Snow!

Way behind on news and photgraphic updates. It seems that too many noteworthy things happen on vacation. The most noteworthy of this trip north was SNOW. Not flurries, not a dusting, not a few inches. But snow, **real** snow. The kind like "from when I was a kid" (yes, I now keep my teeth in a glass when I sleep). It has been a long, long time since Wilton, Maine saw the kind of white Christmas we had the luck to enjoy last month.

Snowy event #1 was the finding of the Sewall family Christmas tree and snow angel making.





Snowy event #2 was a trip to the ski hill of my youth, Titcomb Mountain. Erin and I spent a lovely afternoon skiing full coverage, 100% natural snow.

Here is Erin ripping up the new, improved, uniform grade Otter Slide on legs that were discovering the joys of T-bars for the first time. I was in training for skiing with kids as T-bars work much better with people who have similar hip heights. Since I don't have exceptionally short legs with a freakishly long torso, Erin and I don't fit that bill. Oh my aching back.




A day of rain, and then Christmas, got in the way of any more serious snow play. But the day after Christmas, we were back at it sledding with Colby and Brayden. Neither Brayden nor Elena was thrilled with the downhill prospect, but Colby and I tested the theory that older, better padded posteriers are more comfortable for sledding down hard, bumpy runs. Test suggest that that either that theory is total bunk or Colby and I didn't do a good enough job padding over the holidays.





Erin, on the other hand, gave Dick Austin's snowmobile a try and looks to have had quite a good time!



Next stop, with a few fresh inches on the ground, a visit to Aunt Sue and a climb up Beech Hill in the afternoon sun. The setting and sun were beautiful, but yours truly got his exercise making sure the photographer was always in the right place at the right time.





And then the snow really started falling, and falling, and falling. Which means that what you get to do is....



Shovel!

Fortunately Elena was pretty into it, at least until enough of a path was cleared that she could "pack it down" with her four wheeler. Then she shovel went down and the engine revved up!




A trip to Maine isn't complete without a trip to camp:



And a trip to camp isn't complete without time spent playing on the beach:



In situations like this focus and dedication are very, very important. If you concentrate hard enough you can feel the warm sand and hear the waves lapping at the shore.

The next "snow event" was "dashing through the snow" in a two-horse open sleigh and it gets a blog entry all its own. So we'll leap over that to the "big dump" -- a foot of snow the last night we were in Wilton. The afternoon of the storm Erin and I went out snowshoeing in the beautiful, white, quiet of the storm.



The next day it was time to pack out the sled run and get some action going. Big Opa came home on lunch break and sled fest 2008 was on! Nana and Elena started things out hot,



but had to ape knuckle the flat run out:



Big Opa and Elena upped the ante with a tooth baring descent:




And slid all the way to the finish.




And that is where we are as well. 60 odd degrees, snowless in Virginia. But oh what a time we had!