Snowvember

This makes me so happy-  ski touring with my husband, kids and dog  This is something I only dreamed of doing 10 years ago.  I have to pinch myself!  I am beyond proud of these two.  It's not easy to move uphill with heavy boots, downhill skis, and touring inserts, but they are doing it!

I'm not sure they love it as much as me on the uphill, but they love the skiing fresh powder on the way down:

And they look like such pros:

In other news, we celebrated an early birthday for Johnny with Scott, Cynthia, Tom and Cara:

Cynthia made a delicious carrot cake:

There was lots of love for John.  It's always fun to have an excuse to gather and celebrate with the godparents:

And, the zip line is just as fun in the cold weather with our friend, Dean:

We also made it to Casey's Hill for some sledding with Dean.  So fun to have so much snow to play upon:

November Part 2

November can be one of my least favorite months..... Usually marked by drab, grey days-- sort of the shoulder season between mountain biking in the fall and skiing in the winter.  Alas, this year we are calling it: Snowvember because of the consistent and early snow.

Our friend Thompson spent the weekend with us.  Her parents were in Paris, so we offered to hang out with her for a weekend.  And the weekend started by heading into Burlington to see a production of Annie by a local theater production.  It is the play that Cally had tried out for in August, so it was a little bittersweet to see it all happen on the big stage.  We all agreed it was a really fun show, but that all the girls had a lot more experience than Cal.

We fun zone at Smuggs.  John took Zephy for a ski while the kids played hard! There was only a bit of confusion with shoes.( they only let us go in the go-zone if we were wearing sneakers, luckily 2 of the 4 kids were wearing them and we switched on and off.)

I was able to get up for a skin and ski adventure up Stowe with some of my lady friends on Sunday.  Followed by some spa time.  Not a bad way to spend a snowy November day!

November Part 1

November can be pretty grey and gloomy, but this year proved to be pretty different.  John hosted the Telluride Mountain Film Festival and we had a big contingent of kiddos enjoying the event. 

The kids participated in my "buy back" program for Halloween Candy and we decided to spend the rainy Saturday visiting Vermont's first Target store.  

We also went to a party for 5 five year olds and Hazey had some fun playing with the adults:

On Sunday, we went on a hike to Libby's Lookout.  We arrived at the lookout to find a fire still burning!  A fun surprise. 

 

I love hiking with these two!  There is never a dull moment with them.  Their curiosity and enthusiasm are so much fun to witness.  I hope they never stop exploring, playing, and asking great questions.

Halloween

We love our Halloween tradition!  In the past, I've gotten really stressed out about costumes-- wanting to be that mom that makes her children's costumes and not buying a box store model, but never having enough time to really be that mom.  

This year, the kids absolutely blew our minds.  They each came up with their own idea months ago.  We got some ideas online, but they each really put the costumes together on their own.  

Cally made the wrist guards, belt, and headband for her costume.  When the blue skirt with stars did not arrive on time, she crafted her own shorts out of jeans and sparkle duct tape.  A string of LED lights helped make her lasso of truth look alive.  And when I balked at the idea of buying red boots, she came up with her own creative alternative.

Hazey did most of his costume on his own, as well.  Cally helped with the headpiece and John helped with some cutting.  I purchased the lights, but he made it all come to life.

And then John decided to purchase a Kermit the Frog costume while we were in Canada the other weekend.  So I was the only one without a costume this year.

We also managed to hit our favorite "Pumpkin Glow" on Ciley Hill in Jericho the night before Halloween:

Hazey decided to wear his costume both night.  We figured it was safe to have those lights on with all the cars that frequent the glow.

We had a bit of a pumpkin tragedy this year.  John helped Hazey carve a Boston Red Socks pumpkin.  Then he carved an elephant for Cally..... but the elephant pumpkin had a fall on the night of our party.  So Hazey scooped out a new pumpkin for Cally, and John carved a spider in the half hour we had before heading out to trick-or-treak.

We were lucky enough to be invited to ride the hay trailer on Bolger Hill again this year.  The Dowd's invite a bunch of families and the kids have a ball:

One of the flaws in Hazen's costume design was that he could not unwrap and/or put candy into his mouth, because of the placement of his arm holes.  

We ended the night with a trip around the Jericho Center.  The library was giving out books, the fire department was giving out flashing lights, and lots of the neighbors gave out generous amounts of candy.

In the end, the kids got lots of candy.  I offered them 25 cents for every piece that they were willing to give up.  Cally gave me 38 pieces and Hazen gave me 50.  My high school students are going to be psyched!

A Dream Come True!

Twelve years ago, John and I had one of our first "dates" while skiing down Bolton Mountain.  It was October 28th.  It wasn't bad.  This year, I noticed from some social media posts that there was snow in the high mountains.  With the hecticness of our life, it can be easy to ignore such posts.  The snow wasn't on the ground here in Jericho, so it was an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of thing.

But, on Sunday morning, when we woke up with a mostly free day in front of us and an urge to ski was itching at both John and myself, we decided to motivate the troops.  It didn't take much to get them fired up to ski.  We just needed to get the gear together.

This was easier said than done. John had acquired several old pair of alpine trekkers last year.  We had tried them out on the kids skis, but even the smallest size wasn't smalle enough for Hazey's binding.  You slip them into the bindings and use the regular skis and boots.  It's a heavy set up, but they were so excited to give them a try.

Cally giving the new set up a try in the yard:

John had to hacksaw the metal off of part of Hazen's bindings and I had to cut skins for both kids, but we made it to Smuggs.  There was snow....... barely.

We used to get the kids down the mountain with skittles.  But this adventure involved 2 Milky Ways, a Samoa Cookie, and a donut.  Whatever it takes!

The kids did such a great job.  It was steep at times, the snow clumped to their skins, and the trekkers came out of the binding a few times, but they persisted. 

The ski down was nothing to rave about.  But, we got out earning our turns as a family! This is a dream come true for me and John.  After all those years of passing the baton or missing turns all together, we are at the point where we can travel in the backcountry as a family!