Loving Winter!

We're back to the grind of work and school here in Chicago, after a week of breathing fresh, crisp, smogless Minnesota air!  Our trusty Focus escorted us 11 hours north to Grand Marais, MN where a cozy cabin sat waiting among the birch trees. We arrived in the evening and had a nice little trek through the dark to our cabin.  Jason quickly became a fire starting expert and we were toasty warm! We spent the next few days snowshoeing, crosscountry skiing and playing lots and lots of games! We left New years eve and met Ben, Bethany and Holly at Ben's parents place for meeting and the evening. It was fun to see them and meet a bunch of Ben's family. 

Although it is nice to be home, we are excited to head back west to see our families!...10 days and counting down!

My firemaster!

Relaxing in the coolest rocking chair ever

....our bed was in the loft which kept us toasty warm!

The breakfast of champions was necessary to store up a little extra fat for the cold weather outside.

The view off our porch

Attempting the self timer with snowshoes on...

Creatively named outhouses.. a little interesting in 20 below!

It was 0F on the day we went skiing, however there was no wind so we kept pretty warm.  As you can see, water froze on Jason's eyelashes and I was surprised my hair frosted over. Jason thought it was hilarious to see what I will look like with white hair.

27 Km of groomed trails right out our front door!

 We definitely preferred skiing over snowshoeing and are looking forward to going again. I'm hoping that my balance will improve a little next time, so my arms won't be quite so sore!

The thermometer the morning we left...this was at 9 o'clock when we made our morning bathroom run....brrrr.....

Blustery

This morning we woke up to a loud and very blustery wind. Right now it is -5 out there with a windchill that is fluctuating between -22 and -26!!!! I guess that this weather is just preparing us for an adventure we have planned starting on Saturday. We are heading up to the boundary waters of northern Michigan where the windchill has been averaging -25 to -35 during the day & night for the past week and a half. Don't worry though because we will be toasty in a quaint little cabin.

Jason

Basketball Time Again...

It is about time I get back on here to tell tales of the basketball game that invoked so much jealousy from my husband! 

Many thanks to Kerry for inviting me! We had great seats and it was a close game which made it even better. I tried to take a few pictures but my camera wasn't working very well in the gym so I gave up and decided to just enjoy the game. 

think I still have a few feet to grow...

We got to walk right down behind the newscasters during warm ups...pretty sweet

Like I said, not the best pictures, but you can see how close we were...

While I was watching the Bulls, my youngest brother John was whooping it up with his highschool team. They are currently 3-1 and we get to see them play in January! 

Go Bluehawks!

 jeal⋅ous⋅y - 

jealous resentment against a rival, a person enjoying success or advantage, etc., or against another's success or advantage itself. So, I just wanted to post a quick statement about why I'm jealous of my wife today. While I am studying away for my national board exam and a very tough Neuro-Opthalmic exam on Tuesday, my lucky wife will be midcourt, 18 rows off the floor at the United Center this evening with Kerry, watching the Bulls take on the New Jersey Nets. Now I hope you can appreciate my jealousy.  Jason

Once again, I am apologizing for my lack of updates.  We've been keeping busy with the usual work and school. Jason takes his board exams the beginning of March so he has started a rigorous studying schedule which seems to fill most of his free time.

We were sad that we had to miss out on being with our families over Thanksgiving, but were invited to join a bunch of the friends here. We had an awesome meal followed by the usual freezing game of football! I wish I had pictures to share...but you know how that goes.

I did manage to get a few pictures from my company's christmas party this past weekend..

Jen and I anxiously awaiting our bonus checks!

Vacation!

We had a blast in Florida and can't wait to go back!! What I am not so anxious for is the chilly weather Chicago has to offer. The last couple mornings have registered on the cold side of frigid! 

While we were there Jason attended a contact lens seminar held by Johnson & Johnson. He sat through guest speakers and did some work with patients. It was a very educational trip for him. I, on the other hand, just enjoyed the warm weather:) 

Cassie and Jeff made the trip as well, so I did have some company while Jason and Cassie were learning.  Jeff is a major golfer so of course we had to stop at TPC PGA Sawgrass course for a tour. On the plus side, we saw an alligator! 

On Friday night I got to meet Devon's wife Kim and their little girl Alanah for the first time! We watched the space shuttle, Endeavour, launch. It was carrying seven astromauts to the space station. It was an unbelievable sight. One of those things you can't believe actually happens. 

 I had to fly out Sunday afternoon but we enjoyed meeting with the friends and lunch afterwards. Turns out a few of Jason's old friends now live in Jacksonville, so it was fun to get acquainted with them again. We didn't take too many photos, but do have a few to share...

I know this picture doesn't look like much, but the bright light is the space shuttle and the small one is the moon

Jeff took this picture of the alligator..I didn't want to get too close!

This was my favorite beach. Instead of sand you were walking on broken seashells...it wasn't very easy on the feet, but made the waves sound awesome.

Where is my husband??

We stopped by the Fountain of Youth. There was a pirate convention going on that weekend...interesting...

Crazy City!

As you can imagine, this city has been wild with the recent election...and yes, we did have to take a little trip down to Grant Park for the rally...just to say we were there. Trust me, it was not my idea!! I had enough of crowds after the 4th of July and was a little scared to go, but how else are we going to have cool stories to tell our children? We ended up staying until they announced the president elect and then headed home before things go too out of hand.

This past weekend Brian and Gail came to visit us! Jason had the week off before he started his next quarter of school so we had plenty of time to relax. The weather took a dive for the 30s right before they arrived. In fact, they brought some lovely snow flakes from Oregon. But, like the tough city kids we have become, we donned wool coats, scarves, hats and mittens and fought the Lake winds head on! We found a fun little Thai restaurant, took a quick trip to Devon avenue for some authentic Indian food and hit up a few farmers markets...amazing the places you can go in a city! We also headed out to Medieval Times for a show! We were sad to see them go on Monday, but so happy they came! 

Wandering the streets of Chicago..

Brian trying to keep Gail from blowing off the tracks!!

Brian and Gail in front of the "bean"

Waiting for the show to start at Medieval times... 

This is it for now, as I desperately need to get to bed. I'm heading to the airport at 4am to go meet Jason in Florida!! We are excuted to stop and see Devon, Kim and Alanah while we are there!