tree skiing

I had so much fun skiing in the trees with an old friend from high school!!!
We reconnected on Facebook, and discovering our mutual infatuation with skiing, we planned a girls weekend. We went to Mt. Snow and she got me hooked on skiing in the trees, which I had never done before.

If you look closely at this photo(click on it to enlarge it), you can see the tracks in the snow from people skiing around the trees. Now I am a junkie for skiing in these great glades! and it was so beautiful in there too. The trees looked like meringues! There was less wind, and more fresh powder. Since the temp was -15°F at the base, in the trees, away from the wind was good that day.

Skiing makes me happy.
And the quote of the day from Sheila... "which way is downhill?" duh....
(we laughed alot... and had sooo much fun!!)

spring skiiing

me and Lorie at the top of the Gunbarrel

so beautiful last week!!! I went skiing with my cousin Lorie last Thursday, and we had so much fun. It was great taking time and skiing so differently than I do with the kids. I do love skiing with the boys, but it really is different skiing at an adult pace.
The temperature was really warm, and I was hot wearing just a turtleneck! We skied down slowly and stopped alot to chat. It was so nice to really enjoy skiing that way.... and totally different from bombing down with my boys all winter!!
The snow was kind of like skiing in mashed potatoes, and we stuck to going down the Gunbarrel (a black diamond). There was hardly anyone skiing, probably about 40 people on the whole mountain. It was as if we had it to ourselves.

and we thought that would be the end of the skiing with no snow on the ground anywhere else, and no snow on the horizon, Sundown had planned on closing last Monday.... but...... then we got tons of snow over the weekend and they will be open a bit longer now... yeah!!!

one from the archives:

me, Sue, and 2 of my cousins(Francie and Sayre) in Garmisch Partenkirchen spring 1992

playground snow

At emmett's school, there is a kindergarten teacher who loves to get out at recess and really do fun stuff with the kids. After the snow last week, he worked with the kids to make creative stuff on the playground. He piled tons of snow at the bottom of the twisty slide, then dug it out so at the end of the slide, the kids go through kind of an igloo. totally fun.
Then he also made this mini labyrynth.....

It was a sunny afternoon, and emmett and his best school buddy, and we moms, had a good time hanging out and playing after school.

Pango's first snow

Pango, our ferret, was completely intrigued in the snow. We scooped some and brought it inside for him. He stuck his nose in, then way in, and was digging as in a frenzy.... snow flying up in chunks. He seemed to not be able to get enough of it. He was really hard to take photos of though, as he was moving soooo fast. Mostly everything came out blurry. He kept pawing the snow out, and in general was totally energized by it. Totally funny.

snow lately

Finally we have gotten a bit more snow. The boys have even had a snow day. Not even close to how much we usually get, and the 'big' snowfalls have only been about 4".... totally lame. But beautiful just the same.

Adam tied a little sled to the quad and was dragging Eli around. totally fun.

We all went skiing together the other day. Adam was blown away when he saw how well the kids were really doing. They took off and left him in the dust....
and yes, I taught them how to 'tuck' so they cruise down this part of the run.

my view on one of the runs.... all three of the 'boys' butts

People complain about driving up this mountain (dangerous driving- frequent accidents), but I love how it is after the snow. and on this day it was sparkling and clear.

Gunbarrel

okay, yeah, both of the boys have now been down this black diamond run with me!

it is such a cool steep and intimidating run. emmett had no idea what he was getting into, but he wanted to do it anyway. He was a trooper and went down, slowly surely, snowplowing and turning all the way. Eli, loved it, and is eager to do it every time we go.

Just after you go down one little quick slope, you turn, and stop on the plateau at the top....

to be stunned by how beautiful it is to take in the view. The hill drops off just below that, and you plunge into paying attention to skiing down the snowy steepness.

snow on the ground

finally we have a bit more snow to cover the spots that became bare. This is the strangest winter. We have hardly any snow, and so many places are being dumped on with snow. The weathermen said this time we were going to get about 12-18", but we didn't. It was bitter cold, and most of what we got was actually frozen rain, and very strange, but still fun to play in, and have the first snow day of the year.

Even Adam had fun playing in the snow his own way (stealing Eli's little quad!).



I shoveled a bunch of it into the kitchen sink, and emmett spent about an hour dripping colored water into it and making a colorful mass of coldness in the sink.

Then we all bundled up and played outside in it for a while. Eli slid down all sorts of things, and emmett was busy 'sawing' through the crust with a stick.

I made maple syrup taffy and had it in the fresh snow......

fresh snow only

I made this tasty maple-ness to have in the fresh snow. It brought back memories of being in Vermont, at Uncle Cheyney's little cozy cottage that we used to visit. White River Junction.... always lots of snow... skiing..... going to maple sugar houses..... sleeping all snuggly.... listening to an old radio in the house..... mom making this gooey mapley substance that we would eager crowd around for- first running outside to scoop fresh snow into bowls, then watching the steamy simmered maple syrup poured onto the white coldness that would make it chill instantly and then we could pop it into our mouths......
yum...... had to come in and make some quickly the other day and enjoy it with the boys.
okay, so neither one of them liked it. at all. bummer. (why did I care? other than that I wanted them to enjoy it the way I did)........ I ate all of it. and enjoyed it, although less so, as neither of them shared it with me. poor lonely sweetness. so tasty!

snowy and more

finally some real snow here, and beautiful skies...




the waterfall at Renbrook is finally frozen! and beautiful:


this igloo is so appealing to emmett- he climbs into it now every time before we ski!


it has been biting cold, but fabulous skiing and fun with the boys.
Eli and I went night skiing a few nights ago. We had so much fun trying to ski down and see if we could beat the lift. All of the chairs are numbered. We were trying to see how fast we could come down the hill (okay, yes, I taught him how to tuck down the flat part - although I can still smoke him on it) The first trip we were on chair 97, then the next trip the exact same one! that was what inspired us to try to beat the lift. So the next run we cruised straight down. Chair 71. Cool. We found that we could gain almost 20 chairs each run. The fun things you do as a mom to a 10 yr old boy!

finally!!!

yeah!!! snow!!!!

I love this waterfall as we drive up the driveway to emmett's school.
It was starting to be frozen yesterday.....


then this morning.....
there was finally a liberal dusting of snow that made it finally feel like winter!!!

a little more

finally a little more snow.... from cold nights for snow making at the ski area nearby.

Eli's and my skis as we are on the chairlift... dangling above some barely covered grass below.

skiing soon.....

yippee.. can't wait! Now that Eli is taking the year off from hockey, we will be skiing instead. Sundown opened on Saturday, and we went out to have our photos taken for our passes. It was beautifully bright and sunny, and they had made enough snow to open some trails. I was wishing that we had our gear all ready to have taken advantage of it. Patience. I won't rush it.


The boys had fun messing around in the snow anyway. Especially since it hasn't snowed here yet, and the three of us are dying for it! I am eager for the first beautiful snowfall. There is something so exciting about it, no matter how old I get. There were just a few flurries last week, and they made me happy to see them gently floating down, and eager for more.

...especially since I got these cool new skis!! and I can hardly wait to try them out! they even fit into the car so I can load all three of us into the car with our gear and drive the whopping 20 minutes to Ski Sundown!