Winter Weekend in Brainerd

Last weekend we went up north to visit my college friend Janna and her husband Erik. Janna and Erik finally moved back from Montana last year after finishing their residency and fellowships in Billings. They both signed contracts with the Crosby Hospital and Clinic and then bought this beautiful home on the lake in Baxter. Trevor took this picture of the sun coming up over the lake.

 The Vilens do not have any kids yet so while the Knights were up at 7 am having breakfast the Vilens were up stairs sleeping. Not exactly sure how they slept through all the noise my kids made?

 Then after a few failed attempts to get out on their lake to fish we loaded everyone up (including their dog Chuck) and drove over to North Long Lake to do a some ice fishing. The kids were amazing! There was not a lot of room in Erik's ice house and they just hung out, had snacks and fished for 2 hours.

                                       

 Olivia started outside of the ice house and Trevor made her right at home with her snack,chair and blanket. She lasted about an hour before she decided to join us in the warm ice house.

                                                 

 After a couple hours Janna and I took the kids back to the house to start dinner. Of course we did not catch anything but as soon as we left the fish started biting. The big boys came home with 7 walleye and Erik made us a great fish fry on Sunday for lunch before we left.

 On Sunday morning Ben was starting to get a little stir crazy and so Erik and Trevor took him outside and they walked all over the lake. Then they came back, picked up Olivia and went for a walk down their long drive way.

                                      

      After a while Janna and I took Jameson out to find the rest of the crew. He sure does love to shovel! 

                                                
                                                

 Then it was inside for some hot coco and lunch before heading home. Before we left Ben asked Erik if we could come back EVERY year! Thanks Janna and Erik for a wonderful weekend!