Pure Livin'

Often, the simplest recipes with only a few fresh ingredients are sometimes so unbelievably good. Well tonight, I re-discovered a simple food that I've always loved, but had recently forgotten. Roasted Beets. If you want to experience the most rich and decadent flavor, and some "Pure Livin'", as my dad would say, follow this ridiculously easy recipe.
Ingredients:
4 large beets, washed, NOT PEELED, ends trimmed. I get mine from Lewis Creek Farm.
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

**note: the reason I don't peel them is because I'm lazy. However, in my laziness, I discovered that the peels actually caramelize during the roasting process, adding an amazing crunch!

Instructions:
preheat the oven to 400 degrees. While it's heating, cut the beets into large chunks (about 1*2", or whatever size you like). Put in a bowl and toss with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread out on a cookie sheet and cook for 1 hour.

Prepare to be shocked at the flavor, and enjoy!! I find them perfect alone (and Sapphie does too). But, if you want to round it out and make a meal of it, throw it on top of some fresh spinach and sprinkle goat cheese on top. In case you need some inspiration, I stole this picture from the internet.


Yummy.....

Dowwwwn Dog!

It's amazing to me how fast time flies these days. Would you believe I have been meaning to write about baby yoga since May of last year? Finally, I'm sitting down to tell you about it.
When Sapphie was 2 months old, I signed her up for baby yoga. Evolution is such an amazing yoga studio - I had discovered it when I got pregnant and I did prenatal yoga there right up until Sapphie was born. I was so excited that they not only offer baby yoga, but post-natal yoga for new moms where you can come early, have tea with other new moms, and you can even bring your baby with you during class! Those first few months were wonderful - to go and practice yoga with other new moms, with our tiny babies laying in front of our mats. Of course, I had plans to bring Sapphie to baby yoga.

When I signed up for the class, they informed me that it was full but that they would put me on a waiting list. I was so disappointed! Then, the day before the first class, they called to say that Susan, the studio director and the baby yoga teacher, had decided to let us all in! I was SO excited. Of course the first few months of baby yoga class mainly consisted of gentle massage, singing, and putting our little ones in yoga poses like tree, happy baby, half moon, and down dog. Whenever we would put them in poses, we would softly sing the name of the pose: dowwwwn dog, or haaaalf moooon.
Here are some pictures of baby yoga class when Sapphie was about 3 months old:

That's Susan with her back facing the camera, and to her left is Sapphie! To the right is the little yoga bear that would greet each baby as he or she arrived.

Sapphie loved to lay on her belly and look at all the other babies.

Now, over a year later, Sapphie still goes to yoga although she has graduated from the baby class and is now in "New Explorers". Hannah takes her every Monday while I'm at work, but in the next few months I'll be able to start taking her again. I can't wait!
Sapphie loves yoga class and really enjoys playing with the other kids. I didn't realize, however, that her yoga lessons would actually be sinking in yet. I figured that until she was at least 6, these classes would just be a feel-good thing for me and a fun chance for Sapphie to socialize. Guess what? I was wrong.
Sapphie is totally obsessed with downward facing dog she is doing it all the time, whenever she gets the chance. It is so cute! And, to make it even cuter, she yells out "dowwwwn dog!" every time she does it:

In the kitchen

A little morning stretch

She can't get enough!

She even does down dog on the dogs!

I'm so happy to see her developing a passion for yoga. It has done so much for me, and I hope that it will continue to enrich her life as she grows.

Namaste xoxoxo

On the move

That's Sapphie now, always moving. People warn you, but there's really no way to prepare for this new stage. There are so many things happening! First of all, Sapphie is going crazy with new words. If you remember, she started shaking her head about 10 months ago, when I tried to feed her something she didn't like. Well, about a week ago, she finally started saying NO! It seems to be one of her favorite words, right behind Mummy and Daddy. She points to off-limit objects and shouts "no!". She cries and yells no when I put her in her highchair or car seat. She says no when I pick her up if she'd rather walk (she's not fully walking yet, but walks when you hold her hand). She wants to walk EVERYWHERE. She comes over to my leg and yells "mummy? Go? Go?!" And if I'm not quick to my feet, she promptly throws herself to the ground and starts writhing around like a worm. And screams. She has NO patience.
She wants it now, her way. And, when we're walking, I'd better not get too far ahead! She likes to lead the way, and if I start to get in front, she does the worm.

Sapphie loves to talk it seems! She does a lot of verbal "spewage", a lot of times nonsense but if I ask her to say a word, she tries! Some of her new words are turtle, bubbles, pizza, oh and apple! She loves apple and says "bapple!". She still loves to dance and shakes her bum or shimmees her shoulders every chance she gets. It's so cute.

I think the thing that has amazed us the most, aside from her strong will, is her love for books. If we are doing the dishes or getting dinner ready, and we can't hear Sapphie making any noise, it's a safe bet that she's in front of the bookcase, with a book in her lap. She never gets sick of flipping through books, and she does it all the time! One of her favorites is my American Kennel Club dog book. She loves looking through the pictures and making little high-pitch squeaking noises as she points to each dog. She also likes my bird book.

The dogs are still so good with her, even though she's started getting quite a little attitude with them! When Cabot begs, she yells no to him and pushes him away. Most of the time she hugs and kisses them, but she also likes to pull their tails and poke them in their ears. She loves to help me clean Cooper's ears.

My favorite picture this month? Probably this one of her with the dogs. I love how much she loves them.

I LOVE this picture of Sapphie and Auntie P, on Penelope's wedding day

And here are a few more! Not as overwhelming as usual. I'm going to be better about blogging more frequently!

2nd Best Day of Season (by Kevin)

The Snow Gods have been very favorable for sure these last couple of days. A melt down in the Valley region did not cause any problems with higher elevation snow. The mountains have been getting an inch or two of fresh snow every night since last Wednesday's big storm. It has kept the mountain fresh and the woods very deep.

Saturday I headed back off to Sugarbush to try to find some more powder stashes three days after the big storm. I was skeptical that I was going to find anything being so many days removed from the Powda Day. None the less I was off; determined to find something. On my way down I made plans to hook up with Mike Weston, or Westy as his friends call him. He happened to be in the lodge when I arrived sitting with his friend Tom and John Egan. John Egan is an old school extreme skier and probably one of the best skiers I have every skied with before. I have had the chance a couple of times to ski with him on First Track days but this was going to be a totally different experience to say the least. By the time I arrived at the mountain Mike and Tom had hooked up with Egan and made arrangements to ski / take a lesson with him for about 3 to 4 hours.



We saddled up and headed up the mountain. I have not taken a ski lesson since I was little but after a day with John it was way over due. Just the initial ride up the chair I learned something new and I knew this was going to be a great day learning new techniques for the steeps, deeps and bumps. We started off on some moderate steeps learning some new step turning techniques and attacking the down hill slope. We then ventured into the deep woods and I skied areas of the mountain that I did not know existed. I have been skiing Sugarbush since I was 4 yrs old and he took us into some terrain that was amazing.



I found new hot spots for steep and deep skiing and John lead us to untracked 52" deep snow three days after the storm. It was fabulous. I had not skied that hard in a long time and it was great to get a refresher on some things that needed tweaking and fine tuning. I feel as if I regained an edge that I had lost in my skiing. I found a new sense of control and aggressiveness that maybe was put away in the closet since Sapphire was born.



So I would recommend spending some time and brushing up on areas of your life that may need a tune up. You are never too old to learn.

John Egan and I in the backcountry off of Castlerock, First Tracks await ahead of us. Don't ask me how to get there because I wont tell you. Yes that is a shit eating grin on my face. There were open tracks of runway between these covered pines that allowed for great deep turns in the snow. It was amazing. Not another person around for miles.
Beautiful Flora and Fauna covered under 52 inches of fresh snow