Fun Part 1: Hanging Out, Barnebirkie

As promised, the fun has begun. Jessica arrived on Wednesday with Leo and Maia. There was immediately some "piling on Nana."

Will, Sandy, and Anders arrived the next afternoon. They had stopped at the Birkebeiner Expo for awhile in the afternoon, and Anders found this new cross-country skiing outfit.

Later that same day, Sandy's sister, Sarah, and her family (Mike, Zach, Drew, and Jake) joined us as well. On Friday morning, I fixed egg, ham and cheese muffins for everyone. There were lots of smiles around the table. Jessica's Mike arrived as well, so we are now eight adults and six delightful youngsters.

After breakfast, it was out into the snow. The temperatures have been pretty warm the last couple days, so being outside has been more than comfortable. Will put a harness on his dog, Kelso, and so he pulled kids up and down the driveway and along the road leading to our place.

Maia and Leo liked that!

I asked for goofy faces for the following shot. Everyone but Leo.

The Barnebirkie children's event was scheduled for the middle of the day. Both Anders and Maia were participants. Here they are with their bibs and event ski caps after checking in at the registration desk.

Will shared this photo of Anders getting ready for the start of his 3K event.

I had already traveled to the downtown area, where the finish line is located on Main Street (closed to traffic and covered with snow for all the Birkebeiner events).

Anders soon came flying by and looking quite practiced. I saw him but wasn't ready in time to take pictures. Fortunately, Will shared one of his with me.

A change this year was this constructed hill or bridge over US Highway 63. The kids all skied across Hayward Lake, then into town, over this hill, and down Main Street to the finish line or on to longer stretches of their respective event (there were 1K, 3K and other events for different age groups). I'm guessing that 80% of all the participants took a tumble on the downside of the hill. Anders, who has been taking cross country skiing lessons for a few years, handled it really well.

Jessica said that she didn't recall Maia having been on downhills before, though she is out on skis quite often. She did really well almost all the way down and then tumbled near the bottom.

But she was right back up and on her way to the finish line.

Event organizers had set up an award stand for photos, so I took this shot of our two champions.

Proud parents and siblings welcomed them at the end.