Our new favorite cabin activity...

MOONLIGHT TUBING!

There is a perk to living in the middle of nowhere, the great outdoors tends to be more vibrant.

Example: bluer skies, brighter stars, and whiter snow.

This white snow tends to glow when we're close to the full moon, as it did last night. Nora left her tire tubes last time and we've made good use of them up on the sledding hill. It took several runs before the path was smoothed out enough, but once it was... holy cow! We probably spent close to an hour out there while our neighbors wondered if we were crazy. I think I've found my new favorite sport!

Why did the tele ski cross the road?...

... because it had speed, gravity, and nothing to stop it!

One minor drawback of telemark skis is that they lack ski brakes, or these...

They were invented by a guy to prevent run-a-way equipment. But they don't work very well when combined with this.

The result is ski that cannot stop unless it happens to flip upside down.

All of this made for a very humorous and very tiring morning. My skis were propped up against the side of a lift shack that was at the top of a very steep embankment. My co-worker bumped up against my skis and one flipped upside down but the other went sailing down the hill. It reached the bottom of the hill, CROSSED THE ROAD, and turned parallel so that no cars would run over it. Whew! I stomped down the hill after it, not thinking how hard it would be to get back up. 20 minutes later both skis were reunited and safely placed on the OTHER side of the shack. It made me appreciate health, endurance, cherished valuables, and the fact that the ski did NOT keep going until it reached Main Street Park City.

Skiing is still better!

Last Monday, we joined my mom and sister, Nora for a snowboarding adventure at Brighton! It was sunny, warm, and we had the whole place to ourselves. I love having Mondays off. There wasn't any powder, unlike last year, so I decided to wear my ski pants instead of bibs. Big mistake! I realized that you don't need 12" of loose snow to still get it down your pants. Ughh! We all did very well and there were no major injuries, although Bevan did jar his neck a little and I'm sure I'll here about it for the next month or so. The best pictures are on Nora's blog, but she did save one for me to use.


In other news, I was wondering when Nora was going to come up to Park City to go skiing. She hesitated when telling me that she's actually planning another snowboarding trip. Am I detecting favoring of the other side? This can't be happening. I need to drop by with some ski movies and Alta and Deer Valley stickers for her nalgene bottle. Snowboarding is fun and all... but come on, does anyone actually ENJOY snow down their pants?

Holidays 2009

Life has been pretty exciting these last few weeks. There hasn't been any more huge storms since last post (thank heavens!) but there has been plenty of activities to keep us busy. I'd like to first start with my favorite Christmas present which I received only 4 days prior... my landscape architecture license!!! It finally came! It looks so official and cool. I don't know whether to frame it or keep in under my pillow.

On Christmas eve we went down to Salt Lake for a nice hike to Ensign Peak with my parents and Paul. This used to be an annual tradition in our family, but it hasn't been attempted for several years. It was really cold, but as long as we kept moving, we were fine. We only stayed at the top long enough to get a picture.

Both Bevan and I had to work on Christmas day, which we actually don't mind. You get holiday pay plus a nice holiday lunch. I can't get enough ham and turkey! That night we had a wonderful late dinner back at the cabin with MORE ham and fresh-baked bread. Thanks Nora! We tried to work it off the next morning with a high-calorie-burning snowshoe stomp.

The day after Christmas was our annual family sledding party. I forgot to pack down the hill the day before so it was still pretty soft. It's nice for falling, but not for going fast! Thanks for everybody who came. The elk meat chili was superb!

Bevan and I have Mondays off again this year. The blackout for skiing started the day after Christmas so we had to be inventive about activities. We wanted to try to snow shoe up to Mayflower again this year. We wanted to go the correct way this time, as opposed to last year's expedition. We had such a fun time. Towards the end I was getting pretty tired. They haven't opened Mayflower yet, so it was fun to dink around and go exploring all the old shacks. I love having a husband who's willing to go on these hair-brained schemes with me. Here's some of my favorite pictures from this last week.

Why have ONE Christmas tree when you can have TWO!

Such a good-lookin' piece of paper!

Atop Ensign Peak on Christmas Eve!

Bevan is so generous with giving rides... to lifties and ski boots.

I didn't notice that I'm wearing the exact same outfit as last year's snowshoe adventure.

I think Bevan was wearing the exact same outfit too.

Simba... still doing what she does best.