snow day

Winter finally arrived in Western Montana. And I'm psyched. Which is kinda funny. Because I don't really miss the snow when it's not here. I love a sunny, warm, winter hike on Waterworks. But there is that magic with snow. That novel, beautiful magic that I've grown to count on. And while all my friends and neighbors are whoop whooping about the adventures they'll get to have on the ski hill, I'm just happy to get to look at it. Actually. I'll qualify that. I am psyched to take out my xx skis and have little adventures. I have a secret passion for the cross country ski adventures. The quiet. The solitude. The way it works your body and your brain with such harmony. Heck yeah! I'm psyched to ski! (Though I feel super goofy even typing that sentence...)

My double day highlight was skiing Lucy around the park and bumping into an old friend and her new baby. She too was on skis (except she was a little more badass than I, seeing as how she had a two month old baby strapped to her front and I just had a goofy mutt). Then after school, Eliana was invited to sled down the hill on the playground with her classmate. I realized she's never been on a sled. Her face as she swooshed down the hill was, perhaps, the best thing I've seen in a long time. God I wish I had had my phone in my pocket. Big dimples, wet curls flying, as she reared back, holding the yellow rope like it was the reigns on a wildly galloping horse.

School is cancelled tomorrow. That means I have the challenge, the privilege, of taking my children out into the snow. We won't stray too far, as this mama despises driving in the snow. But we could manage the sledding hill at school. Or, even simpler, the yard to make a snowman. Can you believe I've never made a snowman? It's time to step up to the snow plate!

I also imagine much of our day will be spent indoors, in our fiery imaginations. Eliana's new trick is to sing Disney songs on the coffee table and then jump on to the dog's bed whenever dramatically appropriate. The coffee table can be Aladdin and Jasmine's magic carpet or the depths of the blue sea where Ariel laments her lack of legs. This girl kills me. And, of course, Sol manages to jump off the table with the best of them, even though he's really short. Eliana also manages to spin him around, again, whenever dramatically appropriate. It's kinda scary. Thank goodness for the dog bed.


A typical fifteen minute foray into creative fun ends in all the pots and pans on the living room floor, a fight or two over who gets to hang in the laundry basket versus who gets to hang in the waste basket, pillows off all the sofas and weird, random objects in the strangest of places.

Eliana's is really into leaving artsy post-it notes up on the walls. And flying on door knobs while the doors swing. It's mayhem. Gorgeous, goofy, winter fun.