RILEY AND JEN GET MARRIED

Our grandnephew Riley got married over in Washington to his long time sweetheart Jen a couple of weeks ago.  They came home to the Bitterroot for a couple of days to celebrate with the family.  So we had a little party up by the sledding hill for them.  Big fire and a chili feed with a lot of friends and relatives.  It was a great time and got to see folks that I have not seen in months.

The group sitting around the fire on hay bales.

Sherrie, Leah, and Angie the mother of the groom.

Sadie and Zach.

Tracy and Angie family: the new addition Jen, Riley, Tracy, Angie, Ham, and Ky.

CHRISTMAS UPDATE

We had a great Christmas here in the Bitteroot.  Mother nature provided us with a lot of snow and the ski resort did not groom any of the runs!!  Never seen that before.  And it was really light dry powder what we call "COLD SMOKE".  Many runs were made and many legs were tired!!  As we usually do, we skied with Ike and Brenda and also their son Riley came over from Bozeman.  Had a great ski day followed by a great dinner here at our place. 

Getting our gear on.  You can tell the lodge is not very crowed.

Ike and Brenda making some good powder turns.

If you look close, you can see Brenda trying to catch a snow flake on her tongue!

Riley on his board.  If you look up the run you can see Ike working his way down.

Just some pictures around the house.

Zeph laying in the sun.

Our Christmas Tree!  Connie always has some unusual ones!!

Dell likes to cover up with the rug in front of the fire

Our niece Teresa and her two granddaughters Hayden and Peyton, who only wants front teeth for Christmas!

MORE FROSTY PICTURES

We still have some inversion around here, but it is showing signs of breaking up.  Lots of frost on trees, shrubs, grass, etc.

Zeph and Dell taking a break from chasing each other around the house.

You can see the inversion layer just below us.

We did have a great sunset the other night.

FROSTY AND COLD

We have had some cold and frosty days here in the Bitterroot.  High pressure and the lack of winds has enabled some stagnate air to settle into the valley.  Makes for some nice frosty pictures, but I would rather have the sunshine and not the fog.  Temps have been in the single digits or lower teens at night and higher teens during the day.  Took Zeph for a nice walk this afternoon and did get above the fog and clouds.  It was certainly warmer up higher that is for sure.

Connie is busy getting Christmas things done.  We do not have a tree up yet and not sure what we are going to do for a tree this year.  Connie does not do traditional trees but we just might have one this year.  I found a very distinctive Charley Brown tree but that was a little much for her to accept so we will just have to wait and see!!!!

With the fog we have a lot of frost sticking to everything!

Zeph and I on our walk this afternoon. 

Above the inversion layer, it was warmer and visibility was much better.

FIRST DAY OF SKIING THIS WINTER

Connie and I ventured up to Lost Trail to pick up our season passes and make a few runs to make sure we could remember how to ski.  The skiing was actually very good as it has been quite cold so the snow has not set up.  We made a number of top to bottom runs to try and get our legs in shape for the season.  Also ran into some of the old guys who have been on the mountain a number of times.  Hope I am still skiing at their age!

Connie looking good in her new ski coat. 

The cover was good on the groomed runs.

Quite a few stumps showing under the lift though.