Ben and Alonna » minnesota

Our Very White Christmas(es)

Alonna — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:18:39 +0000

It’s been really nice to be back in the US for the holidays. We’ve been able to see both of our families, catch up with friends, relax, and plan the next phase of our trip. For Christmas we spent 12 days traveling to both Virginia and Minnesota to visit family, and the common theme for the entire trip was SNOW! Between the huge East Coast snow storm and then the Midwest snow storm, we got our share of snow this holiday season. And for the most part, we loved it!

Snow in Virginia

Snowball fight!

The first part of our trip was to Blacksburg, VA, home of Virginia Tech where Ben’s sister Kim graduated this December. It’s in the Appalachian mountains, so they do see snow occasionally, but usually not to the scale of what this huge storm dumped on us that weekend! Ben’s mom rented a remote cabin in the mountains for the weekend for Kim’s friends and family. We had quite the drive to get there since we drove right in the middle of the storm. It took us 2 stressful hours to get to the cabin (normally a 40 minute drive), but luckily everyone made it safely. We had already stocked up on groceries, so we happily allowed ourselves to be snowed-in all day Saturday. The snow was gorgeous, and the perfect consistency for little snowballs, giant snowballs, and… burying people? We had a blast!

Hey, want to make giant snowball?

Mission accomplished

Hmm, what is Beth up to??

More snow in Minnesota

After arriving in an already snowy Minnesota a few days later, we learned that another storm system was making its way towards us. Over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we were once again blanketed in snow. Again – no harm done, we were still able to spend Christmas Eve & Day with my family as planned. On Saturday, Kim flew out to Minnesota for a job interview and we headed out to play in the snow again – this time cross country skiing.

Although I’m wishing I could be somewhere warm right now, at least if we’re going to spend December in the cold US, we may as well have snow to play in!

P.S. We’re very close to getting our upcoming travel plans all worked out. I’ll post an update soon, promise!

Christmas in Minnesota 2008

Alonna — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:30:38 +0000

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Ben and I had a great time in Minnesota visiting family and friends. It always goes by too fast though, doesn’t it?

Click Continue Reading to see the rest of the photos…

Annaliese & Madisen - Christmas Pajamas

Opening the "big one"

The Result!

A White Christmas in MN

We sent the little ones to fetch gifts from under the tree!

Annaliese getting the last gifts

Family Photo - Christmas 2008

Madisen

Opening gifts Christmas Eve

Opening Gifts

Look what I got!

Cody's Birthday Dinner

Poor Madisen was really sick

Cody's Birthday

Annaliese

Birthday Boy

Triple Espresso Comedy Show

Family Trip to Ruttgers, Minnesota

Alonna — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:30:06 +0000

Last weekend the Albertus family (plus us two Scott’s) took a weekend trip to a lake in Minnesota. We stayed at a nice resort called Ruttgers on Bay Lake and took advantage of tons of available activities including: water skiing, swimming, fishing, jumping on the water trampoline, tennis, campfires, Clay’s birthday, board games and yard games. We had so much fun! Here’s some of the highlights…

Fishing trip – Cody and Annaliese:

Annaliese kissing her baby fish:

More Fishing photos:

Ben and I spent some time water skiing and attempting new tricks. My trick was to slalom ski (one ski only). I was able to start on two, then drop one ski… but didn’t quite make it after that. However, Ben got this great photo that makes me look like a pro! (I fell immediately after this shot)

I was pretty good with 2 skiis though:

Ben tried various water skiiing apparatuses, including a wakeboard, kneeboard, and skiis.

Wakeboard: Skiis:

Kneeboarding:

Despite his best efforts, he only had success with plain old water skiis. Maybe next year.

Here’s a few more photos, including Jenga and Clay’s birthday party. As you can see, Madisen and Annaliese were busy stealing his gifts and tackling him!

Becky and Jenna’s Ceremony

Alonna — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:21:30 +0000

Last weekend we went to Minnesota for the commitment ceremony of my friends Becky and Jenna. Here’s a few photos leading up to the wedding:

We all met at the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis for some photos. It’s a really beautiful location – I can’t wait to see the professional photographer’s photos.

Ceremony photos:

Since I was one of Becky’s attendants, I had to give a toast – yikes! Since I’m not very good at jokes, my speech was the sentimental ‘make everyone cry’ type of toast. I think it went pretty well – I saw a lot of tears out in the crowd!

They had something really cool at the reception – a photo booth! Sort of like the ones you’ve tried at the arcade when you were a kid – but way higher quality. Plus they printed the photos out right there so you could take them with you or leave a scrapbook page for Becky and Jenna. It was awesome.

Congratulations Becky & Jenna!