I'm Back!

Hello!

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days!  I have been having tons of fun soaking up my last days :'( of Christmas break.  Can you believe that school is back in TOMORROW???  I can't.

On Wednesday, I completed the Perplexus puzzle ONE TO ONE-HUNDRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have been trying to complete it for quite a while, and I FINALLY got it!  You're probably wondering what the Perplexus is.  Well...

...THAT is the Perplexus!  In a nutshell, you basically have a little silver metal ball that you are trying to move around on the tracks without falling off.  It is hard because of the MANY obstacles that you encounter along the way.  The tracks have numbers on it from 1-100.  I have been working on it for about 2 years, off and on, and I decided to bring it out again on Tuesday.  I started off pretty well, and completed both level 2 and 3 pretty quickly.  I had never fully completed level 2 or 3; only level 1.  So, that made me happy!  My goal then became to complete level 1-3 (1-100).  I wanted to complete it on Tuesday, but that didn't happen.  Then, after about 4 straight hours of working on it on Wednesday (yes, I was slightly obsessed), I GOT IT!!!!!!  It was an amazing moment of joy.  I am now working on the Perplexus Epic...

...which is insanely hard.  Unlike the Original Perplexus, it does not have levels, it is just one thing that goes from 1-125.  The obstacles are WAY harder than the Original Perplexus.  So, I will let you know when I complete this one.  It may be awhile, because I've only gotten to 26.

On Thursday and Friday, we went skiing.  We had a lot of fun, and I am starting to go on some more fun, advanced runs!  I love it!

Yesterday (Saturday) we went skating on WILD ICE!!!  We had a 45 minute to an hour hike in the snow to get to the lake.  Some of the terrain was flat, but most of it was sloped.  We had to pack in our skates, extra clothing, and all our food for the day.  It was fun to hike in the snow.  Once we arrived at the lake, it was SO amazingly beautiful.  The experience overall was incredible!  It was really hard to believe that we were actually skating on a lake.  It was super cool, because in some spots, we could actually see the bottom of the lake.  Another very neat and special (but also kind of freaky) part of skating on wild ice, is the sounds it makes when it's cracking.  It cracks, and then it makes a sound that almost sounds a bit like a dog barking.  There was one crack that was really big, and when you skated over it, it moved, and a bit of water came through it!  The ice was 3 plus inches thick, so we were totally safe; the ice is constantly expanding and contracting and cracking.  On most of the ice, you could not see through.  The spots that you couldn't see through had TONS of tiny bubbles underneath the ice.  It was super cool!  There are also these really neat formations of bubbles under the ice called bubble gardens.  Here are some pictures:

A crack in the ice and some branches from a fallen tree underneath the ice.

A beautiful view across the lake. 

I love the lighting in this picture!

A part of the ice by the shoreline where you can see RIGHT THROUGH!!  You can see my skates in this picture.

A bubble garden.  Isn't it incredible?  Here are a bunch more bubble garden pictures:

So cool!

I think this one is the coolest one.  It reminds me of the Jetson's little houses and the big mall in the middle!

This is another picture of the one above from a different angle.

These people had their lawn chairs and stuff out on the middle of the ice, which we thought was cool/funny! 

It was so cool to just look right through it! 

A very interesting, beautiful cloud formation over the mountains. 

A reflective picture.

We had a wonderful time.  It was such a beautiful experience, and it might be our only wild ice skate this season, because it is snowing today!  Once the ice is covered with snow, you can't skate on it.  We aren't supposed to get much snow, so it's possible that the snow will melt into the ice and freeze.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and all of the pictures!  Have a great day!

~Grace

P.S. If you haven't already, please participate in my survey here!