New Year's Weekend at Stormy Lake

So after our 48 hour whirlwind time at home, we headed up to Stormy Lake for a weekend with our good friends, the Lutz's and the Kuch's. It was a weekend filled with lots of snowmobiling, playing out in the snow, good food, games, talent shows and little sleep (at least for the parents!)

Wyatt loved wearing the snowmobile suit that Grammy and Papa had gotten for the kids

Wyatt and Coby Kuch

Wyatt, Matt, Aunt Mollie, Uncle Ty, Erik and Coby

And they're off!!

Once they got back, the little boys wanted their turn...Cooper and Blake with the Dads.

Morning walk out on the lake

The kids loved sledding off the dock onto the lake--endless hours of fun!

Of course Blake was the first to attempt going face first...

Wyatt is always such a great big brother and was extra helpful over the weekend, serving as 'big brother' to all the kids!

.So beautiful.

Upside-down icicle on the side of the house that the kids found

Playing outside waiting for the Lutz's to arrive

..playing on the snowmobiles 

(notice Blake's lips--always making motor sounds!)

As soon as Lutz's arrived, the boys headed out together for a few hours

Out on the lake with Aunt Mollie and Uncle Ty joining them

The whole crew at dinner (I guess it appears we may have been missing two little ones from the photo but I think it's near impossible to get everyone in on the same picture!)

Double Twister--we put two boards together with 7 kids (2 of them being 2 yrs old!)

Can you tell who got a little frustrated?

So Erik quickly intervened and became a human jungle gym

Once we could see the energy level rising, we opted for races of all different forms. I didn't get many pictures of them but I did get this pic of Blake and Maddy Lutz. The two of them are in the same group at BSF and become little buddies (as well as second cousins), so it's fun to watch them interact.

They sat on the edge of the couch for awhile and had their own little conversations.

Morning cartoons--a little peace while the adults got some coffee

The kids were all out playing one morning when Papa and Grammy were X-country skiing and ALL the kids ran over to greet them!

What a gentleman...Wyatt carried Grammy's skis the rest of the way up to the house.

Wyatt learned how to X-Country ski on some kid skis Grammy and Papa had and he loved it!! It's a great workout but also a fun way to enjoy the outdoors (and it's so much more peaceful than snowmobiling!)

48 hour whirlwind

After our time in Madison, we came home for about 48 hours before we headed back up to Stormy Lake for New Year's. But of course, there was life to document in that 48 hours.

First, my childhood friend Jenny stopped by our house on her way to see her parents in Lino Lakes. Jenny and I were BFF before there were BFFs, if you know what I mean. Her mom and my mom were inseparable back when we lived in Green Bay and we have kept in touch over the years, thanks to our moms dedication to their friendship. My family moved from Green Bay when I was just 6 and lived in Texas for 2 years before moving back to Wisconsin. But I recently learned that while we lived in Texas, my mom kept in touch via snail mail with over 20 of her friends in Green Bay...every afternoon she would sit and write a letter or two to her friends back in GB. Talk about dedication!! And as a result, Jenny and I are still in touch!

Jenny and I and our 6 kids combined

Jenny and I--so thankful that they stopped by, even if it was only for an hour or two!

And some serious Insanity workouts...Matt and I have been doing the Insanity workouts and the kids LOVE joining in....horrible picture quality but you get the idea. It's seriously a family affair (at least on the days when we don't get it done before they wake up in the morning!)

And some late Christmas gifts, sent from New Zealand. How cool are these?? (Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Rob had to drink the coke before sending them overseas....funny story--Rob called the post office and asked "Can you ship coke overseas?" and the woman's response was like, "Uh, excuse me sir?" and then Rob quickly added, "Coca Cola Classic....not like drugs!")

Christmas, Take II

Christmas morning we woke up at Matt's parent's house and thankfully the kids slept in until almost 7am. We gathered them on the steps again--this time on the same steps that Matt and his siblings used to wait on--and checked to make sure everything was all ready to go. Matt peaked out the front door and some of the reindeer food was indeed gone---oh boy!! Everyone in Matt's family was at Matt's parents except for his brother Kyle and his wife Christy. So everyone slowly made their way into the sun room to see the kids' excitement over their Santa gifts, round 2.

The kids all got gifts that went with the gifts Santa had brought the night before...games and controllers for the WiiU, clothes and accessories for Sadie's American Girl Doll and games for Blake. The kids also all got new scooters, since theirs have all been run over by various vehicles at one point in time and were non-functioning!

The Sorensen family has many traditions and one of my favorites is the monkey bread we have on Christmas morning while we open gifts. This year, my sister-in-law Christy helped my mother-in-law out by baking the monkey bread (since my MIL has everything else to make for Christmas brunch that morning and then Christmas dinner in the evening). And it was AmAzInG!! She definitely has the gift of baking, like my mother-in-law, and she added some apples as well as a different caramel sauce that resulted in a huge hit, which I am quite sure my mother-in-law was happy about since it relieves some of her cooking duties!

In Matt's family, we all find a seat in the sunroom and the kids hand out all the presents. We all get a 'pile' of gifts right by us and then we take turns going around the room, opening one gift at a time. It's a great lesson in patience for my kids, since there are 9 adults in the room taking turns in addition to the three kids. There are also a few people in Matt's family, who shall remain nameless, that like to 'hoard' their gifts until the end. They have someone go in their place or say, "You go ahead, I only have a few left so I can wait" and then by the end, they still have several gifts left. But over the years, people have become suspicious of said persons and then we all begin examining their piles and trying to see if there are any hidden. As you can imagine, the entire process can take quite awhile--usually all morning!!

Don't you love the expression on their faces?

This was definitely the year of the sports team gear....and Wyatt couldn't have been happier!

Gotta love new hockey gear--necessary for a growing boy!

I love this picture...Blake was wondering where his lego set was (which was actually coming later) and Matt had to explain to him that this was Wyatt's and he needed to be happy for Wyatt--always a tough lesson to learn!

He quickly found his happy place and was playing with his new helicopter, snowcat and zamboni.

Monte Ball jersey!!!!! 

After opening gifts and eating way too much monkey bread, Matt and I could tell that the kids (and the two of us for that matter) were needed some physical activity and needed to get outside. We started out sledding in Matt's parent's backyard on all the fresh snow, but we quickly decided that something a bit more active would be better. SO, we took the kids to Elver Park. (For those of you not from Madison, Elver Park is (in)famous for being the biggest sledding hill you've ever seen. Often times, as adults, we see something that seemed so big as a kid but no longer seems that way as adults. Let's just say that's not the case with Elver. In fact, I think Elver seems a bit scarrier as an adult because you realize what injuries could actually happen there. It's essentially a giant ice hill.)

There were quite a few people out there on Christmas Day and we saw people sledding down the hill on all forms of sleds--old wooden toboggans, plastic discs, inner tubes and even a plastic kiddie pool filled with 10 people!!

We had a great time, lots of laughs and screams, and LOTS of walking up the big hill. At one point, Blake just laid down in the middle of the walk up the hill.

We were all SO warm for working so hard climbing the hill....check out Uncle Ty's gloves when we got in the car.....

Yeah, that's steam coming off his hands! Crazy!

We came home, got cleaned up, B took a nap (3 1/2 hrs) and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner. It was a great day and a great end to our time in Madison. It's never enough time but maybe that's what always helps us all look so forward to it each year! 

Matt's grandpa's health was beginning to fail (he actually passed away last week), so Matt and his brother Tyler drove over to Michigan early the next morning to spend some time with him and then Matt flew home from there that evening. I was so glad he was able to spend some time with him, but that meant I got to pack up the car on my own and drive 4 hrs. home with the kids. Thankfully, everything fit and the kids did awesome! Thanks to both of our families for making our Christmas so special. We are so blessed to have great families and we love every minute of our time with them!