The whole time my parents and my sister, Trina, and her family were in town, the weather was mild. We had a brown Christmas. I know Trina and her family were disappointed, but Mom and Dad were relieved. Especially Dad, who can't handle extreme cold.
They all left town on Tuesday, the 28th.
The blizzard arrived on Wednesday, the 29th.
Peder and his family are still in town. He, Erik, and I had scheduled to take our kids skiing/snowboarding on Thursday the 30th. However, Sundance closed early on Wednesday due to the terrible conditions, so I wasn't sure if we would be able to go.
We weren't. Sundance and that entire canyon remained closed all day Thursday because of downed power lines across the road. Drat!
So we did the next best thing. We took them to the sledding hill.
OH MAN WAS IT COLD!!!!
It was still storming and the temperature was frigid! The kids had a great time, though!
Helena in her cute new snowboarder gear! She looks ready to rip it up on the slopes. This was her first time on a snowboard, though, so it was good to try it out on the sledding hill, first! In the background you can see Kirsten and Erik.
Little Tori in her cute snow bunny gear and Peder in his Iraqi head scarf turned balaclava!
Kirsten talking her her snow bunny, Tori, and Erik on a sled. The cold proved to be too much for Tori, so after a bit Kirsten took her back to my house where Bill and Deanna were waiting in the warmth and watching a movie.
Little Annie, Peder's youngest (for now!). The cold was definitely NOT too much for this little go getter! She wanted to keep sledding and snowboarding even after her mom and Grandma Gowdy told her to come get warm in the car. She had to be dragged off kicking and screaming because she 'wasn't done practicing, yet!' Look at those rosy cheeks!
This is Grandpa Gowdy. He is Jody's dad and Peder's father-in-law. He came for a few minutes to see all the fun, but ended up being snowplowed onto a sled and down the hill by Peder, who jumped on top of him and rode down with him. What a good sport!
Both Peder and Erik worked with Helena on the snowboards. Erik especially was very patient and spent lots of time helping her to figure out what to do. She and I were very impressed and grateful for the time he took to help her.
Will and his best friend, Dallan Baker, came to the sledding hill with their skis. You might think there isn't much to do with skis on a sledding hill. Nope! The boys spent the first half of their time improving their going-off-of-jumps skills, then disappeared off into the stands of trees to play around in the untouched powder and work on their weaving-between-the-stands-of-trees skills. This is Will going off the jump. You know how hard it is to time a shot of someone going off a jump?!
This is Dallan, the boy who was practically born on skis.
Here is Helena looking like a pro, carving up some snow!
At the end, right before Simone and Annie (the latter kicking and screaming, remember) were dragged to the car to warm up. We have had a little fake kiddie snowboard for years that Helena and Will have both outgrown. We brought it anyways and Annie fell in LOVE with it! She is only 3, but she managed to stay standing and balanced the whole way down the gentlest sled slope on it! That is what she wanted to keep doing when we all decided it was time to go thaw out. In the shot above, she wasn't willing to wait for her daddy to help (who was talking to Helena and Erik about snowboarder stuff), so she just started going on her own. Simone decided to step in and be a helpful big sister. So cute!
I realized as we headed home that my new snow gear worked great, but that my exposed chin was literally numb with cold.
We decided to reschedule the mountain adventure for Saturday... New Year's Day!
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