some random pics

Here are some random pics from one of the first snows we got....

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Holidazzle Parade

I know I'm WAY behind on my blog posts, but I'm trying to catch up...starting with our trip to the Holidazzle Parade that runs through Downtown Minneapolis! http://www.holidazzle.com/

We went with AJ and Jen and started the day off with a trip to Macy's. On the very top floor of Macy's they have a holiday show called 'Santaland-A Day in the Life of an Elf'. It is an animated show and it reminded both me and Lance of Dollywood or something that would be at Dollywood! :)

Even elves have to sleep....Ansley couldn't get over the fact that they were snoring! :)

When we left Macy's we walked around Downtown for a little bit before meeting up with Tina to eat before the parade started.

playing around downtown

Ansley loved all the Christmas decorations

So after we ate, we made our way to find a spot to watch the big parade!

Front Row!

the floats were very elaborate....it was very different than the Clinton or Lake City parades! :)

Ansley had so much fun!

After the parade and on our way home we stopped by a drive-thru Christmas light show in St. Paul. It was pretty neat, but it didn't come even close to as good as Shadrack's at the Smokies Park, but we had fun!

at first I thought this was a red tractor, but once we got closer I figured out it wasn't

We had one tired little girl on the way home!

Tacky Sweater Christmas Party

Saturday Dec 10th, we went over to Allison and Patrick's for a Tacky Christmas Sweater Party with everybody from Lance's class and then some! We had a great time and Ansley had a blast!!!

Ansley in her 'tacky' Christmas sweater

some of the boys

Me, Allison, Ansley, Parker, and Emily

Ansley being silly

Emily and Chad

They are our new neighbors in the duplexes and they are from the SOUTH, Mississippi to be exact!

LOVE this picture....Ansley looks too cute, but we look like dorks! :)

Duluth Ski Trip

We spent Dec. 2-4 weekend in Duluth, MN. It was our second trip to Duluth, but this time there was snow! One of the guys Lance works with had a bunch of free hotel rooms so a lot of the boys from Lance's work went, I think around 15-20 people total. Saturday morning we got up and went to Spirit Mountain (http://www.spiritmt.com/) to ski and snowboard. I was a little skeptical cause MN isn't known to have 'mountains', but Duluth actually has some or one! :) There was one 'blue' run open and it was a beautiful view from the top!

Spirit Mountain

The view that overlooks Lake Superior

Lance and AJ boarding

Some of the group

Cole, Patrick and Lance

Allison and me

Me and Lance had thought about letting Ansley ski, but since Lance was snowboarding, I would have been the one that she would ski with and since I'm not that good, we decided to just take turns. So while one of us was skiing or boarding, the other was in the lodge hanging out. It actually worked out cause Allison and Patrick went with Parker, so they were in the same boat. We all kinda took turns watching the kids so we could all ski and board.

Bri, Ansley, Me and Parker

Allison, Parker, Ansley, and Kimmy

Some of the group

After a fun filled day of skiing we went back to the hotel, took a nap, got ready to go eat dinner and check out Bentleyville. Bentleyville (http://bentleyvilleusa.org/Home.aspx) is nearly 3 million lights illuminating Bayfront Festival Park located on the shores of Lake Superior. It is the largest holiday light show in the Midwest and has the tallest steel animated Christmas tree in the U.S.

After Bentleyville, we meet up with the rest of the group to eat dinner and have a 'white elephant' gift exchange. We ate at Old Chicago, a delicious pizza place! Lance ended up getting a nice knife/leatherman.

Ansley and Parker had a great time at dinner!