Sledding Adventure

I watched my nephew on New Years Eve since both his parents had to work and I decided that we should get outside and have some fun. Here are some photos of our adventure.

I dont post much video so I hope this works

My weekend

Well this weekend I helped volunteer at a biathalon. What is that you say. well it is where you cross-country ski and shoot a rifle. The Youth/Junior World Championships Team Trials were held here in Northern MN this weekend. They were supposed to be in Anchorage AK but due to a lack of snow they were moved here, so because of the last minute move they needed some extra volunteers. So I went and helped, it was pretty interesting since I had never seen on in person before, I had only seen them on TV.

My job was to keep score on certain lanes on the range. I had to write down when someone missed the target. When you miss the target you have to complete a penalty lap, so it is important to keep track of the shooting

Anyway the winners and some other qualifiers now get to go on to the worlds which will be held in Germany later this month.

Here are some photos

Funny story

So three of the guys that I work with are on a trip. They are driving a 70's volkswagon van from Fresno to (hopefully) panama or however far it makes it. Here is the last email I got from one of them.

"I think that we should probably write a travel book about things NOT to do in Central America. We are fast becoming the prime example of ignorant american tourists.
Last night the van was burgled.
Now normally we grab all of the valuables out of the bus if we get a room for the night, but for some reason, when we got to Antigua, it seemed like such a harmless town that we neglected some of the little things that we normally do. Such as not leaving our passports and credit cards in the bus.
Last night we got into town and me and berto threw our party suits on and went out. We locked up the van, but apparently Berto and Paul left some of their stuff in the van. Paul was being slow so we left without him, but when we ran into him an hour later, he was driving some random girls truck. He said he was taking her to San Carlos... I think she was too cracked out to know where she was, but Paul being the gentleman that he is, he drove her to the next town, and took a cab home.
When the bar closed down at 2 (lame), we went to grab some water from the van on the way to bed, but berto couldn´t find his bag. Then we noticed that the drivers door was unlocked and there was a hole in the screen in the window. Somebody had forced the side window open and punched in the screen.
The worst part was that you cant make phonecalls from Guatemala phones without a phonecard, and our phonecards were from Mexico, so they wouldn´t work (even though the phone company is the same in both countries). So they couldn´t call and cancel their cards till the morning.
So far I think they´ve gotten the credit card stuff taken care of (except for the 15 transactions on Pauls card last night), but we´ll see how it goes with getting Paul and Berto replacement passports. Oh, and they stole all the vans registration papers, so I really don´t know how we are going to get the van back out of the country. So Mike, if you want to start some sort of pool on what happens to the van, I´ve got 5 dollars that says the van spends the rest of it´s days rusting in Guatemala.

We´ll keep you updated on pending deportations and jail time."

Last email before this was about them ending up at a male strip club in mexico city.

I wonder where they will take me next...... For those of you who know the guys I work with Chuck is who wrote the email.

Whirlwind!!

That is how you sum up my christmas. Here is what I did

Thurs: Drive down to Minneapolis hung out with Randi and Erika

Fri: Do some quick shopping pick up Laura in afternoon and drive home (in a snowstorm)

Saturday: Hang out with my nephew and Laura. During a snowstorm so shoveling was necessary. Laura and I went snowshoeing. It was her first time on snowshoes... I haver lovely pictures of her but she would kill me if I posted them on here

Sunday: Xmas at my Grandma's. Had to drive an hour north of here with roads that hadn't been plowed yet. My bro and I talked about making a comercial for subaru showing all that my car can do. Get home and realize that the snow has formed huge drifts all around my house....time to break out the snowblower (which almost ate me)

Monday: my nephew and Laura stayed here sun night so I spent the morning with him. Laura and I then went skiing in the afternoon. I discovered that one of my X-skis is broken...well on its way to being broken. The trails hadn't been groomed so we were breaking trail which is way more work than not, but the plus side was that because it wasn't groomed I made it down the big hill!!!!!!!!! After that it was time to head home and shower and get ready for church and dinner at mom's house.
After that I headed home and cleaned my house thinking that some of my relatives might want to see my house on xmas day since most of them haven't seen my house (I cleaned for nothing)

Tuesday: Xmas at my mom's house with my dad's side of the family. There are 3 boys there ages 7, 8, 9 so you can imagine what that is like. They had all been up early and were full of energy. I felt bad for my bro when he had to take my nephew to his GF family's house. I hope my nephew wasn't a brat but I think that he may have been one.

Weds: Drive down to Minneapolis to drop Laura off and the airport. I was sad to see her leave now I only get to talk to her on the phone. After we dropped laura off mom and I went to a couple of stores and got some good deals. Then we headed home and it took a long time since it was once again snowing.

Well that is my whirlwind xmas I hope you all had a great holiday!

Big Hill part #2

Well I went x-skiing again today, but today we went when there was still some light out.....it made my lovely hill a little easier......I made it almost all the way down....I wiped out right near the bottom. Luke also fell there so I dont feel to bad.... But then later there is one part of the trail that is long downhill...not steep just long and gradual, but the kicker is there is a 90 degree turn right at the end. I watched Luke almost fall over and was telling myself dont do what he did and next thing you know I am doing a face plant.

oh well it was still a fun time.