Our Winter Wonderland

This is what we woke up to.




It was a day I dream about...
-Dave got a call at 5:30 a.m. that he didn't have to go in to work all day! (2nd in a row!!!)
-Dave got to sleep in (he let me sleep in yesterday) while the kids and I made oatmeal-wheat-blueberry pancakes.
-We took an hour to get all of our snow gear gathered and ON. Wow - I can't believe how much work our parents went through to take us skiing so often!
-We delivered warm cinnamon rolls to a couple families (one of my FAVORITE things to do).
-We hit a few stores looking for sleds - but to no avail. All were sold out. We grabbed some diapers for Nate - and that diaper box turned out to be the best sled of all. We also used a big tupperware lid that worked pretty well. And a nice lady saw us lugging boxes around, so she let us borrow her sled.
-We went to the junior high school where everyone was having fun sledding down the hill. They even set up a little jump and some kids were snowboarding.
-We sledded and played for 3 hours.
-Brought everyone home for a bath, lunch, Nate down for a nap and the girls went to a friend's house for the afternoon. I got a nice, long, hot bath in the afternoon - unheard of in my life!
-We played all day and it was the best.

Nate loved every ride. And the second we stopped, he would say "Again".

I guess Dave and Nate were too scared to open their eyes. And I do notice Dave putting on the brakes with his hand. Can you see Sadie tucked in there?

Just a quick, cute story about Ash. Yesterday at dinner she was telling us how the girl that sits next to her at school is mean to her every day. She said that she isn't mean back, and just pretty much doesn't talk to her. We suggested that maybe she could go the extra mile and be super nice to her and see what happens. She was quiet for a few minutes, then got so excited as she said that she was going to make a purse for this girl. She worked so hard on it, put a pen and post-it note pad in it, and put a "T" on the front of the purse for her friend's first name. She can't wait to go to school and give it to her tomorrow.

This is now Dave: This is my coyote skull I just finished. Back in November I found a coyote on the side of the road (dead). Luckily I had my hand saw and trash bags in the trunk as I'm sure everyone does. I brought the head home and skinned it. Ash and Sadie really wanted to watch that part for some reason (despite my warnings of bad dreams from it). After I skinned it I put it in a bucket of water to rot off all the soft tissue. This step is called "maceration" and can take weeks to months depending on the temperature outside. Putrid is the best description of the smell when openning the bucket. After rinsing off the soft tissue and washing out the brain, the skull is put in a bucket of ammonia for a couple of weeks to dissolve the fat out of the marrow. Then it is bleached with hydrogen peroxide and rinsed multiple times with fresh water for a few days to get the smell out. After drying everything the teeth are glued back into the jaw (they fall out during maceration). I know it sounds crazy and gross....it is gross. It is fun to handle the perfectly cleaned skull and think of all the steps that got it there. I think skulls are almost a work of art. Please send all your dead animal heads my way.