There have been a lot of community events happening around Amarillo lately with the warmer weather, and our family has gone out to a couple of them.
The first was the grand opening of the Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. The fundraiser where we purchased the Scales & Tails birthday party for Sophie at a silent auction a few years back was for this operation. The kids love animals and so it was fun to tour the new facility, meet some critters, and we even got free burgers for lunch, catered by Outback!
They really enjoyed this skunk and raccoon cookies
Eating lunch with an owl!
Peeking through the window at an orphaned raccoon pup
The next Saturday we went to Family Fun Fest at a park closer to downtown. There was lots to do, but we didn't stay long because the boys both fell asleep on the way there. Dave took Sophie around to meet animals and run through the inflatable obstacle course, while I hung out in the van with the nappers.
Sophie got a stomp rocket for Christmas that she had been dying to play with, but we had to wait for the weather to warm up and the ground to dry out first. After a few nice days in a row, I thought it should be safe so we took it over to the high school where there would plenty of space, and she had a blast! The rockets are also supposed to glow in the dark, so maybe next time we'll have to try it at dusk. I see this getting lots of use over the years!
This girl knows how to jump!
Dave and Sophie both burned some energy chasing and gathering the rockets
Davey was happy to just sit and watch, but after a while he started to feel left out. We moved him a little closer so he would feel included, but the temptation to grab and eat rockets was to great so he got pushed to the side again. Sorry buddy :(
We went up to Park City the first weekend in March to stay with my uncle at his timeshare. My brother and his wife also came up with us so it was a fun group!
On Saturday we took Sophie skiing at the base of the ski lift. She had only been once before and is still in the very early stages of learning, but any practice she can get is good for her! The stretch of snow she was practicing on was narrow and slick, with a metal bar on one side and a drop off on the other so the conditions weren't ideal, but she did pretty good. Hopefully we can get her up one more time this year before we move. After dinner we enjoyed the hot tubs, put the kids to bed, and then played cards.
On Sunday, we found a ward to attend and were surprised to find it was a special Sacrament Meeting just for visitors. The Park City ward receives anywhere from 100-1000 visitors each week so they have a dedicated meeting for guests, separate from their own meeting. It was just 45 minutes long, which was perfect for the kids, and then we went back to the condo for lunch. My parents arrived early that afternoon to join the fun. We played more games. went back to the hot tubs, and then had a big family dinner. The weather reports showed snow moving in around 9:00, so we played just a couple more games, and then left shortly after 8:00 to beat the storm.
Playing a game with Uncle Brent and Grandmari
My happy boy
Unfortunately, the reports were wrong. The storm came early than anticipate and snow was coming down fast and hard just as we were leaving. It was also extremely windy, which made visibility really poor. We slowly made our way to the interstate, and luckily traffic was light so it didn't matter it we strayed from our lane because the lines on the road were impossible to see. Once we got on I-80, Google maps told us there was an incident a few miles ahead, but it only estimated a 25 minute delay. We wanted to get home and were a little frustrated with the slow down, but at least the kids were sleeping so it wouldn't matter if we had to sit for a few minutes. Unfortunately, 25 minutes turned into an hour, then two, then three....
It was miserable. We were stopped with hundreds of other travelers while the snow just built up around us. We knew the incident was less than a mile ahead, but there were never any reports on what had actually happened or how long it would take. Since we were in the canyon there was no way to turn away and no way to get off and take an alternate route. Sometimes we would crawl forward a few feet, but it was just cars compressing and then we would stop and sit again. We saw a lot of cars make really really risky/dumb moves trying to use the narrow, snow covered, shoulder to pass traffic and get ahead. I know at least one got stuck and really had to fight to get going again and another ended up off the side in a ditch. So dumb.
It could have been much worse though. It had been 55 and sunny earlier that day and we had considered taking the Focus instead of the Escape, but our stuff fit better in the bigger car so we took it instead. I was so glad that we had 4-wheel drive and weren't in a little sedan! It was tricky driving even in a good car! The kids stirred a few times, but stayed asleep (huge blessing). We also had plenty of gas and didn't have to worry about shutting our car off to save fuel, which was good because ice was building up on our windshield even with the wipers going and the defroster on high. The lack of a bathroom made me a little nervous, but in the end I was fine. It would have been tricky if nature had called because there would have been zero privacy on the side of the road (plus it was a blizzard) and Dave forbid me from even thinking about using the cooler as a travel port-a-potty :)
After 4 hours we eventually started to move and found that the back up was just tons of cars and semis (at least 20) that couldn't make it through the storm and got stuck. It took that long for the tow trucks to pull everyone off to the side to create a path where others could pass through. It was crazy. After we made it, the rest of the drive wasn't too bad and we climbed into our beds sometime after 1:00 am. What a terrible end to an otherwise fun weekend.
I've had the past week off work as sort of a mini "summer break". I go back on Monday for summer school and to start preparing for the next school year, but it was great to have time to do some fun things with Dave. Last night we went to the demolition derby in Bluffdale. It was the first time either of us had been to a derby and we had a great time!!
Cars entering the arena - We would each choose two cars to cheer for before the heat would start. There were three regular heats of 10 cars each. The top three cars in each heat advance to the money round; All the losers are invited back to the grudge match. In the grudge match, anyone still functional can go at it for one more shot at the money round. I ended up choosing the car that won it all!
By the end of each match there were tires everywhere, fluids leaking, steam hissing, broken down barriers, and lots of cars that had to be towed out of the arena. Exciting!
My checker car (I chose mostly by paint job). Checkers was a beast in the arena until he took a head on hit from one of Dave's cars and every thing under the hood blew up. It was one of the best crashes of the night.
If you're looking for something fun to do, they also do a rodeo here on July 29th and 30th. We had a great time at this show and will probably come back for the next event!
Hooray for Saturday and hooray for sun! After 7 straight days of rain we took advantage of this break in the weather to get outside and take a nice long walk.
First stop was the library to check out a bunch of DVDs to watch over the next few days (our version of netflix). Next we wandered over to McDonald's to try their new frozen strawberry lemonade, which actually turned out to be very yummy. Then we crossed to street to Carl's Jr. for the rest of our lunch because we like their food better than McDonald's.
Then back to home where Rosalina killed Birdo in Mario Kart. I was Birdo (poor me).
Saturday #1: Last week was one of my favorite events at BYU - the annual lost & found sale! This year we went early (like two hours early) to get a good spot in line and it paid off. We weren't able to snag a basketball, but we did have some other great finds including:
Thermal Under Armor top - $2
Burton soft shell jacket - $2
Adidas climalite pullover- $3
3 pairs of sunglasses - $3
Football receiver gloves - $2
With the haul
Saturday #2: Today Dave and I went to the football game with Amy, Jer and Anne. My grandma gave us her tickets for the game which are seats (not bleachers!) right on the 50 yard line. We got super lucky with the weather - it was pouring right before the game and it's pouring now at home as I write this, but at the game it was dry and just right with a blanket. Best part though... BYU won!
On Saturday we went curling with some friends and a bunch of people from the two Sammamish wards. We were actually lucky to get any pictures at all because the "back-up" batteries that I brought were apparently used batteries that made their way back into the supply rather than the garbage can...oops!
After the initial awkwardness of learning how to hold everything and push off without falling over, it was really fun! The sweeping part was actually pretty cool too - I had no idea how much of a difference it made.
I was on a team with Dave and my parents against two couples we know from Dave's work. For the first few rounds, the score was really close - we traded a point here and a point there. But then with some skilled lucky shots, our team was able knock out all of blue's rocks (the curling stones) to get five of our rocks in the house (the scoring circle)!
Final score after 7 rounds: Red team 12, Blue team 4.
All winter long I have wanted to build a snowman and last night we finally got around to it! I think this might be the skinniest snowman I have ever seen - I'm actually surprised he didn't fall over before we finished.
After we finished the snowman, Dave went over to some trees and started working on a secret project. He wouldn't tell me what it was, despite my pestering. Finally he revealed this masterpiece - an alternate head. This one had hair!
We took off the old head and put on this new & improved version. Ta-da!
During the winter months, we normally spend our weekends at the cabin. Due to the abundance of sunshine however, we decided to spend this last weekend at home.
It was a wonderful couple days in which we were able to do a lot of things we normally never get around to on the weekend. Here are the highlights:
Sat on the couch and read
Took Jobe on a walk down by the lake trail and discovered that he likes water and climbing on rocks, but does not like people on bikes
Shopped for groceries, cleaned the bathroom (including the shower!), changed the sheets, did the laundry, ironed, vacuumed the house, and cleaned out the linen closet - phew!
Watched my bracket get shot to pieces. I guess now I'm cheering for UW to go all the way - go Dawgs!
Giving Dave a much needed haircut in the front entryway salon and am proud to report that it took me less than 20 minutes this time! The very first time I cut his hair it took about an hour.
Played several games of Agricola - I won some and lost some
Watched Life - we were amazed at the lengths the little poison dart frog took to care for her babies, and we laughed our heads off when the pebble toad threw himself of the cliff to avoid the spider!
Hope your weekend was as good as ours!
*Pictures from espn.com and Discovery Channel webpage
Fabulous skiing (& snowboarding) this weekend! Down low conditions weren't that great, but the upper chair broke through the cloud ceiling and we spent the rest of the day under clear, sunny skies.
Riding the chairlift with my dad - Dave was riding up with Derek a couple chairs behind. I love Dave because he can tackle a double black run, but still hasn't found a way to get off the chairlift gracefully :)
Dave has come along way with snowboarding since we first met and it's been so fun having this hobby to share.
I only wish I had gotten a picture of Dave after his spectacular face plant/head-first tumble... unfortunately he didn't want to sit on the hill with snow in every crevice while I dug the camera out of my pocket, Maybe next time!
Dave and I would like to file a complaint. The weather this winter has been too nice. As a native of the Pacific Northwest, I am not sure how to cope with these warm sunny days... Where is the cold? Where is the moisture? Apparently Tim and Cindy stole it when they moved down to Texas :)
As season pass holders, Dave and I are anxiously waiting for temperatures to drop and the clouds to roll in. The mountains are a little too bare for our liking. Nightly blizzards would be awesome. Snow just once a week would be good too, especially on Friday nights, but we won't be picky...
In the mean time, you'll find us on the mountain each weekend (cause we've already paid for it!) sun, rain or snow. Hopefully next week will be the latter.
Looking at this photo you might be thinking, "What is that supposed to be a picture of? The only thing I see are some dark blobs, relatively humanoid in shape."
That's all we could see too. This weekend we went skiing in the thickest fog EVER. At 10 feet, people, trees, etc were visable as dark shadows; Beyond that, you couldn't see anything at all. Everything just disappeared into the mist...
The only way I managed to stay with Dave that afternoon was to listen for the sounds of a scraping snowboard whenever he hit a patch of ice. Luckily there were plenty of ice patches for him to hit so we never got separated for long.
In the Northwest it's pretty much acceptable to bring your dog anywhere - the grocery store, Macy's, etc... so we decided to pick up Jobe from my parents house to take him on the "Ultimate Walk."
The orienteering course this week was at Marymoor, a huge park only 10 minutes from our house. The weather was also BEAUTIFUL. A sunny day in January is pretty rare here, so we felt pretty lucky!
At first we were a little apprehensive about bringing Jobe with us. How would he feel about crawling through thickets, running in tall grass, wading through marshes and meeting tons of strangers? It could have been a long day if we had to drag a dog 5 km from marker to marker. Turns out we didn't need to worry - by the end we were dying and he wasn't even panting. I guess some of us need to get more exercise :)
On Saturday night Dave and I went to see The Blind Side. It turned out to be a bit of an emotional roller coaster:
We left our house a little late and when we got to the theater our show had already started. The box office gave us tickets to New Moon instead so we could get into the theater. We were relieved it wasn't sold out.
We went into the theater for Blind Side. The previews had started and the place was packed. Luckily the two seats in the middle back row were just holding coats - not being reserved. We were really, really glad we didn't have to sit on the front row.
After taking our seats, there were still several previews to sit through. After the first few, we starting to sense a theme: teenage romances. First Dear John, followed by Remember Me, then Letters to Juliet. Not what you would expect to see for a football movie... We were a little confused.
Then there was a preview for New Moon, or that's what we thought. Bella was standing in a field with Edward, it panned to a mirror, then they were staring at each other and started breathing heavily, and then we realized that this wasn't a preview but the start of the movie. We somehow went in the wrong theater.
But that couldn't be right- our tickets said New Moon, but we swore we went into the right theater. It certianly explained the strange previews. We didn't really want to walk out though, since we were in the middle and had already climbed over everyone on the way in. We had no idea what to do.
Then we looked around the theater - there were way too many men for this to be New Moon. You could see heads looking for the exits and a murmur could be heard throughout the theater. Apparently we weren't the only ones who had been duped. We were starting to feel less like idiots.
A theater rep came into to inform us that the wrong movie had been loaded and Blind Side would start soon. To compensate us for our trouble, everyone in the theater would receive complimentary movie passes. We were ecstatic.
About 40 minutes after the original scheduled start time, our movie finally began. We loved it - a great date night and now we can see something again next week FOR FREE!
Dave and I are not known for our committment to exercise. We aren't sedentary lazy bums, but you certainly won't find us at the gym or jogging through the neighborhood on a regular basis... We just don't like to exercise for the sake of exercising, so for us it's best if the workout is disguised as part of some other (more fun) activity.
Here is what we did this weekend:
1. Dave played three 30-minute games of flag football on Saturday morning.
2. Both of us participated in the orienteering event at Magnuson Park in Seattle. This course had double the number of controls and was significantly longer than our first attemptatLake Sammamish State Park. The map said our course was 4.1km, but that was if you stayed on target... I'm pretty sure we covered at least 5km when you include all our detours. As you can see, we spent a good amout of time searching for the 6th marker:
Part of the reason we had a hard time finding control #6 was because we couldn't even find where we were in the park. We were lost in some very marshy land surrounded by little ponds and ducks. After running aimlessly for several minutes, we finally popped out by a road and right in front of us was marker #7! It wasn't the one we were looking for, but at lease we knew where we were! Looking back, we now realize why we couldn't for the life of us find our position on the map - our position was not on the map - we were out of bounds, a good 800 ft off course...
We did finish in under an hour though, which was our goal, so I was very happy. Next time I think we'll aim to complete in 50 minutes or less!
3. We moved all the Christmas boxes and the giant Christmas tree (it's fake) from the crawl space of my parent's house to the entry way.
4. I donned a snow suit to shovel 8 inches of snow off the driveway at the cabin. Trust me - you'll work up a good sweat doing this!
5. And finally the most taxing thing we did - run a gazillion errands amidst the crowd of holiday shoppers out on the last Saturday morning before Thanksgiving!
On Friday, 10 inches of light and fluffy snow fell in Snoqualmie Pass. It was enough for Summit West (the ski hill right by our cabin) to open a couple chairlifts so people could enjoy a few runs. I wasn't able to hit the slopes, but I did strap on some snow shoes!
My mom, dad, brother, and I enjoyed a hike through the beautiful snow-covered forest:
Me and my mom in our matching black outfits, Norwegian hats, and snowshoes:
Plus, no winter recreation outfit is complete without colorful knee-high socks!
But where was Dave during all of this?
On Saturday he played NINE GAMES of flag football - three in the morning (Korean church league team) and six in the evening (regional single's ward tournment held at UW Stadium). When he finally crawled into bed around 11pm, he was out before I could say "good night."
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