More snow events & catching up

 Getting in all things snow this winter!

Our school had a sledding party (and will have 2 more this year). I'm doing the yearbook for the school and brought my drone to capture some cool photos. 

 

Saturday night Kyle and I had a date night to see Lorna Landvik - that author I mentioned in my earlier blog that we saw at the art museum. It was an okay show. We are not huge fans of improv... and the crowd was way older than us :-D so we didn't get a lot of the jokes. 

Then skiing on Sunday as usual. It's been nice for this commitment to force us to get out. 19˚ this week

The kids were out of school on Friday January 27th. The girls attended their FIRST slumber birthday party the night before. We wanted to get out and ski as a family. Kyle worked a half day then we loaded up and headed to the trails.... only to arrive to find LOTS of people as the high school nordic team races were taking place. We went over to the natural ski area (where Isaac's class had skied the week before) there was a little hill there that was perfect for practicing the downhill. The kids had fun getting more confident at hills. Kyle also appreciated the mini-lesson as he hasn't been skiing much with Thomas's class. 

Then our plan was to go tubing. Well the tubing hill didn't open til 4:00 and it was 2, so we went home for a quick snack and headed back to Theo Wirth to start the tubing. Passes (while pricey) were only for two hours so we wanted to get there close to open. 

The kids loved it. Emma said "This has been the BEST two days of my life! First a sleep over and now tubing" :-) 

Saturday I got to go to Isaac's basketball game. Kyle had been taking him, but I was wanting to watch him this weekend. 

Been eyeing this couch at Costco. 

A busy week of Kyle traveling and then me working, brings us into February. Saturday the 4th we made it over to the fair grounds to see the snow sculptures. 

Kids weren't prepared to be outside long... even though we TOLD them before we left the house for Isaac's basketball game that we weren't coming home, we were going to the winter carnival. 

That was at the state fair grounds then St. Paul has its ice sculptures in downtown St. Paul. Harder parking so this was just a drive by looksie.

While we were in the neighborhood we dropped into the Children's Museum. Thankful our science museum pass from Wichita is good at multiple places. It's good til March this year so still making use of it. 

This brings us into February. They ended up canceling the prior week's ski because of the cold. And then this weekend it was cancelled because of the Loppet Festival. Which is like a marathon but on ski's. The classic ski race is on Saturday, and the skate ski is on Sunday followed by snow shoe runners and fat tire bikes to finish it off. I signed up to volunteer at the start line from 10-1 on Sunday. February 5th.

The last heat went out a noon. I was helping with the bag drop, collecting bags from the start line and putting them in the sled to be taken to the truck to be driven to the finish. The guy working that with me says "It's be pretty handy if you wanted to ride in the sled to go pick up the signs on the course with me?" I was like "sure! I'm here to help", that sounds fun riding in a sled behind a snow mobile. His response "Really?! Wow that'd be so awesome that would really help me out and make it go faster"

I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into.... but it was fun!

About 2:30 I was like gosh this is taking a while. I didn't realize what I was agreeing to was a THREE HOUR ENDEAVOR! Ooofda! Like I said, this was like a marathon for skiing... they actually shorten the course this year due to the light rail construction. Here's the map below of the course. We had to ride the BLUE line which was the longest to ensure we gathered all the signs. The star is my house, the square at the top is where we ski on Sundays. 

After abandoning my family all afternoon LOL (the kids probably didn't even notice) we decided to go out to eat. We wanted to run by Costco first to grab something and I noticed the couch we'd been eyeing was on sale! We decided to just get it and since it was almost closing time I'd come back Monday and make the three trips to get all 6 boxes home. 

Monday morning Isaac had an eye doctor appointment. His well visit they noticed his right eye was struggling. He sees great through the left but the right needed some help. The verdict ended up being glasses for school. He doesn't have to wear them all the time. He can see find up close to read but when he's looking at the board, or watching a movie at home he'll want to wear them. (I just got a text they are ready so need to go pick them up today) 

Got Isaac to school then did three trips to Costco and back and Kyle helped me unload the new couch. 

Work view on Tuesday from my parking spot. 

Isaac's basketball on Saturday 

Then this past Sunday back to skiing after 2 weeks off. 

Phew LOOK at that I am fully caught up with this thing. For now anyway Happy Valentine's Day!

January: first half random

Excited to have ski's I wanted to get out on our nearby lake to ride the trails. Kyle and I bought our skis and we're renting the kids for the season. The chain of lakes has a pretty amazing trail system... when groomed. Which is normally is groomed regularly but because we had so much snow the lakes have been hard for them to maintain. Then it warmed so while the ice is super thick, the thick layer of snow made for slushy conditions on top of the lake and not good to get the groomer out to do its work. 

Anyway... okay January 8th we attended to get out with the kids. It ended up being a mess, they wanted to go back, then I got stuck cuz I took my skis off to help Thomas BIG MISTAKE the snow was up to my knees then (off the lake) and I couldn't get my ski to clip back in for the longest time. UGH. This was Sunday afternoon before our weekly ski lesson. 

Time for lessons at 3:00, got the van loaded up. It was clear we needed a better system. Later that week I ended up picking up a ski bag so we can get all the kids ski's and poles in one bag, then just Kyle and I'd skis are left out which are too long to fit in the back and we slide them in through the middle of the seats. 

Monday arrived and we were hopeful for finally a few week of school. Starting to get cold. 

I also used this chance to get out on the lake by myself. Got the kids to school and set out in the afternoon. 

The trails were in pretty rough shape, lots of frozen holes, tracked through tracks... not the best skiing conditions and took me a while to navigate. But I did make it around the whole thing. This link is cool and shows ALL the trails our annual pass has 'access' to. Even though we live on this lake and could go out anytime, technically suppose to have a pass (which we do cuz it's also required for our ski lessons). 

For example as I type this LOI (lake of the Isles) hasn't been groomed since Feb 9th - where as Theo Wirth where we do lessons at was groomed this morning. 

Trail condition map

In other news I've been fighting the squirrels outside. They LOVE the nuts that are in the bulk birdseed I get at Costco (won't be buying that again). I put up their own feeder. This guy had some hair skinned off his back, I call him razor back. 

Saturday I worked and the family met me over in St. Paul after work for dinner. 

Emma's poor blankie in need of repair. This time we unleveled to patches. 

Sunday again, time for Skiing!

Video of Thomas skiing:

Mary let me trim her hair. 

Emma giving Harpo some love.

Thursday nights are pretty busy. Girls have gymnastics from 5-6, Isaac has basketball practice from 6-7:30 and one Thurs a week I have PTA from 6-8. But this Thursday there was a middle school talk at school that Kyle  and I wanted to both be involved in. Thankful for our friend (former nanny) who lives nearby and could pick up the girls at 6:00 from gymnastics while we shuffled around and made it to the middle school talk. Here are the girls at Emily's getting to love on her bunny.