Snowy Winter Adventures

It’s hard to narrow down and pick a favorite season, but if I did have to, I’d probably say mine is winter. Even the kids have noticed that I get more excited than anyone else when it starts to snow. I just can’t get enough of the beauty of the pillowy white snow that collects on the trees and turns the land white as far as the eye can see.

I’m also pretty partial to winter sports and activities. This winter we’ve been able to spend a lot of time in the mountains. We capitalized on that and have gotten out on snowy adventures most days we’ve been in the Cascades.

Taking Ben and Hannah to Ski Hill to learn to ski has been one of the biggest highlights of the winter.

We’ve made so many memories at this sweet local ski spot. Hannah is learning to ski, Ben is becoming independent, hot chocolate tailgates, meeting up with friends and having some low-key fun in the snow have helped shape our winter of fun.

The kids also checked out the tubing hill, which honestly terrifies me. It is *so* fast and you’re going backwards. They’re braver than I am!

Alex and I have fallen in love with skate skiing, which we picked up around Christmastime.

We have yet to go skate skiing together, due to our lack of childcare and the pandemic, though we’re both really enjoying the ability to get some alone time and exercise in quite frequently.

I’ve recently completed my first two cross country ski races. I did a 12km and a 9km race called “Tour de Plain” {Plain is the little unincorporated mountain town our house is in}. It was really challenging and I pushed myself quite a bit and had a blast.

Around Christmastime I went for my snowiest, most adventurous run yet! My friend Joanna is a natural explorer and finds the most exciting runs. One morning with six inches of fresh, fluffy snow we ventured out for an 8-mile loop. It ended up being one of my favorite runs ever.

We’ve had many a sledding adventure this winter at various hills across the area. The best one is just down the street from us.

One of my favorite parts of venturing down the road to go sledding is that we usually cross country ski to get there! I don’t know what it is but that really brings out some innate adventurous side in us. It makes it extra fun.

Our driveway at The Lodge is very long and we have pretty epic snowplow piles going on right now. Our neighbor, Kelly, plows for us and he’s seen the kids sliding down the piles so now he takes his tractor scoop and smooths them out to make a nicer sledding hill.

It’s perfect for the kids to slide down on their bums or saucers. When they are into it it’s the sweetest thing to watch Ben help Hannah climb up “snow mountain” and then they sort of fall onto each other in a heap and slide down together.

We’ve been slowly and sporadically able to see some friends and family {outside and masked}, in particular these last few months. It has been *so* special seeing my cousins and their kiddos + my aunt and uncle, making new friends and having some adult social time.

These snowy adventures are our favorite. Despite being in the middle of a global pandemic we have had a pretty fantastic winter so far.