Sonstegard/Wiethoff Family Gathering

The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born. ~Pearl S. Buck

Family time is one of our greatest tresures and once again this year we were able to make the annual Sonstegard/Wiethoff Family Gathering. This year's gathering was held at the Holiday Inn in St. Cloud. With lots of pools, table tennis, volleyball/basketball, an arcade, and lots of food we were kept busy laughing together for the whole weekend.

I found the following quote this morning and it fit this post perfectly.

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown

In fact, we had so much fun together that it was decided to make this a semi-annual event instead of an annual event. We now can look forward to spending a weekend on the lake in the summer and a weekend at a hotel sometime in the winter! It is exciting just thinking about it.

Thanks for the great conversations and laughs this weekend. We look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Lazy Day

So I am walking out of our room this afternoon and discover Autumn has more than made herself at home. I know it is cold outside but this was too funny! Sometimes I wonder if she isn't taking on our human traits more than we know.

Sunset

I had to post this picture from the other night. It was 20 below zero outside, but it looked like a warm lazy evening was settling in. Sometime words cannot describe the moments God grabs your attention with the beauty of His creation.

Picture Perfect Moment

Do you ever have one of those moments that you want to capture forever. We had one the other night.

Gazing across the room I could help but sigh over the moment. The boys were playing a game of dice, Autumn was at their feet and laughter filled the air. It was a picture perfect moment.

Shhh... We have a Birthday Boy in the house!

Today my hero celebrates another candle on his cake. Yes folks, Scott is celebrating another birthday somewhere in his thirties!



I thought one of the best things I could give him is to tell you all how great it is to be married to someone as awesome as he is. He is a great father and and devoted salesman. A compassionate person who would give the shirt off his back if you needed it. He is devoted to living out his faith in Christ on daily basis where ever he is. It is not just about what he believes, it is about who he is becoming. He is my best friend.

So, if you see him today wish him a happy birthday. Just don't let him know I told you so....

Getting Away

This past weekend was such a blast. The boys were staying at Grandma and Grandpa's for the night and Scott and I were off for a couple of days of alone time. It seemed like ages since we had quiet time just to us.

We headed a couple of hours down the road to the Cities to do a little shopping and catching up. Priceline was good to us and we were able to stay at the Crown Plaza in North Minneapolis. We were within a few miles of Downtown and some great shopping!

The room...

Special pillow scent and sleepy time CD...

Us...

Our first afternoon was great. We spent hours at the book store and then wandered over to National Camera Exchange much to my delight. It is always fun to dream about adding new tools to help with work.

The next day we headed south to IKEA to check out all the hype. The funny thing is we didn't really find anything for the house but we did discover that their food was pretty good. The Scandinavian heritage was showing it's colors for a moment. With our bellies full of delicious meatballs, potatoes, and gravy we head downtown the the Minneapolis Art Museum. This was my favorite spot so far in our trip. I have always wanted to go and walk through and now I was able to do that with my loving hubby.

By this point and time I was starting to think the day couldn't get any better. Well, I was way off the mark with that thought. Scott drove us back to a mall complex near our hotel for a dinner at Buca's and then a movie. The food was amazing and the movie even better. If you get a chance to go out to a movie in the next few weeks we would highly recommend going to see "The Bucket List." We have not laughed and cried so hard at a movie in a long time.

Well, we are now back home and enjoying the memories of our little getaway and looking forward to the next time we can do it again. We have a family tripped planned in the next few weeks to get together with Scott's family and cousins on his mom's side. It is a great tradition we look forward too every year.

Blessings!
Shelly

New Year's Bowling

It is two days later and the muscles are still sore from going bowling. Guess the old saying of "no pain, no gain" come into this one. It has been ages since we all went out and knocked around some pins together as a family. We were joined by Jay and Rochelle and their little cuties. Talk about a FUN time.

Thanks for the laughs guys. We need to do it again soon!