Skiing!

Surprisingly, Hunter Mountain did not consider the week we were there a vacation week, so all kids skied for free!  Here is Aiko and our gaggle of kids heading out of the house to the slope to snap into our skis.  We were right on the mountain, it was so convenient.

All set and ready to go!

When we got there, there was no magic carpet for beginners, so right from the get go it was on the chair lift!  A little intimidating for Felix and I, but the kids were great!  They said it was like flying!

The mountain was really deserted...see?  No one there!

This was on the big quad chairlift!  Lucas was thrilled!

Yep, no one on the mountain...

Still had the whole place to ourselves!  It was great!

Since the kids skied for free and we were so close to the slopes, there was no pressure to make a day out of it.  We were always out first thing in the morning, but if they got tired or cold, or simply said they wanted to go back home, we did.  See, our place is just there in the distance, to the left of Lucas.  We literally took the ski lift up, hopped off and skied over to the house....so wonderful!

Ski Vacation!

We are back!  Hunter Mountain was our home for five days and we had a blast.  We went with Aiko's family and stayed in a great house right on the mountain.  

Bunk beds!  (they didn't sleep here though)

Little Emme playing...

We had a nice roaring fire every night

Rei and the twins playing I guess their form of chess.

Meal time...

Surprisingly, the kids watched very little tv all week.  We did have movie night one night and all was quiet....

These two were so cute all week, always hanging out.

Our mud room with all our gear...

Stayed tuned for the details of our great adventures skiing!

Another day of skiing...

Well, it wasn't the 10 inches of fresh powder we had in the blizzard, but today was still nice.  Aiko and  I even discovered some new trails (and inadvertently had to ski down a closed one!).  It was very quiet on the mountain overall...maybe it all dies down after ski school ends.

The twins had their lesson, had a great teacher Carson who made it real fun for them.  I think they are getting a bit frustrated that they cannot stop, but they came out of their lesson beaming, which was all I needed.

While I skied with Aiko and the twins had their lessons, Felix was skiing with David and Giovanna.  They met us at the mountain for a morning of skiing.  Now we just have to get their twins on the slopes!

Compo Valentine's

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  It was beautiful today and so after school I headed home and took the kids over the Compo Beach..

We had the whole playground to ourselves, but there was a lot of snow.

The beach was absolutely beautiful.

We walked all the way down the beach to the cannons.  The twins pretended they were pirates.  

We stayed until sunset and then walked the long trek back to the car before it got too dark.  How nice to get out and get some fresh air!

Blizzard!

Well, Nemo came in full force and I have to say I think we made the most of it!

Sledding in the front yard...even some big kids came to test out our man made sled track!

On Saturday morning, the kids ski lessons were cancelled and so they slept in with Felix.  I headed out to slopes to meet up with Aiko for some skiing.  The roads were not horrible....this is what East Avenue looked like.

The slopes were empty and had plenty of powder (were we in the West?)

Aiko and I skied for a few hours and then when her kids got out of class, we did a run with her kids.  Here's Ko, he and I rode the lift together and he is a great skier!

On Sunday, I woke up early and did a seven mile training run with Giovanna.  The streets were somewhat plowed, but no one was out so it made for a nice run.  After church, lunch and naps we were at Naramake School in the afternoon for some sledding. The big hill was so fast that it was a little too dangerous for the kids.  So we went to this little incline where the kids could go down by themselves.  Josephine and her mom joined us (the other Lucas was sick)

School is cancelled tomorrow (Monday) not due to the roads but because so many teachers and other staff live in towns north that have not seen a plow yet.  So I guess they figure that too few people would should up.  Looking forward to sleeping in!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Last week Grandpa celebrated a birthday-87!  That's a LOT of years!.  We headed over to his house after school to bring him balloons and cookies.  Happy Birthday Grandpa.

Superbowl Sunday

My excitement over Superbowl is like a double edged sword.  In some ways I am so excited for the biggest game of the year, but the other part of me knows that football is over and we will have to wait for September to enjoy it once again.  So to send the season off in style, we hosted a Superbowl Party.  It was three families from the neighborhood, and it was quite the fun time.

The men picking their squares (you are supposed to pick the squares first and then assign the numbers, but logistically that did not work for us)

All set and hung up on the wall for the record.

I had our dining table set up for crafts for the kids.  Each kid got a superbowl book with tracing letter pages (that dealt with football-think "helmet", "field" etc., )connect the dots and football coloring pages.

Cameron had the best seat in the house I think.

The halftime dance party...

I think this pretty much sums it up.  

Congrats to Martin who claimed the halftime money prize from the squares.  Felix won the final score money prize (so that was fun!).

Big Kid Bikes!

By the time their actual birthday rolled around, I felt like we had been celebrating for a whole week (well I guess we almost had!)  Anyway, the main gift for the twins was new bikes.  Big kid bikes!  

Putting them together the night before (this felt like Christmas all over again!)

The finished project.

After dinner at Bertucci's, the twins came home to find them in the living room.  They even tried a quick spin around the house.