Bright Sunny Morning On A Cold, Frozen Lake

Jill and Halle Sledding

Marisa and Hayden

With Beth

Cross Country Skiing In Dobbins Woods

Mitch Enjoying Cross Country Skiing

The Old Smoothies On The Ice

Lasagna Dinner With Mc Clures

Nothing Like Beer and Baklava

7:20

Up at 7:15, to blue skies, the sun just beginning to rise over Bemus and cold, about 7º outside, with just a dusting of snow last night though they predicted up to six inches. Rats.  The girls will be sad because they wanted more snow for sledding.  We all did.  At least it's going to be a beautiful day, even get as warm as 30º later in the day.

Started yesterday morning with a trip to the Lighthouse, to pick up some pea meal bacon, my daughter Beth's favorite, some milk and Italian bread for dinner.  When I got home, Evie had already started the pancakes for the crew, both regular and my favorite, banana pancakes.  We devoured the bacon as well as pancakes and listened to Jack Johnson's 'Banana Pancakes,' a great tune.  After breakfast, Beth, Jill, Tyler, Mitch and I went to Dobbins Woods, to cross country ski.  Even though it had not snowed much, there was a thick, crusty layer to ski on, so it was still good.  We did have a bit of trouble navigating the three bridges, though we were able to cross them with no on falling in the water, inshallah.  It was about 15º when we skied though comfortable.  Sledding video is below:

We had lunch of left overs, pizza, and three soups, as we were all hungry after the morning exercise.  The rest of the day we spent on the ice or on Woodlawn's hill sledding.  The kids seemed to enjoy the sledding the most because the hill and conditions on it were great.  We must have spent a couple of hours there, crashing into bushes, tumbling over in to the snow, freezing our little okoles off.  We did spend some time out on the ice but it was very cold most of the day and the lake was bumpy, making it hard to skate.  But it was perfect for the Johnson' ice boats and they literally spent the entire day out on the ice sailing their three boats.  It was really windy, making the conditions perfect.  I imagine it must have been really cold but they did not seem to mind.

Mid afternoon, Beth put together a baklava for dessert and Evie made her lasagna with bolognese sauce.  About 4:00, I took Drew to the pub at the Southern Tier Brewery since he had never been there before.  We had a couple of pints of their new beer, Euro Trash Pilsener, and we both brought home a growler, $9.50  or 15.50, depending on whether you brought a bottle.

Enjoying Dusk After A Busy Day

At 5:00, the Mc Clures came over for dinner, so we had a fun night, sitting around talking, watching the kids perform.  We had pupus before dinner, a couple of cheeses with crackers, lots of beer and wine, and the lasagna for dinner, with salad and bread sticks was great.  Although we were really full, we all enjoyed at least one piece of the baklava for dessert.  When dinner was over, the girls showed Ron and Linda the crazy videos they had made the night before, cracking up everyone.  So, we decided to make our own videos, including everyone at the table, even the adults, which was a riot.  Ron and Linda left around 9:00 and we then put the girls to bed, the adults staying up till 10:30 before going to bed, a good day for all.