Mixing it Up

The winter chill is holding on strong, just the opposite of last year's summer-like temperatures in March.  It's good for sugaring, but since we're not sugaring, it's a kind of torture to feel trapped inside at this time of year.  When the wind is howling and it's under 30 degrees, we look for indoor activities on the weekends.  The problem is we have over-exhausted all the usual suspects: splash park, Montshire Museum, planetarium... even the kids are sick of them.  This weekend we made a last minute decision to mix it up, and headed to Boston for dim-sum and the children's museum on Saturday.  Thankfully, Micah and Becky & kids were happy to join us, even with the late notice, and we made a really fun day of it.

I first encountered dim sum in Vancouver, thanks to housemate Linda Lau, and it was love at first bite.  I love all the different savory dumplings; I love the sticky rice with mystery meats steamed in a lotus leaf; I love the fried taro puffs and the fluffy BBQ pork buns.  Love, love, love!  It's an experience to be in a crowded  dim sum restaurant with all the waiters pushing carts heaped high with steamer baskets and small plates, grabbing what you like off of each as they roll by your table.  Aiden loves this sort of cultural eating experience, so I had an immediate ally in him.  I don't think he liked more than 20% of the different items he tried, but he was mesmerized by the atmosphere and how it all works.  He's been bugging us about going back ever since we left, so we may have to pay a visit to Chinatown in NYC this summer as well.

                                           

The Boston Children's Museum was a short walk from Chinatown, and all the kids, from Fisher to Aiden, had a great time exploring the different exhibits.  Aiden will probably be old for this museum in a year or two, but last weekend it was perfect for all.  On Sunday we visited Tucker Mountain Maple's sugarhouse, run by a co-worker of mine, Eric, and the farmer who runs the CSA we used to belong to, Kat.  Haley was a bit afraid to go into the steaming sugarhouse (I guess she though it was on fire?) but once we convinced her she was munching up maple candy and sampling syrup with the rest of us.  Sugar on snow made the kids nice and sticky for our afternoon activity, skiing at Ragged Mountain.  We hadn't been to Ragged before, besides Andy for a golf outing, and had a fun half day on the sunny slopes with a bunch of our friends.  Aiden and Andy hit the terrain parks with the older kids, and Haley and I did the slopes under the smallest chairlift.  Haley is getting better and better, and we're looking forward to getting her harness-free next season, as soon as she can hold an extended wedge and control her turning a little better.  We keep thinking each week will be our last skiing of the season, but if winter's grip continues, who knows?

   

   

The McMuffins do St Patty's Day

We did St. Patty's Day up in style this year, with the second (or is it third by now?) annual "Maple Breakfast" at the Anderson's house, featuring more delicious morning foods than you can find on a Long Island diner menu.  Sausages (many kinds, including Irish "black pudding" and "white pudding"), bacon, waffles (chocolate and regular) with fresh blueberry syrup (from the Anderson's garden last summer) and Timber Hill maple syrup, fresh fruit, egg casserole (courtesy of the "blinder biddies"), soda bread (two kinds), cheesy potatoes, and many mimosas.  Everyone lounged around listening to Irish music until lunchtime, at which point people migrated, in dribs and drabs, over to our house for Guinness stew and colcannon.  Our first progressive meal, successfully completed, even if it was over an entire day!  We capped it all off with Guinness milkshakes for the grown ups and Lucky Charms krispie squares for the kiddos.

As usual, there were numerous episodes of side-splitting laughter even though we barely did anything but eat and talk all day.  Thanks to facebook the kids (and adults) all got graced with their "leprechaun names"... Greenie McMuffin (Aiden) and Stumpy McMuffin (Haley) had a great time being goofy with different Irish hats and green garb.  Who knows what spells those little leprechauns cast on us while we were upstairs socializing?

We also got in what we thought would be the last ski day of the season, on Saturday at Pat's Peak.  Bek, Nate, Oliver and Benjamin joined us for a day on the slopes there, and it was great to see them even though we were so active we barely had time to catch up on life.  The skiing was pretty good for a chilly day in the "corn-snow" season in New England, not too icy and everyone found a slope or two to have fun on.  Haley did the chairlift twice (she loves the chairlift, much to Andy's dismay... too high up for a little miss that could easily slip under the bar.  Don't worry though, I've got a death grip on her) and Aiden took his dad down through an impressive terrain park with all sorts of jumps and obstacles.  And... as it turns out... there is another giant snowstorm headed our way tonight, with 12-16" of snow forecast.  It appears the ski season has just been extended at least one more weekend. :)

Haley, Oliver, Aiden and Benjamin

Enjoying a Shamrock Shake 

Mount Sunapee Beach

There are beaches on Lake Sunapee in the summer, but in very early spring there's also a beach on Mount Sunapee. There is no water, except the frozen variety, but there are lawn chairs, beach umbrellas, barbecue grills, and everyone is sporting sunglasses. Spring skiing at its best. Last weekend was perfect for "the beach" - high 40s and abundant sunshine- and after some great runs on the slopes (no jackets required) we enjoyed some time hanging out with friends and relaxing. Jeni, Glen, and Ciara joined us too, since they were returning from a trip to Vermont to bring their rescue dog Izzy back to her former foster home. It was not a happy outing for them, but spirits were definitely lifted watching Ciara and Aiden attempt to slide down a ski slope with paper plates under their butts! When the sun finally went behind the mountain, it dropped 20 degrees in 2 minutes, and it was time to head back to our house for some pizza before the Camerons continued on their journey home.

Ciara!

Glen and Ciara  

The rest of our weekend was pretty low-key, with lots of chores accomplished and a nice hike at Low Plain to continue soaking up the warm weather. Our hike did have one exciting/terrifying moment when Kimball wandered off onto the marsh ice and fell through a soft spot. I was on my way out to low-crawl to her and hopefully grab her collar to give her some leverage when, after some struggling, she was able to pull herself out with her front paws. It was a bit scary, but in retrospect Andy and I noted that in the spot she fell in we could both probably stand at chest height, so it was not really as bad as it seemed. We would have gotten wet, but we'd have got her out fine one way or another. As it was, it was so warm and sunny she was dried right off by the time we got back to the car.

Haley at Low Plain

Beavers got "stuck" on this one

The weather has turned colder again for a bit, but in the past two weeks I've been noticing sap buckets on maples everywhere, and seen several sugar houses spouting clouds of maple steam. Our family is really going to miss sugaring this year, and if we do manage to make syrup at Timber Hill next year, we will miss my Dad's cheerful presence and his knowledge in the sugar house. Still, I hope we can sugar again, or find ways to get Aiden and Haley out and actively helping in a sugar woods at this time of year. It's one of the best ways to say goodbye to the dark and cold of winter, a sweet and warm pursuit for very early spring, which can otherwise be one of the ugliest and most depressing times in a New England year. And it's one of the best ways we can remember my dad, I know that much. So, we'll figure something out. In the meantime, I'll have to settle for a sap and soda and writing about sugaring... A recent guest post on a friend's baking blog is here. Enjoy the sweet season!

The kids did not appreciate daylight savings on Monday morning

Andy's first published bird photo in "Birds of Prey of the South"  He was even paid!

Colgate ski weekend

For the past few winters, the Downers have rented a house near Sugarbush with another family in their town. Last weekend, a kind of Colgate madness descended upon them as our family of 4 and Lisa's of 5 crashed their already crowded house for some skiing and reminiscing. All together there were 5 Colgate grads present, but most of the conversation was about our growing families and current fun, instead of our isolated, frosty years in upstate NY. What, do I sound like I'm unromantic about my undergraduate years?! Let's just say that I'm very thankful to have met the wonderful friends I have from those four years, but the rest of it... well, I've permanently blocked a lot of it from memory by choice.

Anyway, this weekend was a lot of fun. It was great to hang out with the Downers and the Yang/Choi fam for a few days and get some great skiing in besides. Unfortunately, Haley's bad cough and cold meant she could only make one ski run (and that was pretty much a disaster- she whimpered all the way down the mountain) and Andy spent both days hanging out in the lodge or the house with little girl. Aiden, on the other hand, skied more than he ever has in his life, tackling blue trails and even portions of black diamonds. He and Alex were well matched skiers and they did one particular run, Sleeper, about a million times. It is narrow and runs through the woods with all sorts of little side chutes and jumps... so basically heaven for little kids on skis. I skied with Aiden both days, and was definitely sore by the end of it. I haven't used my ski muscles that much for a long time either!

Aiden and Alex head down towards Sleeper

Saturday evening was crazy chaos, as you might imagine with 12 kids, 8 adults and 1 dog (ours) in a single old house. There was scotch tasting, a rousing game of "salad bowl", a roaring fire in the hearth, and lots and lots of kids huddled together over iphones, ipads, and other electronic devices. We crashed here, there, and everywhere to sleep and woke up (amazingly) bright and early, ready for another day on the mountain.

Everyone plugged in

Aiden was definitely smitten with Sugarbush. It was hard to pry him away from the ski trails on Sunday afternoon and head back to NH, mopey face and all. It could have been the hut selling Belgian waffles smothered in chocolate at the bottom of his favorite ski run, but I think he was more excited to be finally going up in high speed quad lifts to the SUMMIT of a mountain, instead of doing the same beginner trail on the south slope of Sunapee. He's definitely ready for a bigger challenge the next time we ski locally.

Liv, Grayson & Aiden check out the giant ice moose