Winter photos

I've had several requests for new photos of the Saveraid children- or maybe you're yearning for a photo of Travis now that he is 36?  Speaking of turning 36, Elisabet recently asked me "Mom are you 63 or 36?" I guess anything over 15 seems old to her.

We've had quite a winter of snow and cold.  Actually the cold has been less severe, except for a brief spell a couple weeks ago of negative temps, but the snow has been epic.  Well, maybe not epic, but impressive.  One morning I was walking with Leif and Hanna down to their bus stop and the towering snowbanks on either side of the sidewalk was pretty imposing.  At least waist high on both of them.  After a thaw last week that finally put a dent in the snow cover, we had another 15+ inches fall on Sunday and Monday.  The official total at the MSP airport was 13, but we measured 40 centimeters on our table on the back deck (the only ruler I could find was Hanna's from Switzerland).

Leif, Hanna and Elisabet participated in a ski league this year.  We load up the car with 5 pairs of nordic ski, poles and boots and head to Como Park for the afternoon on Sundays.  This year they had 130 kids sign up- that's what happens when you have a couple of good snow winters.  All 3 of them really enjoyed improving their skills on cross country skis, particularly going as fast as possible down the hills.  Leif is starting to work on his skate skiing technique.  I'm looking forward to taking him out with me to the groomed tracks as he learns.  They skied the evening luminary Loppet in downtown Minneapolis at the beginning of Feb.  It is a weekend filled with ski races- skijoring, freestyle, classic, junior and sprint races and part of it goes along the lakes in Uptown.  For the evening ski, the track is lined with ice luminaries and with good weather this year there were around 9,000 skiers.

winter