Cora's First Ski Day

On New Years Eve, we decided that we would take ALL THREE kids skiing for the very first time ever.  It had been freezing cold all week, and this day was no different.  We had signed Cora up for the famous "Learn to Turn" class, so we had to be at "the Beav" (Or Beaver Mountain, if you are not cool like me) nice and early in the morning.  We woke up, put on as many layers of clothes as we could and headed out.  Grandpa came along with us, so we figured we would be okay, with an adult for each kid. 

Our car hadn't been moved for a couple of days, and the tire sensors were so cold that our rear tires weren't even showing up in the car's computer system.  As we drove through the canyon, the temperature reached levels that we had never seen before.  Behold, NEGATIVE SEVENTEEN degrees:

 We would have to be insane to go skiing when it is this cold, right?  Right.  Insane we are.

Actually, by the time we got to the mountain, bought our passes, used the bathroom, rented our gear and found Cora's class, the sun had been shining for a while and things seemed much warmer.  Don't get me wrong, it was still f-to-the-reeeezing but it was manageable. The kids all had hand warmers in their mittens, which helped a lot.

After we dropped Cora at her class, the rest of us headed to the bunny hill (except for Grandpa, who had skipped the mess at the rental office since he has his very own skis and stuff and had been on the slopes for a while).  We were all a little rusty since it was our first outing of the season, but a few trips down the hill refreshed our memories.  Pretty soon, Cora's class joined us at the bunny hill.  Isn't she adorable??

Cora's class stayed on the bunny hill, but the rest of us headed for the ski lift.  Arden and Dax mostly remembered how to get on and off, and we had fun on our favorite runs, the Goat Trail and Cotton Tail.

After a few runs, we saw that Cora's class was headed for the ski lift!  We followed them up, and her teacher told us that once they were down the class would be over.  We passed their class and headed to the lodge for lunch.  Everyone else headed inside to warm up while I waited for Cora's class to come down the Goat Trail.  It was kind of fun and kind of painful to watch their slow progress, but Cora was doing wonderfully!  She was doing great, and didn't fall once while I was watching.  They made it down to the lodge and I skied over to pick her up.  Her teacher said she was doing great and had a great attitude!  She was giggling and smiling.  I am so glad she was having fun!

After a nice warm lunch and hot chocolate in the lodge, we hit the bathroom again, which was harder this time now that we all had our ski boots on.  I look like a complete and total idiot when I try to walk in my ski boots.  My idiocy level increases when I try to walk down stairs, where the bathrooms happen to be.  We eventually made it down and back up and headed back out all together!!

I got to ride the ski lift up with these pretty girls.  Did I mention that the sun was shining? It was.  The sky was blue, with not a cloud in the sky.  It was a stunningly beautiful day, with stunningly beautiful girls:

I tried to get a picture of everyone at the top of the mountain before we skied down.  I should have made them stand in the sun.  It was so bright that I really couldn't see what I was taking pictures of.  Oh well,  Here they are anyways:

Daxton and Arden had remembered what they were doing, and they both were doing awesome (and going FAST) as usual.  Cora was doing amazingly well for her first day.  She is a much more cautious skier than Arden or Daxton, but that is okay with me!  We started out on the Goat Trail for our first couple of runs with Cora, which is the easiest and flattest run.  Cora was doing great and only fell down a couple of times.

The first time we took her over to Cotton Tail, which is steeper, she looked down and freaked out a little.  I was skiing in front of her and telling her to follow me.  Grandpa was following behind her in case she fell.  She followed a little ways, but then declared that the hill was too steep and she wasn't going to go down it.  (I didn't really blame her...I remember the first time I looked down the Cotton Tail run on my first day of skiing, and I had much the same thought).  Unfortunately, from where we were, there wasn't really any other way down.  Grandpa to the rescue!  He grabbed ahold of Cora, and slid sideways very slowly down the steepest part of the hill.  .After they got over the scariest part of the hill, she got brave enough to follow me again and made it down the hill with no problem.

Daxton, predictably, stayed close to Grandpa, so I ended up with the girls most of the time.  Here we are at the bottom of the hill, getting in line for the Little Beaver ski lift!

 And here are the boys, riding up the lift behind us:

 This time I got a picture of some people in the sun.  Did I mention that it was a beautiful day?

It was!  Cora was doing so great and having so much fun.  She giggled her way down most of the runs, and kept getting faster and faster and braver and braver as they day went on.  Around 2:00 p.m. she told me that she wanted to ski until the resort closed at 4:00, and then come back tomorrow!  I told her we could stay as long as she wanted, but that we didn't have enough money to come back tomorrow (taking a family of 5 skiing is NO joke!).  However, since it was so close to the solstice, the sun started to go behind the mountain at around 3:00 p,m. and the temperature began to drop. The first time we rode up the lift after the sun wasn't shining on us, Cora turned to me and said, "I want to ski some more, but my FACE is FREEZING!"  My face was freezing too!

We decided to give it one more run.  Even though the resort wasn't closed yet, we were all kind of tired and getting cold, so we gave up around a quarter after 3.  Considering that we had been skiing since 10 a.m. with only a short lunch break, that was a pretty full ski day.  We went and turned in our rental stuff (I appreciated that the employees there pulled the ski boots off of everyone so I didn't have to do it) and were all amazed by how comfortable our regular boots were!

It was a super fun day, and I was so proud of all my little skiers.  Hopefully we can hit the slopes again sometime soon!

Very Long Very Late Christmas Post

I will now take you on a whirlwind tour of our Christmas 2015, buckle your seat belts!

The kids had their last day of school for the year on December 18th.  That night, we decided we had better get ourselves downtown and look at the lights!  It was a "Red Tree Year," my favorite!  

It was fun to see everything all lit up.  The kids had a great time, but unfortunately we had a deadline so we had to cruise through the lights pretty quickly.  We had time to see a little of the Nativity story, walked all around Temple Square, up the Main Street Plaza, and even down through City Creek to the Gallivan Center.  Silly kids:

We were on our way to see:

It.  Was.  Awesome!  I seriously laugh so hard at these shows.

The next day, was the Day of Christmas Parties.  No joke, 3 parties, one day.  Haun family party at 11:00 a.m., including lunch and visit from Santa.  Ward party with snacks and hot chocolate (and a visit from Santa) at 3:00 p.m.  Finally, Zaugg Family party with Dinner (and...a visit from Santa) at 5:30.  Ready, set, GO!

We had to bring treats to the Zaugg party, so Cora and I made these Christmas Tree brownies:

 After we ate lunch and caught up with cousins and aunts and uncles, the Big Man made his annual appearance.  Here he is with Cora:

 Daxton was very excited to see Santa!

 And Arden, despite being a worldly 9 year old, in still firmly in the Believers camp this year (hooray!)

I somehow didn't do a good job of taking pictures at the other two parties, but let me tell you that I may have set a record for number of calories consumed in a single day.  After sitting on the "real" Santa's lap at the Haun party, Dax loudly announced to all the kids around him at the ward party that the Santa there "HAS A FAKE BEARD SO HE ISN'T THE REAL SANTA BUT HE IS JUST SANTA'S HELPER" may have earned a few dirty looks from nearby moms.  Sorry everybody!  By the third Santa-go-round the kids were a little less enthusiastic, but went through the lap routine to earn a treat.

A couple of days later we got some more snow!  This time we actually had time between shovelings to build ourselves our first snowman of the season!  Arden got cold and went inside pretty quickly, but me and the littles finished it up and he was pretty tall!

 A couple of days before Christmas, we headed up to the golf course and went sledding!  Here is me and Cora, ready to head down the hill:

 And here is Cora and Arden, making the trek back up the hill, which is the hardest part of any sledding expedition.  (You will notice no one is pulling sleds...that is because I am carrying them all.)  Cora is still excited!

 Dax had a great time, running up the hill, sliding down the hill, running up the hill, sliding down.  Oh, the energy of this kid!

Dax had also been insisting that it was imperative to his survival that we see the new Star Wars movie.  Preston got to see it with his whole office, so a day or two later Dax and Arden and I snuck out and watched it.  It was pretty good, but I was shocked by the shocking thing that happened, that I won't mention just in case you are one of the 3 people in the country who hasn't seen the movie yet.  Dax soaked it in through every pore of his skin and has barely thought of anything else since.  I get questions all day long about Rey and Kylo Ren that I do not know the answers to.  (My burning question is this...how on in the world could the offspring of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher look anything like that Kylo guy???). 

 Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve!  I had been furiously shopping and wrapping while watching cheesy Christmas movies from the Hallmark Channel, and it was close (as it is every year), but I was ready.  Cora wrote a last-minute letter to Santa, asking for something she hadn't mentioned previously.  No fair, Cora!  Oh well, Santa had already made that teddy bear you were asking for a couple of weeks ago.  The letter was cute anyway:

Arden had written a letter to Santa about three weeks before Christmas and left it near the fireplace day after day.  She is so adorable:

 I asked Daxton if he wanted to write another letter to Santa, but Dax doesn't enjoy the writing process as much as the girls, and preferred to keep testing Santa's cookies for him instead.

After a traditional visit to Grandmas for pizza and eggnog and movies, we got home and got the kids all snug in their beds.

I love Christmas Eve after everything is finally ready and in its place, with not a creature stirring....my three little believers snoozing away upstairs with visions of sugarplums dancing.  Oh, please, Santa, can you bring me a time-pauser for Christmas?

Then, wham!  BAM!  Christmas morning hit!  It was still pitch back dark outside when we started the festivities.  Cora seemed okay with her Teddy Bear from Santa:

 Arden got "Hair Chox," and promptly colored her hair a festive shade of blue, but not before I got a picture of her:

Dax wouldn't hold still long enough to get a good picture, but he got a bunch of "Jurassic World" dinosaurs, which is what he had been hoping for.  After we unwrapped all of our family presents and had some breakfast, we headed over to my mom's house for more celebrating and presents!  I didn't take any pictures!  I must have been too busy enjoying the moment (or just slacking off).

After some lunch, we headed to my Grandma Wilson's house for a quick visit, and some more present exchanging.  Grandma was all dressed up in her Christmas sweater, and her home was all decorated.  She is doing much better lately and scares my mom sometimes by trying to walk places without her walker.  Here she is, looking beautiful and festive:

 After that, we headed to Grandma Zaugg's.  The main attraction there (besides more presents) was Grandma's Christmas present from us...Little Lulu!  She is a Yorkie-Poo (or, as I call them, Yorkie Doodle Doo), which is a cross between a Yorkshire Terrier and a Toy Poodle.  She is teeny-tiny and stinking adorable.  The kids could not keep their hands off of her, but she somehow survived the day:

After visiting with Grandma and some cousins, we were getting kind of pooped out, and decided to head home by way of the Layton Lights.  It was a fun (but pictureless) end to a wonderful Christmas!  We weren't done celebrating yet though, because the next day we were off to the cabin!  But that is a post for another day.  Merry Late Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Arden - Official Gymnast

Arden had her semi-annual gymnastics show the night of the big snow.  My phone does a HORRIBLE job of taking pictures, but here is one of Arden doing a hand stand on the balance beam:

 Pretty good, but every single one of my other pictures looks something like this:

Arden doing some kind of gymnasticy thing in a blurry blurry way.  Anyway, you will just have to trust me that she did a great job, since I don't really put videos on the blog since I am just going to print it out into a book, and videos don't print very well.  She gets so nervous before her shows, but always does wonderfully well.

After these shows, the gym asked if Arden could move up since she had learned everything there was to learn in the class she had been in.  The only problem is, the only place for Arden to "move up" to was the official gymnastics team.  I knew it was coming.  I had been dreading it a little, for two reasons (1) time and (2) money!  The gymnastics team practices 9 hours a week, which seemed like a lot for a 9 year old to handle.  Also, it is um, fairly costly compared to the regular class.  Arden was very comfortable in the class she was in, but it was true she was getting bored doing the same old tricks over and over.  We talked about it, and Arden was a little nervous to be on the team, especially since some of the team girls are "old" (i.e. teenagers!).  I told her that she didn't have to be on the team, and she could even try something new (Basketball? Swimming?  Tennis?) if she wanted.  But we soon found out that a couple of Arden's gymnastics friends were also moving up, and that made Arden feel much better.  She decided to take the plunge and she started with the team in January.  So far she is doing great, but we are still trying to figure out how to fit dinner/homework/friends around her new busier schedule.

We are so very proud of Arden and know she is going to do great!

Snowmaggedon

Exactly a month ago, Christmas was almost upon us.  We hadn't had very much snow to speak of yet, and we hadn't busted out our snow shovels in almost an entire year.  We went to bed with a grassy, wet lawn and woke up to a solid 8-10 inches of the fluffy white stuff on everything.

Of course, no schools had been cancelled, but I wasn't going anywhere until the snow plows came by, having learned my lesson more than once.  I informed the office that I was working from home. Preston has a shorter memory than me, and said he was going to try and go to work.  I told him not to, but he didn't listen.  Lucky(?) for him, he couldn't even get out of the driveway in our little green car that didn't have its snow tires on yet.  It had rained before it snowed, so the street was slippery and slushy under those inches of snow.

Dax, who still hadn't grasped the need for silly things like gloves or coats, ran outside to "help" dig dad out.  

We got the car back into the driveway and began to shovel.  And shovel.  And shovel.  We shoveled for an hour at least.  During our shoveling adventure, the kids helped enthusiastically for about 23 seconds, and then ran around and played the rest of the time.  The school bus for the junior high kids showed up an hour or two late, and proceeded to get stuck in the road right in front of our house.  Preston left off shoveling and tried to help dig out the school bus with some help from our neighbor (Soooo thankful that it is not my job to drive any motorized vehicles on days like this).

After shoveling the driveway and the sidewalk (dang corner lot), there was probably two or three inches on the part of the driveway I shoveled first, so I just started over again.  It was coming down steady and hard.  My carpool buddy's husband decided to take his junior high kid to school in his trusty truck rather than risk the clearly questionable school bus, and even offered the only kid that was on the bus a ride as well.  He actually made it there and back.  He decided he would take his kids down the elementary school, and offered to take ours.  I went into the house and informed the kids (who had given up on playing in the snow) to get their stuff together.  They groaned and whined but got in the trusty truck.  They waited a while since the neighbor was now digging out a different neighbor who had gotten stuck on the corner.  

Eventually, they all made it down there, and soon after I declared the driveway good enough and headed back inside to try and get some work done.   As I worked, the snow snow snow came down down down.  It was 11:00 a.m. and still no sign of a snow plow.  

At some point in the day I stuck a ruler on the table on the deck.  By the afternoon, the ruler was lower than the snow.  I'd say that is 13 or 14 inches.  

As the time for school to get out drew near, I asked Preston to put the chains on the SUV and see if he could make it down to get them.   Good husband that he is, he obeyed and chained up the car.  Lucky for him the snow plow finally showed up about this time, so Preston was able to make his way down the hill and back up with our kids and the car pool kids safe and sound.

There was more shoveling throughout the day, and by the time the Christmas lights turned on, our lawn that had been grassy 24 hours earlier now looked like this:

We ventured out one last time that night for Arden's gymnastics show (more on that later) and made it down okay and got cocky and took off the chains.  However, we had a hard time getting back up to our house and had to take the very long way around to find a sufficiently plowed route. . Ah, the joys of living on a hill in the winter.

Grandpa's New (Old) Toy

A while back, Grandpa ran across an old snowmobile.  Like, it may have been the very first snowmobile.  Ever.  Its owner offered it to him for five bucks or so, and Grandpa became a snowmobile owner.  After getting it fixed up last year, it sat in the garage all last winter due to lack of snow.  We finally had enough snow on our post-Thanksgiving trip to give it a try.

Cora and Grandpa are excited!

The main reason Grandpa got the ol' Bull Moose was so he could do this:

That is right...the snowmobile pulls the kids back up the sledding hill so that he (and Preston and I) don't have to!  Brilliant!

Plus, this method of going up the hill is not only faster, it is much more fun!  Plus, less whining from kids and parents.

 And sometimes, just driving around with Grandpa is fun too.  Lots of smiles going on here:

 While waiting his turn, Dax plopped down to make a snow angel:

It may not be big or fancy or from this century, but we have had fun with it.  And when we are done with it, maybe we can donate it to a museum ;-).  Thanks for sharing your new old toy, Grandpa!

(Note:  Sorry about the blog silence over the last month.  Things at work have been crazy with a $1.3 billion acquisition and 50 or so hours of CPE (Continuing Professional Education) that I had to catch up on before December 31.  Plus then there was the whole Christmas thing, and well...sorry.  New Year's Resolution:  Back to one blog post a week minimum!  Wish me luck!)