From The Bunny Hill To A Downhill Rocket

One day during Christmas break we were trying to think of something to do and decided we wanted to go sledding, so we called our super cool friends Jamie and Lehi and said, "Hey you want to go sledding?".  And they said "No".

A beautiful day on the mountain

Then they said, "We are going skiing up at Alta, it is free after 3 o'clock and it is only like 10 bucks to rent skis".  Well, we have intended to take our kids skiing or snowboarding or something for the last few years but some how never got around to it, so we got all our snow gear, jumped in the van and headed to Alta.

Grace and Jonah chilling

Connie used to be pretty good at skiing, and I had been skiing 3-4 times (I have preferred snowboarding in the past) but that was like 10 years ago.  So after we go our skis all rented, Connie took Sam to the bunny hill and on the first run taught him how to snow plow.

Connie helps Sam

Now confident that she had not forgotten how to ski, we then put Jonah in his backpack and Connie took him, Jamie helped Grace and I helped Sam.  After a few runs, Sam insisted on not getting help and started going on his own.

Grace in her princess snow chair

Grace did a few runs and then got tired, and Jonah slept soundly in his backpack (with his paranoid dad checking him every few minutes just to be sure he was really asleep and not passed out from the cold or something).

Lehi and Beyah take a picture of us

Afterwords, Jamie had brought a big steaming crockpot of purple chicken noodle soup (it was purple because she put purple carrots in it) and we all chowed down on it and got warm in the lodge until they kicked us out (because it was closing time, not because all our kids were running
around yelling, at least I think).

Sam loves to ski!

A week or so after this first time, Sam and I met up with Jamie and Lehi (and Beyah) to do it again.  This time after a few runs on the bunny hill, we decided to do a real run.  Jamie (who is a much better skier than I am) helped me help Sam on and off the ski lift.  For the first few hundred meters of the run Sam and I just went along with J,L,&B.  Then we got to a place where you could either go a long slow flat way or a steeper way.  Sam decided he wanted to try the steeper way.  He was pretty good at snow plowing and turning, so I thought he would be ok.  Just as pre-caution, Lehi went down the hill a ways. Sam started down the hill and proceeded to not snow plow or turn and instead rocketed down the hill.  I started after him but not being a great skier myself went straight into a patch of powder.  Fortunately, Lehi went after Sam and helped to finally stop after several hundred meters.  (see head cam footage below).  After this intitial scare, everything went pretty smooth for the rest of the day except for one more incident when Sam verred off the main path, barely missed a giant pole and took a short cut thru the trees (Didn't get that one on the head cam unfortunately).

Awesome Headcam Footage
For Christmas, Connie got me something which I have always wanted, which is an HD headcam.  I am still getting used to it and perfecting my technique, but I did get some good footage of Sam skiing.

Here is Sam on the bunny hill.  He had a strong tendency to veer to the right so you can hear me yelling at him to put more weight on his right foot so he does not veer into the tow rope (which he did on some previous runs)



This is the start of Sam first try on a real run


Sam takes off like a rocket on a steep part of the big run. Thank goodness Lehi was down below to help bring him to a safe stop.

2010 In Review - Video and Summary, plus Gracie's Song

It is time for our annual video in review.  We love making these videos.  We make them just as much for ourselves as anyone else.  On days (and nights) when Jonah won't stop crying,  Grace turns into a pint size drama queen, and Sam seems to have ear plugs in, we watch these videos and it reminds us how good life really is. We feel blessed to have so many loving family and friends and so many opportunities to do fun things and go cool places and know great people.

Below the video is a written summary of our year.


In case you missed last years review:


Written Summary Of 2010:

Family:

• Jonah born!
• Connie and Kevin went to the several Operas (we have a friend who is a professional opera singer)
• Connie and Kevin took ballroom dance classes
• Went to Indiana for a family reunion
• Went to Alaska to visit the Jensens
• Stopped at Grand Teton National Park after LOTOJA
• Went to Arizona for Thanksgiving
• Kevin and Grace went to the Nutcracker
• Connie and Sam went to the Symphony
• Connie and Grace went to California to visit Aunt Christy
• Kevin and Sam went to Lagoon and got to ride all the big kid rides
• Lots of hiking (Dipper falls, Donut Falls,  Adams Canyon, and more)

Kevin:

• Personal best bike century (100 miles) Avg. 21 mph
• LOTOJAAF
• Trip to Germany for Work, with a side trip to Paris
• New mountain bike

Connie:

• Brought Jonah into the world
• Book Club
• Hiked Mt. Olympus
• First road bike 
• Lots of work in Primary (the kids division at our church)

Sam:

• Soccer
• 1st Grade
• Lots of reading
• Coach Pitch
• First mountain bike
• Mile run (9 minutes flat, to the hundreth of a second)
• School play (the jungle book)

Grace:

• Soccer (sort of)
• Dance Class
• Preschool
• Annabelle(BFF)

Jonah:

• Born
• Hair turned from brown to blond
• Learned to roll over
• 6 teeth
• Almost crawling

Gracie's Song

About a month before Christmas, we were listening to some Ben Folds' songs and one of our favorites 'Gracie' came on.  Now if you have never heard this song, you should now, that it describes our own Gracie perfectly as if it was custom written for her.  When Gracie heard it, she looked at Connie and said "Did daddy make this song for me?".  Well, I couldn't claim that I made the song, but I decided I could make a video for the song, and that would be just as good.  So I compiled a bunch of pictures of her growing up and made this video: