Sledding with the Swansons

Also last weekend, we went sledding down Skyliner with our friends the Swansons. John, Ella and Liza were present, but Joanna and Sheppard were sick:-( We don't have hardly any snow in Bend, but Skyliner is only 10 minutes up the road from our house where you can find plenty of the white stuff and some great sledding! It was fun!

Valentines Day

We celebrated Valentines Day with the kids on Friday the 13th. We usually just celebrate with them and do a Valentines dinner complete with lots of "red food" and hearts. We had tri-tip, red jello with raspberries, salad, rolls and a heart-shaped red velvet cake for dessert. This year, Blake and I actually went out for Valentines' Day with our friends Tim and Jessica. Unfortunately I forgot the camera on that outing so there are no pictures, but we had a great time going to dinner and then to Winterfest down at the Old Mill. Happy Valentines' Day!

Blake, Harrison & Sophie on Bachelor

Last weekend on another beautiful day, Blake took Harrison and Sophie up to Bachelor for an afternoon of snowboard practice. They had a blast and even wanted to go to the top of Summit chair (the very top) to see the view and try their skills on the more difficult terrain. The fact that they made it down without too much drama made it a huge success:-)

Clara's 1st Ski Day

My friend Jen and I took Clara and Jen's 2 little girls up to Mt. Bachelor yesterday for a few hours of skiing. It was a gorgeous blue blue bird day and perfect for little ones to learn how to ski. Since I don't ski (I'm learning to snowboard), Jen played instructor on the beginner lift and took each girl up a couple of times while I stayed down at the bottom and kept the girls corraled, took skis and boots off and on and watched the sled dogs nearby taking people on tours of the mountain. Clara had a blast and especially enjoyed riding the lift! We'll see how she does next season when we start her on a snowboard:-)

January 2009

January was a mellow month for us. Not much snow in Bend or on Mt. Bachelor, so we didn't get any action mountain shots. We did have a few days of "the freeze" (white trees but no snow on the ground). I took a few pictures of it from our front and back porch, plus a few pretty night shots from our upstairs balcony a few days later when we did get some snow. Last weekend we escaped to our beach house in Pacific City for a little family time. Our friends Greg and Manuela and their kids happened to be there too, so we got to spend some time with them. It was cold...but fun! The seals were hanging out at the river mouth when we drove down there. You can see them checking us out in one of the pictures! If you can't see a picture very well, just click on it once and it will enlarge it for better viewing:-)