Snowshoeing, Tubing, and More Skiing

To change things up a bit in between skiing 6 out of 7 days a week (on average) we have had some snowshoeing adventures this year as well.  On an absolutely beautiful day we snowshoed down and around French's Falls park in Livermore Falls.  This is a beautiful walk along the Androscoggin River that we do often in warmer weather, but it is neat to see how different it looks with many feet of snow on the ground.

The kids have also been busy building snow forts and tunnels, as well as putting together almost every puzzle we own in the front room (I swear we do get actual school done in there somewhere too).

This past weekend we took a snowshoe hike that is sure to be one of the highlights of the winter.  We snowshoed up to the face of Bald Mountain, a hike we frequently take in the warmer months. This is a great hike because it isn't long in distance, but it gives a great work-out because it is straight up with amazing views.  In the winter that steep grade also makes for some amazing sliding back down to the parking area.  This can really only be done under these perfect snow conditions we have had this year, but we took advantage and it was well worth the hike up. They kids commented that they thought snowshoeing up was easier than hiking because you didn't have to climb over any rocks or trip over any stumps/roots.  Thanks to our friend, Jessica, who let us borrow the slides her preschoolers use to make it easier to carry up the mountain.

After everyone safely made it back down the mountain on their bums we drove up the road to Mt. Blue State Park for some real sledding with friends.  The kids were troopers and I think glad to have a snowmobile to pull them back to the top:)

Also during this time we made a trip to Black Mountain for some alpine skiing and tubing in their tube park which we had never done before.  There aren't any pictures, but we had so much fun taking advantage of the powder skiing and the super fun time tubing with friends.  We were glad it wasn't too busy because we were all having a blast tubing with friends hooking the tubes to each other in various ways... I think at one point we had 12 or more tube held together for the trip downhill.  All in all a really fun day!

Gabe's Birthday 2019

This guy had another birthday and, naturally, he was on call, but he did find some time to celebrate with us. The kids insisted on a few details of the cake this year (lemon, drizzle frosting, etc.) and also were pretty set on making a "math problem" out of the candles this year.  I can't tell if that was because we didn't have the right number candles or if they just thought it would be funnier this way, it was hard to say.  Either way, they were happy to celebrate Gabe's birthday.

100s Day 2019

100s day (or when we celebrate it, give or take a few days) always seems to fall in times of slight chaos.  This year I actually thought I could skip 100s day because the kids were getting older, but I was wrong and they demanded we do the same 100s activities we do every year.  I will admit that it is neat to see how their creative sides grow as they get older and in how they interpret the same activities differently each year.

This year we had the added bonus of watching the Wroble twins for the morning and the kids couldn't get enough of entertaining them by dancing the macarena or having any excuse to get out the bins and overwhelm the boys with infant toys.  They were good sports at least!  

Skiing, Baking, More Skiing... So much Skiing!

It feels like we are spending much more time out than in this winter and it is pretty exciting.  With the Patriots in the Super Bowl this year Sugarloaf offered discounted lift tickets if you wore your patriots jersey AND they gave you a free ticket to return on another day this season!  Naturally we had to take advantage of that, so Gabe took Noah and they had an awesome ski day at Sugarloaf before the big game.

A while back, in the prime of our British Baking Show watching, we baked tarts.  The kids loved making them and have been asking to make more for quite some time now.  On this stormy day we made another batch and they did not disappoint.  Also in the kitchen, after learning about India we had an Indian food night for supper cooked by the kids.  They each had a part of the meal they were responsible for and, as a result, they all willingly tried everything and were surprised at how much they liked it. I definitely see more cooperative meals in our future!

We had our first family ski day at Sugarloaf of the season and it was amazing to see how much they all have improved and what type of terrain they aren't afraid to tackle this year. It was cloudy and cool, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and were happy to be back out on the mountain.

Noah continues to pick away making progress with skate and classic nordic skiing competing in races almost every weekend. Ben and Audrey are enjoying Sno Cats and were thrilled to dress up as a jedi and Darth Vader on this dress-up day.  James is really enjoying his free skiing time with friends while his siblings have other skiing commitments.