We have to be in Lebanon this afternoon, which will entail the usual juggling act with the car. We'll drop Ruth off at work early because she has a meeting, and then we'll head out to the hill for half-day before our optometrist appt. We'll give the Dartmouth Skiway a try again, because it should be in full operation after the big snowfall. In fact, it might be our last hurrah before the rains come later this week-total bummer. Whose idea was that?
It'll be a tight squeeze as usual, but worth a try. We should expand our skiing horizons, as much as we love the Quechee Hill. Besides, at least in this instance, it's closer.
Just a quick note about our favorite library in the world, the Howe-we'd lost a book, something we dread doing because we always feel like we let them down. Even though they are completely cool about it, and the book can be replaced, it's still a drag, and we feel terrible. Now considering how many books we take out, we're not doing terribly. We probably check out well over 2000 books a year, and that's not an exaggeration. In fact, last year one of the librarians informed us, not without some degree of amusement, mind you, that we'd checked out over 2400 books. Pretty crazy. Given that number, we've probably lost two or three books, and one of them was found, though after we'd replaced it. Not too shabby, all things considered.
My point is, we'd lost another one. They gave us a bit of a reprieve to try and find it, but it wasn't looking good. That is, of course, until yesterday, when the kids found it. It had fallen in a small crawl space that only one of them could fit in, and she found it. We were elated. Good vibes in that department.
However, I also missed my chance once again to help out the Hartland Trails folks. I should know after every heavy snowfall and plow to clear out the trail on our property. Granted, I have plenty of our own stuff to do, but want so much to help them out. They do fantastic work and the trails are a blessing to our town, but somehow I always miss the mark and fall short of helping. Yesterday there was a strange car in our driveway and I realized it was a trail person clearing snow, something I'd forgotten to do, once again. I introduced myself and offered more empty apologies, but in the end, actions speak louder than words. He was very nice, and in the end, I'm confident that I'll get my act together.
Famous last words.
We're going to see Grease this weekend, hopefully, and we have a birthday coming up. Would love to go to NYC to see the cousins and hang out, but we'll see. Until then, thanks for reading.
Showing posts with label Quechee Ski Hill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quechee Ski Hill. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Skiing Up A Storm and Falling Off the Vegan Wagon... Again
Man did we have a great day of skiing yesterday. The kids had been waiting all week for this day, and when it finally arrived, we took full advantage of it. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm (30 degrees), and literally nobody there. It was almost strange, and J pointed out that some people just have to find something to complain about. Point taken.
The Quechee Hill is such a great place to ski for us, great learning hill, convenient and extremely well maintained. And a lot of our friends work/ski there. We got to the hill late morning and literally skied til they closed. We had a few spills, which are a bummer, but for the most part, it was a great day. We were amongst maybe five or six people skiing, and until the afternoon, when the people showed up en mass, the hill was all ours.
On the subject of milestones, the kids skied their first black diamond run, though at Quechee you have to take that with a grain of salt. Either way, they went for it, and they skied it like pros. Our days on the rope tow and T-bar may be numbered, though I still think the T-bar run is fun. Ironic how the easier hills to ski are the hardest to get up. Also, N did the T-bar all by himself, though he didn't enjoy it, and I think I'll have to ride up with him, if we in fact continue on it.
Since we were there all day, we naturally had to break for lunch and opted for the food at the lodge, which meant that we were in no way going to eat vegan, though S, who works there, is a vegan and had somehow scored a veggie burger. Our lunch consisted of bacon cheeseburgers, chicken strips, and fries. Talk about junk food. I'd made vegan lentil stew for dinner to counteract the garbage we ate for lunch, though I have to confess, it was tasty. It made us all a little sick.
By the time we got back out on the snow, our friends were beginning to show up. The kids were getting tired, but they powered on, and we managed to get a ton of skiing in, though A took quite a spill. She bounced back up and kept going. And N, in his quest to keep up, was simply incredible in his skiing.
All in all, I was so proud of them for making such huge strides. They set their minds to something, took a couple of spills, but persevered. Now they love skiing, they can't get a enough, and I'm more than happy to help them along.
I tried snowboarding with them but found that it wasn't so practical, so I think I'll stick with skiing, it just makes life simpler.
We're hoping to make it to Winter Fest but I have to go to the market and we have our day in Hanover, so it's conceivable that not only will we not make it there, but we more than likely won't get any skiing done. Bummer. But there's always tomorrow.
Until then, thanks for reading.
The Quechee Hill is such a great place to ski for us, great learning hill, convenient and extremely well maintained. And a lot of our friends work/ski there. We got to the hill late morning and literally skied til they closed. We had a few spills, which are a bummer, but for the most part, it was a great day. We were amongst maybe five or six people skiing, and until the afternoon, when the people showed up en mass, the hill was all ours.
On the subject of milestones, the kids skied their first black diamond run, though at Quechee you have to take that with a grain of salt. Either way, they went for it, and they skied it like pros. Our days on the rope tow and T-bar may be numbered, though I still think the T-bar run is fun. Ironic how the easier hills to ski are the hardest to get up. Also, N did the T-bar all by himself, though he didn't enjoy it, and I think I'll have to ride up with him, if we in fact continue on it.
Since we were there all day, we naturally had to break for lunch and opted for the food at the lodge, which meant that we were in no way going to eat vegan, though S, who works there, is a vegan and had somehow scored a veggie burger. Our lunch consisted of bacon cheeseburgers, chicken strips, and fries. Talk about junk food. I'd made vegan lentil stew for dinner to counteract the garbage we ate for lunch, though I have to confess, it was tasty. It made us all a little sick.
By the time we got back out on the snow, our friends were beginning to show up. The kids were getting tired, but they powered on, and we managed to get a ton of skiing in, though A took quite a spill. She bounced back up and kept going. And N, in his quest to keep up, was simply incredible in his skiing.
All in all, I was so proud of them for making such huge strides. They set their minds to something, took a couple of spills, but persevered. Now they love skiing, they can't get a enough, and I'm more than happy to help them along.
I tried snowboarding with them but found that it wasn't so practical, so I think I'll stick with skiing, it just makes life simpler.
We're hoping to make it to Winter Fest but I have to go to the market and we have our day in Hanover, so it's conceivable that not only will we not make it there, but we more than likely won't get any skiing done. Bummer. But there's always tomorrow.
Until then, thanks for reading.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Finding Our Skis
Somehow last weekend we, or I guess I should say I, managed to lose my kid's skis. We don't unload the truck right away, so it wasn't apparent that her skis were missing until the next day. We spent a few moments staring at each other wondering, "What the heck did you do with her skis?"
Being the neurotic nut case that I am, I immediately put my pants on and told the kids to get dressed, thinking that we didn't have a moment to lose and we had to rush over to the ski hill and search for those skis. Eventually reason set in and cooler heads prevailed, and I concluded that nothing was going to change during the course of the day, so we headed over later in the day.
When we got to the ski hill, I combed the parking lot and the base of the hill, trying to retrace my steps and remember what I had done with those skis. Skis are not like sunglasses, they're rather big and not something that you can easily misplace, though I'd managed to somehow do exactly that.
The problem was that the hill was deserted, and there was nobody there to help. I finally walked across the grounds to the lodge, thinking there was a lost and found. Surprisingly, there were a bunch of guys hanging out, having lunch. I recognized them as the grounds crew, and they were extremely helpful. We checked out the lost and found, then the supply closet, but no skis. They told me I might have to wait until Friday when the hill opened and I could ask the ski patrol, but that was five days away, and the wait would have killed me.
Finally one of the guys mentioned that the ski patrol might have found them and just left them in their warming hut, which was locked but he had a key. He offered to unlock the room and let me have a look, and I jumped at the chance.
Sure enough, there they were, sitting in the corner, our little skis. I was so stoked, not so much for the financial aspect of it all, but more so for the symbolic nature of our kid's skis. That would have bummed me out, and probably woudn't have made her very happy, either.
The one thing that stuck in my mind was that we didn't give up. There were ample opportunities to do just that, because early on, it wasn't looking too good. We live in Vermont, and people are decent and don't, for the most part, do things like steal skis they find lying around. Sure, we lost a sled when we lived in the Red Barn, but I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it wasn't taken by a local but rather someone from out of town, eating at Simon Pearce (how ironic is that?). Anyway, I figured that if we did in fact leave the skis at the hill, nobody was going to take them home, and that's how it ended.
Just a nice moment I wanted to share. Good vibes to be had.
Until the next time, thanks for reading.
Being the neurotic nut case that I am, I immediately put my pants on and told the kids to get dressed, thinking that we didn't have a moment to lose and we had to rush over to the ski hill and search for those skis. Eventually reason set in and cooler heads prevailed, and I concluded that nothing was going to change during the course of the day, so we headed over later in the day.
When we got to the ski hill, I combed the parking lot and the base of the hill, trying to retrace my steps and remember what I had done with those skis. Skis are not like sunglasses, they're rather big and not something that you can easily misplace, though I'd managed to somehow do exactly that.
The problem was that the hill was deserted, and there was nobody there to help. I finally walked across the grounds to the lodge, thinking there was a lost and found. Surprisingly, there were a bunch of guys hanging out, having lunch. I recognized them as the grounds crew, and they were extremely helpful. We checked out the lost and found, then the supply closet, but no skis. They told me I might have to wait until Friday when the hill opened and I could ask the ski patrol, but that was five days away, and the wait would have killed me.
Finally one of the guys mentioned that the ski patrol might have found them and just left them in their warming hut, which was locked but he had a key. He offered to unlock the room and let me have a look, and I jumped at the chance.
Sure enough, there they were, sitting in the corner, our little skis. I was so stoked, not so much for the financial aspect of it all, but more so for the symbolic nature of our kid's skis. That would have bummed me out, and probably woudn't have made her very happy, either.
The one thing that stuck in my mind was that we didn't give up. There were ample opportunities to do just that, because early on, it wasn't looking too good. We live in Vermont, and people are decent and don't, for the most part, do things like steal skis they find lying around. Sure, we lost a sled when we lived in the Red Barn, but I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it wasn't taken by a local but rather someone from out of town, eating at Simon Pearce (how ironic is that?). Anyway, I figured that if we did in fact leave the skis at the hill, nobody was going to take them home, and that's how it ended.
Just a nice moment I wanted to share. Good vibes to be had.
Until the next time, thanks for reading.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Great Day on the Quechee Ski Hill
I know I was feeling guilty and all about cajoling my wife into meeting us for skiing, but it worked out so well and everyone had a great day. Sometimes you have to be the (sort of) weenie to make things work, because at first glance, not everything seems so appealing.
My original plan was for us to ski in the AM and then let her head off to work for the day, but she had the more sensible plan of going in early and the meeting us in the afternoon. Of course, given so much time, we couldn't get our act together to get out on time, though we were productive during the day doing homeschooling stuff and getting the work done early. Just for the record, the kids are doing great, though at some point this month I need to figure out what we've accomplished on our curriculum to report to the state.
Anyway, we headed out to the hill and got there just as the crowd was building. By Friday afternoon, the Quechee Hill becomes a zoo, but I found, at least yesterday, that as crowded as it got, it was manageable. AND, it's nice to see friends and neighbors.
We got it together and by the time we'd done a couple of runs, my wife had shown up and we got to ski as a family, which is the goal in the end. She finally got up on the T-bar and I think because it's so much easier to use and the hill is a bit more challenging, she enjoyed it that much more. When you ski the rope tow all day, it just gets boring, and skiing becomes a chore. I think this is what our kids might be going through, but he refuses to try the T-bar. So far...
Anyway, it was cool because the kids got to show off to Mom their skiing prowess, and they and Ruth got to ski together on the T-bar. Also, since my wife was there, I got to don my snowboard and show off a little, as well. Shameless, I know, but such is the fragility of the male ego.
Best of all, our daughter finally got to ride the chairlift, something she's been itching to do and we've been encouraging her to try. She breezed through it, and skied down the hill like a pro. At Quechee, which in my opinion is the best hill I've ever skied for learning, if you can master the T-bar, you can most definitely do the chair, and she was no exception. She wanted me there and I skied with her down, but in the end, I was just there to observe and she arrived at the bottom elated.
As a parent, you can't put a price on those moments.
Now all we've got to do is get our son on the T-bar, and things will move to the next level, but more on that later.
Saw a ton of people at the hill, and that was great for us and the kids. A got to see the girl that I think is a really good fit for her, Is. She's such a sharp kid, and they are so nice together, but we don't see them much. It just so happens that we're good friends with her parents, J&R yet don't get together much. It's a shame, really. Either way, we made plans to see eachother, which means we'll never cross paths, but it was nice seeing them. Saw the old Quechee crowd, LC , the SK, and GS and T. There were several school groups so the hill was packed, and coupled with the intense city folks, made for quite the interesting day, but a good one, nonetheless.
And best of all, A rode the chair.
Until the next time, thanks for reading.
My original plan was for us to ski in the AM and then let her head off to work for the day, but she had the more sensible plan of going in early and the meeting us in the afternoon. Of course, given so much time, we couldn't get our act together to get out on time, though we were productive during the day doing homeschooling stuff and getting the work done early. Just for the record, the kids are doing great, though at some point this month I need to figure out what we've accomplished on our curriculum to report to the state.
Anyway, we headed out to the hill and got there just as the crowd was building. By Friday afternoon, the Quechee Hill becomes a zoo, but I found, at least yesterday, that as crowded as it got, it was manageable. AND, it's nice to see friends and neighbors.
We got it together and by the time we'd done a couple of runs, my wife had shown up and we got to ski as a family, which is the goal in the end. She finally got up on the T-bar and I think because it's so much easier to use and the hill is a bit more challenging, she enjoyed it that much more. When you ski the rope tow all day, it just gets boring, and skiing becomes a chore. I think this is what our kids might be going through, but he refuses to try the T-bar. So far...
Anyway, it was cool because the kids got to show off to Mom their skiing prowess, and they and Ruth got to ski together on the T-bar. Also, since my wife was there, I got to don my snowboard and show off a little, as well. Shameless, I know, but such is the fragility of the male ego.
Best of all, our daughter finally got to ride the chairlift, something she's been itching to do and we've been encouraging her to try. She breezed through it, and skied down the hill like a pro. At Quechee, which in my opinion is the best hill I've ever skied for learning, if you can master the T-bar, you can most definitely do the chair, and she was no exception. She wanted me there and I skied with her down, but in the end, I was just there to observe and she arrived at the bottom elated.
As a parent, you can't put a price on those moments.
Now all we've got to do is get our son on the T-bar, and things will move to the next level, but more on that later.
Saw a ton of people at the hill, and that was great for us and the kids. A got to see the girl that I think is a really good fit for her, Is. She's such a sharp kid, and they are so nice together, but we don't see them much. It just so happens that we're good friends with her parents, J&R yet don't get together much. It's a shame, really. Either way, we made plans to see eachother, which means we'll never cross paths, but it was nice seeing them. Saw the old Quechee crowd, LC , the SK, and GS and T. There were several school groups so the hill was packed, and coupled with the intense city folks, made for quite the interesting day, but a good one, nonetheless.
And best of all, A rode the chair.
Until the next time, thanks for reading.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Skiing and Feeling A Little Guilty
We are going skiing today, and we hope to address a little complication that we ran into last week. The kids have made leaps and bounds in their skiing, and are pretty much independent and don't need their old dad around to get in the way. In fact, I'm toying with the idea of snowboarding while they ski since they don't really need me there. Whatever be the case, last week A moved a step closer to independence by skiing the T-bar, all by her lonesome. I helper her out at first, but at some point she was skiing the hill without me while I alternated between skiing with her and skiing with N on the rope tow.
Well, at some point she felt ready for the chairlift. I told her that if she could ski the T-bar, she could do the chair, and of course I would go with her. The problem was, our son dug in his heels and said he didn't want her to go on the chair and that he wanted to go home. I think he was feeling a little jealous, though I sure he could do it, as well, it would just take some time.
We ended up NOT taking the chair, which is a shame because I think the experience would be a great one. AND, it's one step closer to independence.
So our solution to it was bringing mom along, which ain't easy because she works all week and is not so keen on Alpine skiing, though she loves the Nordic kind. Last weekend we couldn't manage it because of scheduling issues, but this week I managed to convince her to join us on Friday, which is a good day to ski at Quechee because it's much less crowded and there are fewer city folks visiting.
The only problem is, mom is busy, and in order to make it, she's going to really have to tweak her schedule. I feel really guilty and wanted to re-work this so she doesn't have to go to all the trouble, but she's willing, and I shouldn't read too much into it. Besides, the kids would be thrilled to pieces for her to watch them ski. AND, I think mom would have more fun if she tried the T-bar. Riding the bunny hill gets old quickly for adults.
If mom is there to keep N company, then I can take A up on the chair. Sounds good in theory, but we'll see how it goes. Wish us luck.
And thanks for reading.
Well, at some point she felt ready for the chairlift. I told her that if she could ski the T-bar, she could do the chair, and of course I would go with her. The problem was, our son dug in his heels and said he didn't want her to go on the chair and that he wanted to go home. I think he was feeling a little jealous, though I sure he could do it, as well, it would just take some time.
We ended up NOT taking the chair, which is a shame because I think the experience would be a great one. AND, it's one step closer to independence.
So our solution to it was bringing mom along, which ain't easy because she works all week and is not so keen on Alpine skiing, though she loves the Nordic kind. Last weekend we couldn't manage it because of scheduling issues, but this week I managed to convince her to join us on Friday, which is a good day to ski at Quechee because it's much less crowded and there are fewer city folks visiting.
The only problem is, mom is busy, and in order to make it, she's going to really have to tweak her schedule. I feel really guilty and wanted to re-work this so she doesn't have to go to all the trouble, but she's willing, and I shouldn't read too much into it. Besides, the kids would be thrilled to pieces for her to watch them ski. AND, I think mom would have more fun if she tried the T-bar. Riding the bunny hill gets old quickly for adults.
If mom is there to keep N company, then I can take A up on the chair. Sounds good in theory, but we'll see how it goes. Wish us luck.
And thanks for reading.
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