Beautiful Winter

Winter has always been one of my favorite seasons.

The glistening, sparkly, white snow, especially the first snow.  

Steaming homemade hot chocolate.  

Snuggling on the couch with cozy blankets. 

Speeding down a hill on super fast sled (one of my first moments with Der). 

Riding on a relaxing ski lift all the way up a beautiful serene mountain and snowboarding down with fast weaving energy, love it!

The crisp fresh air in your lungs.

Christmas music, Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas everything:)

However, having kids has kind of shifted my way of thinking about Winter.

I have a two year old with more energy than I even know what to do with or handle.  We won't just be able to go outside to burn off some energy whenever we want.  Not that he doesn't love to go outside, even when it's -0 out, but I can't bring little Adeline out in that.  I am just imagining seven months of being stuck inside...yuck.

For the first time ever, I've thought about moving somewhere warmer, crazy I know.  I grew up in North Dakota, come on!  But to have weather you could almost always go outside in with little ones is soooo enticing.  

There is stuff to do here in the winter.  We can go to the zoo, it has some good inside stuff.  There's always the Mall of America....not really somewhere I like to go often though.  The Children's Museum is pretty sweet, but a little spendy.  

I think I'm going to have to get super creative with activities to get us through this winter.  I'm taking it as a challenge.

I'm also determined to get Hakan on some skiis, he'll do great, they're only hills around here:)

 I love when there's no wind and the leaves just fall off the tree and pile up underneath it, so pretty.

I'm so sad to see this nice weather leave, but I'm going to try and stay positive with winter fast approaching.