2010 - we made it!

We celebrated New Year's Eve outside Minneapolis with some friends, before heading back to Wisconsin on the 1st. We've been busy doing plenty of family things (Malikhi's birthday party, ice-fishing, four boys' basketball games, never-mind three full days of X-Mas festivities), working on our endless lists of things to do, while also trying to relax as much as possible. This past Saturday alone we went to three basketball games!

 Last week we drove east to the Upper Peninsula (UP) in Michigan, to help our friend Emily move into a new place near where she's going to school. The UP was cold, windy, snowy, and icy, but overall it seems quite nice, plus we had a fun night out for Liz's 28th birthday - watched the Iowa Hawkeyes beat Georgia Tech, a good game and a big win for our former state of residence's best football team!

 The last week or so we've been lounging around (but working hard): Liz has begun her Personal Trainer studies in earnest and is currently reading all about kinetics, while Anderson has finally completed the movie (and DVD) of our SE Asia trip. We'll have the DVD with us wherever we are (and we're ready to watch it plenty of times :-), or you'll soon to be able to download the movie and watch it by your impatient self!
Last night we had a fun couples' night out with Liz's brother Zach and his girlfriend Nikki - hit up a few Rice Lake bars and made the most of their evening without kids. Today we all went ice-fishing on Long Lake, about 30 minutes north-west of Rice Lake, so the kids had a blast getting sled-rides while we older folk fished and chatted the afternoon away. Guess who caught the only fish?

Anderson also has a new story up on TravelFish:

It's called Phonsavan and Luang Prabang and is all about those two Laotian cities, cycling around the Plain of Jars, and even features some late-night bowling... There are four more articles to go in the Cycle Asia series, so keep your eyes peeled for future installments.
More news soon, we've just interviewed for the summer jobs in Alaska we want but won't hear back for several weeks, and we'll have that movie link up here when it's done uploading!

Peace
A&E

Here's your moment of zen: baby Jaksen "shotgunning a beer" :-)