in like a lion…

Published by Jana on March 2, 2009

March has arrived and so has our biggest snow storm of the year.  With the windchill, it will be down in the single digits, so needless to say, Kai won’t have school today.  I hadn’t realized when he started pre-school that snowdays would be much harder on me than him… and not because I have more time with my little one, but because it usually means we’re stuck inside most of the day as my kids usually will not stand more than 45 minutes of play in the snow.  Though I can’t complain. I have a friend in Wisconsin who wrote me recently that she’s happy when the temp gets above 0 F - she’s moving to Florida soon and I’m sure she can’t wait!  I always thought I’d be willing to live anywhere, but, as I get older, I’m starting to wonder if that’s true…

We have had some fun in the snow though this year and you have to know the cold to appreciate the warm. And oh how ready I am to appreciate warm…

Our first good snow of the season took us for a walk down to Fairmount park.

While it’s only a 15 minute or so walk in good weather, it took a lot longer with all the fun, snowy distractions and slippery sidewalks.

The kids were excited to get there and play around and see the river frozen over along boathouse row. Definitely no one rowing the Schuykill river that day…

But what I hadn’t counted on was the fact that they would be freezing by the time we had to turn back -

and would still have 30 or so minutes of shivering stroller time before we reached home and hot chocolate.  So, while I enjoyed it all, I think it was a bit much for them.  The next decent snow just took us to our local maze park and some quality time building a snowman.  Unfortunately we did not have our camera on that occassion, but we were quite proud of the 2 footer our efforts produced - until a local man walking his dog told us about the “perfect” snowman across the park.  How those kids got their balls so round and packed hard, I’ll never know…

winter trails day report!

Published by Jana on January 14, 2009

Well, we made it to the snow - my summer baby touched his first snow on his winter birthday weekend.  On Saturday, we headed out to Liberty Mountain which is just over the Maryland border in Pennsylvania for Winter Trails Day 2009!

Now, while I’m not a skier, I have lived in plenty of snowy places (California Mountains, Utah, Switzerland, Bulgaria) and, apparently, have preconceived ideas on what a ski resort should look like - well, that all changed when I hit Liberty Mountain where you could, literally, step off the snow and onto a golf course. Needless to say, most of the snow was definitely the manufactured stuff.

Let’s just say, I felt pretty silly about having called about the road conditions before we left - but we were having a storm throughout Pennsylvania that day, so how was I to know! I assumed you at least had to drive up a bit of a mountain to get there - and that there would be snow all over the place because of the higher elevation. Kaleo had to remind me that mountains out here are what would be considered hills in the West. There was just a section of the hill cleared off for ski runs, tubing, lifts, etc. But, the place was packed with skiers, so I guess we all take what we can get.

That being said, the Winter Trails Day setup was great - packed with useful information.

By the way, there’s a photo of Taz and me with this guy on the winter trails facebook page - check it out!

Anyway, at the registration desk, we were given a card to carry to a series of booths that contained information on proper snow sport nutrition, clothes, stretches, winter camping and snow shoeing.  As we completed each presentation, our card was ticked off and we turned it in at the end for a certificate.  Kai was happy to receive something for his efforts.  So, the nutrition and stretching were pretty straight forward, but we had to laugh at the clothes booth because we were so not dressed as they recommended.  As I said, we are not snow sport people - we haven’t even seen much snow in about 5 years and probably won’t be seeing more in the near future - so we certainly don’t have the full snow sport get up.  But that wasn’t going to stop me from having a good time in the snow with my kids - they certainly didn’t know or care that we were dressed wrong.  We were warm enough so it was all good. And, I’m sure I’ll say this time and time again, but my #1 rule on parenting is not to get embarrassed about what others may think - whether you’re skipping down the street with your kids or playing superheroes or playing in the snow - you’re creating memories with your kids which are far more important than any crazy looks you might get.

Of course, the highlight was snowshoeing - which we hadn’t tried before. And I’ll admit, I assumed they looked like the tennis rackets of my childhood books - but let’s just say snowshoes have come a long way since then! There were snowshoes small enough for Kai, but it would have been pushing it for Taz.

We got to hike around a slope set aside for the day and had a great time - I was definitely hooked - hiking in the woods in the snow, sounds good to me - well, at least if we lived somewhere with more snow…

Kai kept trying to throw snowballs, but the snow was so powdery that it just didn’t work.  Building a snowman was definitely out of the question…

Hopefully we’ll get a good snow or two in Philly this year, because if you’re going to be cold, you might as well have snow. I really don’t see the point of cold without it.

After leaving the “mountain” we made our way to nearby Gettysburg.  While we passed the Civil War battlegrounds, that wasn’t the purpose of our visit - oh no, it was all about finding the Applachian Brewery Restaurant - because I have learned the secret to getting Kaleo excited about these crazy outings - involve root beer.

Kaleo is really getting into craft brewed sodas and loves finding new small town outfits.  Once you’ve had a craft brewed soda, you’ll never go back to the mass produced stuff.  His goal is to get into brewing his own - and a new blog may come out of it.  I’ll keep you updated.  As for the restaurant, the burgers were delicious and the rootbeer was sublime - no mint, all honey, so it was so smooth.  And while they may serve the hard stuff too, we, obviously just focused on the soft.  Though, I have to say, the ginger beer wasn’t my favorite, but that may be just as I’ve been tainted by Bundaberg - no other ginger beer can compare.

So, all in all, definitely a fun day for all.