Lisa's ski adventure

A couple of winters ago Lisa tried downhill skiing, and decided that she really, really didn't like it. She did fine on the "bunny hill", but had a really bad experience on her first run after that, and swore she'd never subject herself to that again. Recently she relented and decided that she might be willing to try cross country. So, we gave it a go.

The trip up was interesting. It was a fairly typical Boise winter temperature inversion day -- no snow, gray, cold, blah. Partway up the hill we went through a region of frost, that cool kind that turns the world into a photo negative, with trees glowing pure white against a dark background, kind of like this.



Then we finally burst out through the tops of the clouds into brilliant sunlight, blue skies, and crystal white snow. Everything below the tops of the mountains was buried beneath an ocean of cloud. It looked something like this.



And finally, we did some skiing. As you can see, Lisa enjoyed it much more than her last experience!

Burmese Python

No photo for this one, but I can't resist sharing the opening part of Daniel's recent report for school on the Burmese Python. Spelling as in the original. I love the editorial comment...

My report is on the Burmese Python. They adapted to swiming. They are exellent swimers. They can stay under water for about half an hour. They can swim to escape enemies (like it has any).


:)

Daniel Hits the Slopes

Happy New Year!

Daniel celebrated the end of the Christmas vacation with a ski trip. It was a nice day -- rather windy at times, but hey, it beats working! -- and we even got up there early enough to have some daylight left. Daniel is getting to be pretty good -- he can handle any of the "green" runs and even took on a "blue" run, including a rather steep and icy section that was pretty scary. Here are a few photos.

Yumiko's Snow Adventure

Here are a few photos from Yumiko's first (and last???) ski trip...

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Okay, so it's a couple of days past Christmas, but it was a white one, and the white stuff kept on accumulating. Here's what it looked like two days after Christmas, when we added 4-5 more inches to what was already there.



That pile by the garage is over five feet tall. Andrew and Lisa later tunneled a snow cave into it.

Of course, Boise winters being what they are, it warmed up within a day, and and now the majority of the snow is gone. Oh well.

Speaking of Christmas, just for fun here are some photos of some of the Christmas lights we went to see. Somebody has way more time on their hands than I do!




And finally, on an even more Christmasy note, here is our Christmas Eve re-enactment of the Nativity scene.


I'm not sure what's up with the gangsta wise men, but at least the rest of the kids are playing it pretty straight.

We hope you all had a great Christmas!

Gingerbread houses

One fun Christmas tradition is making gingerbread houses. Of course, we're lazy, and make them out of graham crackers instead, but it's still fun. Here are the kids' creations for this year.

Yumiko made a girl in a forest of Christmas trees. Not a house, but if nothing else an honorable mention for the rose the girl is holding.



Rachel was going for a snow theme.



Andrew was going for the log cabin look. And a pretty detailed tree, topped with a star.



Lisa selected a rainbow motif on the roof. That's a person in front of the house, next to the small gumdrop tree.



Daniel really got into it. He did a "gingerbread" hospital. That's a Christmas tree on top, and "life flight" helicopter on the landing pad on the right.



Here's what it looks like from the back. That's a person on a trampoline on the left, in the therapy yard. The enclosure on the right is for growing flowers.



Here's a closeup of two people on the balcony.



And a closeup shot of the helicopter on its landing pad.



It's good to know that if there are any injuries in Gingerbreadland this Christmas season, they can be taken care of. :)

All is calm, all is bright

Just goofing around trying to get a reasonable representation of what the house looks like with Christmas lights and snow... kind of a kludgy handmade HDR (high dynamic range) image.