April 2, 2012 - Idaho Ski trip

Schweitzer closes in 1 week so we headed over to North Idaho on Friday after the kids got out of school at noon (a half day) which is the beginning of Spring break.  This is our last Idaho ski trip of the season, but we anticipate several more trips to Grouse Mountain just outside of Vancouver BC before they stop skiing there, which could go into May.

We were going to go skiing on Saturday but the forecast was calling for the snow to turn to rain by 11:00AM.  So we instead went to the mall to see a robotics exhibit.  It was extremely interesting.  Basically, there is a "club" in the high school and they compete in national events following strict rules that tell them the task the robot must solve, how the robot can be built, the max dimensions of the robot, etc.  What a learning experience for these kids.  Apparently most of them go on to great colleges and head into engineering/computers/science.

Here, Kevin is rolling a big ball back to a robot that will lift it up and drop it somewhere else.

Kevin and a few of the robots in the background.

These high schoolers built a robot to solve the Rubic's Cube.  It had a camera that looked at the colors, and a computer figured out the steps needed to solve it, and then the robot manipulated the cube.  Amazing.

On Sunday we did go skiing and it snowed hard.  It was a pretty good day of skiing.  Kevin is getting very brave.  He is now asking to go down black diamond (advanced) and double-black diamond (expert) runs.  Cindy is not quite as daring, but she is turning into a great skier.

Kevin about to head down an advanced run.

Cindy and Bob skiing in the trees.

Nice view of the village.  Bob and Kevin on the far left side.

Bob (Pops) displaying his near-perfect form.  Looking good Bob!

Sunday was April Fool's Day.  We have a long standing tradition in our family of making foods for the kids that look real but are made with totally different ingredients.  This year it was sushi rolls made from green fruit rollups, rice crispy cereal, and gummy worms.  They also enjoyed chicken pot pie made from pudding, corn and carrots formed from Starburst candies, and chicked made from dried apple slices.  Yummy :-)

April Fool's chicken pot pie.

Sushi?  Well, it looks like it, but it's not.

On Monday Steve, Bob, and Kevin went skiing.  Cindy opted to stay home with Mom and Grandma.  It was great skiing on Monday. After skiing, Kathy and Steve drove back to La Conner while the kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa (Grams and Pops) for the rest of the week.  We hear the kids are having a great time in Idaho without us.  They went skiing, played in the snow, worked on crafts, played Wii and Legos, played lots of games with Grams and Pops, and more.

We get them back on Friday, and then we are heading out on the boat for the weekend.  Finally, a blog entry that features the boat?  It's about time.