Christmas Vacation

It's already the new year obviously but I thought I would recap a little bit of the Culham Christmas Vacation. We started out to Minnesota at 3:00AM EST Monday morning! Yes very early! But we got on the road early so we could get to Minnesota earlier. On the way we stopped in Mason City, IA, which is where I(Phil) used to live. My parents where there visiting some friends from the church where they use to Pastor at. We met at Cabin Coffee in town for a quick cup of coffee. After that it was the last final stretch to Minnesota. We got to Fulda in good time, getting there around 2:00PM CST. So with the stop in Mason City it took about 12 hrs total to get there.

While in Minnesota we had a wonderful time with Steph's family. It was great to be able to see her mom again! We were also able to spend time with her dad as he was down from Warroad, MN. (If you ever want to go somewhere that's REALLY cold, go to Warroad in the winter!!) On top of spending a lot of time with her family we even found some time to work out! In the process of eating all the cookies we tried to run off some in the morning hours to help us in the afternoon hours!! LOL Fulda has a new little fitness center attached the the chiropractor's office so we got a week membership there which was great! (Steph really liked that) Christmas Day was spent at the Koopman Christmas. Her Dad's side. Had a wonderful time with all of them, and than that night we went back to her mom's and had Christmas there! Lots of Christmas in one day! It was GREAT! The biggest news of the Christmas season in Minnesota though was the SNOW STORM! Fulda got pounded with snow, and while we were there it probably snowed 16+ inches! I remembered why i didn't like Minnesota!! But being in Fulda, a really small town, we were still able to drive around town to see family!

On Saturday we headed down to Des Moines to see my family. We didn't know if we would be able to make it there or not, but we braved the elements and for about 65 miles i wondered why we did but once we got past the slush and snow covered roads it was clear sailing and very glad we attempted! We were able to get to Des Moines for supper and to spend the evening with my family. My parents had booked a room at a hotel and so Steph and I stayed there. They had a pool so the whole family came to the hotel to swim after we ate supper and opened up presents. My nephews Joe and Jake had a blast swimming! They are both getting so big! The next morning we all met for breakfast and than we all headed home.

The drive home was not that bad, but I did not like leaving the snowy tundra of Minnesota to come back and drive on snow covered roads in Indiana!! But we made it home safe, had a wonderful time with our families, and glad we were able to make the trip! Below are a few pictures from our trip!