Big Mountain pics (please see below for post)

beneath the Easy Rider

night skiing

Ryan on the left, Alex on the right

Al

more Big Mountain pics

Ryan catching some air

Mom and Al waiting for the lift to open. We were the second in line!

Big Mountain

Now that's what I call a snow blower! We saw this as we drove through Glacier.

The east side of the Rockies as seen from US Hwy 2

Our trip to Big Mountain was successful once again. We had tons of snow (something like 28 inches in the 2 days we were there) and a good time was had by all even though Ryan thought he was going to die on the top of the mountain. You can read more about that later but let's start from the beginning.

We did indeed get out of the house by 7am which gave my mom and I enough time to stop at Herberger's to grab a couple of after-Christmas-sale items and a new coat for Al. The zipper on his broke just as we were heading out the door (literally). On our way over we had to listen to the boys bicker some and got to hear a few 'Ryanisms.' We saw several herds of cantelope (that's antelope to the rest of us) and drove through death towns (we know them as ghost towns), but the best was when he declared he wasn't going to wear his croc (also known as a gaitor) to cover his neck. Ahh...the world according to Ryan. What would we do without him?

It started snowing as we left Browning and pretty much didn't stop for our entire trip. At times the flakes were so big and heavy it felt like it was 'raining' snow. The first day on the mountain we decided we'd start out on a few of the 'bunny' hills to get our skiing and boarding legs back. Because there was so much powder it slowed us down a bit and the boys wanted to head up a lift to something a bit more challenging. A couple of runs later and they were feeling confident so we decided to have lunch and then head up to the summit and work our way down. We had looked at the map and had chosen our route and all three of us were excited. We caught Chair 6 from the Base Lodge up to the Big Mountain Express (a high speed quad lift) and got in line. It was snowing (of course) and you couldn't see the summit but I figured that once we got up there the visibility wouldn't be that bad. Somehow the three of us got separated and Alex and Ryan ended up getting on a chair by themselves. This lift moves much faster than the other ones we had been on and it just seemed to whisk them away....quickly. I followed them up in the next chair and was praying that they weren't going to fall off as they didn't bother to put the bar down in front of them. Once we reached the summit it was time to bundle up even more than what we had been. It was blizzardish up there and our cheeks were instantly frozen and red. The visibility sucked and we couldn't even see the marked runs. By the time I realized we were on the wrong run it was too late so I decided we'd just take the other run marked "easiest run." By this time Ryan was bawling and kept saying "I'm going to die up here!" After that he took off his board and declared that he was walking down and that "Big Mountain sucks!" Not the best start at the summit. I will have to say that the run was a little steeper than I had expected but I think it was a good thing the visibility was so poor because if Ry had seen how high we were I'm afraid he would've completely freaked out. I did get him to put his board back on but he slid down on his butt for a good portion of the steep areas. An hour and a half later we arrived back at the Base Lodge. We had ended up on the opposite side of the mountain but all in one piece. I'm pretty sure we set a new time record for longest run!

After that excitement we stayed on the two runs the boys were familiar with. In fact, they went up so many times they got to know the "lifties" by their first names! It was also nice because the grandparents were able to watch them as it was right in front of the Base Lodge. We finished our trip with night skiing and boarding last night. That was fun and there weren't many people there so we felt as if we had that part of the mountain to ourselves.

Today we did a little shopping in town and then headed out. The roads were so bad that it took us 6 1/2 hours to get back to Havre. We're grateful we left when we did because now the road between East Glacier and Browning is closed due to poor visibility.

I'll post some of the pics I took but it will probably be in several entries as I'm having difficulty uploading them. I hope these pics can convey the beauty, serenity and fun that we had because it's something I know we'll always remember.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas and safe travels to all!

Just a few pics we've taken recently.

Here we are with my Grandpa. We stopped to visit him for a few minutes on our way to MT. He's 91 and still lives on his own.

I just had to add this one. Alex got his first penalty last week and had to do some 'time.'


Eagerly awaiting to open gifts

Merry Christmas!

(Kevin's parents are in the middle and my parents are on the right)

Living so far away from our families we've come to realize that just because you aren't related doesn't mean you can't be 'family.' So to all of our relatives that can't be here in MT with us, we hope you're celebrating Christmas with your other 'families' and we hope to see you here next year. To all of our 'families' in Brookings we wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Alex and Ryan will be making their way back to Brookings with just a couple of new toys. They received a Wii (I was personally really hoping they'd get one. Nothing like beating a couple of kids at a game to make yourself feel better), bows and arrows (can anyone say ER trip..lol), Nintendo DS (now they won't have to fight over the one we've got), electric guitar and hockey sticks just to name a few. I don't have enough room to name them all, but they are certainly spoiled and loved all of their gifts.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to Whitefish to for a little skiing/snowboarding. I proposed we leave at around 9. My dad thought earlier, like 8. And then he said we'd compromise and leave at 7:30am. So...7:30 it is. I'm still not really sure how that's a compromise, but the term 'shopping' was thrown into the mix and I was on board for that. They've had plenty of snow and it's supposed to be above zero so a good time will be had by all. :)

Half way there

Today we left Brookings for our annual Christmas trip home. We stopped in Rosholt for a while to say hello to my grandpa and then hit the road again. We ran into some challenging road conditions along the way and 11 hours later we pulled into Glendive. We were surprised to find that the snowplows hadn't been out west of Bismarck and the snow had drifted so much that the driving lane was completely useless. We have high hopes that tomorrow's roads will be better, but we're also realistic and are aware they'll probably be worse. :)

We hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and everyone reaches their destinations safely! I'll be updating throughout our trip so check back for some pics of our trip to Big Mountain. This year the boys and I will be going to the summit (at least that's the plan) and you can bet I'll have my camera in hand!

St. Thomas More Christmas Program

How does that go...hear no evil, speak no evil..

all program participants

Ryan's class

Ryan giving Mason a little massage to loosen him up prior to singing. What a great teammate!

Tonight the boys had their Christmas program at church. As you can see it is a very large group (grades 1-5). I was impressed with how organized it was and how well the children listened and behaved. Guess they know Santa is watching!

And yeah...I still haven't figured out how to rearrange the photos. I really did try to upload them in reverse order but that didn't work for me either.

Blizzard #2 this year

We've been hit with our second blizzard of the year and school has been called off tomorrow. That's the second day this year that we will have missed school because of the weather. We may very well end up making up some days this year! I had to venture out this morning to go to the grocery store and was surprised to see that even the churches had cancelled worship! It was really ugly out with white-out conditions. As of right now I-29 is closed from Brookings to the Canadian border. I have a feeling I'll be taking Kevin to work tomorrow so that I can have the 4 wheel drive vehicle to make it around town. I'm thinking that a trip to Cancun sounds really good right now! Warm weather wishes to all! :)

See you at the rink!

Listening to Coach Magnuson

...and he SCORES!!

the puck is to the right of the goalie's shoulder

Ryan shoots....

you can see the puck leaving his stick

Ryan with the break-away and Alex following him

Goalie...are you ready?

Ryan is facing off and Alex is in the other white jersey behind the ref

First of all I would like to make the disclaimer that the pictures are uploaded in reverse order, so you need to look at the last one first and then work your way up. I don't know how to rearrange them and I've uploaded these twice. If I have to do it again, it's not going to happen.

Anyway...our season officially kicked off today and it was a great start. We played Watertown this morning and came away victorious (yes, we actually keep score this year). Ryan had a hat trick and Alex had a goal and a playmaker (3 assists) so they were both happy. I think it was nice for the boys to finally see what their hard work is for. They are now idle until the weekend before Christmas.

Other than hockey we've just been trying to keep warm. I realize I sound like an old lady, but OMG it's cold and we still have ALOT of winter left. Good thing gas is a $1.59 because we are certainly using plenty of it keeping our vehicles warm!