Winter fun:)

Bring on the snow!  We have snow everywhere now and love that we don't have to shovel around the pig pen. James spent all afternoon the other day building this elaborate snowman all by himself.  It is a snowman golfing complete with a club, ball, hole and flag.  

We made it to Black Mountain two days before Audrey turned 5 and she skied her first black diamond trails!  Once she got the hang of it we had to try 3 others.  She was particularly motivated to be able to say that she was skiing the black diamond trails before she turned 5;)  

Noah Turns 11!

Phew!  Eleven years has just flown by!  This kind, thoughtful, helpful and curious guy turned 11 today. He loves swimming, skiing, running, playing the violin, and exploring anything mechanical.  He is a very patient and loving big brother who is always being asked to play with or read to someone. We love you Noah and can't wait to see what this next year brings!

His siblings thought they were being so funny by playing a present trick on him by wrapping all of the presents in one box with lots of trick boxes.  By his pick we broke out the soft serve ice-cream machine and made what the kids still refer to as, "cold peanut butter soup".  

St. Patrick's Day and Noah's Birthday Celebration!

Noah decided against a big birthday party this year and instead opted for an experience.  He chose the shark exhibit at the Portland Science Center followed by a hibachi lunch.  We were fortunate to also be in Portland on the same day as the St. Patrick's Day parade.  The shark exhibit was certainly eye opening and a great learning experience for the kids.  Hibachi is always fun and the restaurant did an amazing job of embarrassing/making Noah feel special for his birthday;) Thanks for joining us Bennetts!

Outdoor Fun and Electric Violins!

Now that we have some good snow we are trying to take advantage of it!  The kids love being pulled around the yard on the snowmobiles. We made it to the Fire and Ice Festival in Farmington and all of the kids got a dog sled ride around the fields, we did a treasure hunt with the reward of free movie tickets for the kids, and had some fun jumping from the hay.

At the end of the week I stumbled upon a really cool opportunity we took advantage of at the last minute.  There was a group called "The Femmes of Rock" who were hosting a free educational workshop for students.  They were a group of 4 women who play rock songs on their electric violins. It was really impressive to see and hear them talk about their journey.  This was all despite the fact that the power went out twice when a car hit a telephone pole down the street.  Electricity is pretty important for them to be able to play their instruments so that was a bit disappointing, but the kids got to hear a bit and learned a lot from them.

Sugarloaf 2018

We booked our trip to Sugarloaf last September when the prices were low and the kids were free. We were a little worried that we would be wasting our money this year given the lack of snowfall and warmer temperatures.  We were pleasantly surprised at the great snow conditions!  As a result, there was almost no one skiing there are we never had to wait in line at a chairlift the whole time we were there.

The kids have all progressed so far this year with their skiing.  Noah and James can now skin almost anything and love the black diamond trails over in the King Pine Bowl.  Ben can ski any Blue trail and is certainly ready for some black diamonds, but prefers not be go too far outside of his comfort zone.  Audrey took her first few runs down Tote Road and did amazingly well.  She also got her first black eye as a result of skiing when she had an impressive yard sale at one of the steeper sections of the trail.  She is a trooper though and finished the run.

Grammy and Grampy joined us for a night on Tuesday and got to see the kids enjoy rock climbing that afternoon.  We all skied the next day and James took his first trip down Misery Whip, mostly as a result of his persistent asking and us finally relenting.  I think it would have been a bit better with some snow, but he did really well and loved it.  The conditions weren't great on our last day and everyone's goggles kept icing up, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway:)

Not surprisingly, the day after we left Sugarloaf we got a huge snowstorm... So, Gabe took Noah and James and headed back for a powder day. They had a good time until Gabe realized that powder isn't easy to ski in unless you have strong, adult legs... oh well!