Our Girl Scout cookies have arrived. I think I need to order some more. Megan has decided that the Tagalongs are the only flavor for her when in fact I know that the only true cookie is the Thin Mint.
My dad helped with a sheep and now there is a lamb named after him. Here is Grandma Mary holding the lamb named Larry. There is a Mary lamb as well. I feel like it should be a song.
For Kiernan's 11th birthday we were video game oriented. The day before he had been quite sick with a headache and throwing up. He woke up feeling fine though and as is tradition he got to pick the meals for the day. He chose a theme for breakfast (monkey bloons a tower defense game that we all like). I made pancakes in the shape of balloons and then a bigger pancake for the blimp they usually travel in. I also blew up some regular balloons. It wasn't fancy but it was pretty good for a school day breakfast.
He got a useless box for his birthday present. Please watch this video to see what useless thing it does.
He loved it.
While I was working that day I got some very unexpected and much appreciated news.
The door decorating committee had reconsidered our entry and decided to award us with a Dunkin Doughnuts gift card.
I got to have my favorite doughnut and Jasmine took the card out and got a dozen for the lab. It was lovely.
I felt so happy to have been rewarded for our work. When we won and they awarded me first place in the individual category Jasmine said that I should just take the prize. She said that she was just happy that our door had been recognized. I felt like it was too unfair to not get her name down but also knew that they might disqualify us. They disqualified us. They were nice about it but it felt bad to lose a contest that for a moment we had won.
Then on Thursday a stranger came into the lab and suddenly we won again.
It was a roller coaster of random Christmas cheer here in late January.
To add to my sugar for the day count we had birthday cake that evening.
Behold the portal carrot cake.
Kiernan and David and I have all been playing lots of portal over the last month and each of us finished the 2nd game within a few weeks of each other. I know its not a new game by any stretch but if you haven't played it please give it a go. It is wonderfully written.
Orange portal on the left and blue portal on the right and delicious carrot cake in the middle.
One of the funnier aspects of the game is that for a long while the super villain of the first game is transferred into a potato.
So here is our birthday dinner in its prefixings state.
He loved that too.
We had cake (look at all the colorful portals that Megan made to go with it spread along the bottom). While I was baking potatoes and rolling out the colorful fondant that Megan prepped for me the rest of the family was off packing.
We took Friday off for a winter cabin and hopeful ski adventure.
We weren't sure if we should take the whole day off but the weather looked very iffy (rain/snow/freezing rain) so we left before lunch time and drove off to Western Maryland. My anxiety was killing me and I felt like we were going to hit ice and drive off a mountain at any moment but we made it safe and sound. There was a good bit of fog and there was ice but the roads were ok (not great) but it was in the mid 30s and not icy.
Below is a picture of the bottom of the ski place (Wisp) when we arrived at around 2:30. There was so much fog!
The last tiny bit to the cabin was unpaved steep and half frozen and I didn't like the idea of trying it in worse weather but we made it and the cabin was wonderful.
There was a hot tub and we lost no time in checking it out.
During the summer when we had the cabin in Catcotian we decided to try it again at a fancier place and all go in together for a weekend.
Kiernan's birthday seemed like a good time for potential skiing and as long as the cabin had a hot tub even the non-skiers were down. This place was at Deepcreek Lake which is close to both cross country and Alpine skiing.
The rest of our group drove up after work and boy did they make me glad we hadn't waited. The roads were still drive-able but the fog was very bad and the mountains were not comfortable driving for anyone.
The kids were super excited to see them as they came in.
I made a pot of chili and some corn bread and in the end we all settled in for a relaxing evening of hanging out and staring at our phones and planning skiing and playing werewolf.
The next morning it was raining and freezing cold but the forecast said it would stop and then turn to snow so David and Kiernan and Megan and Krishna and I went out to the slopes.
Oh gracious is skiing expensive!!!
It was about the same to rent the cabin for the weekend as it was for us to ski for 4 hours.
Yikes.
Megan was super excited to go skiing.
We got separated pretty much straight away by the lift and didn't see each other for the next 4 and a half hours. Kiernan went with me and we slowly turned his I just want to go home and play video games into a very silly song about having to pee while trying to ski. We ended on an up note for sure.
Krishna had only been skiing once before but seemed to have a good time. There was a poorly marked trail transition that caught us each off guard and resulted in all of us separately taking the same undesired loop over the back of the mountain. Poor Krishna got it twice but in her usual style she made a friend and improved herself as she went. I love my friends you guys.
Neither kid is a natural skier. Kiernan says that he wants to try snowboarding next to see if it is better for him and Megan has supreme confidence in being able to have daddy just help her out of any situation.
This was her first time skiing and she spent most of it having David hold her up.
Poor David is still beat from his medication change and by the time they were done he was exhausted.
She is ready to go again though.
The fog lifted and the lake was visible from the cabin for a bit.
Up on the mountain it began to snow.
It was beautiful.
I am so glad that we actually did the skiing. It was a real adventure and when we got back to the cabin we were all yelling out about the stupid back side mistake we had made and laughing at our sore tired selves. We got into the hot tub and had a very late lunch and relaxed for a bit.
Unfortunately the weather looked to be getting worse so instead of leaving Sunday we decided to get out while the roads were still good.
The weather there was very localized and 25 miles away it was 45 degrees and fine. The thought of trying that hill with more ice on it was enough to encourage caution so we cleaned the cabin and packed the car and left just before it got dark and the roads froze.
Even though it was a bit shorter than we expected it was so nice. Megan said the cabin was epic. Kiernan said we should just stay until Tuesday when the weather cleared up. David said that the hot tub really helped the sore muscles that he has had ever since the medication change.
I got to drive on the way back and we listened to Harry Potter and the dog was very glad to see us when we got home.
The next morning we dried out our ski gear and had all day to recover and get ready for the week.
No comments:
Post a Comment