We got snow!!!

For our first snow fall we got close to 10 inches of snow! That's a pretty big deal here in Door County, especially this time of year. This area isn't known for lots of snow, so we will take what we can get and enjoy it as much as possible. We knew we had bitter cold coming with strong winds so we played as much as we could beforehand.

Ben trying the disc down the back hill

Crocket, in his boots today, on our daily morning walk down the driveway

Snow selfie

Ben's second snow plow of the day!

Crocket in the woods!

This dog kills me, he loves to go for rides on ANYTHING that moves!

Crocket and Ben going for a ride on the Phazer

Keeping busy here in Door Co...

When we first moved here, one of the locals said he was worried about us as the winters are long with few people around. Well, we seem to be doing just fine so far. We love the quiet, we love the snow, we love the slow pace of life, we love that there aren't a lot of people here, we love the fact that there isn't any traffic, we just love it here. 

I've been cooking up a storm, decorating for Christmas, baking, cleaning, getting myself certified to substitute teach in Wisconsin and still organizing our lives in the new house. 

We got our tree!!

Baking while Heidi was visiting

Ben has been busy restoring our in-floor heat in our garage. The pipes froze between the house and garage and the clever Ben ran a smaller pipe through, then with the help of the heating/cooling guy our garage is now officially heated! Woot Woot! 

Ben had to cut a hole in the plaster to get to the in-floor pipes. These run from our basement across our breezeway and into the garage.

Pipes coming into the garage...

We have heat!! The day before this read 43!

Ben also has been busy getting my new 1986 Yamaha Phazer in working condition, it is now running like a champ...AND we are going to be getting more snow!!! Yay!

We are also looking forward to the water freezing here so we can spend time ice fishing (my favorite!!). But in the meantime, we will be embracing this time of year as last year we did not see any snow. 

Ben and Crocket getting ready to move a pallet of wood close to the house for use in our fireplace

The Phazer! Crocket loves it!

I love the old Phazer!! My husband spoils me! He made me a trail around the property, so fun!!

I thank you for your part in my journey

So, I had a birthday this past week...AND my best friend flew in for 5 days to spend it with me!!! 

OMG! How lucky am I????!!!!

What more could a girl ask for? Heidi and I have been friends since we were 4 years old. She is one of a select few who know me better than I know myself sometimes. When we get together there is usually lots of laughing and relaxing. We just enjoy our time together. 

Growing up Heidi was always taking care of me and anyone else who was close! If my room wasn't clean (which it never was) I was not allowed to go out, Heidi would clean it. The days she drove me to school she included a chocolate doughnut for breakfast and a thermos of coffee. She is always doing for others so to have her here and see her relax...it was the best birthday gift for me!! Of course she still spoiled me with tons of special treasures and YES, she cleaned!

It was a very special birthday!!!

Crocket loved getting treats from Aunt Heidi...and ear and back scratches too!

Matching PJ's

Great times with great people!

Great friend Max came for an overnight visit...so we bought them PJ's too! Poor Guys!

We took this picture as we were leaving to take her to the airport, only to bring her back for another night because of snow.  Yippee! 

Fun times being crafty with Aunt Tamara and Heidi

Yay! We got snow!! 

We had Loopers in the house!!!

Loopers don't stop hanging out once the Great Loop is over...!

We had our Looper buddies Bob and Liz (from the boat Knot Sew Easy)visit from Grand Haven, MI! What a blast visiting with our friends! It was like we never were apart, we just picked up where we left off and enjoyed our short time together.

While doing the Great Loop, we met Bob and Liz on the Rivers (only a month after we began our trip) and traveled with them for 80% of our 13 months of travels. They were the couple we shared our good and bad times. Not only did we spend most meals together, they helped us with our dog Crocket, Bob was there to assist when Ben needed to go to the hospital and Liz was my go-to for girl talk. After spending so much time together, they became not only our buddies but family. The friendships you make along the Loop are pretty special. Not many people can say they traveled over 6,000 miles on a boat and we shared most of those 6,000 miles with Bob and Liz.

So we were thrilled, anxious and honored to have our buddies visit us here in Door County.

We spent our time sightseeing, eating, catching up, playing cards and ping pong and just some good-old-relaxing. Time went by way too fast and before we knew it, we were waving (maybe a few tears also) 'see you later' in the driveway. Our Great Loop travels brought us more than we ever thought, it brought us our dear friends.

Crocket was so happy to be with his boat buddies in a car!

I think Bob is excited for some Ribs...Liz feels the same about the twice baked potatoes!

Notice the print of our boat on the mantle...Thank you Skinners! We love it!

The experiences we participated will forever be lovely memories.

We have too much fun together!

We had our first guest!!

Our buddy Kenny, aka K2, earned the forever distinction of being our first over-night guest in our new house.

K2 at our old house with dirty shoes...not allowed to get the floor dirty

K2 not only allowed us to borrow his truck and car hauler for our move a few weeks ago, but he also let us use both to drive all the way to Ohio. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents and picked up Ben's new 1957 Ford 800 tractor. My dad gave Ben the tractor as a birthday gift (WOW! Ben was way excited) earlier this year. Ben is itching to get started on restoring the old girl this winter.

Ben on his new tractor!

K2 then drove Ben's truck up to our new place in Door County so we didn't have to bring his truck back down to Illinois and back up again. What a guy that K2 is!!

Kenny and Ben on our boat last winter

We had dinner out and after unloading the tractor and another load of items from our Illinois house, we enjoyed our first guest and then called it a night.

Of course the next morning I had a million questions..."How did you sleep?" "Was the mattress ok?" "Could you hear me when I got up this morning?" "Was the temperature ok?" "Were the sheets comfortable?
...Poor Kenny! He was a gentleman and answered all my questions! Best of all he said he slept like a log! I think that's good!