Ski Monsters!

We planned a trip to Timberline Ski Resort in West Virginia over the winter break, with the hope that the kids might take to skiing and that we might be able to get in a little skiing ourselves... We had low expectations and booked this resort because it also offers tubing, ice skating, and swimming, which would be good alternatives should the boys hate skiing. We also invited their Auntie Barbie, Uncle Jim, and cousins Zach, Kayla, Brooke, and Leah, to come along and join the fun!




We arrived at Timberline on the Tuesday before Christmas, just in time for the 1:30pm kids' lesson. (Thank goodness for school closure due to snow, which allowed us to leave home in the morning, rather than waiting until the end of the school day!) Both boys got private 1 hr lessons - Joshua was required to take a private lesson because he's under 6 and Daniel got a group lesson in which he was the only participant! They both did exceedingly well, and were raring to go down the slopes with us. I was terrified that they would ski off the slope, or into a tree, but they pizza'd very well!

On Wednesday we signed them up for the 10am lesson - same deal and, luckily, the same instructors! Joshua's instructor was Ed and Daniel's was Jennifer. They were both great instructors, and the boys really liked them. After their lesson we took them on the bunny hill but Daniel soon tired of that and went all the way to the top of the mountain with Stuart to go on the 2 mile green run. Joshua was a little scared when we went higher, so I stayed on the bunny run with him, which we did over and over until he had perfected the skiing and the lift!

They took one more lesson on Thursday, learning how to do turns. Joshua was ready to ski the long green run, so we took both of them up to the top of the mountain. They had a great time skiing down the run several times. On the last run Joshua decided to make it a little more interesting by skiing up the banked sides of the slope where people had created some jumps! Daniel was more interested in bombing down the hill at breakneck speed...

So much for the tubing, ice skating, and swimming, none of which we did! The boys loved skiing so much, we're heading back for a long weekend at the end of January!

Snow Again!

The snow started Friday evening and, 24 hrs later, hasn't stopped! I think we have about 2 feet at this point, but stopped measuring at 12 inches! The last two days of school (Mon and Tues) before winter break have already been cancelled! Yes! Now we can leave earlier on Tues for our ski trip...kinda ironic, with all this snow around us. Not enough hills here, though!

Trail Running Series Final

Yesterday was the 4th and final Backyard Burn race of the fall series. Having been postponed from last week when there was snow and ice, this race no longer counted towards series points...making me the series winner for 30-39 females! Even with the points from the 4th race I still would have won!

It was a very wet and cold day at Hemlock park. This is the hilliest course with almost no letup between hills. The downhills are usually very manageable, but with all the rain they were mudslides. I will post some pics that I'm sure the photographer took of all the mud. It was unbelievable. I could not get a good footing most of the time. I was either sliding backwards going up the hills, forwards (most scary) going down, or sideways on the flat parts. At one point I slid sideways almost into a ravine and grabbed hold of a thorn bush to save myself...ouch!

'Tis the Season...

Snowmen by the fireplace...luckily not melting!

Banister adornment.... More snowmen "playing" in snow...

Pinecone lights and snowpeople fire... Dining room decked out in "ski lodge"

Joshua's gingerbread train...decorated it himself! Snowman and penguin in appropriate weather!

SNOW!

I haven't posted in a while because, well, not much has been going on. We've been doing all the usual things - school, work, sports - while getting ready for the holidays, but nothing exciting enough to write about!

But today I finally have something to write about - snow! Not just a few flakes, either, but a whole lot! I was making pancakes this morning when I looked out of the window and saw the first flurries. I told the kids to look, and they were so excited they ran and got their boots, coats, hats, and gloves and went outside to run around with the neighbors' kids. Then the snowflakes started coming down really fast! Several hours later, it's still snowing, and we have about 2-3 inches on the ground already! I have taken advantage of the snow day to get started sending out holiday cards...only 34987 to go!!!

The weather forecast is actually so dire that my trail race for tomorrow has been rescheduled for next Sunday!

Construction!

OK, it's not exactly construction, but there is a lot of construction dust in the kitchen and family room today as we are having new flooring installed!! We decided a few months ago that we really needed to replace the totally disgusting carpet in the family room. When you're strategically placing furniture to cover up the worst stains, you know it's time to do something more drastic...
Once we decided to replace the carpet with hardwood, we realized we really wanted to take up the linoleum in the kitchen and replace that, too. The first quote we got was sky-high so we were just going to do the family room, but we shopped around a bit and got a much, much better quote from a local company that has also put hardwood in two of our friends houses (references!), so we were able to afford to do the whole thing!

Only problem is, now we're thinking about putting hardwood in the living and dining rooms, too... :)

Climbing

Last Friday we took Daniel and some friends to Sportrock indoor climbing facility to do a climbing session with an instructor. Unfortunately you had to be at least 6, so Joshua couldn't participate, but he was a good sport about it and found lots of other things to do, including a bit of bouldering (basically, climbing on the lower rocks without a rope!). So Daniel and his friends spent 2 hrs with an instructor climbing increasingly harder walls, until they got to the one in the picture. I don't know how he got to the top of this one - it is unbelievably high. It has a bell at the top that you can ring...if you can reach it. Well, he rang it! Yes, that's him at the top in the picture.

The kids had so much fun we went back on Saturday and Stuart and I took a class to learn how to belay so we can belay the kids and each other. We have to go back and take a test to get certified, which we'll probably do this weekend before the forget all the ropes...pun intended! It turned out to be a great family activity. We would belay the kids and then, while the kids did some bouldering, we belayed each other. We only had a couple of problems - one time I was halfway up a wall when Joshua needed Stuart - who was belaying me - to take off his helmet, and another time Stuart was climbing when I heard Daniel crying "help!" - turned out he'd climbed all the way to the top of the bouldering area and couldn't get down! Thankfully the staff there are really nice and helped him, because I couldn't let go of Stuart. Actually, I couldn't move, since I have to anchor myself to the ground so I don't get pulled up by his weight when he comes down!

Treehouse

Our treehouse was built in July. It is soooo cool. It has steps that you climb from the side, as if you're going into the tree branches, a door with a peephole, two windows, and underneath there's a trapeze swing that we can do tricks on. Check it out! Daniel and Joshua xxx

Trail running

Sunday was EX2 Adventures' Backyard Burn at Wakefield, the second in a series of 4 trail races that I compete in every Spring and Fall. I was looking forward to a fast time at Wakefield, as it's the flattest of the courses. When I ran it last year, it was dry and sunny (see pic on left) but it was the first time I'd done Wakefield and so I held back because I assumed there would be some hills...but there weren't. This time, knowing the course, I planned to run it as fast as I could.

Those plans were somewhat shelved when I woke up Sunday morning to steady rain that showed no signs of having let up from the night before. Because it's low and flat, Wakefield Park had turned into a mud slick, and the formerly dry stream beds were now filled with rushing, knee-deep water. Awesome! I like mud. Some places were a little precarious as they became very sloppy after several hundred people running over them, and because I was running 10 miles I had to do two loops, and you really didn't want to wipe out (lots of people did, of course, although I wasn't one of them) because there are lots of rocks. Whenever I put my foot in a stream I held my breath because there were some very deep parts where your leg would disappear, and some of the streams had rocks at the bottom.

But it was fun, really! And I was still able to post a time 4 mins faster than last year, and win my age group, which was especially nice because I've been 2nd in all previous seven Backyard Burn races!

Boo!

Today is Halloween and boy are we excited! To stave off the craziness of waiting until trick or treating time, we took the boys to Claude Moore Rec Center, where Daniel climbed the "spooky" rock wall (you had to be at least 6, so Joshua couldn't do it). The rock wall was decked out for Halloween, with cobwebs, spiders, and skeletons. Bags of candy hung from some of the holds. Daniel had a bag attached to his climbing harness, and as he reached a bag of candy, he could take out candy and put it in his bag. He found it hard to reach around and get the candy in the bag, so he decided to just drop it on the floor! He climbed up to the top easily, and had two more climbs on progressively harder sections. He declared the wall "easy" so is ready for a new challenge. I think we'll have to take him to Sportrock, an indoor climbing facility, for a real challenge!

Fine Wine, Delicious Food

We just got back from a wine tasting at Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg followed by dinner at Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville, and I should be going to bed to get enough sleep before an early run tomorrow, but we had such a great time and, because I'm new to this blogging thing and excited about sharing everything, I have to blog about it RIGHT NOW! We went out with our friends and neighbors Kim and Mike, who had a free (even better!) tasting at Chrysalis Vineyards. Actually, it wasn't just a tasting, it was a "tour." So we got the whole history of the vineyard, the grapes, our wine-pourer/hospitality manager Humberto from Cuba...a bit much for me, especially early on, when I was thinking, "just pour the wine! I'm paying the babysitter while you're talking!" By the 5th taste, I didn't mind so much. ;) By the 7th, I couldn't tell the difference between the wines. After the tasting he showed us the grapes growing on the vine (which looked beautiful, although probably more so because I'd had a lot of wine...for me!) and then, the piece de resistance, the wine-making facility, which smelled fantastic!


We sat down after our tasting and shared a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers, since it was only 4:30 and our dinner reservation wasn't until 6:00. Dinner was at Hunter's Head Tavern, a pub that I've known about for years but had never - for one reason or another - visited until now. It's a traditional English pub where the menu is on a chalkboard and you order at the bar. The menu was quite extensive, although not as large as the better English pubs. The tavern uses local, organic food from Ayrshire Farm I ordered Bangers and Mash, Stuart got Beef and Guinness Stew, and Kim and Mike both had Pork Chops. The food was amazing! Unfortunately I had no room for dessert, but Kim and Mike split a Sticky Toffee pudding...yum. If you haven't tried Hunters Head, you must go! Not only is the food fabulous, it's very reasonably priced! I will definitely be back.

This little piggy...

Poor Stuart. He was banished to the basement all week and has just come up for air today! He came down with H1N1 (Swine Flu) on Sunday and had to keep away from the rest of us! The boys have been really good about washing the hands a lot and using hand sanitizer. I've sprayed lysol on every handle, switch, knob, etc. Thankfully Stuart is now feeling better, and the the boys and I seem to have escaped...but we'll keep handwashing and sanitizing just in case!

Swimming

Daniel is our swimming star. He swims on two teams - the Stingrays in the summer and the Marlins in the winter. He practices twice a week and is already developing the habits of a serious athlete - he insists on eating a Powerbar before practice! He is very good at breaststroke and freestyle, and can do flip turns! He is definitely an independent athlete, preferring the solitude of swimming to the team sports like soccer and baseball. Hmmm, wonder who he gets that from?!

Taekwondo

Joshua LOVES Taekwondo. He practices twice a week and is always keen to go and learn something new. I think the visible goal of the next level belt really motivates him, unlike other sports he's tried like swimming and soccer, which he enjoyed, but was never really serious about. His goal, of course, is to become a black belt like his instructors. Right now he's a Tiger green belt, and has 2 more tiger levels to go before he can start earning regular Taekwondo belts. So he has a long way to go! But he demonstrates excellent skills so I think he will do well. His favorite skill is board-breaking - he's already breaking 2 boards at once!

Halloween!

The boys are very excited that Halloween is on Saturday! They picked out their costumes back in September - Daniel is Jenga Fett and Joshua is Boba Fett (or is it the other way around?!) - the bounty hunter father and son from Star Wars. At the time they chose the costumes they were heavily into Star Wars, but now I think they're more into Webkinz. Ah, well. I will have to start being better about taking pictures so I can post them here.

Finally!

I've finally got around to setting up our family blog! So many of my friends have a blog and I've been meaning to start one for a while...so here it is!