It's Always Fun When Grandpa Comes

My dad flew in Thursday night and we were excited to have him come visit! It was a short trip (he left this morning), but we had a lot of fun while he was here. On Saturday we went up to Snowbird to ski. Since we didn't have a babysitter for Sophie, I stayed home with her in the morning while Dave was on the mountain with my dad, Natalie, Brodie, and Derek. Then Sophie and I drove up to the resort at lunch time and I traded places with Dave. After skiing, he treated us all to dinner at Texas Roadhouse - mmm. Love you dad/grandpa!

My dad stayed at our house while he was visiting so he was able to spend some time with Sophie - last time he saw her was at Thanksgiving and she has changed a lot in the last 5 months!

Sisters!

At the top of the tram with my dad - what a beautiful day!!

Saturday at Snowbird

On Saturday I got to go skiing for the first time in two years! I missed all of last season because I was pregnant, so it was so fun to get back to the mountain. Derek and Brodie also joined us. It wasn't a perfect sunny day, but the snow was good and it wasn't freezing cold.

I was a little worried about how I would do because I am so out of shape, but I actually skied pretty good. I was able to keep up with the boys and only had one double eject, falling face plant. We did 13 runs, and Dave and I didn't call it quits until 20 minutes before closing time. So fun!!

At the top of the Gadzoom chair

And while we were skiing, Sophie was having a great time with Grandmari, who was visiting for the week

Six Years

Another year's gone by, and just like all the rest, it was a good one! Last year we took an anniversary trip to Snowbird, and had so much fun that we decided to come back again.  Since our actual anniversary was on a Sunday, we spent the night in eating good food and watching the Olympics. On Monday, the first day of our 7th year of marriage, we took a hike in the beautiful mountains of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

We rode the tram to the top of Hidden Peak (the little tower and hut on the left), and then hiked all the way along the ridge and down into the valley.

Dave at the end of the ridge

After hiking down off the ridge into the valley, we followed a trail back up to the mountain to the top a chairlift. It turned out to be a pretty intense  hike for us out of shape people, so we really enjoyed riding the chairlift back down to the bottom. Phew! Our legs will be burning tomorrow.

Yay for six years - we're looking forward to many more!

Awesome Day!

Today was an awesome day! Snowbird got over 20 inches during the last few days - what a treat! This was probably the best day we had so far. We were even lucky enough to get a few hours of sunshine before the clouds rolled in and it started snowing.

Amazing views from the top of Hidden Peak (11,000 ft)

Dave thinking "Why did it have to start snowing?"

The best snow we found was in Mineral Basin - we did 8 runs on the backside before taking a break for lunch. This video was taken on our 3rd run so the hill was a little skied out at this point, but our first couple runs here were on untracked powder - so fun!

Spring Ski Day

On Saturday we went skiing and it was a beautiful day - 45 degrees and not a cloud in the sky!

Pretty much perfect if you ask me :)

There hasn't been a lot of snow lately, so the bumps were icy, but we had fun cruising on the groomers. Woo-hoo!

Snowbird in the Summer!

We had never done anything "special" for our anniversary before, not even go out to dinner (unless you count the time we ate at a Korean restaurant with a family of 4 visiting from Beijing). This year we decided to try something a little more exciting and made a quick two-day trip up to Snowbird, our favorite ski resort. This was our first time at Snowbird in the summer and we had a wonderful time!!

The place we stayed at had a shuffleboard court - Dave smoked me the first couple times, but I was winning 2 out of every 3 games by the end!

Our room came with two tram tickets so we rode to the top of Hidden Peak (11,000 ft) for some great views

From Hidden Peak we hiked to the top of Mt. Baldy. Last time I did this hike was in the snow, wearing ski boots, carrying skis. This time it was a lot easier, although the way back down wasn't nearly as fun.

Dave at the top, looking back at the trail we just hiked

We also rode the Alpine Slide - it isn't as long as the one at Park City, but was still a good ride!

 

If you're looking for a fun getaway, I would highly recommend this! The mountains are beautiful at this time of year, and it was nice to escape the heat of the valley for just a few days.We got a unit with a kitchen and were able to save a ton of money by making our own meals. I wish we could have stayed another day or two so we could spend more time at the pool, do more hiking, or maybe try some of the resort's other fun activities.  Now that we've done this, if we are still in Utah next summer, I'm pretty sure this is where we'll be on July 29th!

Yes, Another Post About Skiing

Today was the start of my Spring Break - except outside it looked more like Christmas Break. It's been dumping in the mountains so of course we raced off to Snowbird! My dad is visiting this week with some friends for a ski trip and we were able to meet up with them on the mountain for a few runs. He also treated us to lunch at the lodge - BBQ brisket sandwiches,delicious!!

All the new powder was great, but by the end of the day we both had a serious case of leg burn and could barely make it through our last run. Great way to end the season, and now it's time to pack up our stuff until next year.

Taking a Breather

Life is Good

On our way out I left a little something on the hood of my dad's car. At least I think it was my dad's car (he's driving a rental). I guess some stranger might have returned from their ski day to this snowman surprise - lucky them!

And to top off a nearly perfect day, I found this nearly perfect snowflake on our side mirror. It looked better before I rolled down my window to take a picture and the defroster killed it. Oops.

3 feet of the good stuff!

Our lives this winter have predominantly been ruled by two things: skiing/snowboarding and BYU basketball. Last weekend was a tough call because we had two really enticing options - watching round 2 of BYU vs. SDSU or heading for the mountains to enjoy 3 feet of perfect powder.

We chose the powder and unfortunately a lot of other people did too. The crowd at the bottom of Mineral Basin was RIDICULOUS. We stood in this line for close to an hour. But the snow was AMAZING and the time spent in line was completely worth it!

Although the powder was light and fluffy, the fact that it was 3 feet deep sometimes posed a problem. Amy fell over backwards, down hill and butt-first, and had to be lifted up by her arms because she couldn't stand on her own (When pulling someone up, I recommend grabbing the person under their arms and not by their mittens - those just slide right off).

At one point I lost momentum in a flat spot and was buried up to my waist in snow. For the life of me I could not lift my legs and eventually had to fall sideways and roll until I got to a place where the snow had been packed down enough to stand. Nat, however, took the cake.

Amy and I met up at the bottom after becoming separated from Nat. After waiting for awhile we called her phone. Reception isn't always the best on the mountain, so when we heard Nat say, "I'm dragging a tree" we thought we heard wrong. She must have hit a tree, or run over a tree.

But we she finally got to the bottom there was indeed a branch stuck in her binding. She managed to break most of it off, but there was a small piece that wouldn't come out. The best part was all the people that kept telling her, "You know you have part of a tree stuck to your ski," as if she didn't notice the pine bough attached to her leg :)

Skiing with the Fam (minus Nat who was sick)

This weekend my family came down to Utah for a ski trip. My mom watched baby Anne while Amy, Dad, Derek, Dave, and I spent two days on the slopes at Snowbird. There hadn't been any new snow for a few days, but the weather absolutely gorgeous - sun out and blue, blue skies!

Action shot of me; There are no action shots of Dave because he is not patient enough to wait for a photographer to ski to the bottom and get the camera out :)

Hiking Mt. Baldy - here we took our skis off and hiked up part of the mountain to reach terrain not accessible from the chair lifts. Quite an adventure, but it really wore me out!

On the hike up Mt. Baldy you pass this sign. Note the last warning - it comes in to play later

After the hike you had to ski across the mountain to get to the good snow. Somewhere along this traverse we lost Dave. Here I am at the end of the traverse ready to go down.

>>Short Story Break<<

After skiing down the softest snow of the day, we paused to watch a few skiers jump off some nearby cliffs. Then to my horror, I realized that the guy on the next cliff over was Dave. Dave's cliff was narrow, steep, and I could see no easy, medium, or hard way down. So he took of his board, choose what looked like the least rocky/treey path down and prepared himself for a slide. If I hadn't been so worried about the outcome of said slide, I would have taken a video. So you'll just have to imagine an orange blob tumbling off a cliff at great speed with a snowboard careening close behind. Luckily both the board and the boy came out of it with minimal damage - phew!

On the Cirque, looking for the least scary way to drop into Great Scott

Amy taking a break while we wait for the lost brother to show up

No trip to Snowbird is complete without a couple passes through Mini Miners Camp - sort of a snow roller coaster through the trees, complete with wood cut outs of a general store, train station, old men with pick axes, and a graveyard. It's designed for small children with short skis, but we still enjoy it as big kids.

On the chair with my cliff diver - thanks for taking up this crazy sport! I love doing this with you!