Back to the northern hemisphere for winter

Why? Because winter rocks! And it is good to spend time with family.

This post reflects back upon the five months spent at home spending time with friends and family and, of course, skiing.

After leaving Hank in good hands with Susan and Ruedi at Posada Casa Viejo in Uruguay, I flew home to Oregon in time for the holidays. The first stop was to see Mom on Christmas Day, then to head to Troy and Katy's house for Christmas dinner and getting together with the Troftgruben clan. Always nice to see everyone at Christmas. So fun to be with Henry again.

After the holidays, it was time to go skiing. We spent the first weekend in January in Bend and skiing at Mt. Bachelor. Henry, Kirsten and Randy were going to join us, but unfortunately Henry was sick. After spending more time with Henry the next week and seeing mom, it was time for me to hit the road again, this time heading to Idaho and points beyond on a skiing road trip and to visit with more family. Meanwhile, Sheri headed to a resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with her good friend, Kelly, for some quality pool time.

The first stop was Brundage Mountain near McCall, Idaho, then to Sun Valley and Pomerelle near Twin Falls. On the way I stopped in Stanley, Idaho, to go to one of my favorite hot springs on the Salmon River and see some of my favorite mountains, the Sawtooths. Then on to Salt Lake City to see and ski with Zach and Jenna. Unfortunately I had a bad bone bruise on my shin, so I ended up skiing only one day in Utah. I then headed to Carbondale, Colorado, to see my nephew, Ethan, and ski at Aspen, but the bone bruise said "no" to skiing. I was also able to visit with some friends we met on our Antarctic cruise, Marty and Susy. Marty is an amazing woodworker, building some beautiful wooden dories for river running. Nice to see them again.

From Carbondale, I headed to Denver to meet Sheri at the airport. After dinner with our nephew, Nick, and his girlfriend, Jen, we drove to Winterpark and met Tom and Joaquin to ski, but there was to be no skiing for me until the bone bruise healed. Still, it was great to hang out with Tom and Joaquin.

From Colorado, Sheri and I headed back west to Salt Lake City with another stop to see Ethan in Carbondale, as well as dinner with our good friends, Gary and Leslie. Since skiing was not in the cards, we decided to visit the beautiful sandstone country around the Colorado National Monument, Fisher Towers, and Arches National Park on the way to Salt Lake.

We flew home from Salt Lake City at the end of January for Henry's birthday (three years-old) and to visit our parents. After returning, we headed to Jackson Hole for more skiing. On the way we stopped at Henry, Idaho (population maybe a dozen) and had a nice visit with the owner of the Henry Store. My bone bruise was feeling better, so I was able to get in some skiing. But then we both came down with bad colds (damn airplanes). However, it didn't stop us from going out swing dancing at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and the Wort Hotel (good memories of going there with mom and her friend, Claire). We also drove around to see the scenery and some bighorn sheep.

After Jackson, we headed to Rexburg, Idaho, to visit my uncle Jim and my cousin, Tiffany and her husband, Jeff. A short but nice visit with them, then on to West Yellowstone and skiing at Big Sky. Unfortunately we were feeling worse, so we ended up just staying in our condo at West Yellowstone and not skiing. It helped to rest and we started feeling better. We then started our trip heading north to Canada. On the way we stopped in Bozeman and visited with a friend from graduate school, Bruce Maxwell. We also stopped to visit with Sue (a famous Tyrannosauras rex at the palentology museum).

On to Canmore, Alberta, where we met up with Matt and Ashley and had a great time skiing at Sunshine and Lake Louise, as well as some great meals in Banff. The four of us celebrated Valentines Day together at a nice Greek restaurant in town. It was so much fun seeing them and getting to know Ashley better. After dropping Sheri off at the airport in Calgary and a couple more days skiing at Banff, it was time for me to start heading for home. On the way home I stopped to ski at Panorama in BC and Schweitzer in northern Idaho. As luck would have, Jack and Lucy were at Schweitzer, so we got to ski together. Jack is a good friend of the boys from high school. I used to take him with us skiing on many weekends.

Heading home from the ski road trip, I stopped to visit with mom and my sister, Janet. The next three weeks were time with Henry and going up to visit mom. I also got to ski with Tom and Joaquin at Crystal Mountain. Then on March 11th, Sheri and I flew to Switzerland to visit Zach and Jenna who were spending much of the winter there at Jenna's grandmother's chalet. More on our trip to Europe in the next blog post.

After returning home from Europe in April, we drove south to California for a reunion with my good friends from high school, Dave, Jeff, and Ken, and their wives, Karen and Liz (unfortunately Ken's wife, Dana, was unable to join us). We all get together at least every year. We enjoyed a wonderful Passover dinner at Jeff and Liz's with their kids and their families. Much of the long weekend was spent drinking wine and beer, although we did manage to throw in a few walks. Dave and I also went to the spring scrimmage of our alma mater, the Cal Bears. Such a wonderful weekend.

Sheri flew home from Oakland to tend Henry and I stopped at Palisades Tahoe to do a little skiing on the way back, as well as seeing Zach and Jenna in Bend.

One of the very special highlights of the winter was going skiing with Henry for his first time. We had such a great time. He kept telling me "I want to go fast!" He was so excited. And being Henry, he asked many questions. "How does the magic carpet work?" "How does the chairlift work?"

The next few weeks was mostly time spent at home (or within a day's driving distance) with the notable exception of a week in Puerto Vallarta to celebrate Randy and Kirsten's marriage. They got married during the pandemic and had only three people at their wedding in their backyard. That was five years ago, and to mark the occasion, they renewed their wedding vows with family present in Puerto Vallarta. The added bonus is that we had a very special person there with us, Henry! It was a beautiful ceremony, and so nice to have family there. Matt and Ashley and Zach and Jenna were all there. Matt did the photography, which was special. It was nice visiting with Kirsten's dad, Tom, and getting to know Randy's parents, Randy Sr. and Teresa, better. At dinner one night, the kids and Sheri surprised me with a birthday celebration. So nice. Henry was so fun. We got to fly there and back with him, and have him at our house for the next week while Kirsten and Randy relaxed at the resort.

During the spring we had Henry with us at our house a few days each week. And nearly every week we did the 4-hour drive up I-5 to see mom, as well as Hartley and Jacque. We had a nice Easter with family at Kirsten and Randy's. I had a wonderful birthday at home with Henry and Sheri. Henry and I went out for coffee and hot chocolate, watered the plants, went for a bike ride, had a delicious barbecue and chocolate cake in the backyard, and read bedtime stories together. The best birthday!

We were also able to go skiing at Mt. Bachelor and Meadows a few more times, as well as see Zach and Jenna in Bend. And we got a chance to take Henry skiing for the second time. We had more time to visit with friends, and got to go to Terra’s lacrosse game. On our last weekend home, we celebrated Kirsten’s birthday by going wine tasting, including having friends Kelly, Ken and Dana join us.

Nice to be home for awhile and see family and friends.