Olympians in training

We're having our own version of the winter Olympics here in St Paul.  The snow has provided us with some of the best skiing in years.  Between the good snow cover and now the ice we can ski, skate or slide. Leif has been participating in the MN Youth Ski League and Hanna and Elisabet have been on their skis as well.  On Saturdays the girls are taking skating lessons and on the weekdays they spend time in the neighbors yard "luging" or "skeleton" racing down the hill.  Leif and his friend Henry even 'snowboarded' down the backyard slide one day (I didn't learn of this luckily until after he was back inside, still all in one piece).

Here are some photos of the girls at Como park.

Skiing in Madison

A long weekend made for great skiing and fun in Madison.  We skied at Olin park near Minona on Saturday morning and all 3 kids enjoyed shushing down the hill by the parking lot.  On Sunday we spent nearly 3 hours at Governor Nelson park which had something for everyone.  Skate trails for Travis and me, skiing on the lake Mendota for Leif, Hanna and Papa, classic tracks and a playground for Nona and Elisabet and skijoring for Belle and anyone who was daring enough to be pulled.  It was a spectacular day of sunshine and mid 20 degree temps.

We had an eventful trip driving to Madison on Friday night when about 20 miles west of our destination the car ran out of gas.  Travis and I had been chatting away, oblivious to the gas light which must have been on for 40 miles or so.  We are chalking it up to our year of using public transportation and not having to worry about stopping to refuel.  By some miracle we were cruising fast enough to coast UP the off ramp, around the corner and then down a slight hill with three more turns into the Exxon station.  All of this with the engine completely off!  The store was closed, but the pumps were open.... the only other station was not open at all, so we were feeling very lucky indeed.

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Madison skiing

SNOW

This has been a fantastic year for snow in the Twin Cities.  I am taking full advantage of the nordic trails around the area- one close by our house at the Highland golf course.  Leif and I have been skiing on Sundays at Como Park and then I have been out to the Battle Creek Nature Preserve for several morning skis.  It's beautiful!

The kids are enjoying sledding off the hill in the yard and going down the slide in our backyard.  The swings are nearly sitting on the snow it is so piled up.

Elisabet is our budding chef.  She heads straight to the kitchen after preschool to make Travis a sandwich for lunch.  One evening she asked to make empanadas and did the dough rolling, filling, and egg brushing all on her own.  Today she is helping me with some red velvet cupcakes for Valentine's Day.