Winter Wine & WOW!

The Cherry Festival put on the very first Winter Wine Fest this past weekend---wine tastings, local foods, local distileries, and live music all under a heated tent! What a concept! Why not enjoy wine with good friends for an evening?

This was an awesome display by Grand Traverse Distilleries! Pure ice sculpture.

My cousin Dan was there!

Johnny joined in on the fun.

Our group of friends had a blast! Sampling wines is something we are very familiar with....and the company was even better :)

My co-worker Lori!!

Johny, and Krin

Me, Krin

After some wine tasting, we headed outside and found this Mercedes!! Naturally....Jennifer and I had to pose.

Marissa and Me.....we are nice and toasty warm :) It was such a fun event to attend during the dreary winter months. A nice way to break things up and get people excited about our local foods and wines! I'm sure next year will be even better!

I-500 Weekend

This year we made our 2nd trip to the I-500 Snowmobile Race in Sault Ste. Marie! Basically...it's a VERY cold race around an ice track, you stand outside and watch it for 6 hours and drink alcoholic beverages of your choice :) This year we knew a few racers so it was a lot more interesting to watch! Justin is armed and ready for a long day in 30 degree temperatures!

John and Adam sit and watch the race together.

This year we had a big group of our friends join us! Kim, me, and Marissa are here taking a break from the race!

We saught warmth in the heated tent outside the track. They served pizza, hot dogs, and hot cocoa! Kim, Marissa, Me, Krin.

This is myt good friend's husband who raced this year--it's a very expensive race to enter and you have to qualify to even be in it! Very cool. Unfortunately near the end of the race....his sled lost control and broke down :(

A lot of people come out for this race....it's pretty much the only thing that happens in the Soo each year :) Snowsuits galore, but a great time!

The guys start their engines! The snowmobiles are INCREDIBLY loud as they go around the track at speeds upto 120mph!!! It's an intense race of 500 miles. Good times had by all. One guy got the flu, most of us gambled, and we ALL had fun. A weekend away from it all!

Inagural Ride!

As some of you know....we've had a little trouble with Justin's snowmobile this year. To say the least. Many issues of "stalling", parts breaking, blowing up, and not functioning properly have cause the little yellow beast to sit in our garage half of the winter. Justin and his friends have worked countless hours on it....bless them. A couple weeks ago---before a lot of the problems occured, we took her for a ride! I even got to wear my new helmet! Justin took us out on Lake Leelanau....it looks so different when it's frozen! We were just out here 4 months earlier, fishing on our boat!

It was actually a very beautiful sunny day--which we don't have much here in Northern Michigan.

Justin is perplexed....the sled isn't working properly. This begins the first of MANY weeks he had to "fix" the thing. Snowmobile=money pit.

Krin and Marissa's Birthday!

A few weeks ago we celebrated our friends Krin and Marissa's birthdays! We went to Jolly Pumpkin for dinner and then onto the bars for more festivities!

Birthday shot for Krin.....Kim and I joined :)

Hello!

Krin and Me

Kimmy and Me

Maisy earlier that day....jumped into this "organizer" box I got for Christmas. It was too cute to pass up. :)