Local birds

I took the boys over a coulee to sled in the big new powder and while I was there I caught this Meadowlark in flight.





On the ride back to the house Hunter snapped this pheasant rooster taking off from the snowy hillside.

We've done our best to enjoy the snow day.

More Winter.

So we managed to avert any major flood damage after ice jams caused the Missouri to back up into the city. It started snowing last evening about 7:00 p.m. and as of this morning at 9:00 we'd received 14.5 inches of new snow. Needless to say, we hadn't even gotten rid of the old snow (which has been on the ground continuously since November 5, 2008) so we will easily make April 5 with snow on the ground, and with the kind of year we've had I'm not altogether sure we won't hit May 5, which would be six months of winter. So much for the calendar.
Here's a photo of the famed railroad bridge over the Missouri from about noon today.

Snowboarding Vacation

So we drive to Bozeman over spring break, and the snow is okay for late winter and we all go Saturday, and then Will gets sick and he and Tami stay home and then Luke is getting sick but toughs out Monday only to get wretchedly ill on the way home and is diagnosed with Influenza A at the ER Tuesday night. Now everybody except Hunter is sick. Not the perfect end to a bit of family time.


My only real crash was getting off a chairlift the last run of the first day, and then there was this little mishap while trying to figure out if I could video while boarding:

Rather proud of myself as I didn't swear out loud.

Hunter spent most of his time high on the mountain with his friend Chris doing the black diamonds and tougher blue runs, so one of the only pictures I have of him is of the boredom stage in the Bridger Lodge snack bar.

On Monday Luke was determined to go to the top of Pierre's Knob and board down the Blue trail and if he dared down a short Black diamond run called E. So here is the view from the top looking southeast:

So after an incredibly painful 20 minutes inching down a catwalk we arrive at the deciding point: Do we take the Blue or the Black?

He chose Black, and successfully navigated his first Black Diamond run. Not pretty, not fast, but safe, sound, and successful. Good work, Luke!

So despite the illnesses and Tami having to miss out on a couple of days, it was an okay trip.

Spring break boarding trip to Montana

We are going to Bozeman next weekend to do some spring break recreating. Here is a lousy video of Hunter tonight on his new gear riding the icy hills down the coulee that runs down to the Missouri river. Will post much better video from the mountain next weekend!

8th Grade B1 Champions

Hunter's team won the B1 tourney for the second year in a row. Here are a couple of his free throws.