Yesterday, I decided to take the weekend off from racing to enjoy the final bit of Spring Break. We had a great adventure out at Mount Cheaha. I biked from Birmingham to Cheaha, and Kristine drove the kids out there to meet me for a short hike, dinner, and then a drive home together.
Earlier in the week, we had ridden down to the La Crosse field to try out the balsa wood airplanes that Papa Dale had sent us. After the warning in the instruction manual, we were thinking that we might need to find an abandoned run-way. The plane did take off pretty fast. Check out the video below:
Friday night, Lech and Ava came to spend the night with us. Saturday night, Kristine took the kids over to spend the night with Lauren and Anna while Lennie and I traveled down to St Francisville, Louisiana to race Rouge Roubaix. Check out the pictures and videos on our blog (if you are reading on facebook).
First on the menu Saturday morning was a trip through the woods to the Rocky Ridge playground. Kristine got this great picture of Analise and Josiah with Lech and Ava. Walking through the woods to the Rocky Ridge playground.
Analise and Josiah had two friends from church (Lech and Eva) spend the night tonight. What fun adventures we had! We walked over through the woods to pick up Analise from school. The “river” formed by the run-off from the heavy rain a couple days ago was a big hit. Also, the beautiful spring flowers were blooming. And to top it all off, we got a surprise bunny rabbit to “bunnysit” for the weekend. Check out the photos and videos below – (if you are reading this on Facebook, then click here to view the video on our blog: http://www.toonesalive.com/blog/family/?p=2612)
Yesterday was a great day for the Moon and the Toone families! Kristine and Kim have been inspiring each other and training together, and it all came together yesterday with thousands of others at the Mercedes Half-Marathon. Lennie and I loaded up the kids into the Moon mini-van and headed to Mile 8 on Highland Avenue to wait for them to come running by. For about 20 minutes straight, the kids rang their cow bells and generated quite a lot of smiles on the runners who saw them – including our very own Team Moon-Toone. Check out the photos and videos below. If you are reading this on Facebook, then watch the videos by clicking here to read this post on our blog.
Video of the 2011 Mercedes Half Marathon Team Moon-Toone Cheering Squad at Mile 8
Video of the 2011 Mercedes Half Marathon Team Moon-Toone Finish
A couple inches of beautiful snow last night meant a couple hours delay to the start of the school day for Analise and Josiah. We walked as a family over the hill and through the woods to both schools, and the kids enjoyed the walk. But before that, they enjoyed sledding in our yard even more! And Josiah ate maybe a pound of snow on the way into school. All that and more in the pictures and videos below. If you are reading on facebook, then watch the videos and see all the pictures on our our blog.
First, the beautiful falling snow from last night.
We just survived what was being called “snowmageddon” here in Alabama. Unfortunately, the bulk of the snow was just north of Birmingham with some places getting over 6-8 inches of snow. The snowfall dropped sharply below a line about 10 miles north of us with only about an inch of snow and another inch of sleet/freezing rain falling here in our part of Hoover. But it was enough to cancel school for two days (Monday and Tuesday)! The pictures below document the story – hover over each one to see a caption.
Today, we had some really interesting weather – 21 degrees and raining! Yes, the freezing rain that started right around dinner time was treacherous. Within 15 minutes, you could barely walk to the car and drive a couple blocks down the street to the sledding hill. So imagine how fast the sledding hill was. On the first run, I started Analise halfway down the little hill and she still went straight into the woods. So I started Josiah a lot lower, and he still went into the trees, too! Fortunately, there was some deeper snow and smaller brush to slow them down before plowing into any of the big trees! We went over to the big hill and only managed one crazy run each starting from near the bottom of the hill. Analise still flew at least two feet into the air on her first run and landed hard enough to knock both of her boots right off her feet. Fortunately the landing also scrubbed most of her momentum. After watching this, I took Josiah down the hill practically to the bottom, let him go, and he still went nearly all the way down to the football field. We decided it was way too dangerous to continue. You could probably hit 30-40mph with the right sled starting from the top if you could steer it down the path to the football field!
Video of Analise and Josiah sledding into the woods (watch on our blog if you are reading this in Facebook):
Today was our final day at the Heartwood Cabin we had been staying at. Even though we woke up to a light misty rain, Kristine and her dad were able to get in another good (albeit slushy) round of skiing while Analise went ice skating, and Josiah and I went sledding. Right now, we are back in Shell Lake where the rain has started to mix with snow, and there is a forecast of maybe an inch or two of snow overnight.
If you are reading this on Facebook, click here to watch the videos on our blog.
Kristine cross country skiing in the light rain (video):
Analise and Josiah had such a blast this morning sledding. I posted one quick video earlier today, but here are a few more really good videos of them having fun. We went sledding for almost two and a half hours without them even once complaining about the cold. They were having so much fun!
Analise super far sled almost to the football field video:
Josiah and Analise on the big hill video:
Two person sled launching on the big jump (at the very end of the video):
After lunch, we packed up and headed even farther into the northwoods to a rural retreat center where we are having a mini-vacation tonight. Kristine and her dad went skiing for over an hour on the trails while the kids played legos inside. I biked up from Shell Lake to join everyone shortly before dinner. Then after a fancy dinner, we went ice skating – Josiah’s first time on skates.
