Over the last month or so, we finally got some skiing in. After a very cold/snowy October, some turretial rain hit the PNW and we were left with basically nothing going into December - and quite a bit of damage to roads, buildings, etc. There was even a 2 foot deep trench running through the parking lot of our ski condo - bummer… Finally, we got a few storms in mid/late December and it was time to go skiing!
After hogging Sara to myself to go skiing for the last 2 years, we signed her up for the ski race team this year - starting with a 2 day ski camp in late Dec. So we headed up to the pass for a few days of skiing over the weekend and then stayed Mon/Tues for her to participate in the ski camp.
This turns out to be a very intense ski race team - they meet in the morning at 8:45a and ski straight through til 4p, with an hour for lunch. They make use of every minute - if there is 3 min left when they get to the hut, they are back on the lift for another run. Sara leared a lot in the two day camp and it was a good intro for her to what ski lessons would be like. Spot her on the slopes below.
After ski camp, it was new years eve and, while we didn’t ski, we had a great fire in the backyard and watched the fireworks. Sara and Angela actually made it til midnight! I quit around 10:30p… :)
Angela coordinated a cold plunge for a bunch of her mommy friends on the island - so first thing on new years day we were driving up to the north end of the island to jump in the water. It was a huge crew - Probably 30 people in all. I did make it into the water (after being on dad duty while Angela went in). Thankfully, we had a hot tub at home to warm back up with - Sara didn’t plunge, but she can sure hot tub like nobodies business.
We also made some improvements to the condo this year - starting with a new cabinet & coat rack for all the ski gear. We had just been using some hooks on the wall prior to this and the new setup with the cabinet is great - space saving improvement for the small condo and now everything is all in one place.
Angela also worked out an improvement with the pillows on the couch so Jane could have a view of the snow - it made tummy time much more bearable.
After NYE plunge, we were back up to the pass for more skiing - as well as the two weekends following that. So far, we are on a roll - 9 days of skiing between Dec 21 and Jan 19. At this rate, we might actually have more days of skiing that last year - which would be quite the accomplishment.
Sara has had 3 classes now - she loves them, but she is smoked at the end of the day. Our routine is to drive up on Friday night, ski together on Saturday (Angela and I swap watching Jane while Sara skiis all day), and then Sara is doing her race team stuff on Sunday while Angela and I continue our parenting swap. Alpental night skiing isn’t open yet, so we aren’t doing Friday night ski but hopefully the next storm will come soon.
Snoquamie Pass never ceases to dissapoint on the odd/random things to see. This woman decided to dye her dog’s hair like a tiger and teach it to wear ski goggles happily. Definitely turned people’s heads…
And some small business owner built a sauna on wheels - You could pay to enter the wood headed sauna that was just parked on the side of the road. It actually looked pretty nice - except for the location.
This was a picture from our first weekend skiing, riding up the lift at wild side while snow came down all around - we need more of this!
