It's beginning to feel a lot like Winter in Wyoming

On a hayride. Tristan is up helping drive the Tractor! Go figure.

Oh joy.

It's currently a positive 2 degrees outside, with a wind chill of -19. Perhaps this shouldn't come as a surprise. But one thing is for sure.... it's cold. Eh, in another couple of weeks Dad and I could be getting out the bikes cause it's 65 degrees... we get some bizarre weather!

My turn to navigate the farm. This was the beginning of an unsuccessful attempt to get the last remaining year old calf into the trailer!

We grew used to the cold winter in North Dakota, where without question it's colder there than it has ever been for us in Gillette, Wyoming. In a way the cold was just something you planned for, never happy about it, but always at least somewhat proud of your ability to withstand the sub-zero. I wore it like a badge of honor. I still brag that the coldest day we had was January 28, 2008. The same day Tristan was born. It was miserable (like -65). So cold they were having a tough time keeping the hospital warm enough. I think at one point our room was like 63 degrees... they tend to try and keep them at 70.

Grandma spent a lot of time doing this!

We returned a day later from our Minnesota trip... we ended up spending the night in Aberdeen, South Dakota. We have many memories from Aberdeen. It was the nearest town to buy groceries, go on dates and "find something to do".

Great Grandpa Moon with Koren. 94 and still kickin' it! Impressed with how sharp he still is!

We found ourselves driving the 4 1/2 hours, broken up by an extended stop in Ellendale to have lunch with our friend, Ricky, from the college. By the time we reached Aberdeen it was close to 3 and we were both not looking forward to the drive that was left.

This was Tristan's WHOLE reason for going to Minnesota... ride on the tractor!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Samantha's family. It's been about 7 months since Samantha and the kids were back there and about 18 months since we were all there together. Much has changed since we were all there. For starter's, Samantha's folks have for the most part sold off all of their cattle. A disappointment for me probably more than anyone. They have been replaced by several massive gardens. A ploy they hope turns into a successful strawberry business.

Koren's first tractor ride!

Samantha's closest brother Josh and his wife now own a home that they had built in St. Cloud. It's a very nice split level. A house that would probably cost double had it been built in Gillette. Her sister Cheri and her husband have moved south of the cities. Her husband has just a year or so left in college. We were surprised to hear that they're considering an eight month internship in Thailand.

Tristan and Uncle Josh

Koren and Aunt Mandi

Koren and Aunt Cheri

Daryl and Matt on the "rink"

Melanie, her youngest sister, returned from a three week stay in Africa. To us, she's by far changed the most. The impact of the trip continues to leave it's mark. I to felt this way in returning from shorter trips in Belize and Peru. She's planning a Brazil excursion in a year and a half. I've long said that Melanie is VERY similar to Samantha in more ways than they both want to admit!

Aundrea with Aunt Melanie

Aundrea and Uncle Jake

Jacob, the middle brother also surprised us in many ways. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to his first semester College adventures. One thing is certain... his fist semester is better than mine was! He's in a flying/dusting program with his college. He did enough flying this past semester that he was able to do his first solo flight late in the semester. I was thoroughly impressed with the knowledge he's gained about flying. This is also a kid that has NEVER flown prior to going to college. Unbelievable. He should have his pilot's license by the end of this coming semester.

Jake getting badly beaten by ME in "Mario Kart"

Little Ben isn't quite so little. We got to see him in October. He's pretty funny still but ultimately he's great for his niece and nephew. The kids love to spend time with him and ultimately enjoy the fact that he usually finds fun stuff for them to play with. He's become a Star Wars geek. Which is fine with me! We bought him the original trilogy for Christmas. He's never seen them and really enjoyed watching "A New Hope" for the first time. In fact, that is the only time I can ever remember him not moving for at least 90 minutes.

Aundrea with MORE new hair stuff!

The trip was a lot of fun for us all! Ultimately it's good for the kids to be around family!

A few days off, a trip, and family.

Christmas vacation for school officially ended last Friday. It's nice to know I don't have to work during a holiday... and that I have a fair amount of time off.

I enjoy the Christmas/New Year Holiday, especially since we have kids. Aundrea and Tristan enjoy seeing presents under the tree. Getting them to understand the reason and purpose of Christmas is somewhat of a challenge. I think the stories that they're told make sense, at least to Aundrea. But application for her is a bit of a challenge.

This year Christmas came a bit early as we celebrated with mom and dad last Sunday. It was a lot of fun for all of us. Samantha and I had got a Wii from them a few weeks earlier. Although I've never been a "BIG" video game fanatic, I have enjoyed this little system as it has simple games that we can just pick up fairly quickly and play.

Aundrea and Tristan mainly received much needed clothes. Aundrea also got a kids style digital camera. She's taken an interest in taking pictures with our camera, her own camera seemed fairly logical. She also received a bed for her baby doll.

Tristan is a little more simple. If it looks neat he's ok with it! He got an RC Truck to tool around with. Right now he mainly knows how to go forward and backward. Running into stuff is his biggest enjoyment!

Koren is the biggest challenge. What do you get a kid that inherits everything from his siblings? We managed to find a few needed things for him!

Wednesday was an early morning for us. We got up a little after 5. Loaded up the final 2-3 things and the kids into the van and were on the road by 6:15 for Minnesota. The kids stayed in their pajamas until we were nearly to North Dakota. We arrived at Samantha's parent's time at about 7:30 CT. Not to bad of time. The kids did a great job with the trip. Thanks to entertainment systems... and headphones.

The trip was a bit of surprise for Samantha as she's only known for the past 10 days or so that she'd be spending Christmas at home, something we haven't done in at least 3, maybe 4 years. She enjoys to return home and catch up with her family. Living so far away has made it difficult for her at times.

I do believe we'll probably end up somewhere in this vicinity in future years. We would like to make the move this coming year, yet I'm planning for several scenarios. The worst of which would be to stay put!

We're here through Sunday. And we'll make the long trip back beginning early Monday morning.

The Cat is Out of the Bag

It's official.

At least for my wife.

I have been planning since October on a a December Christmas trip to Minnesota to spend Christmas with the Moon's!

Ultimately the trip was something Samantha and I have discussed since the summer. I had set my mind to doing it in September/October. However, I was hoping that it could be a little bit of a surprise for my wife and kids.

So step one was, inadvertently convincing Samantha that we "shouldn't" go. Now this was somewhat difficult. She needed to feel like she was making the decision. Like she was the one wearing the "pants" if you will! I even went as far as calling her family and letting them know that she would be calling them to tell them that we would not be coming... before she made her decision... but that in reality we would be coming.

My plan worked perfectly... with just some prodding Samantha had decided in about a week that we just couldn't do the trip. Money was a factor, roads were a factor, us just spending my break together was a factor. She just felt it best that we stay in Gillette. A phone call was made and the dissapointing news was delivered!

Now ultimately my plan involved us leaving on the 22nd or there about and taking a "trip" to Rapid City. Once we got to Spearfish... head North and then head across the Reservation! She would have figured it out about then!

Only one problem.... keeping that all a secret! I was having a horrible time since about Thanksgiving. About 30 different times I had said something that NO doubt was a story breaker. In fact I had reinforced the Rapid trip maybe a little to much... as I was having a difficult time putting it all together BEFORE Christmas. Samantha didn't catch on fortunately.

Samantha's family was probably having a tough time as well. It's tough when you talk to someone on the phone and ou can't "talk" about something that is coming up really soon. Her Uncle Glen even said something about us coming for Christmas on Thanksgiving. Samantha on her own immediately dismissed it as her Dad "forgetting". WOW. I spent a little while that day laughing inside.

Last Wednesday or so I did finally tell her. It was just getting to tough and way to much trouble for all involved! The biggest thing is I didn't want her to do the usually baking procedure. I can't imagine what she'd do if we made all that and then didn't even stay to eat it!

So anyways... we're off to Minnesota in a little over a week. I'm going to be flexible just based on the propensity for bad weather. It seems that most typically when we go back we end up fighting some type of incliment weather pattern. The fact that Southern Minnesota got around 20 inches of snow this weekend might mean that the State isn't due for any more bad weather for a while. I'm not going to hold my breath though! I am in disbelief that the Metrodome roof colapsed! Not sure if everyone has seen this video.

In other news...

This has been a tough weekend for our family. Tristan developed the sniffles Friday evening. Aundie and he were at Mom and Dad's spending the night. This is probably one of their favorite things to do. Skip swimming... skip skating... they'll chose Grandpa and Grandma's everytime if given the option. Plus with leaving in a little over a week, spending a little time with them will be a good thing.

The time with out the mess maker's gave Samantha and I a chance to have a little quality time. We went out to eat at Pokey's BBQ joint. It been a place we discovered only about 4 or 5 weeks ago. We always knew it existed just hadn't tried it out. Great BBQ done Wyoming style. Friday we even tried out their homemade potato chips. Mmmmhmmm!

Saturday was all about cleaning up the house. We spent all morning picking up, doing laundry and wrapping a few presents for the kids. The shopping for the most part is complete for our kids! Finally a Christmas that doesn't involve last minute!

Picking up the kids Saturday around noonish was fine for us! Upon getting home Tristan didn't appear to be looking really good. A temp check revealed a temp of 101. A few hours later and Aundrea was at 100.7 and not far behind. Tylenol and rest. Tristan got up a few hours into the night and found his way into our bed. Where at about 4 am we all got to wake up to him vomiting on our pillows. Yay.

He got a bath, I changed out the bedding and we all went back to bed. Although he was moved to his own bed with a "special bucket".

Sunday was spent being miserable for all. Tristan and Aundrea's fever returned to normal at about 6 pm. Mine and Samantha's did abour the same time as well. Tristan's appetite also returned sometime around then as well. It's tough not feeding him as he's typically a "starving" boy as it is!

I thought work would be attainable today. However after eating last night my fever returned and I spent until about 2:30 am with my own "special bucket". Thankfully the bucket remained clean.

Unfortunately one day of not feeling well tends to wreck our house! Back to square one.

The Yankees and the BEST/WORST contribution to Major League Baseball

It goes without saying that as a Detroit Tiger's fan, I am automatically not a fan of the New York Yankees. In fact I like the Yankees the least of ALL other MLB teams.

The Tiger's and Yank's used to be in the same division when it was just the American League and National League. And still when each league was subdivided into two separate divisions. At the addition of the the Rays and Rox (I think this was around '93 or so) the leagues went to 3 divisions. The Yankees went to the east, where the Tiger's where in the Central.

The main thing that angers me is the Yankee's "win at all COST." For starters it's made for a much more volatile free agent market, and driven up the cost to add a player ten fold. Not that players shouldn't make their worth.

The problem is that had driven up the costs for a family to attend the ball park. There is currently such a rash of no black baseball players. And a push to add more ball parks in the inner city. The reality is these kids can't afford to go to the ball park.

The same is true for a family of four that lives 2+ hours from the ball park. When we lived in North Dakota I was shocked by the people that would drive 5-6 hours from the Dakota's to watch the Twinky's play ball. That's a pretty loyal fan base. However, people in that area don't make a great deal of money. Now they're spending 10-12 hours on the road ($70 in gas), buying tix ($125), buying a beer and a dog or... two! ($30-$50), Grabbing a meal or two for the trip ($40). That's $250+ for a single game. Unreal.

Thank the Yankees.

On the same hand it's tough to really blame one team. As all really are guilty. The Tiger's have improved their 2011 line-up for about $30,000,000 additional dollars next year. They're somewhere in the top 1/3 of the pack with $$$ this year. Unfortunately, my guess is they've commit 10-20 million more on signings this year.

The Yankees on the other hand just learned the cost of paying exorbitant prices for players. They just resigned Jeter for about $17 million a year. Jeter has definitely had success in pin stripes. However, the Yankees WOULD be better with about 20 other guys (at least) playing that position. Number's have shown a decline in Jeter's abilities. Last year was a dramatic decrease. This years numbers might be a tick over 2010's performance... but bottom line... he won't hit .300 this year.

Having to pay a guy that, just simply because he's the "greatest Yankee of this era" (which doesn't mean diddly squat outside of the five boroughs) is laughable. Sure he want's to retire a Yankee and a short stop. But if you really care about the organization your paid what your worth. Not the the imaginative worth that your name means to a franchise.

Magglio Ordonez has arguably meant as much to the Tiger's in the last 6 years as Jeter has to the Yanks. Bottom line, the Tiger's love him and would like to bring him back #1 for the right price, and #2 in the right situation. But they're shopping. Teams need the most BANG for their buck. At least teams other than the Yankees.

I'm glad the Yankees had to WAY OVERPAY for a guy with minimal skills at best in today's game. YES I said it! MINIMAL SKILLS. He had his day, he washed up! Good job Yankees! Thanks giving me something to laugh about! It's good to watch you waste money.