winter athletics

another madison february is upon us, and that means the winter festival is also upon us. every year, the capitol square is closed to traffic for one weekend in february, covered in snow, and plays host to cross country ski competitive sprint races. there is also a sledding hill, a little snowboarding huckjam hotdogger zone (we skipped that this year), snow carving, a chilly 5k run, and a variety of other things. how does the staple family fit into this winter athletic scene? these days, we're not so much "athletes" as we are "hungry, and drawn to downtown events as an excuse to go out to lunch." so we were, and so we did. 

well, i take that back. david did ski the birkebiner yesterday. he's a hard worker.


after some sporting viewing and snowy strolling, we stepped into the capitol building for a yogurt-pretzel-and-warm-up break.



after the capitol visit, we headed back outside for some blind shoulder riding. ramona likes to use my nose and eye sockets as handles when riding upon my shoulders. on an icy sidewalk, it is adventure walking at it's best.
 

then it was lunch at the old fashioned, were we got the last table in the restaurant. boom! i also imagine we made the biggest mess in the restaurant. while waiting for the bus to take us home for nap time, i noticed that david managed to grab our lunch leftovers from our lunchtime lazy susan: braunschweiger,  spreadable cheddar, and pickled herring in cream sauce. a morning of healthy sporting, topped off by a healthy lunch. it's all in a day's work here in the staple house.