Travel Log: Thanksgiving 2011

In 2008, my father-in-law bought a cabin home in Northern Minnesota. The drive in perfect conditions could take a little over 8 hours, but with the age of our children and our old van, it would always take a minimum of 11 hours. Though we love our extended family, it was a drive that we tried to limit to once a year.

In 2011, we had no more excuses. We had our amazing Volvo and the kids were older and had proven themselves worthy road trippers for the long hauls. We planned our Cramer Family Thanksgiving to be up in Northern Minnesota with Josh's dad and his sister's family. The lake was already frozen out to 60'+ from shore and there was a fresh scattering of snow on the ground. It was a beautiful backdrop for a wonderful time of reconnecting with family.

From skeet shooting to playing on the frozen ice, the warmth of family aided our forgetting the freezing temperatures. Our daughter's dreams were made by getting to spend countless hours playing with her girl cousins, Grandpa got to be surrounded by his kids and grandchildren AND shoot guns (a favorite hobby of his), Josh and Karl took the Go-Pro, the boys, the frozen lake, and iMovie and got creative, and Maren and I got to catch up on all things life. It was sweetly memorable and is ranked as one of our best trips to the cabin.

Crooked Lake on Ice from Josh Cramer on Vimeo.

The winter brought countless swim activities by our boys. Between driving to practices, driving to meets, sitting in meets, and driving to more practices, all our free time seemed to disappear and the old normal taking over. In the midst of it all, our new normal was schemeing our next big adventure, as our subtle goal was to try to escape every 3-4 months. Sitting around joking one night, a group of us, another family and a couple, decided to go to Moab over spring break. Moab had cast its spell on our family during our big adventure and we could not wait to get back there and see what wild rides it would take us on.  

THE NEW YEAR...