WHO IS IT?

Someone told me I should post this picture and ask anyone who reads here if they think either Emmett or Maggie looks like this 9-month old baby. Any guesses who it is and who it might resemble??? (It is Chuck.)

BLIZZARD of 2009

Our usual "blizzard drift" outside our back door

The forecasters got it right this time -- we woke up to light snow this morning and by 9am it was a blizzard. It's 7pm now and it's still snowing and blowing. Don't know how much we have but it's somewhere around 9-10 inches. The wind chill right now is -2 (I know, Ron, you don't believe in the wind chill philosophy) but it is bitter. I went out (very briefly) around noon and I was going to shovel a bit but after that wind hit my face, I came right back in! No mail arrived today but the county did plow the road this afternoon during a short break in the snowing. Lots of people thought it was over, but a couple hours later it started snowing again. It's supposed to be over sometime tomorrow morning and back in the 50's by Saturday. Gotta love Colorado!

We are not complaining -- we desperately need the moisture -- so it is welcome anywhere in the state. We heard that Steamboat ski area had received 3 feet of snow at the top of the mountain, and 2 feet at the bottom of the hill -- and that was at noon today. Everybody is getting it. Nice.

BOO-HOO !

Maggie and Emy playing together

They both had fun with Uncle Gary

It's a little sad here in Steamboat Springs today. Our precious little GRANDS have departed the city and are on their way back to Seattle. It was difficult saying good-bye to those smiling little faces after having seen them so much this week. They are just so sweet and so much fun to be with. We can't wait to plan a trip to Seattle to see them again! (Oh, you too Mom and Dad - ha)

Gary and Emy enjoyed spending time with them too. Gary went back to Grand Lake last night. Emy lives and works here in Steamboat. We are leaving town this afternoon -- the green GMC gave us some mechanical problems -- but it ended up with only a bad fuse. The good news is that it broke down here and not on the top of Rabbit Ears Pass! It's 1:30pm and we are on our way.

Steamboat Springs

History of Snowboarding (click to enlarge)

Railroad

Traveling Salesman's candy sample box with original candy!

We are spending the week in Steamboat to spend "baby time" with our GRANDS. Greg is here on a business trip and Heather and the kids came along. We have been enjoying the kids -- Emmett is crawling all over the place and Maggie is happy to sit and play with the new toys G'ma and Poppy brought (or the white plastic box the baby wipes come in).

Gary came up Monday evening and he and Emy have been skiing and visiting us and G&H and the twins too. Today is Greg's BD so Heather will join Greg for dinner tonight and we will babysit.

Chuck and I did a little "tourist" stuff this afternoon -- took in the local museum (pretty interesting exhibits on the railroad and the ski industry) and a few of the local historic buildings.

The weather has been cold but beautifully sunny and quite nice outside in the afternoon. (Not so much in the AM with temps in the low teens.)

I have been taking mostly video footage of the kids so check out Heather's blog for photos and I will post some videos next week.

SAN FRANCISCO

We recently returned from a nice trip to SF. We hopped aboard a Southwest Airliner and enjoyed not-quite-full flights both ways. That enabled us to have an empty middle seat between us -- totally makes the flight bearable, and almost enjoyable!

We did the tourist thing. We REALLY did the tourist thing by getting snagged into a "Time Share Presentation." Haven't done that for about 20 years, so we figured we could sit around and listen for two hours and walk out with a $25 Best Buy Gift Certificate and two City Pass booklets that we were going to buy anyway that cost $59 each. The booklets were great and allowed us to ride all the public transportation including bus, streetcar, and cable car as many times as we liked during our 7-day stay. It was so nice not to have to find the correct change to ride the public trans -- we just flashed our pass and went right on.

The other freebies in the coupon book were California Academy of Sciences, Harbor Cruise to the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, Aquarium of the Bay, SF Museum of Modern Art, Legion of Honor Museum, and De Young Museum. We also went to the Cable Car Museum and a few other free attractions.

The weather was really nice -- in the 60's and only two days of rain. Otherwise sunshine and we didn't even have to wear our coats. Nice. We walked and walked and walked. It was great.

I have been working on putting some of my photos online. I posted a bunch on Snapfish so if you have an account there (or want to sign up for a free account) you can go to this link and see a slideshow: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=274512371/a=26147913_26147913/t_=26147913 I have another slide show to send out via e-mail once I zip it to make the file size smaller.

We rented a condo that was nicely located about 3 blocks from public trans. There was also a market that is similar to a mini- Whole Foods just 1.5 blocks away, so we were able to get a few groceries.

In just 6 short days we will be heading to Steamboat to spend a week there visiting Greg and Heather and the TWINS. Greg has meetings (including "riding" a board?) so we will get to spend time with the rest of the family. We can't wait. They are growing SO FAST! Emmett is already crawling and Maggie won't be far behind.