After venturing out on our own to a local Apple Valley Christmas Eve church service, we cozied in at the Pierson farm with some grasshoppers, games, and then some late-night gift opening -- I think we were up until 1am! We braved the arctic-cold Christmas morning and went to church then off to the grandparents for a noon feast. We then headed back up to Apple Valley to pack and prepare for our flight to Jersey!
Our week in New Jersey went by quickly as we packed in lots of hiking, dog-runs, seeing high school and even grade-school friends, a trip into NYC where we saw the Lion King and enjoyed a great Italian dinner with my family, and a New Years party at good ol' 10 Holly lane. I'll post pictures once I get a few other projects done that have been taking precedence (this post being one of them!)
The new year has been finding us well thus far. Thanks to my friend Marit, I have had the opportunity to test my skills at cross-country skiing! I am a fairly experienced downhill skier, so I was surprised to find that cross-country skiing is HARD! I fell down twice! But this afternoon I tried it again and I felt much more at ease. There is a park near here (Lebanon Hills Regional Park) that has great groomed trails surrounding a spread of lakes. It was absolutely BEAUtiful tonight -- so idyllic and peaceful. It has been snowing all day so by the time we hit the trails at 4:30 there was a nice fluffy pillow-top for us to play on. This park has the perfect combination of landscapes: we wove between birch trees, trucked up hills in fields of lonely stalks, and flew under the dense evergreen canopy of a snow-covered forrest. I loved it. Sometimes, when the wind blew, a shower of snow fell from the trees -- once I got a mouthful of it! Time got away from us and before we knew it we couldn't see our tracks very well... when we came across a sign we realized we were a ways from our cars. But we got back on track and booked it home. What a good workout. One of the gifts of cross country skiing is driving home with your mind still on the trail you left behind, while everyone else on the road is just trying to fight the traffic and make it home so they can get out of the wintry mess. If you are going to be truly happy living in Minnesota, you have to embrace winter : )
nice typo......hahaha
ReplyDeletehahahhaa..... kirsten called me too regarding the same typo. Needless to say, I have changed that little problem ; ) Anyone else curious what typo the legal copy editor made? Well, before it didn't say birch trees..... that's a hint.
ReplyDeletenext time, take some pics of the snowy wonderland -- no, nevermind, your words paint a better picture! The snow showers from the branches reminded me of that hike we did in Colorado.
ReplyDeleteYes I was wishing I had my camera with me. Although it would have been difficult to ski with it, and it was freeeezing (I even wore my face mask!) so I don't know if my fingers would have worked properly. What did we call the snow showers in Colorado? Glisten? Shimmer?
ReplyDeleteI think it was snow shimmers -- have to check that dvd we made.
ReplyDelete