Cross Country Skiing

The cold weather finally broke this weekend, so we got rid of some cabin fever by going cross country skiing at Kent Park. Jay and I had skis (they used to use them in PE when Jay taught and we bought some then). The boys rented some and off we went. We spent a couple of hours plowing through some really nice powder. Luckily Blake led the way, carving the path for the rest of us. It was really beautiful and quiet in the woods. I love rows of pine trees. We even saw a couple of deer.

It reminded me of a segment of Robert Frost's poem Birches.

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree. And climb black branches up a snow-white trunkToward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,But dipped its top and set me down again.That would be good both going and coming back.One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Also from The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

We took a lot of roads less traveled. We should do it more often.

Yes, It's THAT Cold!

It was about -14 when we did this today. The windchill was about -40.

Take some boiling water and throw it up in the air. It freezes immediately. Cool!

Glad it worked, cause we've never gotten that frying an egg on the sidewalk thing to work.

Last Game of 88

We started off Christmas break by playing the card game 88 with Alex, and we ended his break the night before he left to go back to school with the last game of 88. Usually in our house the winner puts the game away to give some consolation to the losers, but in this case, the winner agreed to go a bit further with a bit of coersion by the losers. Actually he did it better than any of the rest of us would have.

Christmas

Christmas
Click to see photos of what we managed to cram into about 12 days with everyone home this year. Laura and Adam were here from Boone, Alex and Blake home on college break, Austin home for a short break from the Army, and even Laura's maid of honor Lindsey and her friend Stephen. The weather cooperated for traveling for which we are grateful.

Between us and Smiths, we managed to house and feed everyone! I forgot how much large men eat! Our families and Cupps went sledding, played cards, football, shopped, watched football, wii, and lots of Rock Band. I'm glad Blake finally figured out how to turn down the volume from loud blast only so Jacob could take out his ear plugs. Even Jay and I did it too! They were surprised we knew all those songs, well they are from our era.

We even saw my mom (that's her bowling on wii) and Jay's family too. They had a record number of people too. We got to see nieces and nephews we don't see often. We are so glad Jay's and my moms are recovering after a rough Autumn.

People are still taking ibuprofen(Jay) and we're catching up on our sleep. I just can't remember who's supposed to sleep where now, it's a good thing Smith's only live a few blocks away so if you wanted to sleep with Alex you could go over there and crawl in with him! I could sleep through Rock Bank with no problem.

We recognized this short time together as a gift from God and made the most of it because it may be awhile before we all are together again. We are thankful for it.We love you all and miss you already! It was so much fun....