We are heading out the door for a mini-adventure in an even more rural area of Wisconsin, but this morning we had an awesome time sledding for nearly two hours! Here’s one quick video of Analise and Josiah on the hill next to Grandma Sandy and Papa Dale’s house!

Yes, it’s possible – but only if you can find an indoor pool! One of the attractions in Shell Lake is the indoor pool complete with a couple water slides at the town’s only hotel. Kristine and Grandma Sandy took the kids today to meet up with our friends Allison and Judi for an afternoon of swimming and sliding fun. See the pictures and video below!

From a snowy white Christmas in Alabama all the way to a winter wonderland in Shell Lake, Wisconsin

Josiah holds up his sled on the back porch

Analise and Kristine take a self-portrait while skiing


We are having a blast up here in Wisconsin. It was a long drive, but the kids have already gone sledding and skiing! See the pictures and video above.

We made it out of Alabama just in time – staying to have a nice relaxing white snowy Christmas morning with family followed by a drive up to Nashville to hang out with our cousins before finishing the rest of the drive up to Wisconsin to spend a week with Kristine’s parents in Shell Lake, Wisconsin. We heard that the roads in Alabama Saturday night and Sunday were treacherous. The roads must have literally been freezing behind us as we headed north.

As soon as we left our house and climbed up to the top of Vestavia Hills, there was quite a bit of snow coming down, much more than we had expected. There was maybe a half inch to an inch accumulating on the grass and even a little bit on the roads (Vestavia Drive / Shades Crest Rd). The snow died down a bit as we headed north on I-65, but the snow that had fallen earlier was amazing (see the picture and video below).

Wisconsin or Alabama? Actually, it’s Alabama on I-65 just north of Cullman!

We had a great time visiting our cousins in Franklin, TN just outside of Nashville. The kids were happy to play inside with all their new toys while we chatted over some yummy snack foods. Kristine and I tried Boiled Custard for the first time, and it was delicious!

Analise and Lily put on a fashion show for us. This was the Christmas line-up.

All the kids in front of the Christmas tree (Left to Right: Josiah, Analise, Lily, Levi, and Luke)

It snowed the entire time we were in Franklin, and this is the view outside our cousin’s back porch.

It snowed the entire time we were in Nahville, and the roads were very slick. We saw several accidents on I-65 including one car that swerved from the southbound lanes all the way across the median and then across the northbound lanes immediately in front of us finally coming to a rest just off the shoulder of the road pointing in our direction. I can’t imagine how scary that must have been for them.

As soon as we crossed into Kentucky, the slick roads simply became a little less slick because of all the salt on the roads. Then by the time we made it to Indiana, everything was dry and we were able to make up time all the way to Chicago. Josiah woke up as we made it into town, so he got to see several trains, several subways “L trains” and the tall skyscrapers including the Sears Tower. Once we made it through downtown and out towards the O’Hare airport, we got caught up in quite a Lake Effect snowstorm. This is us driving on I-90 near the O’Hare airport and Elk Grove Village.

Lake Effect snow in Chicago – approaching the tollbooth

As soon as we made it out of the snowstorm, it was pretty uneventful all the way to the Wisconsin Dells which we made it to by 5:45AM. We slept for a few minutes in the parking lot outside McDonalds and then went in at 6AM for a breakfast.

Wisconsin cheese – mmmm, mmmm good!

As the sun rose and we left for the final 3 hour stretch, we were greeted with snow everywhere AND cold, cold, cold temps. Check out the temperature sequence on our car thermometer as we went descending down into one of the lower valleys.

Finally, it wouldn’t have been a 20 hour drive w/o capping it off with a 60 mile bike ride. Read all about it on my cycling blog soon.

Heading out to go biking (me) and sledding (Papa Dale and the kids)

Opening presents at Grandma Sandy and Papa Dale’s house!

So this post is about a month late, but after seeing some of the pictures and videos, I thought “better late than never”. We had a great trip up to Gatlinburg in early November. The fall colors were absolutely beautiful, and the kids enjoyed the snow at the top of Clingman’s Dome. My conference went well, and I got a chance to do some fun biking, too.

Welcome to Gatlinburg video – Kristine and the kids at the Pancake House while I’m at the ACM conference.

Riding the Ober-Gatlinburg gondola.

Josiah videos Analise and Kristine riding the chair swings at Ober-Gatlinburg. Josiah was not old enough to ride with them. He did a great job on the video though!

Analise ice skating at Ober-Gatlinburg

Very short snowball fight on Clingman’s Dome

Briarwood Presbyterian, one of the churches less than a mile from our house, puts on a walk-through nativity every Christmas. We have enjoyed our yearly trek through the Nativity. It is very exciting for the kids with live animals and live people acting out the story of the birth of Jesus. We went on Thursday evening with friends and had a great time. Check out some of our pictures from the evening!

I took the kids this morning on a biking adventure through the woods, past the fire station, and arriving at our destination — the nearby Metro Church parking lot (which is enormous), and the kids enjoyed racing down one hill and then up the other one back towards me. Got some pics and video posted below. Also, on Thursday, Analise had her boosterthon at Rocky Ridge and we went over to cheer her on. Got some pics and video of that too!

Wow, we just got back from a fun biking adventure. We left our house and biked through the woods, past Analise’s school, and made a stop by the creek that goes by (and under) her school. Then I told them that we would go find the lake at the end of the creek, which involved biking past the fire station looking at all the fire trucks, biking in the grass alongside the road, walking our bikes carefully alongside the narrow part of the road, and then to the trail that goes around the lake. The trail goes through the woods and we saw a big blue heron, turtles, chipmunks, squirrels, and we think we heard some deer jumping away. All-in-all, my fun kids road there bikes almost 3 miles! Check out our fun adventure in the videos and photos below …

On a lovely long weekend trip to South Carolina, our annual Fall Break to the Fieldstone Farm Inn. Highlights so far… Brian’s 2nd and 3rd place finishes in Greenville on Saturday & Sunday, the horses outside our “poolside cottage”, the kids sleeping in the loft, visiting our favorite gas-station-converted-to-pumpkin-patch on the drive up.

Lovely trip so far! I’m fighting laryngitis and not feeling great, Brian’s out for a 100-mile ride in the gorgeous mountains, and the kiddos are having fun just playing. Ahhh… just what we’ve all needed! Wish you were here!

I posted on Brian’s cycling blog yesterday about our adventure of a day at his Masters Nationals race.  It was quite a day!  Click on over to read and see some fun pictures, like this one…

Happy anniversary Kristine – thank you for an amazing seven years!

We just got back from a 4,000 mile road trip that passed through 11 states, included 8 bike races, and included 90+ hours in the car. The trip culminated with us driving through “Billboard Alley” in north Alabama at exactly midnight when the date rolled over to June 28, 2010 – our 7 year wedding anniversary. You’ve got to go back 8 years and 3 months to Easter of 2002 when I proposed to Kristine to see where it all began… That trip was so big I’ve got to use two maps! The first shows an overview, and the second shows the details of the road trip portion – a mere 2,787 miles.

1. I took vacation over spring break while in grad school at UC Davis in the spring of 2002.
2. Kristine took vacation from her missionary work in Nicaragua with Mercy Ships.
3. We both flew to and met at the Dallas Fort Worth airport, and picked up a rental car to begin…
4. …our 2,787 mile road trip to introduce Kristine to my family and get engaged.
5. We returned to Dallas and then flew to Chicago for me to spend Easter with Kristine’s family.

1. Meeting in the DFW airport in Dallas, TX and renting a car together.
2. Going to a movie with Mercy Ships friends in Tyler, TX.
3. Spending the night with friends from Mercy Ships
4. Driving on I-20 to Birmingham, entering Louisiana
5. Driving on I-20 to Birmingham, entering Mississippi
6. Driving on I-20 to Birmingham, entering Alabama
7. Kristine meeting my parents for the first time, going to church together before driving to Clemson, SC
8. Exploring Birmingham, rocks on top of Shades Mountain
9. Driving on I-20, entering Georgia
10. Stopping for lunch in Buckhead north of Atlanta, GA at the Cheesecake Factory
11. Driving on I-85, entering South Carolina
12. Clemson, SC – quick botanical gardens visit, proposing to Kristine beside Lake Hartwell, going to church together afterwards
13. Driving on I-85, entering North Carolina, spending the night with my college friends Darol and Donna
14. Driving on US-29, entering Virginia, and passing through Lynchburg, VA where I cooped for a couple semesters
15. Lake Monticello near Charlottesville, VA where Kristine got to meet my grandmother
16. Driving back to Birmingham on I-81, entering Tennessee, stopping near Johnson City to phone Nicaragua to relay engagement
17. Spending another night with my family in Birmingham
18. Spending another night in Texas with friends from Mercy Ships
19. Returning the rental car at DFW before flying to Chicago
20. Flying from Dallas to Chicago
21. Easter service at the chapel at Valpairaso University
22. Easter egg hunt with Kristine’s family in La Porte, IN to finish our engagement trip spanning 12 states and two countries

And here are photos that correspond to each of the numbered items. Hover over each photo in the gallery to read a caption about the picture. Read the photos from left to right, top to bottom. There may be more than one photo for each numbered item in the list above.