The Invasion of the CheeseHeads

I kept meaning to post during our extended break at the barn but with all the strenuous skiing, and eating, and drinking, and napping, you know, a girl just couldn't keep up.
First, our 13th annual Porkies Fest was a tremendous success. There were a few traveling snafus for the group (one involving Homeland Security but we won't get into that) but by Thursday evening, most everyone had arrived and we convened at the Lake Placid Brew Pub. Joe and I had never eaten there before, but a friend was enamored by something called "The Growler" so we couldn't resist. After hugs, and helloes, and quick catch ups on life, it was like family, everyone falling into their familiar roles, complete with on-going story lines and great jokes.

For days 2-4, groups convened, regrouped, and headed off for cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, sledding, shopping, etc. Whiteface was more crowded than I had ever seen it, but we all managed to ski ourselves silly, staying on the upper mountain and finding the lifts less traveled.

Tom, bravely keeping with his role of obsessive compulsive outdoor nut in the group, tackled the entire Jack Rabbit Trail. He seems to think it went quite well but his wife now refers to the trail as the Jack Ass Trail, so draw your own conclusions. Tom and Katrina also brought out the big guns in preparing oven fried chicken and home made macaroni and cheese. Did they think we had all skied the Jack Rabbit that day?

Not to be outdone on the dinner front, Mark and Carter, while caring for a feisty young lass named Maeve, still managed to cook up a pasta feast for the ages and take in some dog sled racing on Mirror Lake. Mark treated us to.... "The Best of Shania Twain?"

Dan and Jill made a great breakfast but will be most remembered and revered for bringing an unwieldy amount of wine that still seemed to have disappeared. We must have been using it in the cooking.....

While we missed Laura and Courtney, we still enjoyed the Half Nelson and Jim managed to push delicious berry pancakes onto everyone's plates and then managed to push all Dan's bachelor buttons. Eric was a participant in the great "Oreo Cookie Robbery" which ended with boys hiding in their beds with squirrel cheeks and black teeth.

Sarah and Jessica brought out some delicious casseroley breakfast thing and also brought out their usual "FiredUpNess" (quoted directly from Joe). They both have an unrivaled talent for "giving the business" to the man folk in the crowd which I particularly enjoy. Thanks Ladies! They also made it to The Waterhole to check out the Saranac Lake male species, but no man was lucky enough to ensnare them in his charm trap. Maybe next year fellas. In the meantime, feel free to send pictures c/o 46er family.

Clarke and Oscar were thrilled to ski with their heroes, Eric, Jim, Dan (aka Big Air Spider Dan) and were proud of their new Black Diamond Prowess.

Joe arrived on the scene just in time to get the trapeze up and running and soon it became a focal point. Of course!

Embarrassingly, I took no pictures of anything other than sitting around eating and drinking but hopefully Jim can add a few to prove we actually left the house.




After the hordes left, we had a few days with Big Air complete with more skiing and some poker and then our final fun left. The rest of the week consisted of Joe sick as a dog on the couch, a few days of work for me, and then....a few more days of skiing!

We were very proud of the Barn for staying in one piece with all systems working. It was like we had always imagined. When Jim starting talking about grand kids at Porkies Fest 25, I became a little scared though.