A very windy Tuesday

Cameron and I got to the Canyons Lodge at Mammoth and hurried outside to ride the lift up.  I hardly noticed the wind until we were already riding up the mountain.  And then I really noticed it.  I couldn't hear anything over the sound of the wind and my nose and mouth hurt because snow particles were being blown in my face.  Cameron saw steep powder that he needed to ski and so I said I would meet him later and he was off to ski first tracks before I fully unloaded from the lift.  The snow was blowing across the goggles and I couldn't see the ground in front of me.  I was curious which way I should go.  I decided that strait down looked hard and opted for skiing to the the skiers left.  I realized too late that I had skied down out of the return to the Canyons lodge and I would instead be skiing to Mill.  This wouldn't have been a big deal except I was unwilling to go back up to the wind again.  I waited for Cameron to call when I didn't show up.  (Cameron forgot his cell phone so he ended up borrowing phones from nice fellow skiers each time he needed to meet up with me.)

Cameron skied down Viva several times and enjoyed some powder and then wondered where I was.  I told him I got lost and frozen and was sitting in the lodge regretting coming to ski.  He insisted it wasn't that bad and that I should try skiing again.  He said he would meet me in an hour.  I decided it couldn't really be that bad despite the full restaurant at only 9 in the morning.  I went back out and rode a chair lift up.  The wind was so bad it scared me and made me want to cry.  I have never experienced anything like that kind of cold.  My head hurt from brain freeze even though I wasn't eating ice cream.  I got lost again and ended up skiing down Broadway right into the main lodge.  I now was convinced I never wanted to ski again and rode a parking shuttle back to meet Cameron.  

Here is a picture of Cameron's tracks.   He had several fresh untouched tracks and felt accomplished skiing down in this area.  

 Here is a picture of the snow and how deep it got just from snow drifts.  We only got about 5 to 8 inches of snow overall.  

 After Cameron and I finally met up we decided to ski the bottom of the mountain in the trees.  Cameron worked on teaching me some parallel tips which I used to get more efficient with my turns.  He also tried to get me to ski faster and I went faster but not fast enough for his liking.

After freezing for a few more hours we had enough of the cold.  We were hungry and tired and headed back to the condo a little early.  We drove around Mammoth a little, shopped at each store in the small village and looked at all the restaurants and decided to eat at Gomez's for dinner.   Later we enjoyed the hot tub!  I wish we had one of those to relax all my muscles and warm up after a day of skiing at Snow Valley.

Mammoth ski vacation Monday

Our first day of skiing at Mammoth was snowy and cold.  I think the high was about 15 degrees and it felt like it.  It had snowed all morning and there were 3-5 inches depending on the effects of the wind all over the mountain.  I have never really skied on powder but I finally had no choice but to try since it was uniform all over the mountain.  We had a lot of fun playing in the powder and enjoying a lot of runs.   I even accidentally skied down a black diamond and with all the powder it wasn't too bad... and was actually my favorite run.

We took a picture of the terrain park because it was amazing.  It was set up for a big Olympic qualifying event and there were tons of amazing jumpers of both skiing and snowboarding persuasion.  I sat and watched them from the lodge when I got a little tired.  What a way to spend the down time!

Crazy Hair day at school

 Grandma Sue helped the kids get ready for crazy hair and nail day at school.  Even Annika wanted in on the fun!  I think this was in celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday but since I was busy skiing at Mammoth I can only guess!

fiery furnace Thanksgiving

 On our way up to St George for Thanksgiving we decided to make a detour stop.  We drove off the road towards fiery furnace which we have always wanted to see as we have driven by.  It was quite a place and I wish we had more time to stop and see it.  We decided on a pretty quick loop through a slot canyon that would take about a half hour.  I think it was supposed to be 1.5 miles.

 Right away we made a mistake and ended up going down this wall instead of staying on the trail.  We thought the trail went down but that is what we get for thinking.  In reality it went up.  Then bottom of the canyon had sand and some foot prints so we continued to head down.

 There were slots although the walls were not very tall so we figured we were going the right way.

 The girls loved how we had to climb around and fit between small spaces but I wondered where all the other people we had seen were?

 We found this hole that the girls climbed through.  They loved it!

 At about this time Cameron and I decided we had made a mistake and somehow we missed the trial.  I think we traveled about a mile and half down the wash.  So we turned around and headed back up.  We made it back to the trail where there was a sign we would have seen if we were not playing on the rocks.  What a lesson to learn... always stay on the trail.

 We then went back up the trail and around.  It was a cool canyon but I didn't take any pictures.   Here we are at the top where there was an arch.

The hike was fun and I highly recommend fiery furnace.

Christmas Photos finally!

 Merry Christmas!  I realize I am nearly 2 months late but I lost my camera and just found it today.  We had a great Christmas!  Here is a picture of it before the girls came upstairs.  Stacey, Tony and Grandma came to visit and we all had a great time with each other.

 Annika knew which one was her presents from Santa and was very excited to get in and try out all the buttons.

 Ali loved her Santa presents which included new bedding and new snow pants both with different colored dots all over them!

 Ashling got a marble race game, a robot hand and ticket to ride.  She loves that game and is pretty good at playing it.

 All Annika asked for was a pink dress that spins.  This is the dress!  She loves it and has worn it each and every Sunday since Christmas.

New Years Resolutions

We have a couple New Year's Day traditions.  They go like this... we take down the Christmas tree and then fill out our time capsule so we have something to read when we set up the tree next year.  Sometimes we watch old family videos.

We wrote some goals for this year.

They go like this:

Brown Family financial Goals:
Pay off our explorer
Pay off my student loan
Save  XXXX for a rainy day
Buy a New Mattress for Cameron and Melissa's bed (it is way past time.)

Brown Family Fitness Goals
We have a family goal to run more and participate in a 5 K race
Ali wants to run a mile in 8:30
Ashling wants to learn to do the splits
I want to run a mile in 8 minutes
Cameron wants to run in the mornings before work for 15 or 20 minutes
We want to go on a family back packing trip.
Melissa wants to take some ski lessons

Brown Family Spiritual goals
We want to read the Book of Mormon as a family
Go to the temple monthly
Ali wants to read the Book of Mormon all the way through on her own

Brown Family education goals
Cameron wants to pass the seismic part of the PE exam and get PE liscense
Ali wants to get better at science and get a 4.0
Melissa wants to read one classical book on my kindle for every fun book
Ashling wants to read lots of chapter books

Annika has goals too.  Her most important is becoming potty trained and also learning all her ABC's and how to write them.  She is going to work on cutting too and also hiking by herself.

Kids and Santa

 Here are some pictures of the kids and Santa.  They got to see Santa at our ward Christmas party.  It was fun!  Annika likes Santa and goes right up to him to tell him what she wants for Christmas!  She wants a big kitchen and a pink dress.  We will see how Santa does with that.