what is up with winter?!

this time last year, we had, like, 47 feet of snow on the ground. this year? nothing. zip. brown, bare ground.

so depressing.

yesterday, i took a walk. it was 38 degrees outside and lovely.

today? wind chill of -9.

minnesota has bipolar disorder.

however, the chill in the air (i can call -9 a "chill." i'm a minnesotan; it's legit.) today reminded me of photos i haven't yet shared.

the new house is just up the hill from a lovely lake. there are houses all around it - some modest ranches, some tiny little shabby fishing shacks, some two-story homes that were obviously built after a shack was torn down. and in the winter, when the lake freezes, it becomes covered in a village of ice fishing houses. which is fascinating to me. there is a whole new neighborhood ... one with codes of conduct, of first rights, of traffic patterns. because all of those fishing houses have to get there somehow, and usually the pick-up truck or small rv that pushed it out there is parked right beside it for the evening commute home. yes, parked. on the ice.

if you don't live up north, you don't understand.

have you seen "grumpy old men"? it's like that.

well, this year, because the weather has been so, shall we say, capricious, it took a lot longer for the ice to become solid and thick enough for ice houses. then it took even longer to become safe for cars to drive on. where last year there stood a veritable city of fishing houses and f150s, this year there is a smattering of ice tents and intrepid shanties, pulled out with snowmobiles and atvs.

we decided one saturday to wander down there and meet the neighbors. the kids had never walked on a frozen lake, as far as we knew (so much for the minnesotan thing. we're apparently really bad at it.), so they were thrilled, and bundled up to the gills for the adventure.

 

(for the record: my husband is 6'4". our son is not quite 12 and is in nearly a size 11 shoe. i fear for our grocery bill.)

the kids started to run out on the ice, and quickly discovered whose boots have good traction and whose don't. (henry's? great traction. harper's? adequate. mine? not so much.) then they started to count all of the abandoned holes, and quickly found chunks of ice and sticks to try to poke through the ice and measure the thickness of the hole.

 

(the thing i love about the above photo? see henry's feet? the way they are crossed and under his bum? he has sat like that since he was a toddler. and his dad sits the exact same way. makes me happy.)

we marveled at who on earth would find contentment sitting out on a frozen lake in a camp chair. then we speculated that perhaps it was the better alternative than what was at home, and we wished the chair much happiness and good fishing.

 

 then marc and harper got their robot dance groove on. turns out slippery surfaces make for the best robot moves.

 

 wonder if they'll bust out those moves at the father/daughter dance next weekend? something tells me no.

then henry and harper stayed with the 80s theme and tried breakdancing, spinning themselves around on their backsides.

 

 pretty soon we were back to wandering. see those three little dots just left of center?

 

 three guys, on camp chairs, fishing.

they DO exist.

about this time harper started to complain that her legs were tired ...

 

 and i may have rediscovered my ability to do the splits while trying to recreate this look ...

 

 and then marc struck up a conversation with a fisherman inside a camper trailer, parked on the ice. now i'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of that.

all too soon, marc's cheeks and my legs were frozen, so we made the journey back home. but soon enough the wind chill will be out of the air enough that we can wander down there again.

there may or may not have been a challenge thrown to walk clear across the lake.

someone needs to tell harper's legs that they'll have to make it there AND back.

Comments

[jen@thecottagenest]

This post just made me really want to meet your family. Also that sitting thing? Aren't genetics amazing? Grumpy Old Men is one of my fave movies. Now I'm gonna have to pop it in this weekend and I will think of my MN friend while I watch.