Family Ski Day!

Sage on the lift

Sage practicing her reverse snow plow

Jake and I are determined to teach our kids to ski.  We live so close to so many resorts it would be sad if they couldn't ski.  Plus, let's face it, winters here never end so you have to do something fun.  Teaching your kids to ski shouldn't be that hard, right?  Wrong!!  It is way harder than it sounds, let me tell you.  But we will not quit!  (A side note here:  teaching your kids to ski is not hard for everyone.  We, however, seem to be handicapped in this area)

So, this is how skiing goes in our family.  Jake grew up skiing and snow boarding.   He's amazing and loves it.  I did  not grow up skiing or snow boarding.  I'm trying to figure it out, but almost every time I've skied I could also tell you a story of some mishap.  Zack has had a bunch of lessons this year and has gotten pretty good.  I will admit that he gets down the mountain faster than I do.  He loves to go through trees and off jumps (little ones mind you).  Kate is more timid, but determined all the same.  The important part is that she loves it.  Sage is going to be our extreme skier I think.  The faster she goes, the more she giggles.  We really need to get her a helmet....

We're making progress, you see?  (well, everyone but me)  So this year I signed Zack and Kate up for ski lessons so that their times overlapped.  Kill two birds with one stone I thought.  Ends up that its not so easy.  Here is an example of a day of skiing with three kids:

We have passes to PCMR, and their parking is limited.  Very limited.  No worries, you can park at the high school and ride a shuttle.  No problem, right?  Wrong again!!  This past Saturday was Sundance.  That means Park City is packed with people.  That's ok, we plan ahead and leave really early.  The PCMR people told us a shuttle would be running to the high school.  So we parked at the high school and waited, and waited...  It finally became apparent that no shuttle would be coming, so Jake dropped me off with Zack and Kate.  We waited in line and got Kate's rentals, then ate lunch.  Got Kate geared up and into her class.  Deep breath, first one done.  Now to get Zack his gear.  Done and done.  So Zack and I manage a couple of runs before his lessons start.  During this whole time poor Jake and Sage are driving around, trying to figure out where to park.  Finally, two hours later (they did take a break for lunch), they were able to join us at the resort.  I get Zack to his lessons and rush to meet Jake and Sage.  Jake runs to the bathroom and right after he gets back Sage says she needs to go.  Of course.  Jake runs off to take her super fast while I wait, and wait, and wait.  Finally they get back.   What took so long?  Jake's nice Oakley glasses fell into the toilet while he was helping Sage go to the bathroom.  Awesome.  So we re-group to get some skiing in.  Make it down a couple of runs and then its time to get Kate from her lessons.  Kate's tired and doesn't want to ski anymore so Jake and Sage take off without us.  I put my skis in the rack along with my poles and Jake's poles (he doesn't use them when he has Sage) and Kate and I head downstairs to return her gear.  Fifteen minutes later we're back, but my skis are gone.  Yep, gone.  Are you kidding me??!!!  My poles were there, but the skis and Jake's poles were gone.  This might make sense if I had really nice skis, but I don't.  They're awful and ugly.  So I look all around and think I find them in another section of the racks.  So I take them and we head off to pick up Zack.  While we're waiting for Zack I look at my skis more and realize that they're really not my skis.  So Jake collects the kids while I walk back to the ski racks.  My skis are still gone.  Seriously.  So I head to the lost and found to tell them I took the wrong pair of skis.  The girl whose skis I stole had already been to the lost and found, so she got her skis back.  Unfortunately, she didn't have my skis.  Where in the world did my skis go??!!  I hope whoever took them breaks a leg or something.  Grrr.  So I finally tromp back to the car and we head home.  I think I walked like a mile in ski boots.  My feet still hurt.  Note to self:  Get new boots when you get new skis...

If you could see into the car on the way home, this is what you would see:  Three kids in the back seat totally happy with their day of skiing, completely unaware that anything had been difficult.  But when you look in the front seat you see two exhausted parents wondering if this is really worth it.  One of us in tears due to lost skis (that was Jake not me).

I would like to go back to the fact that the kids were happy, thus, success.  At least that's what I tell myself.

The moral to this story?  (there are many really)

1. Don't schedule ski lessons at the same time.  Its harder than it sounds.
2. Don't schedule ski lessons during Sundance.  There is no parking.
3. Forget about wearing ski boots until you're actually ready to ski.  Way to painful.
4. Don't put your sunglasses in your pocket when you go to the bathroom.
5. Keep your skis with you at all times, even if they're crappy and ugly.

All Things Christmas

Kate - not sure how we missed her opening her doll (Jake was taking pics)

Sage and her doll Kit

Zack with his legos

Christmas Eve nativity

sledding with my family (just pretend you can see everyone's faces)

I suppose I should say something about Christmas.  It was wonderful, of course.  There's nothing like Christmas with little kids.  I love it and I try to enjoy every second of it because I know it won't last.  This Christmas was the perfect blend of doing our own things, combined with extended family activities.  Its always so good to spend some extra time with family.

The kids loved their presents.  Zack got all kinds of things to put together.  He keeps himself busy for large amounts of time now:)  Kate and Sage got American Girl Dolls.  They were so excited.  Good thing, because it was pretty much their only present.  Jake continues to give me all kinds of grief about spending so much on dolls, but he is a man and cannot understand.  I held firm, and now they have their dolls.  I think Kate would take her doll to school with her if possible.  I love it.

Anyway, Christmas was good.  I don't feel like going into long, boring details of everything.  And I'm sure you don't feel like reading it.  Think of this lack of detail as my Christmas gift to you (whoever you are - all 2 of you).

Three Years

It's been three years since Mom passed away.  Seems like forever and seems like yesterday all at once.  I was reading in her journal and thought I'd share some words of wisdom she wrote:

"My thoughts continued to ponder on the adversity in life.  While I was laying down I remembered a talk someone gave me by Bruce Hafen called "When Do Angels Come?"  He reminds us of all the times angels have come to help people including Christ.  But the part I liked best is when he talked about angels ministering and nobody saw them.  Joseph Smith "saw the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb,...in foreign lands standing together in a circle, much fatigued, with their clothes in tatters and feet swollen, with their eyes cast downward, and Jesus standing in their midst, and they did not behold Him.  The Savior looked upon them and wept."  The Prophet also "saw Elder Brigham Young in a strange land, in a desert place, upon a rock in the midst of about a dozen hostile men.  He was preaching to them in their own tongue, and the angel of God standing above his head, with a drawn sword in his hand, protecting him, but he did not see it."  And so I wondered to myself if angels and Christ himself have been in my midst and I didn't know it.  I have learned that there are times in adversity when the Lord leaves us alone for a minute perhaps so when the light comes on we will see its brightness better.  Maybe I didn't have that quite right - he doesn't leave us, we just don't know He is there.  While I was laying there thinking about all this I picked up the Ensign (Sept 2009) and read Elder Holland's talk, Lessons from Liberty Jail.  He gave this talk last September and our family felt like he was giving the talk just for us.  He says that when we feel that God has abandoned us and doesn't hear our prayer that He DOES hear and He does LOVE us and He DOES see us.  "It is imperative that we remember He is right there with us - where He has always been!  We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away.  He IS there.  Our prayers are heard.  AND WHEN WE WEEP HE AND THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN WEEP WITH US!"  And so I found myself saying 'Remember, remember," how the Lord has carried you before just like all the prophets remind people through history about how Jehovah brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt.  I must remember and the family too about how we have always been saved and sustained especially in our deepest trial of losing Lindsey.  He carried us through those dark times and continues to comfort us.  Let us not forget.  and just as the prophets told their people to 'remember' this great thing, our Spjute family needs to always remember in our history that we were saved and sustained in our greatest time of need."

She was so wise.  I love reading her words and thought they were too good not to share.