Capturing the Moment

     Winter Challenge is on! Luckily, where I live turns into a winter wonderland at the end of every year. This year we are off to a great start. Stowe, Vermont is a quintessential New England small town. The church dominates Main Street, Christmas lights are everywhere, and the mountain is covered in fluffy, white snow. One of the biggest draws of Stowe for me is the outdoor community and all the activities that are available. At this time of year you could switch between skiing, snowboarding, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing.    I've been hitting the slopes in the mornings, trying to beat the crowd and advance my snowboarding skills. But now, with the kids out of school, its time to get them on the slopes. Today was our first day as a family, so we kept it easy. It was a blustery, cold, snowy morning, but the kids did great. We started with a run on the magic carpet, then the older two took to the adventure triple lift with Heidi. I stayed for a few more...

View into Smuggler's Notch at the top of Vermont      September 22 means the first day of Fall, and that is a big deal here in Stowe, Vermont. This part of the Northeast of the United States, is quite famous for its beautiful fall foliage. To celebrate the turning of seasons I hit the mountains with the whole family. First we grabbed our Epic ski passes for an early season trip up the Gondola at Stowe Mountain Resort. This took us very close to the highest peak of Vermont, called Mount Mansfield. We had a great view from the top. The kids really wanted to do some rock climbing and some mountain goating, which is what they call hiking on the boulder strewn trail heading up towards the peak. It is pretty impressive to see how there hiking skills and coordination have really improved.     After waving at every gondola on our way down, we had one more stop to check out. At the entrance to Smuggler's Notch, there is a beautiful boardwalk trail which heads into a beav...

  3 MIN READ 546 WORDS Rainbows and basking sea turtles, what more could kids ask for. We just returned from three and a half weeks in Maui with the family. Knowing that our time there was so short, we really packed in a lot of activities. We took the kids to Iao Valley, surfing, the aquarium, a snorkel trip to Molokini Crater, to crazy pools, the Lavender farm, and countless times to the beach. As the kids get older they can enjoy the beach in new, fun ways. We tried out many different beach around Maui. We didn't venture to the West side, as we wanted to give Lahaina a little more time to breathe and recover after the destruction from the fires. We went to a lot of favorite spots in Kihei and Wailea, as well as venturing to a new spot on the North Shore. Some beaches we couldn't help but go back to over and over because they were just so nice. It turns out that you would need a lot more time if you wanted to explore all the beaches on Maui. Maybe a lifetime. On the southside ...

  Today we entered into familiar territory for me. We woke up this morning to the cool breeze created by a massive tidewater glacier called Margerie glacier. Glacier Bay National Park itself it massive, at 3.2 million acres. Numerous glaciers tumble out of the 15,000ft mountain range which make the park. As these glaciers recede, more and more water is left in the fjords for us to explore by ship. This is how most people visit this park, but we are a little different. We wanted to make it off the ship for some kayaking adventuring to get closer to the action. Even though I have been in this park many times, leading tours just like this, I had never done activities at this glacier. And I've definitely never done this with my family! So I was pretty excited. I jumped in the back of a tandem kayak and my wife and son sat in the front. We kayaked along incredible steep walls, with waterfalls coming off, and nesting sea birds calling to each other as we passed. As we got closer to the g...