Well, it’s been a slow start to the new year. It sure is hard to believe that it’s already the middle of January but here we are. Like a lot of people, the shorter days and poor weather have resulted in me spending a lot more time than I’d like indoors. However, unlike most people I know the thing I’ve been waiting for to motivate me get outside is snow!

As you may remember, last year we got more than our share of snow. And I loved it. I also happened to be spending every other day at home with my son who was only in school part time, so we spent a LOT of time outside playing, sliding, building snow forts and hiking. I especially enjoyed the hiking, and although we found ourselves on many occasions trudging though knee deep freshly fallen snow, I put off the urge to buy snowshoes. So this year a set of snowshoes was on all of our wish lists and Santa was kind enough to oblige. However, Mother Nature did not hold up her end of the bargain, so we were a little cranky on Christmas morning…

It was a green Christmas to be sure, so instead of playing in the snow, we spent two days building Legos and trying to figure out where we’d find enough snow to go hiking within a reasonable distance. I was very tempted to drive to Algonquin because I knew there was snow there. But the idea of driving 5 hours round trip to spend an hour hiking made me want to stay inside and build more Lego. So we did.

Finally, we started to get some snow in the area, so last week we headed down to Sandbanks in hopes of finding some snow but found little more than a dusting. Back to Lego.

This past weekend, we finally got tired of waiting for the snow to come to us and instead decided to head north to Silent Lake where we hit the jackpot! Plenty of fresh snow, with nary a footprint besides a ton of rabbit tracks. A veritable winter wonderland. Fresh air, exercise, piles of snow. Just what I needed. Then we were so pooped, we went home and… you guessed it… built Lego.

So I guess that’s how it became the middle of January. Still hard to believe though. Either way, it’s high time I spent more time outside, getting some more fresh air and taking pictures.