Winter Fun Quickly Turns In To Winter Blues

Early January, we made a quick day trip to the Chicago area. While there we letterboxed, saw friends and ate some yummy food. We came across some neat photo opportunities.

Looking for treasure, unsuccessfully.

A few nights later, Matt,Will & Kaitee went out after bedtime to witness one of this winter's "Super Moons".

While we are extremely thankful for warm houses, cars that start, heat, coats, etc...we are pretty much done with this winter. It has been relentless in it's torture! Continual snowstorms, ice storms, arctic air, polar vortex...rinse and repeat! It has been a very hard winter.

I try to find the beauty in the day - some days are easier than others.  While the ice on the trees can be scary, it is still beautiful! Especially with sunlight or street lights shining through!

One afternoon, I snapped some pictures of the snow & icicles starting to melt. Even the squirrel was sitting back, enjoying the day!

March is quickly approaching - hopefully with a promise of warmer weather and longer days! Until then, I'm thanking God for all He has given and protected us from this past winter...and dreaming of summer vacations!

Rockford Volleyball Tourney

Thanks to all of the snow and ice we've had this winter, we have stuck close to home for the most part. This volleyball tournament in Rockford has been our main getaway for the past few months! With Maddie needing to be at the complex very early Saturday morning, we decided to drive up the night before and spend the night.

They started the tournament in great spirits and working really well together! Unfortunately, by the end of the day, they were tired and their team communication wasn't the best. They ended up losing in the round before the championship.

During a break, Will & Alex joined some of the players while hitting the ball around.

We left the facility and Matt showed us this fun, HUGE, basketball hoop. Notice the thick sheet of ice underneath, which leads directly into the Rock River. We will be back to see this in the summer!

Anyone want to play SIMON?

We decided to cancel our hotel for Saturday night and head back to the Quad Cities - thanks to yet another threat of snow! We did surprise the kids and drove out of our way to Chicago for some Lou Malnati's Chicago style pizza! Definitely worth the extra driving!