A long weekend, mostly indoors

I have to say there is nothing quite so disheartening than looking at the weather forecast just before your three day weekend in February and discovering that it's going to be below 20 degrees with 20+ mph winds each of the three days you have off. Too cold and raw to spend much time outdoors, and being cooped up in the house with a baby and a 4-year old for 3 days is a recipe for disaster. Time to hop in the car and find something interesting to do! On Saturday we went to the library and then headed out to lunch at a Japanese hibachi restaurant. Aiden is generally a reluctant participant whenever we go out to eat... he'd much prefer to have a grilled cheese at home and spend the time playing with some toys instead of being chained to his seat waiting for an entree to arrive. We had a good chuckle when we didn't tell him anything about the hibachi place and he was all sulky until the hibachi guy showed up and started juggling knives, tossing eggs into the air, making flaming volcanoes out of onion slices, and flicking little pieces of veggie at us to catch in our mouths. At one point Aiden looked at Andy and said, "Dad, this is the BEST LUNCH EVER!" Ha ha. I wish we had captured a photo of his face but I didn't have my camera. Then after lunch, splash park... to digest while swimming (isn't that responsible of us?) Splash park was packed (totally expected on a frigid day on Presidents Day weekend, which is also school break for most towns around here) but we had a good time still. Haley kick-kick-kicked until her lips turned blue and Aiden went around the floating river about 2 million times.

Who has the better yoga form?

On Sunday we had the wonderful distraction of having friends come to visit. Jason and Julie (from Vermont Law) and their two boys Colin and Bryce drove up from CT to spend the day with us. We gave it the old law school try to get out and play in the snow but it was seriously misguided. Absolutely miserably cold with a bone-chilling wind. Bryce was the only smart one- he screamed from the minute he got out of the car to the time he got back into the car...which was only about 5 minutes, but it took the rest of us that long to realize what Bryce did immediately: THIS SUCKS! I guess the "closed" sign stuck in the sled hill should have clued us into the fact that it was sheer ice with exposed rocks... no thanks even if it was balmy out. Which it was not. So we decided to get cozy on the couch in the basement and watch a movie together instead... much better plan.

Colin and Aiden... the sledding was wishful thinking

And the third weekend day? Well, it was only 10 degrees in the morning, still with a howling wind, so we headed to Montshire Museum to meet a few of Aiden's buddies and soak in some science. Everyone else under the sun had the same idea, so it was a madhouse in there, but still so much better than going crazy at home. The kids explored space, sound waves, weather (specifically fog), bubbles, leaf-cutter ants, and many other cool subjects. Even Haley got to try a few experiments. In the afternoon it was finally "nice" enough out to do something outside, so we headed to Mt. Sunapee to let Aiden have a few runs on the bunny hills. He's getting better every time he goes skiing, and is turning and stopping like a champ now. Thanks to the frigid temps and lack of new snow, the conditions were pretty icy this time and the skiing was fast and furious. But he did really well still, and definitely earned his hot chocolate and cookie in the lodge after completing about 20 runs.