road trip

Here's the plans for anyone who doesn't have them yet:
Friday 12/19 (Nicky's birthday!) - leave the mountains
Saturday 12/20 - arrive in LaSalle-Peru
Thursday 12/25 - head to Ttown
Monday 12/29 - travel on to Springfield
Friday 1/2 - head for the mountains

Hope to see you all on our trip home!

Roads, Bike Trails, and Dog Trails

Some people build roads for us to drive our cars on..... Some people build bike trails for us to ride our 2 wheel pedal bikes on....... I build dog trails for the dogs to run on in the snow! So yah, it has been snowing here quite a bit. The past two days we have gotten about 24 inches, with another 36 inches supposed to fall before Thursday morning. What are the little weiners supposed to do when the snow is over their heads??? If they can't get around they refuse to go outside, but if they have a trail to run on then they are more than willing to go out and pee and poo and run and chase each other. So, I go out in the back yard and build a maze-like trail for them to chase each other on. The trail's walls are now about 2 feet high, and the trail itself is rather long. It's quite awesome watching them chase each other around the trail!!! First you put on some warm winter boots. Second, you go out with the dogs and just randomly walk around the yard breaking the trail. Third, the dogs follow along behind you and pack the trail down firm. You should take precaution not to let sections of the trail get too close to each other, or the dogs will cheat and jump the bank between the trails... Then whadya know.... Voila! you now have a first class doggie trail!



I was able to get up to Vail on Sunday. I was planning to go up by myself because Natalie had to work on Sunday. I gave Mark, the 7th grade science teacher from work, a call Saturday night and he said sure, he wanted to go along and he would drive. We talked about going to the Beav cause they have free parking, but decided to go for the best powder and the big mountain at Vail. Normally parking is $25.00, but since the garage was full, we were able to park for free on the frontage road. Bottom line on the snowboarding is the snow was Phenomenal! Among the best powder runs I have ever had!!! We hit the backbowls early and were able to get some good powder runs. But because of the cold..... single digits..... with negative windchills.... we decided to get among the trees on the front side of the mountain. Here we really found some good powder stashes to tear up. The cold eventually forced us off the mountain just a little early at about 2:30. Mark dropped me off at the BOOT where Natalie was working, and I had a Miller High Life and a Gypsum Grilled Cheese with Tomato Basil soup to dip it in. The beer could've been a bit better, but for 2 bucks what ya gonna do? An excellent end to an awesome day!

Gettin Cozy and Guacamole.....

One of the wonderful things from the times spent at home was the guacamole made by my sis and mother. So simple and yet so delish! An avocado and some guacamole mix. Yummy!!!
All 3 doggies decided they had to lay on me for a bit. This is what happens when you turn the space heaters off. Pretty cool though how well they all get along with each other.
Yah, you guessed it... I guess Sophie really does like me..... She didn't mind me laying my head on her while she was laying on the pillow on the couch.

SNOWBOARDING!!!!!!

Last weekend I got out on Saturday morning for a bit of snowboarding with Alana and Torrey. There were about 1500 people in line for the lift after I purchased my first ever SEASON PASS! WOW! I have a season pass, I always dreamed about that moment! Natalie will be getting hers this weekend on Saturday. She and Alana are taking a full day lesson that is provided for free by the school district. A $135.00 value!






I was sitting below this sign and Torrey came around and stopped right below me and sat down between my legs.... just almost popped down on my lap. Felt a little..... weird.... :) Alana just had to get a picture.

We took the ECO bus up to Vail from Eagle for 6 bucks round trip. Good deal since you dont have to deal with parking and all in Vail. The snow was phenomenal! Excellent powder. Man it felt good to be back on my board! It has been about two years since Natalie and I went to Breckenridge. I was worried about forgetting how to ride, but it all came back pretty naturally.

Right after I got off the first lift, I decided to take the bull by the horns and ride off a small ledge. There was a lot of powder on the landing and I didn't have the nose of the board up high enough, so I face planted. Here you can see the leftover snow sticking to my peach fuzz....




Beautiful picture of the snow in the trees and on the slope. 75" thus far on the mountain. 0" in Eagle around the house. They are only about 25 miles apart......















Below is a picture of Alan practicing her smile. My good deed for the day was teaching her to take off her board and sit on it to use it as a sled on the flat catwalk areas. Sweet board Alana!

Fighting ILLINI

The fighting Illini had a great game tonight against Clemson as part of the ACC - BIG TEN Challenge. As I type this there are still about 7 minutes left, and IL has a 2 pt lead. Hope they get the win, it would be a huge one! Anyway, I rode my bike on the trainer tonight for about 1 and a half hours, which is a long time for me on the trainer, while watching this game. I was going to go sockless, as BlackBerry taught me to do, but instead decided that it may be good luck if I wore my Illinois Cycling socks from my sis Anne Marie who attends the U of I.


On another note, I think this is the weekend that we get to begin snowboarding! Hopefully Natalie gets to go with me one day, right now she is working on Saturday and Sunday. I know she would like to get out and practice the S turns she has been doing in her mind for the past 2 years! We got 30+ inches of snow over the weekend in both Beaver Creek and Vail with another 6-8 inches supposed to fall this week.