Winter

Overnight, our little house on the big river became a little cabin in the deep snow.  

All weekend we've been able to enjoy a post-breakfast ski right from our front door!

Here we are gearing up for a little morning ski through town.  Jonah loves his sled....and particularly the cozy sleeping bag insert that fits inside.  Here's the link to our first outing with the sled....it's amazing to look back and see how much Jonah has changed since then!

We are so thankful to have a little guy who's always up for an adventure!

Both mornings we were able to get out before the snow plows, and ski through quiet streets.

On Saturday, we skied out to the Columbia River and around the Point.

Here's the best group shot....Jonah is waving.

On the way home, we stopped to see a train go by at the crossing.  We see many trains go by every day, but Jonah never seems to tire of it.

Jonah says, "I'm so eh-sited."

Fortunately, our snow-fun was just beginning....there was more sledding in our future.

After naps, we headed over to Jackson Park to do some downhill sledding.

It was still snowing pretty heavily, so I only took a few photos. 

We had a blast!  Jonah also really enjoyed seeing and hearing the other kids having fun too.

Whee!

I'm really proud of Jonah....he even did a few runs by himself.  So brave.

The day wound down with frozen snow treats.

We made Jonah his first "snow cone."  He loved it.

By the end of the day we were super tired.  So it was good that we had a pot of beef stew simmering in the dutch oven all afternoon.  That's my rosemary, which is still going strong even under all this snow.

We had a lovely winter weekend.

xo

Snow Day

It's February and Winter finally arrived.  The last few years we have had crazy warm and sunny winters, which has left the beautiful forests prone to summer fires.  It's great to have a snowfall and I hope that it is just the beginning of building up our winter snow pack in the mountains.

We woke up to about 8" of lovely white powder covering everything.  Snow always makes our house seem extra cozy, especially with the wood stove burning.

More snow is in the forecast, so while Jesse was at work, Jonah and I took advantage of the mild morning and headed out for a little local snow hike.

Little Snow Angel.

This hike is one of my favorite local jaunts.  It's only 2 blocks away from our house, but you are instantly out of town and on an unmaintained path up a steep hill overlooking town.

We didn't make it to the top....the snow was pretty deep for Jonah.  But we did make it high enough to peek above the trees and see the winter landscape.

Here's the view looking west.

And east.

Snow or not, I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

xo

January Light

Here are a few favorite photos from a recent January outing.

Evening sail on The Columbia River.

The colors of winter.

Hope you all had a lovely month.  Let's turn the calendar page!

First Ski

The Gorge has been socked in all week with low clouds and chilly temperatures, so today we decided to break out above the inversion and get a little playtime in the snow and sunshine.

We took Jonah up to Mt. Hood Meadows for his first adventure on skis.

Jonah was a little nervous, but also very excited.

"Hands out, bend your knees, lean forward...."

Jonah took instruction very well.

Note that Jonah is not even wearing a jacket!  It was 50 degrees and bluebird skies.

We didn't stay long, but this trip was all about making sure he was having fun while getting familiar with the new gear.

Afterwards, we played a bit in the snow.

JUMP!

SNOWBALL!

....and back to the land of frost and fog....