The Whitney Five: January 2009

Brrrrrrrr!
Winter has hit hard here in the Northeast. I really try not to complain about the weather, I mean I live in Vermont - DUH! My neighbor/friend/workout buddy exclaimed to me one 5:30am day last week when it was below zero - "I'm freezing! I am so ready for winter to be over!" I replied, "Beth, you need a winter hobby!"

So, this is not a complaint, just some comments for those of you not living this with us!

Two weekends ago my thermometer read -24 degrees. Can you believe that? Have you ever seen that temperature on a thermometer? I have heard that number before, but usually when wind chill is taken into consideration. Nope, this was actual temperature that morning. Did we stay in and hibernate you might ask? No, of course not! Jack was at Bolton Valley both Saturday and Sunday! I went with him on Saturday and the temperature up there never got above -11. I took 4 runs, two before my lunch and hot chocolate and 2 after. I think that is pretty good! Why was I at the mountain you might ask? Well, Mike was home with hair dryers trying to thaw our heating pipes. Didn't work - even after 8 hours! $250 later the plumber thawed the pipe in 1 1/2 hours.

This weekend the temperatures were again below zero and I was at Bolton both Saturday and Sunday. Why was I there again and not Mike? Yup, you guessed it, frozen pipes again. This time we got a deal from the plumber so it was only $199. Also, only took Mike an hour to realize he should call him! We have a vent cut in our basement ceiling in the area where the pipes froze hoping this will help prevent this again.

Other than that, things are good! Jack is on the Bolton Valley Snowboard Team and practices with them every Saturday and Sunday. He loves it. He is set to be in his first "slope style" competition Wednesday night (1/28). Wish him luck! He has never done this and doesn't really have a routine practiced, but he has to start somewhere. I'm psyched for him!

AJ and Emma are both on snowboards as well and I took 5 runs on mine last weekend. It was not horrible, but still hard to go back to the beginning again! I would just like to master skiing and not worry about riding! Only if that were acceptable to this family!

AJ and Emma are both playing indoor soccer and loving it. AJ is also playing basketball and Jack has every other week baseball clinics, so we are not having a slow winter as we did last year! However, everyone is moving, staying warm and still finding "Highs" each day to talk about over dinner during "High and Low."

We had a great Christmas/New Year's holiday! Both Mike and I were off for 2 weeks, it was awesome! The weather did not really cooperate for as much skiing/riding as we would have liked, but we had a great time anyway with family and each other. AJ exclaimed it was his best Christmas ever. Wonder if the inappopriate gifts he received (air rifles and combat Wii games) had anything to do with that!? We spent a lot of time with Patrick, Cristin, Tegan and Finn and then David, Kaleigh and Declan came up for a few days. Amy had to stay home as Elsie had a double ear infection! We really missed them - I have not seen Elsie since she was a BABY, but had a great time with who was here. We made it to Bolton Landing for a long weekend after Christmas and caught up with most of Mike's family! The kids love hanging with their cousins! Rita again cooked like mad for a zillion people each night and Tom had us trying great wine. WE had a blast.

I'm attaching some great pics from our holidays.

David and Kaleigh riding at Bolton - it was cold! These southerners did great!