Brianhead

We planned a ski trip to Brianhead, Utah to use our tax return to its fullest advantage. We wanted to go to Mammoth but it was too expensive... tickets were too expensive, the lodging was too expensive... probably the food would have been too expensive too. Brianhead looked like a better option.

On Thursday morning we loaded the car with the kids, their stuff, the dog, and some of our stuff and headed over to Grandma Sue and Pa pa's house. They were very generous in watching the kids and allowing us to go on the trip. We couldn't even fit all our stuff in the car... (this is the reason we need a new bigger car.) We said our good byes and at last we were alone with no kids for almost 4 days!

We headed home and finished loading our stuff and then we drove up to Snow Valley. We had to get some goggles so that we both had a pair and their sports shop is the best place to buy things. We enjoyed a cheap breakfast at Snow Valley and then headed down the road. We decided to drive through big bear and out because it is about the same distance and a much more scenic drive. There sure was a lot of snow. This picture is of Snow Valley and the amount of snow down Bear Canyon. Cameron would really like to ski here.
We enjoyed a nice drive where we talked about adult things and no one cried the whole way. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed the time together. We arrived in Brianhead just as it was getting dark. Here is a picture of the moon coming up over the cliff. Look at the big ice waterfall off the cliff.

We enjoyed some pizza in Brianhead and then headed over to our hotel. We stayed at the Cedar Breaks Lodge and Spa. Our room was very nice. I loved the fire place, jetted tub and the big king size bed. We enjoyed our time together and watched some olympics on Thursday night. I was amazed to wake up on Saturday and see the view outside our hotel room. Isn't it great?

Brianhead does not open until 9:30 am. We thought that was incredibly late but it allowed us to have time to get breakfast, relax getting ready and still be on the mountain when it opened. We were lucky that Cameron is on ski patrol and were able to get tickets from their ski patrol. By 9:30 we were ready to ski.

I like the long wide runs that Brianhead had. And I loved the quality of snow. Southern California snow is just not quite as good. We spent the morning exploring the mountain. I skiied down all the blues and Cameron would see what the blacks were like around the same area. I felt pretty good about my skiing but I was pretty slow. My big accomplishment was that I wasn't afraid of the runs even though they were steeper than what I had been skiing at Snow Valley.

We met Jeff and Mandie around lunch time. Then we traded boys riding with each other and girls riding with each other for the afternoon. We also switched back and forth.

This is us at the top of the mountain. We liked to runs off to the one side called the Dunes chairlift.

After I skied until 2:00 pm I was so tired that I called it quits. Skiing down all those hard runs and turning too many times made my legs burn. I decided to head back to the hotel for a nap. The rest kept skiing the remainder of the day. When they got back the boys made us fajitas while Mandie and I relaxed on the couch.

We then enjoyed the hot tub, pool and steam room to relax our soar muscles. It felt so good that now a hot tub is on our list of things to buy. We also played settlers of Cataan in the lobby. I won which made it all the better.

This is a picture of our fire place. I thought it was nice to have in our room.

Saturday we ate muffins and fruit for breakfast. Then we head up to the resort. I wanted to ski on the easier mountain, (Navajo Mountain,) so that I could have a little more fun instead of working so hard. We all headed over there on a cat track. I loved the other mountain with the long, wide runs that I could ski down very quickly. Mandie and I spent the whole day over there enjoying crusing and working on skills while going fast.

It started snowing and was so windy in the afternoon. We took a few runs and were told by the lift operators that we were "hardcore." We liked that. After some really strong wind and frozen fingers Mandie and I went back to the hotel around 3:00 pm to get ready for our evening.

We went out to a nice dinner and watched it snow while eating. We then enjoyed the hot tub again and went back to our room. We were all exhausted and went to bed pretty early because we couldn't stay awake.

Sunday, Cameron made crapes and we learned to play texas hold em before we had to check out and drive home. I wish we could have stayed longer and decided that next year we will have to go again. It was a wonderful vacation!

Thank You, Jack Brown

I thought today was the 17th of February because I missed yesterday. It flew by in half a flash. I missed my littlest sister's birthday and because I hardly know her I don't even know how to apologize.

I missed Annika's 13th month birthday and what kind of mother does such a thing? She is now 13 months old. She still doesn't talk much but is picking up signing really quickly. It would be even faster if my sign language consisted of more than 10 words. But she uses those words all the time correctly. She says, ma ma, dog, da, da, Ali, Ashling (something like that,) ball, ba ba, and not much more. She signs, more, please, eat, drink, and sleep (yes this is my favorite one.) She walks and runs all over the house and has an obsession with her shoes (her aunt Melissa would be so proud.

Today Annika went to the doctor and she has an ear infection. That explains the 4 hours of missed sleep we experienced last night. I am glad for an explanation this time. The doctor was wonderful. He always is but he out did himself this time. Instead of rushing in to diagnose what I am sure was his 6th ear infection of the day he walked in slowly and said hi. He took his time to get to know her before he touched her and he got her to laugh as he examined her. She smiled and considered herself lucky to go to the doctor today especially when he gave her a sucker.

I then went to Stater Brothers to pick up my prescription. After I dropped it off I walked around the store and bought things I needed. I helped myself to some delicious cookies in the bakery and then went to pick up the prescription. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my antibiotic was free! FREE! I have never actually been to the store and been given something I needed for free. At least not without a coupon. When I asked who paid for it they said Jack Brown and so I am saying thank you to Stater Brothers and Jack Brown.

Beach Get-a-way

hFor President's Day weekend we decided it was going to be too crowded at the ski resorrt. And the weather was supposed to be wonderful down the hill. We decided to leave our beloved mountians for another favorite destination... the beach.

After posting on Facebook that I was going to go to the beach... one of my friends on facebook offered up their house to us for the weekend. They live in Oxnard by the beach. I had never been there and wasn't sure what was there but after googling it I was hooked. We took her up on her offer and packed to stay over night in Oxnard.

They have four kids and everything that we needed. We got there around 11:00 am. The girls were excited to play on the trampoline first thing.

We ate lunch and then headed up the coast to Carpinteria where there were tide pools.

We got there right as the tide was heading out. We enjoyed looking through the rocks to see what we could find.

Ali found a rather large shell right off and it only predicted better things to come.

The only problem with this beach was that there was tar everywhere. It oosed out of the ground. And caused things to get a little messy. Don't wear your best clothes.

After going to the beach and collecting tons of shells we headed out for a nice Valentine's Dinner. Cameron bought the girls sundays that were huge for desert. We then showered and settled in to watch the olympics on T.V. Ali was super excited about the olympics and it made it very fun to watch.

Sunday morning we had a nice breakfast and headed to the beach for a few hours. It was so warm. Annika liked the beach right away and enjoyed walking all over it.

The girls got in the water right away and enjoyed getting wet.

Pretty soon Cameron decided to take off Annika's clothes and let her really enjoy the waves.

Annika was not impressed when a big wave got her feet all cold and she yelled at the cold water.

Look who is walking...

She finally did it. Each day there was a little less crawling and a little more walking. Each day a little less falling... I would say that last Tuesday the 9th was the day she was officially walking. It was a little weird today to let her out of the shopping cart while browsing REI and have a little kid who ran every where. (Something I don't recommend is ever letting your child out of the cart! They never want to go back in. I didn't let her out... big sister helped with that.)

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Obsessions

Goals are pretty important. Annika and I both have goals that we are working on right now and it is amazing how similar we are with our goals.

Annika is learning to walk right now. It is all she wants to do. She is pretty good if she is wearing her nice soft shoes and not so good in her snow boots. She walks all around the house but she falls a lot too. She is not so sure about walking other places and tends to crawl a whole lot more. Her shins are full of bruises and she has a few other places too from all the work. Some day I will take a picture and you can see her walking. Cameron did get a nice video but I don't know how to put that on here....

I am trying to learn to parrallel ski this year. It is all I want to do. I wake up and think about the way I need to place my legs, the way my hands should be and that my knees should be bent. When I am running I think about how I would shift my weight if I were skiing. When I drive the car I think about the way I would turn if I were skiing. As I sleep I imagine skiing down a steep hill in pefect form. I think about it a lot and wish I could be out there practicing what I learned. I took a lesson which helped a lot and now I just need to practice a lot. I have never wanted to learn how to do something so bad and for it to be so hard for me to learn. I have never wanted to do anything so bad as I want to ski right now. It isn't just that it is fun but the goal is much more important. I want to ski with ease down whatever hill I come to and I want to look good doing it too. My thighs are soar and I have bruises on my shins and still all I want to do is perfect that skill.