Our Happy Place

The "theme" for this year's Camp Crop-A-Lot was "Be Happy." It just means the decorations and activities were happy, funny and joyful. Our pages we scrapbooked didn't have to be – but a lot of them were. Remember I told you it would be an entertaining trip down Memory Lane for Julie and me.

And it sure was! She really dug up the archives from our grade school and high school and beyond. 

This treasure – and it's definitely a treasure – is from the very first day we met in 3rd grade. How do we know that? Because the kids at the two country schools – East Luck and Oak Hill (that's me) – joined the "town kids" and we all went to the Shrine Circus in St. Paul that day. That's the ticket right there. Julie distinctly remembers my twin and me because, well, we were the only two girls in our class of 6 at Oak Hill. Talk about an antique (sort of) and very cool memory to revisit.

We really haven't grown up much since 3rd grade, have we? It was fun hanging out in Our Happy Place for a surprise extended weekend, that's for sure.

We all had a great time and unexpected productivity. That's always a bonus.

Some of my fun pages were...

Finally getting to my nephew David's wedding – his son is now 5 months old. Ha.

When the Dirty Girls of Blue Jay Drive had some filthy fun at the muddy Dirty Girl race near Milwaukee. So gross. But so fun!

This just illustrates you can scrapbook about anything – even a visiting skunk who looks likes your cat at first glance!

And we had this to heat us up after being out in the cold! Somebody had to do it!

Speaking of the cold...

So this is after the first round of ice and snow Saturday night. When I did finally get de-iced and brushed off (on Monday), I needed a push because it was just ice under the car. No place to get the traction.

It was a two-step process. Brush off snow. Scrape ice. A lot of ice.

Almost lost my boot in the deep snow drift trying to get close enough for an artsy shot.

Close, but I wasn't going to hang around for too many shots. The wind actually took our breath away.

A little ice – plus snow drifting up to the window ledge of the dining hall – Our Happy Place Headquarters.

And a little ice cream. A non-blizzard delivered in the blizzard. I'm serious. My friend Becky (who organizes the camp with her sister) always has her birthday the weekend of Camp Crop-A-Lot and her husband and kids always deliver cake, balloons, and gift for her – and a Shamrock Shake for Robyn. I worried her hubby was going to lose his 9-year streak. But he came through. Literally through snow drifts, he came through.

It might be hard to see the wind blowing snow across the lake. It left little drifts that looked like waves. Cool to see but flippin' freezing to see any closer up. Between the wind and drifting and lack of plowed roads, it made safe sense to stay until Monday morning.

This was the intersection just down the road from camp. Can you imagine my Honda Accord trying to traverse an unplowed road with this much snow? Not a good idea. At all.

We had plenty of ice at home, too. Had to take a picture of this icicle on the back deck and send the photo to Carter. We told him we hoped it would be melted by the time he gets home – at the end of April. Man, I hope so!

This was my view leaving for work this morning. We've never had the snowblower edges that high in our driveway before. In fact, it's snowing another 5 inches tonight and we don't have many places to put it. Just keep stacking, I guess.

The roads are crap. They were plowed but all that ice that layered up first makes for a bumpy and/or slippery drive. Took me nearly an hour for my 30-minute commute today. Since we won't get above freezing for at least the next week, I suspect that will be the norm for a bit.

I need to find myself another Happy Place!