Winter in April

I can hardly believe that it's late May already, and Spring seems to have finally arrived here in Colorado. Nonetheless, we did not escape Winter so easily. She came in April this year! We had beautiful sunshine and we had wet and heavy snow. It was wonderful and beautiful. 

One day we even got a snow day. It was fantastic. A perfect day to rest do some cooking! Alas, there was no rest in us... We had too many things we wanted to do.

Jody made a stew. I made chocolate chip cookies. And I even had enough creative juices flowing to make my own gluten-free concoction since I couldn't eat the cookies. I'm immensely proud of myself, since I feel I lack creativity most of the time. :)

The chocolate chip cookies are a mainstay, even though I can't eat them. I love being able to share the love, though. :)

Our snow day creations

So these beautiful treats are completely gluten free and consist of the following ingredients:

• oat flour
• bananas
• egg whites
• shredded coconut
• cocoa powder
• coconut oil
• coconut sugar
• baking soda
• salt
• chocolate chips

And they were delicious! Their consistency is that of a muffin, I would say. They are moist, but not gooey. And they keep for a lot longer than a lot of GF items. I made this recipe first on the fly, and then tried to re-create it (doubling it), and it turned out just as good the second time. Yay!

Our snow day adventures continued! After all the baking, it was time for some stew dinner, some Dr. Zhivago (Jody had never seen the movie before), and then some snow ice cream. :) Haha. So, Jody went outside and got some fresh snow.

Then it was time for some sugar, vanilla and milk. Honestly, this was my first time having snow ice cream, and it was delicious and tasted far more similar to store-bought ice cream than I could have ever imagined. Win for Jody's mom (Go Pam!)... I am more impressed with her creativity with her boys with each passing year. :)

Wintertime Happiness

Jody and I have often bemoaned winters in Colorado. If you don't like to (or don't want to spend the money to) ski, then there is little you can do. So we have spent previous winters holed away in our place watching movies, reading books, and generally waiting for the temperatures to rise and the snow to melt so we can get up in the mountains and do our summertime backpacking and camping. But not this year!

This year we decided to embrace wintertime. We got snowshoes! Oh yes. And it is everything we hoped for. We actually bought them before we'd ever gone snowshoeing, but we figured that snowshoeing is basically hiking (which we know we love) with some extra help to navigate deep snow. And it's true. We love snowshoeing for the same reasons we love hiking. Once you have the basic gear, it's free. You can go anywhere, blazing your own trails through the trees, not just the ski slopes. And, my favorite feature is that you get to be alone. Away from people, cars, the noise of the city.

There's nothing better than being outside in the mountains... And... wait for it... Oh wait, you can't hear anything. It's what heaven is going to be like, I'm sure. 

The first time Jody and I went snowshoeing, we went with Uncle Pete. Uncle Pete is my dad's best friend. They met back in the 70s (or was it the 60s?), when Dad lived here in Colorado - even before Dad met my mom. Dad didn't get married until he was 30, so his 20s were spent living it up in Colorado back when it was really a cow town, undiscovered by the hordes. Dad and his buddies did everything here - hunting, fishing, skiing, camping... everything. And Uncle Pete was one of his buddies. Well, fast-forward to the present, and Dad and the rest of the family now live in Virginia, but Uncle Pete is still here in Colorado. And they talk, oh, almost every day. For me, it's been so fun to re-connect with Uncle Pete as an adult, now that Jo and I live here. We check in every few months, and it's always such a great time. So many great stories from when he and my dad were younger!

The day we went snowshoeing for the first time, it was 8 degrees out. Though the sun was shining, it was freezing, and the wind was blowing. If we hadn't packed winter layers, it would have been absolutely miserable. Thankfully, we had everything we needed to stay *mostly* warm, and I learned a valuable lesson. Playing in the snow is only fun if you're really prepared. Otherwise, it's wet and cold. (Yay for Eddie Bauer's First Ascent gear! Totally the best EVER!) 

Happy. Happy. Happy!