snow, glorious snow! we finally got some, and with a long holiday weekend ahead of us, julie, danielle, em, oli, ella, and i were ready to hit the white stuff.
friday, day 1:
sugarbush. this fall, danielle and i decided we would
dedicate our winter to skiing at
stowe and we purchased season passes before the fall discount opportunity passed us by. we bought the "stowe 6," which meant that we just couldn't ski on saturdays and the very very fine print informed us that we also couldn't ski from 12/25-1/1. back in october we had seen this and scoffed: "oh well, that's when we'll go skiing at the other mountains -- we'll be getting in
so much skiing at stowe, it won't even matter, and besides, we won't want to be there with the crowds anyway." well, with the globally warmed winter that we've had so far, danielle and i have yet to make it to stowe and felt ever so frustrated to have to pay $50 for a day at sugarbush. but pay we did because we just had to get in our skiing/riding fix.
and we were lucky enough to have jules join us. it was a blast of a day. serious skiing/riding was done by all. so serious in fact, that to avoid the lines, we rode up as singles. a great suggestion by danielle, because not only did we get up the mountain that much more quickly to get in another run, but i also met a cute boy! despite said cute boy, a sunny day, new snow being made by the millisecond by alarmingly scary snowmakers, and warmly frothed hot chocolate by that machine that we all wish we had in our kitchen because no matter how hard you try, you just can't make hot chocolate taste as good as the machine does, by 1:30 our legs had had enough and we headed happily home for some apres ski napping.
saturday, day 2:
cross-country skiing at
lake iroquois. after our friday of down-hill skiing, jules met her friend emily in new hampshire (visiting her parents from
nicaragua) and brought her to vermont for some winter fun before she flies back to the tropics. the snow was falling when we got up and continued all day.
the temp was mild and we wanted to get the dogs out for a good run. we hit the cross-country trails kindly maintained by the lake iroquois recreation department. the cover wasn't the greatest and our skis might need a waxing, but huffing up those hills, screaming
down those hills, and seeing
the dogs joyously stretch their legs was well worth it. so nice to get fresh air in the middle of nature!
on a side note, later that night ella's hind leg seemed to be bothering her so much from her day's exertion, so i gave her half an advil, only to be reprimanded later by both sisters: "are you an idiot? that could cause renal failure and internal bleeding!" after which a frantic call to the vet was made and i was told not to worry -- i hadn't given her enough of a dose to cause renal failure, but i could make her throw up by giving her some hydrogren peroxide. poor ella! stupid me!
but all is well, not to worry and she's walking fine now after a day of recuperation. next time i'll make her ride in the carrier for longer.
saturday, day 3: sleddin
g @ the golf course. new year's eve day was another beautiful sunny mild day. i spent much of the day inside the flynn, greeting first nighters, signing them up for classes, and answering most of their questions with an "i don't know" when they asked me about
particular first night events and venues that i had no idea about and luckily didn't have to authoritatively know any of the answers. a day of work needed to be rewarded with an hour or so of play and i desperately needed a kid fix as i geared myself up for my solo nye, so i headed to j & d's where the cuties were already getting suited up. (julie was meanwhile torturing oliver with a shock collar, trying to figure out how we were going to make it through nye without officially pissing off my neighbors -- more on that story and oliver's troublesome visit to aunt suzie's house to come in a future post). we headed to the golf course and took many trips up and down the hill. many other people had the same idea as the hill was crowded with merry red-cheeked sledders -- there was a shared happiness of getting to be young again in the air. baxter's laughter and screams of delight filled the air as well. that and paigey's chubby cold cheeks that i kept kissing and kissing refueled me for my evening of debauchery.
thank you snow. thank you sun. thank you snow playmates.
i have heard from uncle mike, holly, jess, and stranger seth that it has been far too long since i've written a blog post. i have no excuse. i'm not all blogged out as some might think. it's not that i lost my camera because i didn't. i just got busy. and then i got uninspired. truthfully, i haven't really been re-inspired, but there is much to report on.
2. paul and i went to disney world in december and lake tahoe in march. (tahoe was more fun)
