Ski

We just wrapped up our Second Annual Father/Son Male-Bonding Event Where We Just Happen To Go Skiing. :-) Jacen and I went to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia again this year. Jacen spent the first day in Ski School while I skied the harder runs. I particularly reacquainted myself with a Terrain Part, jumping as far as 6 feet. The second day we spent skiing together. We had a number of firsts this year: 1) First time we tried night skiing - the lift tickets we got covered night skiing, so we went out after dinner and made several runs. It was not as difficult as I expected. 2) Jacen did a blue run several times - his skiing is vastly improved from last year. He can fly down the mountain and (to my surprise) rarely crashed. In fact, going fast is his weakness; he doesn't carve enough to control his speed. 3) We skied in the fog - Wednesday afternoon a cloud descended on the mountain and by lunch visibility was about 20 feet at the top. This made for rather dangerous skiing. At the top of the mountain, it was very hard to find some of the runs. If you've been to Snowshoe, you know they have a number of sharp drops down into trees. On the slopes, it was hard to see other skiers and read the snow. We quit a couple hours early to return home. All in all it was a wonderful time together. I thank God again for giving me a son.

Snowshoe Mountain

Moving Day, Part 2

The first week of January was moving week! Dad and Eric spent Tuesday and Wednesday helping us move to our new home in Wake Forest, NC. With Dad's expert loading, the 24' U-Haul was big enough to haul everything we needed. It's about 3 hours from Hampton down to Wake Forest, so it wasn't too far to drive. The new townhouse is around 1000 sq ft, and it quickly filled up with our boxes. We've gotten most of them emptied and stuff put away by now, but we still need more shelves and storage spaces.

Moving Day, Part 1

Last week was moving day. We had to move all the we had been storing in Dad's house and garage into a 24 foot U-Haul truck to haul down to Wake Forest. With Dad's expert packing and Eric's strong back, we had no problem getting everything loaded. Dad's Avalon gave an audible sigh of relief when it was finally able to park in his garage after being out in the cold for the last 2 months. Thank you, Dad, for letting us crash in your house!

Jacen's Birthday

Jacen's 6th birthday fell on moving day, so before we left Dad's house we celebrated with family. He got exactly what he wanted -- Matchbox cars and Legos. Grandpa also gave him a white dress shirt, because Jacen he wants to wear a tie to church like Daddy does.

Snow

The day after Christmas a storm dumped 12 inches of snow on Poquoson. Although it was perfect for snow angels and snow ball fights, it cancelled our plans for traveling to Aunt Nan's house to see family for Christmas.