skiing!

last weekend i went up to wintergreen to go skiing. karen's family has a cabin up there and they were nice enough to some of us use it for the weekend! i've only been skiing once before (in high school) and so was a bit nervous i'd come back with something in a cast, but was also very excited.... and in the end it was awesome! thankfully my friend claire was also a beginner so we spent much of the day learning the ropes on the bunny slopes before meeting up with others later for some intermediate runs. (expert will have to wait for another day for me!)

i only fell a few times on the whole- although one was an excellent backwards slide down an intermediate slope and the other (and my favorite) was a tumble off a ski lift that also took out two of my highly skilled friends. somehow i didn't get off the lift in time and began to panic as i felt myself rise back into the air. my first instinct was to just jump, and as i came down i lost control, taking out the guys i was with in the meantime. in my credit it was dark and icy and there were people falling off that lift about every other chair. but let's be honest i would have fallen anyways :)

all in all it was a great experience! i would alternate between loving the rush and being terrified, but i'm ready to go back again!

some of us on our way to ski!

this is in no way groundbreaking, but i was excited

i got a new computer back in the fall and of the many exciting features that come with a computer these days, one i was especially excited about was the built in camera. i haven't used it much, but while the kids were here i turned it on and with all the special effects you can add, it was endless free entertainment! here are a few of the results-

let me know if anyone ever wants to video chat!

belated Christmas update

All the Thollanders converged on Charlottesville for Christmas, and of course shenanigans ensued! The kids were adorable and hilarious like usual, and it was great to be with all the bros and sisters-in-law. i didn't take quite as many pics this year, but here are some of the kids (all the family ones are on my mom's camera)

for Jon and my annual Christmas themed dessert we decided to try a cheesecake recipe from Melissa's Grandma. we dyed the cheesecake green and then topped it with strawberries. it turned out delicious! probably our most successful dessert yet!

we also did some "Virginia activities" like visiting James Madison's home Montpelier, going to a local winery and German restaurant, and driving to Harrisonburg for a Hank Williams tribute concert including lots of banjos, mandolins, and other sweet country instruments.

Matt continued the tradition of wrapping up random junk and giving it to people "from Santa" including old never before seen artwork, retainers, and tid bits from the fridge. the fish head also made a surprise comeback this year as it had been found since last year!

the family has now left (although matt remains- hooray!) and life has pretty much returned to normal. grad school started up this week so i've been settling into that and it's going well. and back to the blogging world i come!

what have i been doing?

certainly not being a diligent blogger! let me start the updates by recapping my trip out to Palm Desert over Thanksgiving...

It was a wonderful time being with my Grandma, cousins, aunt & uncle. My folks flew out as well so it was a blast to all be together. Here I am with my cousins and Grandma-

It was the first time I had been to visit Palm Desert in seven years, and it was definitely time! Here is my beautiful Grandma on Thanksgiving

It was gorgeous out there, and I loved just driving around looking at the palm trees that lined the streets. Even the airport terminal was entirely outside and lined with palm trees. Sadly I don't have a picture of that because it was dark both times I was there, but here's the palm tree in my Grandma's front yard.

My Grandma was in great health and we went on several grand adventures. One day we drove over to the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California. It sits on the lowest elevation in the Colorado Desert and was formed in 1905 when some dams along the Colorado River broke during heavy rainfall. The entire river emptied into this basin for 2 years before it could be redirected, covering up small towns and a rail line. It has no natural outflow and is only fed by rainfall and irrigation runoff, and is therefore evaporating significantly every year. As it recedes things that had been buried keep surfacing. Its salt content is also on the rise because of the evaporation and that fact that it sits on salt beds. There were dead fish covering the sea shore due to some sort of chemical the algae lets off. It is also prone to flash floods and has buried trailers and homes before in sediment. Altogether it was sort of a depressing and gross smelling place- but very interesting!

all the brown flecks below are dead fish

another day we went to Joshua Tree National Park. It was beautiful (although quite chillier than down in the desert!) and fun to see the scenery and imagine ourselves on the cover of the u2 album. there is a lot of hiking and rock climbing but you can also drive through the entire park- which is what we did.

it was certainly a different kind of beauty that i'm used to living in VA, but it was quite interesting to experience a desert landscape in the US. i couldn't believe i had never been to either of these places out there, and it was fun to experience them with my Grandma!

all in all it was a wonderful trip and just a great time to be together with everyone.