Skiing in Colorado

Hello from lovely (and snowy!) Colorado:

Snow!

Hello, Snowmass!

This year, we decided to let the professionals try to teach Nick to ski and put him into ski school.

Excellent posture!

After a few days, the child was returned to us being able to stop, turn, get on and off lifts, and comfortably ski green-level runs. It's magic!

Ready to go! (mouth open to catch snowflakes)

Nick skiing. This is what professionals can do to your child in just a few short days!

And then there was this:

Soooo ... tired!

He's still sleeping. Wonder if I should wake him up...

Registration day

Today is first day of registrations for the February classes at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy (if if you have a dog, like dogs, think about ever having a dog, etc, you should check out the schedule).

Registration day is a very bad dog day. All I do all day is stare at the computer. There are no dog activities. The dogs hate registration day.

This is boring. Computer room is boring. You are boring.

Outside is also boring. But at least we can roast in the sun.

Bored on the floor.

Bored on the couch.

Bored on her chair.

Can we go somewhere pleeeeease!

Soon dogs, soon. Once we get all the registrations going.

Life's a beach

Polly's new agility class is on Friday mornings in Half Moon Bay. So of course, after class, we went to the beach.

First this:

Then this:

Sunnyvale Baylands

Took THEM out for a hike/swim at the Sunnyvale Baylands, also knows as the "bay-ponds" (Nick) and Mt. Trashmore (it's the trail behind the water treatment and recycling plant).

THEM! Polly wants her bumper, which is on the ground next to me.
Kipling doesn't care. And yes, all three of them are very dirty.

For comparison (and since today is Throw Back Thursday too), here's a picture from the same spot:

March 2014. Polly is stressed about the bumper.
Kipling doesn't care.

Much fun was had by all.

Ready?

Go!

Polly will get it!

Kipling prefers to wait on the bank and then chase her around and steal
the bumper. He says that's more efficient.

Give! Me! It!

Nick thought the dry mustard plants were fun to play with.

So many sticks!

Fishing for algae

On the way back, Kipling snacked on some fresh grass.

Moooo!

Most excellent outing for humans and dogs. Now they are all napping. Shhhhh!

Gear creep in action

Nick tested out his new hockey gear today

Very small child. Very large backpack. Compared to the amount
of stuff the kids who play goalie have to carry, this is nothing. 

Go team Canada!

Look at their cute little hockey short "tails" 

The gear creep has begun

First there was the skates. Then the helmet. Then we were good for about a year, wearing ski pants and ski gloves for skate practice. But then it turned out that ski pants are too restrictive and prevent him from doing a cross-over, and ski gloves do not have enough protection around the fingers, which resulted in a very close de-fingering call.

So we went shopping.

So much hockey stuff!

And then it turned out that he actually prefers to play left-handed, so the right handed hand-me-down stick had to be replaced.

Well and we got a new puck too, just because it was orange and that was cool.

So now we have new stuff!

Showing off his new gear.

In action!

I think I should go shop for a bigger gear bag now.

New mushrooms for the new year

Went out to Soquel Demo Forest today and came back with plenty of black trumpets and a handful of candy caps. Good way to start the new year!

The candy caps are going into the dehydrator. They have amazing

maple syrup flavor when dried, and are usually used in desserts.

Black trumpets! These will be my dinner tonight.

Happy mushroomy new year!

(Update 2 hours later)

I decided to make a wild mushroom pizza with my black trumpets using this recipe (one modification was also adding gorgonzola cheese). It came out amazing. The black trumpets have a great flavor, even better than regular chanterelles.

Cleaned, sliced, and washed. The fresh trumpets smell very
mushroomy. They apparently have the best flavor when dried,
but I couldn't wait that long.

The onions are caramelizing and the mushrooms are sautéing.

The pizza dough is relaxing.

Nick made himself a cheese pizza. 

My wild mushrooms pizza. It was delicious. Well worth spending three
hours crawling up and down steep redwood-covered slopes.