Tuesday, December 23, 2008

derek fun times

derek came to visit us straight from uganda, africa!
while he was here, the following went down:

 tie-dye party in the kitchen


finished this epic native puzzle


went to woodstock for the day and had fancy warm cocktails in an old restaurant
filled with palm trees and ornaments hanging from the ceiling


went night sledding with an almost full moon


pond shoveled and we all went skating...
and built a mini bonfire on it







iced cookies




and left for NYC with a xmas tree and our bags in a sled


xmas tree

we went on a big trek looking for the perfect xmas tree, and ended up with one right in front of the house... he's a little lopsided, and doesn't have long branches on one side, as he's been leaning against other trees his whole life.  he's kind of skinny too - it took only 3 axe swings for dylan to bring him down. we got into the holiday spirit real early -- its hard to resist when there's that much snow...







see -- no arms




merry xmas!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

plow the way to montreal

WOW internet is different up here and we've exceeded our "threshold" of maximum use for about 2 week nows, and its finally getting back to normal.  but we still don't have internet at night.   

There was a massive snow storm on the day we were going to leave for Montreal for my birthday trip.  We had our car parked at the house and had a crazy hectic time getting it down the mountain.  Dylan hand shoveled the driveway up (after the he jump started the suburban with attached plow rig that didn't work) and then we called around town to find someone who could plow, but it was hard to pin anyone down, because its apparently still hunting season.  The snow was super thick, wet --  and heavy enough to make the huge plow truck that ended up getting us out, spin around  like crazy. 

WHITE OUT
 

Then we went to Montreal that night! They didn't ask to see our passports at the Canadian border and we had very thorough stories ready to spill -- but were very happy when they weren't requested.  We stayed in Old Montreal which is cobbled stoned and beautiful. Our hotel the second night had a fireplace, stone walls, and old beamed ceilings and a massive bathroom.  Dylan took me to the most amazing restaurant on my birthday, and we walked around a lot, went to a museum, and a concert.   No thanksgiving for me this year!  



In our stone walled hotel (yes i have a golden camera)


Famous church (celine dion got married there)


I have lots more to update, but need to conserve threshold
x L