Skiing Trip '07

This past week we drove up to West Virginia for a 4-day ski trip with a group of our friends. We stayed in a cabin with a group of our friends about 20 minutes from the Snowshoe ski resort. Not only was this Jane11's first time skiing, it was also her first time in that much snow. There was 6 or 7 inches of natural snow on the ground at our cabin & in the woods... Even the little pond next to our cabin was frozen solid.

The weather was almost perfect the whole time, with the exception of some foggy snow conditions on Friday. The temperatures stayed near or below freezing most of the week, and each night we would get a new layer of fresh snow.

Here are a few more photos from our trip
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Our cabin - The frozen pond - Jane11's snow angel (on the pond)

Getting ready to ski - Us on the lift


Er!c, Jane11 and Todd skiing


Some photos of Jen & Gil



Eating our brown-bag lunch in the lodge


Having some fun in the front yard at our cabin



Er!c playing precision ping-pong basketball
(yellow line added to show projected path of ball)



A late-night game of texas hold'em


Warming up at the Black Run Sugar House


Night skiing at the Silver Creek ski area


warming up (again) in the outside hot tub
(followed by a brisk roll in the snow!!!)



Snowshoe, WV - 2007

The Big Move

Today (Sunday the 28th) we drove down to my sister's new place which is right off the 1st exit into Georgia... (only about 15 minutes away!) and helped them unload two van-fulls of furniture & boxes. The outside temperature was at/or below freezing, but we kept plenty warm as we moved stuff for about 1.5 hours. Here are some photos of the house, and also a few of my little nephew Elliot. :)

Front
Back

Chickamauga Lake

A week ago the weather was offering us nice and balmy warm short sleeve weather in the mid-70's...

I'm afraid that was the last of the warm weather until spring. All week long it's been very cold, with several days forecasting snow, sleet or freezing rain. Anyway, on Sabbath afternoon (Jan. 20, 2007) about 30 minutes before it got dark Jane11, Todd and I drove over to the Booker T. Washington State Park and walked up the "beach" a little ways. It was quite chilly, but luckily we were armed with warm jackets, gloves and hats.







Todd found a "blue thing" that he proudly displayed for all to admire.

The Buring of The Tree

On January 8 we had Jane11's parents (and also her brother, Todd) over for supper one last time before they headed back to Kenya. After supper we decided to burn the Christmas tree in our back yard fire pit. It had been raining for a couple days so the ground was still quite wet and the tree was still a bit green, so it didn't burn completely... but what little that DID burn was quite impressive!

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2006 - Chattanooga

This year we celebrated Christmas in Chattanooga at held all of the major festivities at our house since we had already "done Christmas" at Todd's and Mark & Kristin's houses. On Sabbath afternoon we had a big potluck lunch with Jane11's immediate & extended family (parents, brothers, grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc). It was also nice to see Uncle Dan, who flew in from Arkansas and spent several days with us all.

Santa came a day early since Mark and Kristin had to drive back down to Florida on Monday the 25th, so we opened our presents on Sunday. Er!c's parents came up from Jasper, Georgia to join the rest of us for lunch so we had a pretty full house. Tofu had lots of fun exploring through the presents under the tree. She had even more fun playing with the piles of wrapping paper!

Here are some pics of our Christmas celebrations.
Merry Christmas!


Er!c, Jane11, Mark, Kristin & Todd played Rummikub late into the night...











This is our "chimney with care" where we hung our stockings. Santa was so generous that the weighted stockings kept pulling the stocking hangers off the "mantle".




























Woohoo! A new camera!



Jane11 and Er!c open their present from Tofu, MAD GAB.



Tofu enjoys a catnip toy.
Note the puddle of drool on the paper.





Tofu sleeping under the Christmas tree.




Tofu in an Apples To Apples game box.



Tofu in a paper bag with a Santa hat on her head.






...and when it was all over there was a big mess.