Snow Days and Ski Days and Singing

The rest of this month has flown by like a front-wheel drive car skidding on the perpetually icy streets. After those two (!!) snow days early in the month, we just got more and more snow.  Then three days of 45 degree rain and it was all gone... just in time for things to freeze up and give us our third (!!) snow/ice day.... and that cycle repeated again this past week.... We've seen the grass two times this month and the thought of spring makes us giddy, even as we are holding on to ski season with both hands.  The second half of February has been cold and snowy-- and full of good things...

File under "good thing I like to be busy":  Orchestra Chorus resumed on Valentine's Day and our "sweet treat" is the challenge of learning some really really fast italian.  I am excited to sing (the chorus of) an actual opera... but Othello is going to be a challenge!

File under "Never too busy for coffee":  Someimes on a Tuesday afternoon you enjoy a cup in your new Fiestaware and read books with your honey for a minute.

Ski night!

Wednesday nights are for skiing! Finally got to watch Jack and his friends hit some jumps.  It's been hard to get Jack on the slopes very much this year.  High School work, swim team, general busyness of life...but he still loves it.

Look at that Skiier's smile!

File under "Also never too busy to go get wine and a Tarot reading, on a random Thursday, with your friend."  Melinda and I agreed that the Tarot didn't do much for us-- but splitting a bottle of wine and talking incessantly should really happen more often.

This kiddo has been talking about getting his hair cut for months now.  Finally bit the bullet!  
I loved it at this length...

... but he still looks cute with his "Wheaton Terrier Shag" as we are calling it. 

Surprise snow day!!  Roads were JUST icy enough for Solon to call it.  We had a most relaxing morning then went shopping at Target and ice hunting at Edgwater for our activity.  Both were a hit!  

We kept Ivy's friend Vio for the whole day and it was great.  I love this kid.  And I love how happy and open to new experiences Ivy is, when she's with her friend.  (I certainly know how that is!!)  Here they are making summer rolls... which they gobbled up!  

We had a strange thing happen on President's Day weekend.  We had no plans.  AND with a snow day right before, we were even marginally caught up on chores.  Craziness.  So we decided to get out of town for a last minute trip to Pittsburgh, joining several other Hiramites visiting that day.  We had lunch with our friends Fi and Anthony, then went bowling and to a Pinball cafe with the group. 

Nat and I thought all three of these things were fabulously fun.  I mean, LOOK at this bowling alley.  Unfortnately the one child we took on the trip (the tall one stayed home due to missing assignments and a terrible mood) found all of them to be very overwhelming, and she and Keely, who'd been fast friends on a visit two years ago, have both entered their sullen tween years and refused to speak to one another. 

Sigh.  At least IKEA on the way home was a hit. Girlie got a jazzy new mirror and the last shelf she'd been wanting to finish her room redo.

Sunday-- glorious sunshine and a perfect ski day.  We took our nieghbor- friends and helped teach Ira to ski for the first time. Here's Ivy, carefully parroting all the advice I tried to give her when she was learning.  And to think I thought she wasn't listening, just because she spent those early ski days yelling at me to leave her alone... :) 

Beaching to close out the weekend.  All weather is beach weather for this family... but 50 degree sunshine felt pretty amazing.

So did this "first porch fire of the season," complete with inaugural Old Fashioneds.  Which did not actually contain a dragon made of flames, as it might appear in this photo. 

Back the real world for a whirlwind week of work (nonstop tests and meetings!) and then all of a sudden it was the last weekend of February and we were off on our long-awaited Holiday Valley trip.  We had the pleasure of staying with one my running friends and her family at their beautiful vacation home on Chautaqua Lake, and had a terrific day of skiing.  Lovely wintry weather, not too cold.  Slopes were icier than we would have liked and we were completely exhausted after 5 hours of skiing (so much for taking full advantage of our day/night tickets!) but still, worth the trip for sure. Lift lines were minimal, and we had a great time traversing all the corners of the resort and probably skiied at least half of all the trails before settling on a few favorite runs.  Between ice and the long runs (long enough to actually feel tired at the end!), I opted to stick to the blues, but Jack and Nat tackled one Black Diamond run to say they did. 

Here are the kids chilling in their shared room- Ivy chose to stay with Jack rather than bunk with us, and for the most part they got along.  Wonders never cease.

The kiddos were in their "shy" mode most of the time at the house.  Here is one of the moments where Jack emerged and spent time with the adults.  Long enough to get beaten (just barely!) by dad in this arm wrestling match and then he was back to seclusion.

Some views from the day:

This "fort" (aptly labeled The Fort) was tucked into the woods over in the Tannenbaum corner.  You could ski in through the trees and it was crawling with kids in ski boots, playing in the snow.  

Jack was far too cool to join in, of course.

Got to ski a few runs with my friend and her daughter, which was super fun. 

We ate lunch out on the balcony by the fire pit at the main lodge because my pandemic-kids are still a little weird about eating inside and the lodge was PACKED.

My skiiers.  I feel very self- satisfied to have taught all three of them to ski (at least to some degree), and so very happy that they all love it.

Pardon the dirty windshield... driving too and from HV was so beautiful.  A winter wonderland of white and blue...

After skiing ourselves into jello, we had dinner in Ellicotville at the Gin Mill.  It fit the bill for ambience and pub fare (with several vegan options!) and man did a draft IPA hit the spot! 

Kids were still pretty wiped out after dinner.

Nat and I enjoyed an ice walk on Chautaqua Lake in the morning, then we treated ourselves to a big breakfast at the Bemus Point Inn.

Home again just in time to close out the weekend with a concert.  I am so grateful we get to sing this winter repertoire twice so I don't have to be sad that it's over, yet.  I just love the music we are performing, and I know it all well enough to sing confidently and from memory-- the best way to sing.  I decided that 45 is a good age to actually try out for a solo for once, and I got to perform a few solo measures in the Gloria.  Not only did I not die from stage fright, it was actually kind of fun.  The church we sang in was a lovely, forgiving  space with lots of reverb, the kind of acoustics that make you feel like your voice is perfect-- so that helped.  We were able to bring my mom and her friend Kirk to the concert, and the kids got drafted into helping with ushering.  They weren't happy about this, but did a great job. And I loved looking out from the stage and seeing them back there, so tall and competent.  

Wasn't it just yesterday that these two grown people were babies in my arms?  I have such visceral memories of their weight on my chest, nursing them in the night, sweet milk-drunk sleepy faces and their baby smell, my mouth on their wispy hair, breathing them in...So very tired and so sure that those days (and those long nights!) would be my reality forever.  Yet here we are.  I don't feel any older but the evidence of time passing is standing here, next to me...  taller than me!  The nights are long but the years are short.  Truer words have never been spoken. 

You know what else is short??  February!  How is is MARCH tomorrow so soon? Getting this blog post in under the wire.  Will be backtracking shortly to cover the first half of February.  Please pardon my lapse in chronology.