Up North, Part 2

A lot of my time when we go up to Covenant Pines is spent reading or writing, generally being restful and contemplative. Which isn't the whole time, of course, when we go as a family. The boys are pretty good about doing their own thing. They like to read and draw. This time we took a large baggie of Legos with so they played with those for a while. We often play a few games while we're there; one of the closets in the living room contains a few donated games including Life, which apparently has become their favorite. So while they're doing those activities, I can usually get in some down-time (and my wife usually knits or, more recently, spends her time studying).

But we also try to get out some. The camp has a gym area where we go and play carpet ball (a camp favorite), foosball, or ping pong. There's a playground the boys like to spend some time at, along with a zip-line. And there's a tubing hill. I don't think I need to say more about that.

This year my wife also tried introducing them to cross-country skiing. Nils tried it first while Anders and I were on a hike (we made tracks in the snow for playing Fox and Geese--a tag game that's usually played on a basic course, but we like to make our own. It also becomes really good exercise with just one person chasing the other trying to tag them it).

Nils does a lot of complaining and whining, as most six-year olds do (at least we like to hope it's not just us dealing with it). So at some point while on the skis, he tends to flop down and complain that he's tired. Or if he falls, he'll lay in the snow and cry. Which of course is very tiresome for the parents. But overall, he did pretty well for his age. He was even willing to try and go up small hills, knowing he could ski back down them.

Anders became a Nordic fanatic. It was his thing. Which was fun to discover. He tends to not like many athletic endeavors. So we'll have to start keeping an eye out at the thrift stores and at sales. Maybe four sets of skis will become our family Christmas present next year.

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Before going up we were warned there was going to be a big snowstorm over the weekend. We decided to take the Blazer, which we seldom drive because its a gas guzzler, but it does have 4-wheel drive. We were (not-so) secretly hoping we would get snowed in an extra day and not be able to make it back for school and work on Monday.

This, of course, never happened. We kept hearing from friends in the Twin Cities that they were getting hit with icy rain, then ice pellets, then snow. All the while we didn't see a single flake.

Until we got on the road to go home. Then it snowed the whole way. Thankfully many other people were headed back from Up North to the Twin Cities, so we could follow the car ahead of us--otherwise it was difficult to see the lanes on the road.

We managed to get back just in time for church, only to hear that it had been cancelled. Oh well...at least we had time to unpack and unwind after a good weekend up North.