What a difference a day makes...

Holy Blizzard today. On the same Lake that I had run with the snow shoes on yesterday, is now open water. It is just amazing that ice as thick as probably 6 inches could be broken to large pieces and floated away towards the U.P. of Michigan. Because the northern part of Green Bay is a bit bigger and closer to Lake Michigan, the bay in those parts tends not to freeze as quickly as the lower Green Bay. So, when the winds come out of the South and the temps are a bit over freezing -- then the ice breaks up and flows north.

Last night we had rain and 40's until around 6AM, it then went to the teen's, snow, and high winds. Right now we are hunkered down in the Cottage with a slight blizzard going on outside.

Guess I won't be running on the Lake for a while....

Cottage Weekend...

Tomorrow, after dropping the Mini’s off at school, Mrs. Team BRAZO and myself will be heading to the Cottage for the weekend. The Mini’s will be staying with their Grandparents.

We normally visit the Cottage every other weekend during the winter, every weekend during the spring / fall, and most of the summer. This fall/winter because of Oldest Mini’s x-country and swimming team, we have only been able to go to the Cottage about once a month.



We normally go in the winter and the Mini’s skate on the frozen Bay of Lake Michigan, they sled down the hills on our property, and from time to time we visit the local ski resort for some snowboarding. The Cottage is not located in the snow belt, but it does have the frozen lake and gets plenty of snow.

This weekend we plan on taking the cross country skis and the snowshoes to get on some trails up in Door County. This time of year is great with very few people visiting the tourist locations. The water still should be open, so we’ll enjoy sleeping with the sound of the waves hitting the shore. The only bummer is that our hot tub has been shut down for the year, so no sitting in the hot tub soaking those sore muscles.

Have a Great Weekend…

Weekend Snow Workouts…

This weekend Team BRAZO has a few items on the schedule.

Friday:

--- Oldest Mini has a swim meet – after the swim team’s big win the other night verses their main rival (first time in like 10 years that they beat that team), they are going to swim in an invitational. Oldest Mini has been complaining of a sore shoulder and cramping in the arms (probably just from overuse injuries), so hopefully they won’t effect him during the meet.

Saturday:

--- Christmas Tree cutting – on Saturday we plan on heading to the woods to cut down our Christmas tree for this year. Because the amount of snow on the ground, I’ll plan on wearing my snowshoes. This will allow me to try them out a bit before I start trying to actually run with them on.

--- Ginderbread house decoration – after we get our tree, our tradition is to come back home and we each decorate our own ginderbread houses. I like to be creative in this, so the last few years my ginderbread houses have been a “Candy Factory”, “Electrical Plant”, “A ski hill”, and last year “the Space Shuttle”. The Mini’s think it is a bit strange, but we just have a great time.

Sunday:

--- Possible SnowBoarding or Cross Country Skiing – the plans for Sunday are a bit up in the air at this time, but we have two choices SnowBoarding or Cross Country Skiing. Before I can do some Cross Country Skiing, I need to purchase some wax to get the skis ready for the trails. I’m not too sure on how to wax the skis, but with a little help from the Internet – I’ll get it done.

--- Oh and of course, watch the Green Bay Packers rack up WIN # 11…

Enjoy your weekend…

Finally – I’m a Snowboarder…

This weekend Team BRAZO made their way up to a local ski resort for a full day of snowboarding. About three (3) years ago, the Mini’s wanted to purchase some snowboard equipment so that they could board more often. So, we decided that the whole Team would get snowboarding equipment so that we could all go.

Mrs. Team BRAZO and myself where both skiers (two skis) for the majority of our lives, but decided it would be fun to try something new and we both purchased snowboards. We were both ok skiers but never the best, we just had the ability to ski down any hill – just at our own pace. So, that would be the goal for the snowboards – just to get down any size hill and have a great time.

The first year we got out on the slopes a couple of times and made some progress, but I still was not very comfortable coming down the hills on the board. The next year I was training for the Madison Marathon and didn’t want to interrupt my training with sore legs from snowboarding, so I only got on the slopes once that year. Mrs. Team BRAZO did get out a few times with the Mini’s and she actually got it down pretty darn good. She was able to come down the hill fairly effortlessly with only a few tumbles from time-to-time.

Last year I was training for IronMan Wisconsin, so no snowboarding for me. It gets my body a bit sore (just like a mid-season race) and it would distract from my training. So this year, with IronMan in the books, it was time to get back on the board.

The day was just about perfect for snowboarding. A fairly large snowstorm was forecasted to come through by mid-day on Saturday, so we left our house in the morning in order to beat the snow and the travel headaches that it brings with it. During the day we received around 8 inches of snow, so we had powder boarding all day long.

I planned on maybe two (2) hours on the slopes before I planned on retiring into the hot tub for the rest of the day. Well, things went better than planned for me on the slopes and before I knew it – I had it down. I was actually snowboarding down the hill, instead of just “making” it down the hill. I found it easy to do my heal side cuts and had no problem with the toe side cuts – which basically are the two (2) things that allow you to carve the hill and keep up some decent speed. It might seem obvious, but the trick that I found was to keep up some speed and keep the board going down hill – not hard to do, but at first you need to be brave (which I am not!).

So, the Mini’s snowboarded from 11AM to 10PM and Mrs. Team BRAZO and myself stayed on the slopes from 11AM to 5PM – only got off the slopes because our day pass ended at 5PM. We spent the rest of the evening watching the Mini’s from the Lodge and spent some time in the hot tubs.

So, finally I can say that I actually know how to Snowboard!!

Can’t wait until the next trip…

Team BRAZO Weekend Activities...

This weekend Team BRAZO is going to change things up a bit. With a big (4 to 7 inches of snow) snow storm coming through on Saturday, we are going to make our way to Devils Head Ski Resort for a bit of snowboarding.

Devils Head is having their season opening this weekend and have ½ price lift tickets and best of all $50.00 room rates. So, we’ll be spending Saturday night at the hotel enjoying the great skiing in the snow storm.

Apparently they have an indoor swimming pool (no laps this weekend) and two outdoor hot tubs – guess where I’ll be most of the day??

Mrs. Team BRAZO and myself purchased snow boards a few years ago after skiing most of our lives. The Mini’s have always snowboarded and put us to shame, but it is a blast to hang with the kids in something that they love to do.

So, have a great weekend and we’ll see ya on the slopes…