A distant eagle

Look, a bald eagle! Actually it looks more like a car in this blurry picture (the car window is the white of the eagle's head). We went over to the Steak n'Shake in East Peoria, where there have been eagle sightings in previous winters. Given that the weather is not all that cold and we have never succeeded at this before, our expectations were low. But, within minutes of sitting down, we saw one flying high above the river! The rest of the time we did not see any, but the view from that place is nice anyway. Classes started at Bradley University this week.

Weekend Visits from the Godchildren

Tuesday we celebrated Katie's "Gotcha Day" with dinner at a Chinese restaurant and our annual re-creation of the over-the-shoulder shot.  Wrong shoulder, but compare to previous entries on January 12.  The temps rose up above freezing, melting most of the snow, and now have plunged back into another cold snap.  This weekend our friends the Kaeders visited us.  On Saturday, my godson, his sister, and Kristine went on a tour of the Bradley University campus. We also went swimming at their hotel and watch the Packers (lose) a playoff game.  On Sunday they left, and a couple hours later we were visited by our other godson and the other children of the Bland family.

Snowy weather catches up to Peoria

Still have not had much snow on the ground this winter.  It was warm enough earlier this week for Katie and I to go on an evening bike ride and test out new lights. (It was sprinkling and in the low 40s.)  We had daffodils starting to sprout, too.  On Saturday, that all changed with a couple inches of snow and a cold snap that is more typical of January. We were forced to postpone Kristine's birthday party to today (Sunday). She had about dozen friends over and had fun.  There were spectacular sun dogs in the sky this morning, probably about as spectacular as I have ever seen.   The Packers surprised us by winning their first playoff game today.

Stormy Weather and Home for New Years

On Monday, my parents, my daughters, and I hung out in Mountain.  We visited Chute Pond to see the water drawdown, did various chores, and awaited a big snowstorm.  At one point it was projected that we would get nearly 15 inches, but by the time storm wound down on Tuesday we got more like five inches.  The Green Bay area got as much as 13 inches. Turns out that the same storm system dumped much rain and ice on Peoria while we were gone.  Our location had only a power flicker, but other places lost power for days. That Tuesday, I went to see the new Star Wars movie with my parents (Kris took Katie to a Chipmunks movie).  On Wednesday, the girls and I drove down to Chicago to pick up Karen at the airport (we made a stop at the Jelly Belly warehouse tour in Pleasant Prairie, WI).  We then drove back to Peoria (we saw lots of broken tree branches and utility trucks in central Illinois) for an evening visit with the Bosma family.  On Thursday, New Year's Eve, Kris led singing at Mass and later went to a party.  Katie and I went to the riverfront because I had heard there were to be fireworks there.  Turns out there were no fireworks (other people were at the location looking for the fireworks, too).  Perhaps the flooding Illinois River cancelled the event.  We returned home to Karen (bedridden with a sore back) with plenty of time to unwind in front to the TV to get to midnight.  When we got back home, we were surprised to see a deer in our front yard near our manger scene (probably attracted to the birdseed in our feeder).  Have a blessed 2016!