the trays were great treats. The kids all did great with the dogs as well. Will was a little timid at first but he would do sneak attacks to pet them both when they weren't paying attention. Millie didn't seem to care at all when Sylvester would get close and would just push him away if it was too much.

Sadie, ever the timid one, just tried to avoid most of the madness. She learned that Trenton was the calm one to hang out by.



By the end of each day Sadie and Sylvester were both exhausted from being on high alert around the kids and missing out on their typical all day naps.

NYC

WARNING: This post has a lot of pictures and so it is dedicated to Dale.

We spent the past couple days in NYC. There was an anesthesiology conference there and so we decided to take the opportunity to see the city decked out for the holidays. We flew down Thursday night and got to see all the city lights as we came in to land. After a fairly tame taxi ride, we checked into our hotel on Times Square.

We headed several blocks north to the Le Parker Meridian (5 star hotel) with a greasy burger joint in the lobby. Not sure it actually has a name, it is designated by a fluorescent sign shaped like a burger and it is hidden behind a big brown curtain in the lobby.

We took the subway from there down to the Empire State Building and headed up to the 86th floor to view the city. It was cold and windy up there.

Friday morning Camberly headed to the conference while Caleb went out to see more of the city. He went down to Battery Park and the World Trade Center Memorial and spent the morning taking pictures.

We met some friends for lunch at Max Brenner's for some chocolatey goodness and then went for a walk in Central Park.

We headed down 5th Ave. and saw the tree at Rockefeller Center.

It was tough to go into many of the stores because the sidewalks and stores were packed. So many people there. We did stop by Tiffany & Co and ended up at Macy's. Inside we headed all the way to the top where there was a line of kids waiting to see Santa. It has such fun old wooden escalators.

That night we went to see Wicked in the Gershwin Theater. It was really fun and puts a whole different spin on the Wizard of Oz. Afterwards we stopped and got some world famous cheesecake from Juniors.

Saturday we started off with the 9am Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. The inside was just amazingly decorated for Christmas--like the huge chandelier shaped like a Christmas tree and draped in tons of snowflakes.

The show was pretty amazing too. The best numbers were the tap routine The Twelve Days of Christmas and the toy soldiers. It was also nice because it actually included the Nativity which is pretty rare in commercial things now.

While Camberly and Ryan were doing their anesthesia stuff in the afternoon, Caleb and Amy spent went shopping. They found scarfs, wallets, hats, buttons, trim, pants, etc. They also stopped into Grand Central Station where they saw hundreds of Santas who were participating in a SantaCon bar crawl. That evening we all headed to the Russian Tea Room for a sumptuous dinner and then had one last stroll through hustle and bustle crowd in Times Square.

Sunday was time to head back home and after a much more eventful taxi ride we hit the airport and then finally home sweet home. What a fun weekend and we are glad we could share it with some friends.