Kohler

This last weekend we took a trip up to Kohler Wisconsin. They were having a winter festival with ice carving and also we had heard the design studio was a pretty cool place to check out. When we first got there we checked out the festival around the shopping area. There was a little ice skating performance on the lake, we had just missed the polar bear swim, but we watched some snow carving, and got a free 15 minute indoor golf lesson. Then we headed over to the design center, which turned out to be really cool and defiantly could have spent more time there then we had. They had lots on display, toilets, showers, faucets, sinks, bathtubs, even lawn mowers!? (they apparently make those too). On the upper level they have several designer bathrooms and kitchens that you can tour, and on the lower level (which we only did a quick run through) they have the history of Kohler. I would definitely suggest this for anyone any time of year. Also if you want to see more snow sculptures Lake Geneva is hosting the Winterfest and United States Nationals Snow Sculpting Competition, 15th Annual on Feb. 6th.

Here are some of the snow sculptures






Here I am looking at the designer sinks

Now that is a lot of toilets!

And sinks!

Brad is figuring out how this shower works

And here is the innovative C3200 toilet (with hidden bedet, seat warmers, and remote control)

Here I am in one of the designer bathrooms

Ice Climbing

So you know those weeks where you are just dreaming of going out and doing something adventurous? I have been in that state since the new year, luckily I have people around here that think of me when they want to go do something crazy cool like ice climbing. That is really all Byrd had to say and I was in. The poor med students wives we are entail that we didn't just spend hundreds of dollars on clinics or gear of our own, we went to this ice climbing demo day put on by the climbing gear companies like Petzel and Black Diamond, it only cost us a day to drive up to Green Bay and $10 to get in. (They don't really have mountains in Green Bay just a gravel quarry which they put the ice routes down the sheer cliff walls) The downside of this event was that they didn't expect many people to show up to this little event (who really from Wisconsin is into ice climbing) but there were over 100 people there and half of them trying out the demo gear. So we were sitting around waiting, watching people climb, and just chatting, a couple hours seriously went by and we were thinking we would have to leave without even getting a try. But randomly this guy that saw we were waiting asked if we wanted to try his shoes and crampons so that we could climb. They were a little big, but what the hay anything to get us on the ice. As we proceeded to switch around boots he informed us on the techniques to ice climbing. It was easier then I thought it was going to be, but really wore me out quick too (guess I gotta work out my forearms more). We each only got 1/3 of the way up the entire ice face, but we didn't start out on an easy route so that makes it a little better. And we got some sweet pics out of it! Really I think I want to get into this more someday.

Byrd, Marcy and I showing off our stuff outside of the Ice Pit.

Here you can see the different routes they have to climb, they had smaller ones over the the right of this too.

Here we are just watching in amazement

Up close to the wall

Here I am climbing

And some more climbing

Here we are after climbing

(I swear my helmet was a kids size and makes my head look big)

Matchy Matchy Green Squared

This really was not on purpose. I got this new green sweater for $5 at the outlets and so I wanted to wear it on Sunday. I was in the bathroom when Brad walked in wearing his green tie (he has more then one green tie and he happen to choose the one that almost perfectly matched) and it made me think back to college when we used to quote "matchy matchy green squared" all the time.

Fufilling our Snowboarding Need

So we have been anxious to go snowboarding since we didn't go at all last year. We looked into going while we were in Colorado for the holiday break, but the extra expense of either paying to fly our boards or renting them there made it just a little too much to fit into our budget. On our return to Wisconsin we were met by a big snow storm. The timing was perfect, Brad only had been back at school for 1 week so his load hasn't fully returned quite yet so this would be the best day to take off for snowboarding. Now we were quite warned by several people that Wisconsin ski resorts were nothing compared to our west. I found a resort with a 500 foot vertical drop (not much but there are even smaller to choose from). We woke up early and drove west, only it felt different because we never increased in elevation, in fact there was a time we thought we were lost because we were driving on a little country road passing farm after farm. When finally we got there we were surprised that the size wasn't as bad as we thought. Though Brad could probably get down a run in 2 or 3 minutes, it took me a little longer especially when I fell. Though the terrain was perfect for me to practice my carving, in fact I was snowboarding the best I ever have before. I almost felt like I was pretty good as there were actually other people there that were learning and falling more than I was (as compared to in Colorado where you are always past up by these 10 year old snowboarding masters.) We had a lot of fun and hopefully it filled us up enough for another long drought.

We took our camera but it ran out of batteries so these are from our cell phones