Weird Ice

On the hike today we found a lot of pools with a very unique ice formation. For scale, many of these crystals are over an inch long. Anybody out there with any interesting theories?

Snow shoeing

Not much snow left, but Graydon was still excited to go snowshoeing with Grossmama.

Skating in Montreal

It has been so warm here that all of the neighborhood rinks are melted. We went down to the old port to a refrigerated rink to get Ralf and Graydon onto the ice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa4EWRqbeYw


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Neal Tanner

Our Christmas tree at the cabin

Stacking kindling in the cabin

When a wood stove is your only source of heat for a cabin in the Canadian winter, you want to be sure you can start a fire reliably.

Graydon skiing

We took Graydon downhill skiing for the first time. It started out about like you would expect, but within a few hours he was doing great. Most importantly, he had a blast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeAnI1cIU9c

Wrestling with Granddad

We made it!

No major travel hiccups, yay! We arrived reasonably on-time yesterday, even after the pilot forebodingly told us that if weather in Montreal deteriorated, our backup destination was Albany (ugh). Graydon's first destination, even before having breakfast that consisted of Grossmama's wonderful pancakes, was the back yard ("I love winter!"). Wiley found some new favorite toys (brrrrmmm, brmmmm).

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Only a week until we head to Montreal!

Car Camping

Yes, this is exactly what it looks like. (At the Honda dealership)

Not even posed

This photo was not even posed! They just decided to snuggle with each other in the chair (after chasing each other through the house like mad men for half an hour).

What do you do with a great big pile of leaves?

Duh!!

Gingerbread houses!

Susanne brought over a couple of kits for the boys, who had lots of fun decorating. A few hours later, and ours is already missing the roof overhang and part of a wall on one side. Yummmm!

It's a race!

We met our friends the Schliebs at Zilker Park on Sunday afternoon to see the big Christmas tree being lit. We had some fun at the park beforehand, too. Wiley always jumped the gun on the slide race, but Greta didn't seem to care. :)