Winter has arrived in all its splendor in Northeast Ohio, with several major winter storms and no thaws in between. Aside from a few moments that invovled unplowed roads and a lot of shoveling (detailed below), I am loving it. We are alternating between snuggling in under the heated blanket and drinking lots of coffee and cocoa, and heading out into the cold to ski whenever we can. In between have been days at school and evenings spent at swim meets or working at Rexwood. An interesting mix of busy and not-busy-at-all. Today I write from the dining room, still wearing jammie pants, surrounded by folded laundry, sleeping animals, and vistas of a winter wonderland outside, as we get 4-6 more inches of snowfall... we have yet to decide if we will try to ski this afternoon, or go walk on the frozen lake, or go sledding, or just call it and not leave the house all day. So many great choices...
Here's what we've been up to the past few weeks.
This is what the house looks like when we un-Christmas. Only took two days, and the house still looks a little barren. Perhaps this afternoon is time for Valentine's decor....
My mom and I went to see the Immersive Van Gogh show (part of her Christmas gift). It was pretty neat, though I was grateful to have gotten our tickets on a BOGO special.
My running friends are a balm to the soul in this time of (continued) isolation. I've not been getting out much, tending towards laziness on these cold, cold winter mornings, but we meet up about once a week to brave the weather and talk incessantly.
After much work and anticipation, the Rexwood listing went live on January 12th and we had our first guests booked to come the weekend of the 15th. We are currently booked pretty much solidly through the beginning of March. Here's hoping it continues!
Jack's first post-Covid swim meet. After easing back into practice the week before, he'd had only one full length practice prior to this meet. It wasn't his best ever, but he was within a second of his breastroke PR, so not too bad for a kiddo still recovering from a nasty, global pandemic-inducing virus. He also had a surprisingly good backstroke performance. I'm so impressed with this kid.
Back to the (crowded) slopes! We have been trying different nights and different areas... but the long lines and crowded conditions seem to be here to stay this ski season. Due to "staffing shortages" (code for what seems to be gross mismanagement by Vail Resorts nationwide), generally only one out of our three local areas are open at a time, and up until this weekend, most were only operating 1/2-2/3 of their lifts. It's been a madhouse everytime. The snow has been great, and those 20 seconds at a time on the hills are as fun as ever (if you can find a good window of clear slope to ski in, between the mobs of snowboarding teens), but the 15-20 minute lift lines have been a real drag.
We are likely to keep on trying though. Because we're crazy like that.
Lovely night with our neighbors. You know you don't get out much any more when you're putting on makeup to go eat Tommy's around someone's dining room table. But its *someone else's* dining room table, so that makes it an event! Just so grateful for these new friendships.
Nat and I took Ivy to a birthday party in Mentor... which turned out to be the NEXT day... but we still carried on with our plan to explore Chagrin River Park and downtown Willoughby. Both of which were cute as can be. And freezing.
Very "Winnipeg-esque" out there, with the frozen river and wind chill and brilliant blue sky.
Try try again! Can't see the lift lines from here, which is probably a good thing. You also can't hear all of our whining about the lift lines...
Up to Mentor again. Actually got Ivy to the birthday party this time. Spent two hours finding thrift shops, learning about "bin" shopping, checking to see if the lake was frozen (it was not), and discovering Pickle Bills, which we are now in love with.
MLK day-- the big snow! Just after we got home from Mentor, the snow started falling. Woke up to about 16 inches of perfect white.
And cars and a driveway that looked like this. Which we unfortunately had to shovel out by 8am so we could get over to Rexwood and shovel out THAT driveway so our Airbnb guests could leave at 9 for their flight home. All of a sudden those two nights of income were NOT feeling worth it. But there was a certain sense of accomplishment in moving two driveways' worth of snow, making it through the completely unplowed streets, and digging out our guests' car in the street two times to get them to Cedar. Accomplishment, and also a lot of sweat and sore muscles.
We proceeded to come home and not move at all the rest of the day. Which was fine because everything in the world closed and the roads were terrible anyways. Ivy went sledding with a friend- not pictured because I was far too tired to go along.
The kids woke up to a snow day because our CH buses were snowed in. Sadly Solon was still in session.. but I cut out ASAP to meet the fam at the ski area. Along with everyone else in the world, of course. I could only ski til 6:30 because of choir rehearsal, but we all left at 6 because we just couldn't anymore with the lines.
Beautiful night and beautiful fresh snow, though!
Next swim meet! I am grateful I've been able to attend as many meets as I have. I love watching these kids swim. And chatting with the other swim parents, of course.
And, another one! We've only had a couple away meets this season and this is the first one I've been to. A different vibe, for sure, with only a few CH families in the audience- but it was a super exciting night of very close races! Our girls' team got trounced by Shaker's huge, fast team, but our boys edged them out by 5 points. Jack shaved off two seconds in the IM and 100 breast, and placed third in the IM.
Hung out with our friends after the meet, and kept Lillian for an overnight. These two have embraced life in a snow globe. As well as playing a lot of Wii.
Looks like we're going to go brave the slopes again in a bit, so I'll sign off and go suit up. When the world gives you snow- go get out in it!
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