Sunny Ski Weekend

What a gorgeous weekend we were treated to at Stevens Pass. On Saturday we skied mostly on the backside in the sunshine, especially working on paths through the woods under Jupiter chair. We had a lovely tailgate lunch, skied another few hours.

After a full day of skiing we headed down to the cabin to watch the Seahawks playoff game with Rebecca, Dubs and their kids. It was a pretty great covid set up on the deck. It was a super bummer though to see the Seahawks lose the game.

The kids didn't seem too concerned, they mostly just sledded and created snow furniture.

We played Mafia to cap off the evening and that was a ton of fun, too, to watch the kids take the lead on being storyteller.

I love this cabin! How fortunate we are to spend time here as often as we can.

We got back up to Stevens for some great snow conditions on Sunday. Charlotte forgot her jacket and got to wear an extra of mine. Good thing we could still ski!

We connected with the Birgfelds and went over to the backside after a few runs through the Big Chief woods. The view from the top of Double Diamond was breathtaking.

We had another sunny tailgate lunch. Reed thought it might be too sunny. Ha!

The boys took me into Big Chief Bowl after lunch. It is such a remote part of the mountain and feels like a very special place.

JANUARY - Back to School

We returned from Ski Week and celebrated Loopey's third birthday and Edison's half birthday on January 2nd.

 On Sunday we put all our Christmas stuff away. The kids were amazing helpers in that area. Charlotte and I rocked our Christmas swim caps at the pool Sunday (shout out Cally, Bryn, and Harper!)

Reed and Charlotte are mastering the Swurfer and are getting creative with onboarding approaches.

Back at the laptops and back to work.

Reed was tired out after going back to school. Loved my cuddle with him on the couch.

Socially distanced, masked up Axis and Allies - perfect activity for a Wednesday release day. The game continues... it is stored under Edison's bed until the next Wednesday.

I love that Reed is learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.!!! And look at his drawings! Wow!

After a long work day, I came out of my room to find an invitation from Reed to "Battle Time." He was all dressed up with his gear and gave me some to use. We had a scavenger hunt to accomplish that Edison had helped set up. Every two minutes a timer would go off and we'd have to battle. It was super fun and I loved his creativity. (He won, by the way.)

Edison showing me a new viola technique: pizzicato.

Happy New Year!!! Last Day of Ski Week

Good morning 2021! We packed out of the cabin and took our final drive of the week up to the ski area. Still snowing lightly, thought it turned to a light rain at the pass.

The good news was that we got to ski with our favorite people: The Birgfelds! Charlotte was super happy to ski with her buddies again. I was glad to chat with Cally and check in. We ended up splitting up later in the morning and I took the boys to ski with Craig, Cade, and Craig's friend, Tim up on Seventh Heaven while Cally took the girls. It was fun to get a few challenging runs in. Oof! After five days of skiing, however, my legs were feeling it.

We tailgated at lunch in the family lot, in the rain. The kids found the hill at the far end of the lot very entertaining. By the end of lunch we were drenched and ready to call it a day, so we headed home. What an amazing week of skiing and good friends!

New Year's Eve

Amy, Jenabel, and Jasper were out in Plain for the weekend, so we got to ring in the new year with them. Amy had a sweet heater adapter for a propane tank that kept us toasty while the kids sledded. It was so wonderful to catch up and to see how happy the kids were to be playing together. 

Goodbye 2020!!!! Hello 2021! Wishing for better times for the world with an end to the pandemic, better times for our country with Biden-Harris in leadership, and better times for me with having closure with the divorce process.

Happy New Year Martinelli's Toast!

Ski Week Vacation

The kids and I had an epic ski week at our local mountain as our winter vacation. We like exploring and trying new ski areas, which just wasn't possible given COVID. So we made the best of being local - lots of great time at the cabin as well as being able to rendezvous with friends each day! On Monday we had a beautiful blue bird day and skied with Ken, KJ, and Lana.

Tuesday was another nice day with a little bit of fresh snow. We skied with Trent, Rachelle, Rebecca, and Dubs. It was super fun, but skiing in a large group can be a little challenging!

Pegasus run for our first time off Southern Cross together. It was a strenuous warm up! But we found some good snow.

That night we had dinner outside, a fire, and sledding at the cabin. So great to have a covered deck and sledding hill to use. We even got a dip in the hot tub at their place.

Wednesday was an epic powder day. There were about 20-26" of new snow on the mountain over night. The drive was slow, the snow was still flying, and visibility was rough. But it was all worth it for the powder! It was actually pretty light powder and easy to float through, all things considered.

After lunch we did the backside and did run after run after run in the snow. It was exhausting and challenging, but also incredible. I'm glad I was able to share that day with the kids. As long as I keep pushing myself and following them, I figure I can still hang in there on the runs with them.

The sun came out for a late afternoon surprise. It was stunning!

By the time we got to the front side, the lines for Hogsback had cleared and we got a few good runs under the lift.

When we got home Wednesday, we discovered Edison and Charlotte had taken their boots off in the parking lot and had not put them into the car. So we tried the lost and found, adjusting skis for back up boots we had at the cabin, but to no avail. No one had turned in the boots and the bindings were so old on the skis that the repair shop wouldn't work on them. So they gave us a free rental for Thursday, which I extended to Friday and we were back in business. Two hours later - first chair lift at 11:00. Ugh! Luckily Reed could ski with the Mitchells while we were doing all this maneuvering.

There had been more snow over night,  but it was quite heavy. We found the best runs to be through the trees off of Big Chief. It was also our last day skiing with our friends, so we made the most of it. Oh - and it was New Year's Eve!!!

It was actually pretty warm and we had a nice outside picnic lunch at the car before skiing some more that afternoon.