winter is here, woohoo!

we were all very excited about the snow storm up here.  val went out yesterday and got a heavy duty snow shovel and our snowshoes.  the valdemar's were out before breakfast to clear the snow from our driveway.  it was about 8" deep this morning.  after breakfast, we all got ready for a snow storm hike.  we decided the snowshoes were not necessary, so we went without them.  val was the star photographer today.  all the scenic ones (or ones with me in them), he took, i took the rest.

one of val's images of the pond behind our house.

i had to capture this tiny spider walking along our path. i was convinced it was alive, but when we tried to get it to move, it didn't. we marked our spot so we could look when we got back and sure enough... he was gone. i guess there are snow spiders and i guess they play dead well.  the spider is on the right, valdemar on the left.  hehe. 

oh wait... i did take this pic of the pines...

kaia slept the whole hike (like normal) and she also did a good job of trying to fall out of the carrier (like normal).  if you look closely at the photo of us walking on the right you can see how far over to the left she is leaning.  too many hikes like this and i'm going to need to go the chiropractor full time again!

val's beautiful images from behind our house...

in hindsight, we realized that the snowshoes may have been a good idea.  what a fun day we had.  thank you snow!  now, to figure out a way for us to go snowboarding this year.  it has been way too long and i am itching to get back on my board.  :)