Skiing up Red Pine with Greg

On the 26th of March, Greg and I went skiing up Red Pine.  Here is Greg in front of the frozen Red Pine Lake.

Here Greg is going around Red Pine Lake.

Greg skiing down the hill just above Red Pine Lake.  It is a really good slope to ski, but it takes quite a while to get to.

Here is Greg skiing some awesome snow for the end of March.

Greg again.  

Me in some pretty deep stuff.

Good thing I had goggles.

There is an awesome view of Little Cottonwood on the trail to Red Pine.

Trip to New York

I went on a business trip in March to Kingston, New York.  I am sure glad I don't have to travel much for work because it is not that fun.  When you get on a plane to go on vacation you are much more willing to put up with the crowds, lines, and headaches of travel.  The one highlight of the trip was going to the Orange County Choppers headquarters which was about 20 minutes away from where we stayed.  I have never watched the show, but it was cool to see what they have created.  There were some really cool motorcycles; more like art than anything.

Here is the Lincoln motorcycle  

The NASA motorcycle

The New York Fire Department 9/11 motorcycle

The Gillette motorcycle

The Santa Clause motorcycle

The Christopher Reeves motorcycle

My flight back from NY was horrible.  I had the most turbulent flight I have ever been on.  Everyone's drink spilled and probably 10+ people threw up, including the girl sitting behind me.  I just about threw up myself.  When I got off the plane I was all sweaty and reeked of throw up.

St. George

In March Lyndsay, Mace and I went to St. George to visit Lyndsay's family and to go climbing with John and Corianne.  John and I wanted to attempt to climb something we had climbed with Mark Christensen just before we left on our missions.  Kourtney and Luke were nice enough to let us stay at their beautiful house/hotel.

Mace thought it was pretty fun to kick Lyndsay while swinging.

Here are Lyndsay and Mace at the park with the Dixie sign. 

Here is John on the start of "Banana Dance" 5.11D, the climb we had come all the way to St. George for. 

John made it up the first 3 bolts and then gave me a chance. 

I was able to get the quickdraw in on the fourth, but wasn't able to clip the rope in.

After that, John flew up past where we had been stuck before, and finished it.  It was pretty cool to watch.

The climb was so steep that you couldn't clean it from the top.  I spent forever climbing from the bottom cleaning the route.  I cheated in every way possible to get up it.

The next day we went to Chuckawalla.  Here is Corianne.

And John.

Turtle!

Mace is getting so smart. I love it! I have lost track of how many words he can say. I love that he understands so much. It is so fun to watch him learn more each day! 

Tonight in the bathtub, Mace and I named all of the animals toys he has. We made a game out of it. It was hilarious! We would line up each of the animals as we named them, and then knock them all back in the tub! 

One of my favorite words that Mace says, is turtle. He only says it once in this clip, but it is so cute! (My other favorite is octopus!)

Thomas the Train

Mace has recently started to like Trains. He loves them and gets so excited every time he sees one. I got him his very own train while we were at Walmart tonight. He has carried it around with him everywhere he goes. The only time he didn't have it, was when I distracted him enough to get him in the tub. Mace even took Thomas the Train to bed with him! Luckily, Mace has two sets of Thomas jammies!

After I got Mace all ready for bed, I asked if he wanted to read books. He shook his head yes and headed for his room. When I came back from the kitchen, this is how I found him.

Here is a cute video of Mace with his train jammies and his new toy!

I suddenly have all sorts of ideas of what I can get Mace for his birthday. I may be stocking the ksl ads for Thomas the Train toys!

Skiing with Mace

I have really struggled lately with how to entertain Mace while Lyndsay is at work. Mace was sick off and on for the past month so we have spent several evenings just sitting around the house, usually playing Matchbox cars.  Today Mace was feeling good, the weather was beautiful, and the sun didn't set until 6:30, so we decided to go skiing.  We went a little ways up Grizzly Gulch by Alta.

We had to take a few breaks so Mace could stretch his legs and get a drink.

After a while Mace got really sleepy.  I felt bad that he has no head support.  I can't imaging sleeping like that.

When he woke up from his nap he made it clear to me he was ready to get out and walk around for a little bit.

He seemed a little scared when we started the decent as you can see in the video below.  I think he is biting his lip.  After a while he got into it.  At the end of the video it looks like he has a little smile creeping in.  He kept kicking me when I stopped almost like I was a horse.

We took one more break on the way down when I wanted to get some pictures.  This is what Mace looks like after he smokes and drinks (pretzels and water, that is).

I don't know if Mace enjoyed this as much as playing Matchbox cars, but I sure had fun.  For my own personal benefit I hope he grows up to be my little skiing buddy.

It was a pretty sunset.

Here is the sunset from back at the car.  It felt like the temperature must have dropped 20 degrees between this picture and the last.

Cardiff Peak

Greg and I went skiing this morning up Cardiff.  We got treated to a pretty cool view as the sun rose over the mountains.  Greg was nice enough to hold still as I tried a few different settings on the camera.

Going up the ridge towards Cardiff always makes you feel tough.

The snow was really great.  About 6" of powder on top of a sun crust.  It made for some fast skiing.

Here is a view of Alta on our second lap.

Greg took the camera for our second lap.

Patsy Marley

On the 18th of February I woke up at 4:30 in the morning eager to get out and ski and try to take some pictures.  I probably sped on the way up to the Alta parking lot (well, as much as a 1995 Geo Prizm allows).  When I got up to the Alta parking lot around 5:30 it was blowing like crazy.  I was guessing 30-40 mph winds.  I ended up just sitting in my car until 6:00 just hoping the winds would die down.  They didn't... it was the most powerful wind I have ever experienced.

I decided to try to go up to Patsy Marley, the ridge just to the east of Alta.  Here is a long exposure picture from the top of Grizzly Gulch just before the sun came up. 

 

It was so windy and cold on the ridge up to Patsy Marley that my eyelashes kept freezing together.  I estimated that the winds were 60mph or so.  The gusts were so strong on that ridge that I literally got blown over 7 times.  One of those times after I fell the wind kept pushing me on the wind crust towards the cornices on the leeward side of the ridge.  I finally got so fed up with the wind that I took off my skis and hiked to the big white cell phone reflector (or whatever that thing is) on that ridge and hunkered down behind the pillar for a half hour or so hoping that the wind would die down.  

When the wind died down a little I hurried up to the top and then back to my skis.  I was ready to get back to a warm car.  On my way down the ridge I saw a huge bus size cornice that I just had to try to kick down.  There was a large tree just above it that I could hold on to, so it wasn't dangerous.  To my surprise, it broke.  

I couldn't believe how big it was so I took a few pictures.  Some of those chunks down the hill were the size of a Smart car.

One more picture from the bottom

It was fun to feel a little eXtreme (with a capital X) and then still be able to make it back to a warm comfy house by a little after 9:00.

A treat for Tyler

Last Friday, Mace and I made Strawberry Cheesecake.

It was fun to have a little helper in the kitchen.

Mace got to lick the mixers for the first time in his life.

As you can see, you enjoyed it very much!