My face is sunburned. It's kinda nice, I guess. It means that we've been outside doing things. It means that the sun is out and the weather's been cooperative. It means the end of winter and the full embrace of spring. It means we went hiking, climbing, and skiing all in the same weekend. Not only that, but it's also a symbol of good times ahead- of backpacking and bike rides and beach days and all the other great things we do. It's a sunburn that I wear with pride. It says "look at me, I am active!" Old homebodies don't get sunburned, but I do. It makes me cool.

I'm not convincing anybody though. I should probably just get some sunblock. 

Bur for real, we did have a pretty good weekend. Also, we had a fun night out with friends who invited us to a comedy show/fund raiser for the high school booster club. All pretty great stuff.

Have a good week!

Doing all this stuff makes us tired. The unexpected part of this picture is that this was taken on the way up the mountain. They haven't even started yet! 

Spring has definitely arrived here in North Idaho, and we couldn't be any more ready for it. Lindsey and I went rollerblading around the neighborhood yesterday and she showed me all the places where she likes to hang out when weather is nice. "Here is where we play night games...here is where I go to rest in the shade...here is Addy's happy place where she goes to read her book...etc." We have had an amazing winter of skiing and indoor entertainment, but we are all itching to get outside and play in more comfortable temperatures.

Along with spring weather comes spring cleaning and I have been busy planning and doing projects around the house. The yards, patio, and garage have all received makeovers after months of neglect. I did some stuff with the RV yesterday to get it ready for travel, and Rachel is planning a complete overhaul of the downstairs bedrooms. Also, we have some projects in Wallace that we have been putting off for warmer weather, and we will soon be up there to make our little getaway more ready for summer activities. It's fun. With spring comes rain and everything outside looks washed and new, and it's neat to see that happening around the house as well.

Also, it's still that great time of year where it's warm down in the valley but we still get wet sloppy snow in the mountains. Lookout Pass, our home resort for the past several years, had their closing day this weekend and we all went up for the party. Weather was perfectly "springy" and we had a short but sweet day of slippery slushy satisfaction. 

I think all of us teared up a little bit as we pulled out of the parking lot for the last time- Lookout has been amazing to us. Our season next year will be spent (again) on much larger mountains, and with everyone's skill set increasing we have even selected a different local place to call "home." It seems unlikely at this point that we will return to Lookout very often. We feel a little bit like young adults who have outgrown their small hometown. Opportunities are plentiful in "the city," and it is probably a  better place for us overall, but nostalgia is strong and going back will always be a bittersweet experience. So long, Lookout. It's been real.

As for other activities, we saw two plays this week, went on bike rides, hiked in the hills, and climbed at the gym. Kids hung out a lot with friends, we had some sleepovers, and Rachel and I went out to breakfast. There were all the normal extracurriculars, and as always, our days and weeks have been full. That has become so much the norm for us though, that unless we are away on a big trip things actually seem pretty chill.

Have a good week!

We went to see "This Random World" at the high school. They did a great job even though it was a pretty mature play for high school students which probably hits harder with a bit of life experience. I really liked it though.

Rach and I saw "Red" in Spokane. Good play about Rothko, with themes about the nature of art, artistic integrity, and artistic subjectivity. 

It's been a wonderful season at Lookout Pass. 

Trees haven't started budding yet, but the air is fresh and weather is nice enough to hike in t-shirts. Spring is here!

A few weeks ago we did Spring Break as a family at Big Sky resort. It was everything we had hoped for, with the perfect mix of fun, scary, challenging, and relaxing moments. As our winter season wraps to a close we had talked as a family about how this might be our last big ski trip of the year, so we should make the best of it. And we did. But maybe you'll remember this picture:

Pretty much immediately upon leaving the resort, we had everyone asking the same question: Does it really have to end? As any skiier can tell you, this has been an amazing winter, and it is a little bit hard to see it coming to a close. Also, though we had driven by it often enough, we had yet to visit Panorama this year. It was close enough for a quick weekend trip, and plans were made on the spot for a few weeks out. And that was that. We were headed to "The true north, strong and free- O Canada!"

The trip did not disappoint. Spring skiing is all about fun. Soft snow. Live music. Pond skimming contests. Costumes. Dancing. The works. It's basically just a big snow party- and our family knows how to have a good time. This year was especially cool because the big back bowls were still open which used to be accessible only by helicopter. These big lines are usually closed this late in the season, and it was a special treat to be able to explore these regions in conditions that are usually reserved for soft bumps or the terrain park (of course we had to hit those as well). The whole trip was just plain FUN, and a few people were able to take advantage of conditions to take on new challenges. Maren did her first doubles, and Jackson landed the largest drop he has yet to attempt. Soft snow is nice. Hooray for Spring!

We stayed in Radium Hot Springs, a town that celebrates goats. I love goats! Also, we found a two-bedroom hotel with an attached kitchen that somehow managed to be much smaller than the normal one-bedroom that we get. The privacy was nice, I guess, but things got a little cramped in there.

Both of these ladies skiied the steepest runs of their lives on this trip

Just a few lunch photos. It was nice to have some live entertainment on both days while we ate.

Ready to go again

This will be the new ski photo for the Wallace House. We've come a long way as a family.

We just had to take a panoramic image at Panorama ski resort. It's a thing.

She's got all the moves. We actually had the whole family dancing, sometimes with choreographed steps!

The Easter Bunny had come to the wooded areas around the parking lot, and we learned that ski helmets make for great Easter baskets! Rachel is a good mom.

In unrelated spring time news, though I've kept my fingers pretty strong, my hands have gone soft over the winter. In a few weeks those marks won't be there anymore when pulling hard on small holds.

Have a good week!

This is one of my favorite times of the year. There is snow in the mountains, sun in the desert, and nice comfortable temperatures where we live, right in between the two. This makes it easy to have weeks like the one we just finished- Rock climbing one day, skiing the next, and hiking the day after that. What a place to live!