My First Weekend Away!

Not last weekend but the weekend before that (man am I behind on this blogging!) I went away for the weekend, leaving Bunsy boy with Grandma, for the first time since becoming a mother. Let me tell you it was niiiiiiiiiice. My friend Holly and I went up to Lutsen, a lovely little ski spot up and over on Lake Superior. There was a music festival called Snowball that has been taking place up in Lutsen for 7 years now. I had heard of it before, but this was the first year I've made it up. It is organized by a funky-doo band called Wookie Foot, whose stage antics and positive vibe has kept them around for at least a decade. Other highlights of the music were The Limns and Dustin Thomas. However nice it was to shake my groove thang to some great tunes, the real highlight of the weekend was the lovely sunny & actually warm (for MN in Jan.) weather as well as the picturesque cabin shared by nearly 15 people.

The above and below pictures show Jayme (good old friend of 15 years) and I enjoying the sunshine on the deck of the cabin that overlooked Lake Superior. I like how we are all teethy grins when facing the sun but shy away a bit in the shade. We didn't even plan that!



The following shot shows the view from the deck, looking down on Lake Superior. We could hear the waves all night long and it was so soothing and wonderful. Normally it is quite windy on such a large lake, but that weekend it was very still. Just perfect. Mother Nature was really looking out for me!



I didn't take any pictures inside the cabin probably because there were just too many people everywhere all the time. It was a three bedroom cabin that was supposed to sleep 8, but to make it all much more economical we crammed quite a few more in. There were bodies everywhere! It was fun. A big sleepover for adults. We stayed up so late each night that falling asleep on the floor didn't even phase me, I conked right out. I have always been able to conk out regardless of location, luckily. Here's a picture of Sunshine sitting in the sunshine!



And here's just a few more of the many happy people we shared the cabin on the lake with. I think the guys name is Charlie, the other two I'm not sure. Who has time to learn so many names?



The absolute highlight of the trip according to me was our snowshoeing adventure! Ten of us loaded up in two cars and headed up to the Onion River where we spend the afternoon trekking around the river gorge. I had never been snowshoeing before, and I really enjoyed it. We decided that trekking around in snowshoes makes one just a little bit more invincible. The only drawback for me was the load clomping/scraping noise that they make, meaning any chance at seeing wild life is pretty much eliminated.






Heading down the river...



I took too many pictures of the gorgeous ice formations, here's just a few. It was so fascinating to see a river bed from below rather than from above. Winter does have some perks! Here's Nikita and the girl with the sock monkey hat and mittens in front of a breath taking ice waterfall. How does water freeze like that?!









Overall it was a great weekend. Going to bed at 5, waking up at 10, everyone pitching in to make a huge breakfast, going snowshoeing til sun down and then dancing til midnight to groovy tunes is a pretty fantastic way to spend a Saturday! I sure was happy to see Ezra and be in bed by 8 too : )

Here's a left over picture from seeing Sesame Street a few weeks ago. There was an intermission between sets and immediately when the lights came on this guy came out with this huge collection of Elmo balloons. You should have heard the kids whining and the parents darting for their wallets. No, we did not buy one for Ezra. Five bucks for an Elmo balloon? No way. He didn't even want one, contented as was with his binoculars. I was glad I didn't have one of those kids who was sobbing uncontrollably while his mother sprinted to buy him a balloon. What a lousy disposition.



More about all the other things we're doing lately, including Ezra's new favorite toy: extension cords!