Enjoying Winter

After 10 days in Hawaii what better way to embrace the cold again then ski a 30K race! Natalie skied the 2.5K option with Russell and Liam (in Chariot) as her back up team. Lot of hills and a rather exhausting race, but it felt good to do it. I can't say I've really "trained" this year. But, I have been able to do more skiing this year than I have since Liam was born. A combination of Liam and Natalie being older and the job change. I skied once a week with a group of other women and our coach, Holly Brooks, until Holly made the Olympic ski team. We were all very excited for her and it was fun to watch our Anchorage contingency on the US Nordic Ski team in Vancouver. To say nothing of getting to say your coach is an Olympian!

We got some warm weather shortly thereafter that made for great snowball/snowman making.


Granny Sue and Granddad arrived the beginning of March. I did a 50K race called the Tour of Anchorage. The kids greeting a very tired Mom at the finish line. It was a stupendous day to ski as you can see from the sky!

Natalie and Liam perched on top of the snow mound that Russell fashinoned into an enormous snow cave/fort for them. Three entrances and big enough for Liam to stand up in! It was fun until it collapsed this week.

Russell's parents, aka Granny Sue and Granddad, enjoying some great Spring cross country skiing as well during their stay with us. There is the faintest view of Denali on the horizon.

Liam loves to go skiing, as you can see by the grin. "I'm a good skier," he likes to say as he goes chasing after his big sister.

Liam, Granny Sue, Natalie, and Granddad enjoying the trails at Hillside.

We had a party for Natalie's sixth birthday. She decided she wanted it to have a tropical theme. She drew picture of all sorts of animals and things associated with warmth - red-eyed tree frogs, dolphins, coatimundis, coconuts. There was clearly a theme of her memories of Central America which was cool. She taped these drawings all over the walls (TWO WEEKS before her birthday). There was a lot of excitement to say the least. She has such a small kindergarten class and with it being at the tail end of Spring Break we invited the whole class taking a gamble that half wouldn't be able to make it. I lucked out and was right. Nonetheless, with our other non-kindergarten friends, we still had 15 kids at our house. Controlled chaos and fun.

Granny Sue was very obliging to do over 90% of the construction of our homemade monkey pinata. Russell and I must assume responsibility for his scraggly looking limbs. Russell gets to take full credit for his climbing harness suspension. Liam watched the construction all week, but we neglected to tell him that it gets brutally destroyed by a bunch of kindergartners.

Natalie's classmate, Eli, taking his turn at the pinata. Eli broke his leg sledding down a hill at his home. Enforcing my personal belief that sledding is one of the more dangerous and frightening things that our kids do. But, so is jumping out of a car window to get away from a wasp.... But, I digress. Liam watched in silent horror as each child attempted to beat up the monkey. But, when head and limbs started flying off he lost it and fell into sobs. He finally told me between sobs that he needed to go upstairs and didn't want to watch any longer. It took quite some time for him to get over it. I felt terrible for not warning him. I can totally see how confusing it must have been for him, especially as tender hearted as he is! However, the other 14 kids had a ball and greatly enjoyed our monkey.

Russell and my last "date" together taking advantage of having his parents in town. We skied up a valley close by in Chugach State Park. With the sun on the snow it was so warm we ditched gloves and skied in thin t-shirts going up. But, when we got to North and South Suicide Peaks and Windy Gap, it was cool and windy and otherworldly. Russell has continued going on such ski outings numerous times in the past few years. I think it has been years since I've back country skied more than a few miles! Although I feel nostalgic for the baby stage from time to time, I am definitely feeling the liberation of getting beyond it and having the time to enjoy it. Having the youngest turn three definitely does feel like a bit of a turning point in getting to do a few more of the things I/we used to do.

We may, if we're lucky, have a few more weeks of skiing on the trails in and around town. But, we are fast headed toward Break-Up season. Lots and lots of mud and slush. Spring here is not tulips and daffodils, but rather pot-holes, rubber boots, and many carwashes. Long live our remaining snow! Happy Spring.