Lazy days: Baking, skiing, football

January has been pretty mellow for us. 

1. I've discovered that our library has an ENORMOUS selection of cookbooks and forced myself to just pick a few out to try. It drives Dustin nuts when I buy cookbooks because I can just "use the internet", but there's something about opening up a hardback book and perusing all the yummy recipes that I just love. I'm working on printing off my favorite recipes from Pinterest and placing them in a binder so I don't have to search through my online boards (or worry about my laptop being charged). I baked my first loaf of artisan bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I'm also working my way through King Arthur Flour's Baking Companion's Cookbook and Whole Grain Baking.

I think that next time, I should probably get regular cookbooks and not just baking books. If only I didn't love carbs so darned much...

2. I went skiing for the first time this season. Mishael, Santiago, Dustin, and I went up to Solitude and played in all the fresh new snow. Despite the fact that the wind was blowing really hard, which kept me off the bigger lifts, I really enjoyed playing in the powder and challenging myself on some steeper runs.

3. We haven't had another snowstorm for almost two weeks, so the air quality has slowly been creeping back toward the yuck zone. This past Saturday Dustin and I made our way out to Summit Park. I wanted to go snowshoeing, but there's not enough snow yet and the trail has been packed down. Regardless, we enjoyed watching Sophie bound around in the deeper snow. 

That poor dog has a love/hate relationship with wintertime. She loves the snow, but it balls up on her paws and she has to stop all the time to gnaw it out. We've been trying out Musher's Secret, a wax-based cream that you rub on the bottoms of her feet and between the pads of her paws. Sophie hates holding still and having her feet messed with so I'm not sure how thorough of a job I'm doing, but it does seem to help. I think that we may need to reapply on really long walks or when the snow is really sticky. 

Sophie did NOT like the idea of jumping down the cliff with her daddy, so she went around.

But she was excited to meet him at the bottom!

4. We've been watching a lot of football. Dustin has been excited to watch his Broncos dominate and make it all the way to the Superbowl. The animals have been happy with all the snuggle time. Except for last Sunday. Dustin and I are usually fairly quiet observers, but this past Sunday (AFC/NFC championship day) was full of excitement and outbursts. Needless to say, the poor fur-kids were confused. Jade decided to punish me by stealing my chair when I jumped up during an interception and then giving me the stink-eye when I wanted it back. 

He has perfected the stink-eye