Winter Sports Love

Growing up in Maine you have two choices in the winter: stay inside for roughly five to six months watching the snow fly and the wind blow, dreaming of the summer months.  Or you can suck it up, find some warm clothes and enjoy all the fun the cold weather has to offer. Make no mistakes, I'm a summer girl at heart and will always pine away for the warm sun, beach days and long summer nights.  But this winter I've thoroughly enjoyed cross country skiing in VT, downhill skiing during Nemo and a little skating at the Harvard ice arena.

The downhill skiing was hilarious at best, painful at worst.  A little piece of advice: if you have only downhill skied one other time in ten years, don't try to go after two and a half feet of snow have just dumped down from a massive blizzard.  We did have a beautiful Sunday and while my skiing skills were pretty pathetic, it was so nice to be up in the mountains in Maine.

Cross country skiing in VT was a much easier transition and except for the fact that it was a balmy three degrees outside, Lauren and I had a gorgeous morning of skiing at Bolton Valley outside of Waterbury followed by our annual stop at the Ben & Jerry's factory...it's never too cold for ice cream!

This past weekend, my step-sisters had a co-birthday party which included a 7am pick-up hockey game at the Harvard rink.  Back in the day I'd be more than happy to be at any rink at any time to skate.  At the ripe old age of 30 however, I'm much less excited about a Sunday that includes my alarm clock but we had a really great time.  I hadn't skated in five years but as they say, it was like riding a bike, came back immediately.  

About 25 or so friends and family showed up to play, abilities ranging from a four time Olympian (and organizer) to my step-mom who's skating skills leave a little to be desired (huge props for being out there in full gear though!).  I wore a GoPro camera strapped to my helmet but apparently failed epically and had it off when I thought it was on, on when I thought it was off, etc. so unfortunately I won't be able to post the sweet goal I scored.  We had a lovely homemade brunch afterwards and were home in time for a midday nap!

This was also a little lesson in shooting indoors in really harsh arena light.  Needless to say, I need practice.

My sister, Jessie, gets a shout out for grabbing this shot...as I said, nap time!

All of this winter talk makes me beyond excited to head to Florida tomorrow for a long weekend of (hopefully) warm weather and the beach!

Baby Fun in the West

Every January I take a work trip to Denver to do trainings with our sales teams.  I've made the trip for three years now and every time I've gotten to stay the weekend with various friends from Union.  The past two years I've stayed with my dear friend, Kaitlyn, and her husband, Michael, in Fort Collins.  This year was extra fun as Kait had just given birth to their first baby, Adelaide Margaret, only a week before!

Kait's parents were visiting from New Hampshire and we spent the weekend sleeping, eating, taking Adelaide to her first brewery (we brought the baby to a bar!) and being outside in the unseasonably warm Colorado sun.  We joked many times that we didn't really need to do anything since watching the baby seemed to be entertainment enough.

I haven't been around infants much in my adult life but from what I could tell, Adelaide was the sweetest little newborn anyone could ask for.  She slept and ate like a champ, dealt with a blown out stroller tire like nothing happened and was generally just the sweetest little thing.

Meet baby Adelaide at the ripe old age of 9 days old!

Newly minted grandfather and momma 

And here I am, already breaking my New Year's resolution - we went for a gorgeous walk and I carried my camera and didn't take one flippin' picture!  So a couple from my phone as well...

Already sporting Pats gear!  And yes, she knows the hat makes her look like a boy.