We couldn't wait to get back to the cottage again.  If it was up to me, I'd never leave all winter. But, alas, like usual our next visit was on my birthday weekend. Theo's breakfast of choice.  My mom bought my dad another waffle iron so he can have three irons going at once when cooking for all of us.  This one's kind of crazy, but it does the job. It was a windy day today so we had to get the kites out.  Who wants to start a Three Lakes winter kite festival? I think we'd have to start it.  There was enough snow to go snowshoeing this time.

Meadow made Theo and her Big Pancakes for breakfast. She's becoming quite the little baker and chef. I'm not sure how little she is. I mean, yes, rather short, but she's already 9 1/2!   Mmmm...big pancake. Meadow loves to draw. Once in a while Theo will join.  He needs somebody else to get him excited for art time. We just had the final touches left to do on the walls in the attic. It was coming together very nicely.  Just don't mention how I had bubbling in way too many places to count on this wall and had to go back and patch like 20 spots.

  After months of preparing our walls in the attic, they were finally ready for paint. Scott had primed the rec room during the week. That's funtopia or funlandia, to you bub. This room has come a long way from when we first bought the house. It was definitely the worst looking room in the house.  As you can see by the millions of patches.    I had to help Brooke paint a few places she couldn't reach. Painting the ceiling and walls of this room is a lot more work than it looks.  After a few coats we were wondering if we should've used Sherwin-Williams instead of the fancy stuff from Menards (Pittsburgh Paramount).

  We had yet again another big snowstorm here. I love the snow, but after dealing with our car constantly getting stuck I'm over driving. I think you just need to bite the bullet and get a fat bike for the work commute. The snow was perfect for a snowman. The kids love the slide and fort half of our new-to-us playset in winter.

2022 was the year of house projects. This house of ours has so much potential and it's great to see all the little improvements we've made in the last year. We also got to sneak in quite a few adventures. It's a change of pace from not having any house projects (or shoveling) at the condo, but it's gonna be great and make us some serious money. You know we went on more vacations than any other family not on YouTube, right? January Another cottage birthday for Scott. Gateway Lodge and Land O'Lakes sweet ice barn. February Theo turned 4! He's really grown up this year. Kick, kick, kick is in the past. March While we didn't get to do the full ice skating trail in Warroad. I still had a fun birthday up north. We had fun drinking beers, eating pizza and enjoying what remained of their ice trail. April Easter in Duluth. Every trip to Duluth is a blast. Feeling like we haven't been visiting Duluth enough. Holidays (or any day) with the funcles are always the b...

When we last left you we had just arrived at the cottage for my favorite weekend of the year: Northwoods NYE Soon after we arrived my parents showed up.  None of us had any food for dinner so we finally got to try Sunset Grill at night. How, I ask you, was a breakfast joint named Sunset Grill. Finally it can claim it's true alter as a late night bar and grill. My Philly was pretty dang good. Take that haters who thought Sunset Grill couldn't be an all day restaurant. Everyone else is against the idea of coming here at night but I liked it. I always thought this bar would be great with the lights dimmed.