Notes from me to you

Nope.. Not Fort McHenry, this time we're live from Fort McMangan! Chloe, Claire, and I were busy playing in the snow this week.. and oh, did we have fun. I had to use my years of snow fort building experience to teach the nieces how its done. Thanks to Dad manipulating a huge pile of snow in the yard, we were able to construct a decent fort and the start of a tunnel. Of course, we could have gotten a little further along had Garrett (the most adorable terror-on-wheels 3-year-old nephew you could ever imagine) not punched one of the walls over a few times (imagine big, cheesy, "i know i'm not supposed to" grin, right afterwards, too!). And had the girls not been more fascinated by the taste of snow than constructing with it.. we could have had one heck of a snow fort, but in the end, we had fun and I think this one is pretty groovy! So much so, that I thought it'd be a fun place from which to place a phone call to a friend in California after the parents went to bed! So, I grabbed one of my favorite brews, dressed up in Dad's Carharts, and headed outside!


As you can imagine, my mid-west vacation has been great, thus far! Lots of fun times with the nieces and nephew, brothers, parents, and some of the wonderful extended fam. Hoping to get in some time with amigos on the last leg of the trip through IA. Tomorrow I take off for the good ol' Twin Cities! Spending a few days up there then hopefully a night in Des Moines, one last night in IA that back to the east. I must say I'll be happy to return to milder weather, though I have enjoyed the snow. I also got to take Chloe and Claire sledding... oh so fun!

Happy New Year to you, dear friends. I pray its been a blessed year and another to come!!!

All my love,
Laura
XOXO