Christmas Day - 2013

Cindy, Lee, Rick, Wendie, Emilee and Jeri Ulku enjoyed a wonderful prime rib and salmon dinner prepared by Cindy. Since Christmas fell in the middle of the week and so many of the kids were going to be traveling for the holiday, we decided to celebrate the Mercer Christmas later in January. The day after Christmas we took a trip over to Strawberry Lake (about 6 miles away) to see the progress on Cindy and Lee's new house. By now Lee has most of the interior walls up and we could get a good sense of what their vision is. The snow base is about 12" right now and perfect for skiing and snowshoeing. We were all so proud of Jeri getting out on snowshoes for the first time in many years. The snowmobilers have been out in great numbers this week and so fun to watch fly across the lake. For New Years old friends Georgie and Randy will be coming to ski,snowmobile and celebrate with Cindy and Lee.

Gratitude

We are all extremely thankful this Thanksgiving as we gather for our first family holiday at the lodge. Everyone except Andrew and Natasha were able to make it. The Ulku tradition of 'Christmas Jammies' was expanded on and before Seth carved the bird everyone dressed for dinner in their new flannel pj's. Lauren, Seth's sister from New York and Austin, Emilee's boyfriend enjoyed the holiday with us playing Mexican Train, Black Friday shopping at Fleet Farm and putting puzzles together. Our dream of uniting our families under one roof had finally come true.

Finally Ours

After 4 very long, trying months Corona Lodge is finally ours. Cindy and I celebrated with Mimosas! We spent the first week together unpacking and getting settled. Since the weather was warm the first couple of days we concentrated on getting the yard ready for winter. We all had fun mowing the lawn with the Nelson family tractor, clearing dead trees and moving the fire pit to a better location. The dogs are especially loving their new yard and being able to roam freely. Cindy decided that we didn't need a ATV, her mini cooper worked fine. Emilee disagrees. Cindy had fun driving around the yard hauling rocks for the new pit and trees we had taken down for firewood.