More Snow Days

Well, we're on our third snow day of 2017. (School was cancelled today because the roads were too difficult to navigate. Any more snow days and we'll have extra days tacked on in June, I think.) It snowed all yesterday and half of today for another 10-ish inches; it's hard to tell what's new with the wind drifts and past accumulations. The picture below is the wall from snowblowing the driveway; it's difficult to make out, but the peak easily comes above my waist. And this is after a couple days' of melt last week that made the streets into ice rinks. Oh boy. Finally a typical Idaho winter for us!

The snow was wet enough that we could actually make a decent snowman! 

And it warmed up into the 20s this past weekend, so I took the kids cross-country skiing at the city park again. Hadley is still pretty pokey, but they both do really well, pick themselves up when they fall, and don't give up.

I thought they might have fun on the playground in their snow stuff, so we took a break to goof around there. It was a bit surprising when we stepped off our skis and sank up to our knees in snow! They really do help to keep you above the snow.

When the temperatures dip too low to enjoy being outside, the kids have been enjoying their Christmas gifts, like circuits, marbles, and Star Wars.

So much sass! I can only imagine what she'll be like as a teenager.

The kids usually have a sleepover on the weekend. They look forward to it so much!

Owen has been playing indoor soccer again this winter. (He's on the right.) He enjoys it, seems to understand the game, and is able to anticipate where the ball will be instead of where it is. It's pretty fun to see him grow his skills in the game.

And of course, there's always lots of reading going on! Owen is reading chapter books without assistance (2nd/3rd grade level according to his teacher). And Hadley has been visiting the kindergarten class for 30 minutes a day to start reading. Love my readers!

Hot Springs and Cold Skis

Hello 2017! We've been easing into the New Year after an extended holiday break. Last Monday was a school holiday and then Thursday and Friday were cancelled because it was too cold for the school district to ask kids to wait for the bus outside (it was -30F with wind chill for those wondering). So, we just had a two-day school week, and then a bunch of families went up to Fairmont Hot Springs in Montana for the weekend to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday! They still had Christmas decorations up, so it was extra festive.

I decided to use the peer pressure of our kids' friends taking ski lessons at nearby Discovery to my advantage and signed up the kids for half-day lessons too. (Owen had been off ski lessons since his fence run-in in 2015.) Hence, they weren't very excited about it (Hadley feeds off Owen's opinions), and the temperature of negative 9F didn't help! Here they are before lessons in their rented boots.

I skied with a friend in the morning while the kids were in lessons. After our first run, I came back to spy on the kids' classes, but Hadley had already advanced to the chair lift! She ended up cutting her lesson a few minutes short because she was cold, but I saw Owen coming down the bunny hill easily by the end of his lesson. We convened for lunch at the lodge, and then I skied with the kids after for a few runs down the bunny hill. This was a dream come true for me!! They both did great, although we took a wrong turn off the lift and ended up on a green run. Hadley had a tough time on that, and I got very sweaty picking her up out of the snow and helping her back into her skis several times.

So then I got to ski with Owen. Did I mention that I loved their bright helmets? Made it easy to pick them out on the slopes!

He did so well over and over on the bunny hill that I convinced him to take a big lift to the top to see the view and try a green run all the way down. Here he is at the top. I realized a little too late that their greens were more like blues, and Owen was picking up speed too fast. Suffice it to say that as I was trying to teach him how to make nice, slow turns, he ran into a tree. Poor thing. He caught most of the impact with his hands, but he did get some scrapes on his nose. Hopefully the rest of the day's successes will outweigh the tree at the end, and we can go again sometime. 

Then it was back to the hot springs. The resort had indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs and a giant 3-story waterslide that looped around to the outdoor pool. The hot springs have a low sulfur content, so there is no stinky smell to go with them. The kids had a blast! There were about 10 families staying in our group, each with at least two kids, so there was plenty of activity and swimmers. We spent most of our time in the indoor pool, but the kids enjoyed the waterslide (especially Hadley), so we ended up outside some of the time too, despite frozen hair and ears. (The first night the outside temperature was nearing 0F, and you have to exit the outdoor pool and walk about 20 feet dripping wet to go back inside. Yikes!) 

Owen got to reunite with his buddy Carson! Here they are being sharks underwater.

We even arranged for the kids to have a pizza party in one of the meeting rooms, so that the adults could have a nice dinner to celebrate the birthday. We love our friends!

P.S. Owen had his 7-year checkup and he's still healthy! 4'1" and 52 lbs.