Mountain West Tourney

Three Gray Men in Vegas.

Three days of college basketball = Fifteen basketball games.

Fifty-two points scored by #32 Jimmer Fredette against New Mexico.

Ten future Jimmers. They grow them tall in the Gray family!

Snow Day

The forecasters yesterday told us 10-12 inches possible -- but as of now we have about 28 inches out there and it's still coming down. Biggest snowstorm of the year. Biggest, in fact, since we moved to Vermont! The kids have no school, of course. The surprise was that this storm was so unexpectedly severe that Norwich cancelled all morning classes, the courts closed, and Austin's flight to Utah for the Mountain West Basketball Tournament was cancelled because Burlington Airport closed. (No worries, he'll still make the tournament, just miss a planned ski day at Snowbird.)
Why, oh why, didn't we pull the car into the barn last night? It took us an hour to dig it out, then another hour to dig it out again when it got stuck pulling into the back driveway.

It is beautiful, though. It's hard to see in this picture, but the snow has completely covered the cupola on the barn so it looks like the weathervane is sticking out of a triangle of snow.

Austin trying to get the snow down off the roof so we don't get more ice dams. The snow has almost covered the window next to our table.

Our poor little bridge. The flooding that brought down the bridge yesterday left a huge lake in the field. We snowshoed down there to see if we were going to have our own two-acre hockey pond. Lucy got there first and ran out onto the "ice" and fell right through. Luckily it was only about 18 inches deep at the edge. She had a lukewarm bath and is now just fine (I rescued her, and I'm fine too.) I think we'll stay inside for the rest of the day. Gavin is the only member of the family who hasn't had his boots flooded with ice-cold water in the past 24 hours, and it's probably best to keep it that way.

Bye Bye Bridge

Before:

After:

Our cute little footbridge over the stream came down this morning. An unseasonably warm March day, mixed with a good downpour of rain, led to huge volumes of water coming downstream over ice blocks that hadn't melted yet. Ice under the bridge was forcing water up and around the bridge, as far up as the hydrangea bush. Austin heroically jumped into the stream and tried to break up some of the ice but the pressure of the water against the boards on the side of the bridge were too much, a few minutes later they buckled and brought the roof down. Now the rain has changed to snow, and the expected 10-12 inches of heavy wet snow will probably destroy what's left of it.

Usually I love living on a quaint Vermont farm but today I kinda wish I lived in a condo.

Ski Buddies

I haven't blogged much about skiing this season but we've been going pretty much every Saturday and we're all getting pretty good. (Mom might even venture beyond the green runs, someday!) One of the things that's made skiing fun this year is we've been trying to coordinate schedules so we can ski with some "ski buddies." Lucy's friend Tess and her family are especially fun to meet on the mountain. Lucy and Tess ride the lift together and race each other down the hill. Sometimes Austin takes the girls up the Green Mountain Express quad to the top of the mountain so they can use their skiing skills on the blue runs.
Lucy and Tess taking a ski break in the lodge. Give Lucy some fries with massive amounts of ketchup and she's good to go for hours more.


Gavin is my ski buddy. We ride up the ski lift together, watching the skiers and boarders doing tricks on the Riemergasse freestyle terrain below and munching Sour Patch Kids. Gavin insists that we must eat on the ski lift because it is a "restaurant bar." (He refuses to be convinced that the signs requiring use of the "restraint bar" have anything to do with safety. He's getting to be a confident, if not always correct, reader.)

This is my standard view of Gavin as we go down our favorite Sugar Run trail. I make him be the leader because (1) he's faster than me, and I'm better at stopping. So I know I won't run over him but I'm not sure he won't come careening into me. And (2) he is still prone to occasional spectacular crashes that require Mom to come right behind him to clean out his goggles, put his skis back on, and give him a hug.

I love Sugar Run trail. It's nice and long and easy and never crowded. Gavin is becoming very good at keeping his skis parallel in a turn. I'm working on it. A few more ski lessons probably wouldn't hurt. Especially since I don't think my ski buddy is going to want to stay on Sugar Run forever.

Professor Gavin

The other day I bought Gavin a little white shirt to wear to church once the weather warms up. I hung it in the back of his closet, knowing he'd hate it, just like his other "button shirts."

(Our usual Sunday conversation: "Mom, why does Heavenly Father say I have to wear buttons to church?" "I don't know, Gavin, just please put your tie on.")

So I was very surprised the other day when he emerged wearing his white shirt over his clothes.

Look Mom! I have a lab coat! I'm a science professor!

Since then Gavin's "lab coat" has been worn every day. Over jammies, to the skating rink, to run errands, or just to sit home and play Legos. Sometimes he even does up the buttons, and puts pencils in his pocket. We're on February Break right now, so it still remains to be seen whether he will try to wear it to Kindergarten. Where he better study a lot of math if he really wants to grow up and become a particle smasher.

We're art collectors!

We just sealed the deal tonight to buy this fabulous painting.

There's no way for a photo to do it justice. It's big: 3 feet by 5 feet, and it captures the light and colors and movement of late spring in Vermont. The artist, John Hoag, based it on a photograph he took standing along the edge of Terry Hill Road looking toward our hay barn and fields. So it's not just any view of Vermont -- it's OUR view of Vermont.

We are SO excited about our first big art purchase. Actually, it's technically not ours yet. We are buying it on an installment plan, a check each month until it's paid off, hopefully in a few months. When we actually get it hanging in our house I"ll post a picture of it in situ. Then we'll start saving up to put a frame around it. A barnwood frame. Made of barnwood from that barn, of course. Can't wait!

Date Night

Lucy burst in yesterday after school and announced in a rapturous voice, "I have a date with destiny!"

Actually, it was a date with her dad, for the annual Daddy-Daughter Valentine's Dance at the Capitol Hotel in Montpelier. She has been looking forward to this for months.

They both looked ravishing.

The night consisted of a fancy dinner at a restaraunt then a hotel ballroom full of balloons, chocolate, popcorn, punch, and squealing girls. Apparently Lucy joined a roving pack of Northfield 3rd graders but deigned to dance with her dad for a couple of slow dances. I'd been wondering why Austin made such a point of telling all Lucy's friends' dads about the dance -- now I realize it was so he'd have someone to talk to!

Meanwhile -- my date Gavin just wanted to stay home and build a fort where we could watch videos and eat Pringles and cookies. So I spent the evening with my best pal, laying on the floor underneath my kitchen table, watching Toy Story and making shadow puppets in the light of a headlamp. I'd say great time was had by all.