Celebrating Family

This past week has been about honoring a special life and celebrating family.

My Uncle Glenn Kahler passed away and although we carried heavy hearts with us to Wisconsin, we also took this as an opportunity to celebrate how important family is. We traveled as a family and stayed the night in the same hotel, however, four separate hotel rooms. After the memorial service- despite all of us having our own separate rooms and tired from a long day of traveling - there we were- stuffed into one room. Reminiscing over greasy pizza, double stuffed oreos, cheetos and Guinness Beer. (After all, it was Saint Patty's Day) These are the times that help define you as a family. Coming together to pull through the good-the bad- and the ugly. This weekend I was thankful for my family.

Although we had all wished it was for a different reason- there is no denying how great it was to see some family that we never seem to see often enough. After honoring and celebrating Uncle Glenn, a few of us headed to Lodi, Wisconsin to have some more family time. We stayed at the good ole Benesh farm and like always- had down right fabulous home cooked meals and a great, great time. Here are some photos from our stay at, what Hannah now believes was... "Old MacDonald's Farm."

Whenever us "city-folk" head to the great farmland of Wisconsin, I always learn something new. Like why you shave the horns off of cows...or how much the average steer is worth...or perhaps, how to make your pie crusts from scratch. This time my aunt and uncle were jarring fresh maple syrup. So after asking a few questions about the process of how one jars syrup- I innocently asked my uncle just how they get the sap out from the trees to make syrup...

Uncle Steve's response:

"I go down to the woods and hug each maple tree as tight as I can and just squeeze it right out."

Funny.

He decided to show us himself the actual process...so we headed down to the woods.

They jimmy-up 50 of those gallon buckets to collect the maple sap!! I learned that the process of making syrup takes FOREVER! But it was delicious, and we were sent home with our very own jar.

Overall, it was a bittersweet weekend for us. Nevertheless- an important reminder to always hold your family tight.