Thursday and Friday

Family Thursday

For the past 3 to 4 weeks we have been waiting for snow.

A snow storm to be precise.

Each week when we head to the ski area

we hope for a fresh layer of silky crystals for our skis to dance over.

This week the weather looked promising.

Low clouds wrapped themselves around our mountains

and didn't let go for days.

Perfect.

Thursday morning we loaded up the truck

Precipitation at last! - our guesses

B - 5"

Princess - 3"

Prince - 74" (but with his hands shows 2')

Soft Rock Mama - 7.5"

Snow was the hot topic of conversation.

Until the stop for fresh warm doughnuts.

Then, which frosting was the best, took over.

We can be easily distracted.

The mountains surprised us.

They held 11" of perfect powder.

Which meant Prince was up to his knees.

He didn't seem to mind.

Neither did she.

Both kids are catching the untracked powder bug.

That makes us parents proud

and very happy.

Last year, this would never have happened.

Now our girl is ripping through the terrain park

going off jumps and sliding down rails.

This mama is proud, proud, proud!

Daddy too.

Check this out

Coming off the rail slide



Carving it up on her way down to...

...the next jump.

B looks on with pride.

All the way up, every time, the boy talks about jumping from the chair.

When it would be best -

How it would be best -

The amount of snow needed.

We explain that it will NEVER be a

good time or good place to jump from the lift.

Never.

He still tries to convince us that if there was enough fresh snow,

as in 20 feet or more,

he could do it. And we wouldn't need to worry,

he would be safe and not get hurt.

Lord help us.

{Notice the impromptu retaining device. Smart man that B.}




We took a detour through the trees.

Looking up

Untouched lines.

My boy and my man

Fixing gloves

For a few runs Prince needed one of my poles

(it made things awkward for me, I felt lop sided. As if, all the sudden I didn't have a clue what to do with my left hand. Should it just hang there, pretend to hold and imaginary pole, flop around, pick my nose.

So I requested it back.)

Our day was perfect. We all skied together all day long, not even minding that we were not skiing the other side of the mountain.

B and I were hatching a plan.

It was all started by this.

A text from my sister in-law -----

Sister In Law: Hey soft rock are you going skiing on friday? and do u have an available ticket?? Jon-zen :-)

Soft Rock Mama: Yep & yep! It is dumping up here this morn. They have got 4 more inches since 7am! Call u later

SIL: Sweet!

[A couple of hours pass, B and I come up with a brilliant plan - texts start flying]

SRM: we are kid free 2morrow! Any chance both u & my brother can ski? It is going to be sick

SIL: I do know hed give his left nut in order to go-we'll see what he can wrangle-yippee!

[side note - said seester and brother have 5 kiddos to pawn off, I mean arrange care for]

SRM: I spit beer out my nose, all over myself. Funny girl. Chat later.

SIL: Gales keepin kidlets! (and by no means does she want scotts nut-so he's in the clear) lets talk am meeting.

SRM: Freaking fantastic - lets meet 7:30

SIL: Yes indeed!

SRM: Filled the growler! We have at least 2 new inches here at the house. Ski area must be getting pounded. C u in the morn.

SIL: Sweet-ass buckets-o-pow with barley juice flowin-yes! C u in the am-luv to my sista!

That led us to...

Adult Friday

and 6 new inches

Clouds hung low all day.

Skiing off the top with limited visibility made you

very aware of trees and your speed.


Snow piled up on the trees

The winds never came!

The sun came out for about 4 minutes

providing great light for a few pictures

This one is my favorite

We skied hard all day long.

We all thought it was by far our best day of the season.

J, my SIL, thought it was her best day of skiing EVER!

We ended the day with pitchers of beer around the fire.

Swapping stories with other smiling skiers.

The lodge was buzzing with tales of freshies,

smiles were worn by all.

We headed home to our kids

With a quick stop on the way for sunsets and

He just barely escaped.

GraditudeX5

- Small arms around my neck, with strength to choke. Sticky fingers that he swears taste like chocolate and an invitation to sample them.

- A day of powder skiing with B. And my brother and sil.

- Grandparents help on short notice

- Sleeping in while kids play together in the living room. PBS cartoons.

- Egg in a baskets that quickly satisfy starving boys.

- Our family.

Autumn and pyrex

So it happened at 9:44 this morning, according to the NPR fellow. Autumn is here. It sure does feel like it, cool and breezy, even with the sun trying to give us some rays as it moves ever farther away from our northern hemisphere.

I had the best intentions to have the kids put on warmer clothes and we would go for a hike to observe and be in nature. But, um well that didn't happen. Nope we are still in our little house them working on school and me cleaning out kitchen cupboards. An interesting and frustrating job. Why did I feel the need to save every glass vase that I have received during the past 12 years of marriage? Why? I don't have flower gardens to fill these empty vases. Nor do I see that happening in the near future. And the seemingly endless pieces of corning oven ware that I have never used, some that I didn't even know I owned. Why do I keep them? My lil brain tells me I keep them in case. In case of what? All my other shelves burdened with baking dishes suddenly crash to the floor and they all break into a million little pieces...but just wait, isn't corning/pyrex nearly impossible to break. Aaaaggghhhh. I baffle myself.

This evening holds soccer practice for the kiddos and husband. I'm trying my hand at making a vegi minestrone soup for dinner, baking some sort of bread and creating a salad. Oh and putting back all of my cupboard contents, minus the glass vases. But at least all that ovenware will be nicely organized to collect dust for another 12 years.

Tomorrow we make mozzarella for the first time. I'll try and get some pictures.

Fall day - evening too

Today is cool, damp and gray. Not normal for our mountains this time of year. This past week we have had temps in the upper 70's and one afternoon we enjoyed a brief reminder of what 82degrees feels like. Though at night we are dropping down into the low 40's and high 30's. The few nights that mother earth has taken off the blankets (cloud free, clear skies) we have had frosts. My poor garden has been nipped by jack frost. Leaves are starting to die back, and it appears that the rest of my tomatoes will have to ripen in a newspaper and cardboard shelter. I'm trying to decided if I should transplant my herbs into pots to be brought inside for the duration of winter. I love being able to gather what is needed for cooking, fresh. I love even more the fact that it is all free. And always tastes better than that bought at the market. Our small house won't hold all my potted herbs, so I'm thinking rosemary and parsley will be the ones I try to overwinter inside.

Yesterday morning the kiddos played outside, kicking soccer balls all over the lawn, climbing up crab apple trees, feasting on many. Free-ranging the rabbit. Digging tunnels into the hillside. Making forts complete with grass roofs and separate rooms. It is so great to see them at play. Enjoying nature and all it has to offer. We must get into the mountains before trails become muddy and then icy. We have time, at least several weeks.

In the afternoon winds and rain whipped out of the canyons, soaking the ground and blanketing the peaks with a fresh white layer of snow. This isn't the first snow our peaks have seen this fall but the first time the snow lines came down past the high alpine rocky slopes and into the trees. I suspect we will start seeing the larch trees starting to turn their tell tale yellow. I say keep on snowing(up high) and building up our base layer, last year we enjoyed a really fantastic snow year. Skiing was great. And even better was the lack of smoke from forest fires this late summer and early fall.

I helped a friend who was catering a wedding at a 'summer cabin' at the base of the mountains. A couple of observations; 1-cabin?, try huge log house in the woods, 2-high heel's and silky dresses are a tough gig to pull off on uneven, unpaved mountain terrain (and just perhaps the 12 glasses of wine don't help much either), 3-when setting up a ridiculously huge tent to feed 134 guest, use all the stakes and tie downs, they are there for a purpose, 4-it is entertaining to see folks scramble (in heavy winds and spattering rain) (and high heels and suits) trying to tie down a tent that is catching gust's of wind and threatening to take flight, 5-when in Rome/mountains - do as the Romans do...wear jeans, layers of fleece and aggressive tread shoes, especially if you are consuming LARGE amounts of alcohol and are a city slicker in the mountains. Really folks who you trying to empress with your prada and kate spade wear. For the love of pete return to your city homes quickly. Now, please. Rant over. All of us locals did get many laughs all evening and night long, ya gotta admit it's interesting watching humans (especially when they are so far out of their comfort zone).

It felt great to crawl into bed last night. Under our wool blankets with windows wide open and cool breezes blowing in. I refuse to shut our house up just yet, when we will be with out fresh air moving about our house for the better part of 5 months. And no, my dear kiddos the heater may not come on, but feel free to put on a sweater and a pair of smartwools. Cold noses are healthy noses, or at least that's what Grammy used to tell me, so it must be true.

Now for a warm dinner-let's see what the pantry has for us.