From Sun to Snow

We had all of Darren's family visit us over the past week. This included cousins from Arizona and Hawaii! They couldn't wait to hit the slopes and experience this cold stuff we call snow! We were all bundled up and ready to night ski at Pomerelle. Justin, being the responsible kid he is happened to look up Pomerelle's website - CLOSED! Due to the storm and blowing conditions! So glad we didn't drive all the way up there!

We changed our skis for shovels and sleds and headed to the South Hills instead!

Paige is "icing" her nose. She and Kate bumped heads while sledding over an unforeseen jump! If you know us, you know we are anti-sledding. I know we take our kids to do some crazy stuff, but we honestly hate sledding because it is dangerous. This is why! We thought for about an hour she had broken her nose, it swelled, changed color and had weird spots on it- and she was crying HARD!

She calmed down eventually and it all turned out OK!

Justin and Logan digging a cave.

Justin is STANDING up!


Brady hiking his skis up the sledding hill. Smart kid. No sleds for him!



Hang Loose from Diane.

Darren putting snow shoes on the only blonde Hawaiian we know!

Me thinking way too hard about trudging off into the snow.

Cute Arizona cousin.

Darren and Brady taking turns digging. Between Darren, his brother and the kids they connected to caves with a tunnel about 12 feet long! Now they want to go back up and sleep in it!

I'm not going!

Sew Cute!

Paige got a gift certificate to the Quilt Barn for Christmas. She bought some fat quarters and a panel of dolls to be sewn and stuffed. She made a doll and a pillow all by herself. She picked out the cutest fabrics. Of course, everything at the Quilt Barn is darling!

Then she started in on clothes for the doll. She loves this stuff! I can sew, it just frustrates the heck out of me! And frankly, I don't really enjoy it. I'm glad she does!

My High Flyer

Brady made me promise that sometime during Christmas break I would take him to the South Hills so he could build a ski jump. Not at a ski resort, just out in the mtns somwhere. Justin kept telling him it would be too much work. Hike up ski down. Hike up ski down. He would not be dissuaded.

With new telescoping snow shovel in hand he went to work on the side of a sledding hill at Diamondfield Jack.

Cousins Brooke and Logan, Arizonans, looked on in anticipation and support.

The first 360 was attempted.

Dad came in with adjustments. We were shaving the jump, steepening it, telling him to go FASTER, look over his shoulder harder, ride the jump longer....

The cousins were looking at us like, "You are the weirdest parents we have yet encountered."

We were just so proud.

Santa is Short

My boys had the opportunity to deliver presents and food for a local service agency. They voted the new kid to be Santa this year. Complete with fat suit and beard. Brady said he thought it was fun...for a little while!

He said he had to ride in the front seat and the seat belt wouldn't fit around him. He kept thinking how his mom would not approve of that part!

If any of the kids wondered why he was so short their story was that he was the Head Elf! A few kids ran up to him crying, "Santa! Santa!" and grabbing his legs.

"What did you do?" I asked him.

"I just patted them on the back and said, 'HO HO HO!'" he told me.

One kid wanted to sit on his lap, so he asked him what he wanted for Christmas!

It was great for them. It took them about five hours to make their assigned deliveries. I hope they can do it next year too!

Total Eclipse of the (Heart) Moon

Were you awake at 1:17 am on Tuesday morning? And if you were, were you singing Bonnie Tyler?

Darren got us all up at 1:oo and we headed to the hot tub to watch this amazing lunar eclipse. The last time this happened on the Winter Solstice was in Galileo's time, some 370 or so years ago!

Paige had a hard time fathoming that not even her great great great grand kids would see this happen again.

Lucky this happened over Christmas Break so no one was worried about missing sleep for school the next day. Before I got back into bed I promptly decided that my 5:00 alarm for swimming was a NO GO!

Made me feel pretty small and insignificent. A good reminder. Perspective at the Holidays. The universe keeps functioning even if Lisa doesn't get a gift to every neighbor or make the perfect holiday chocolates.......Cool! I love realizing that in reality I really don't control ANYTHING!

Cyclocross Pics

The cyclocross association posted some pictures from Saturday's race on facebook. The photog showed me some of the boys racing, but they weren't posted. I will try to get a hold of them.

Start of men's 60 min.

Paige and Biz, lifelong best buds. Paige sporting her medal.

Finished!

Happy to be finished! Mud on chin. Sporting my medal too. Maybe I'll be like my mom and wear it EVERYWHERE I go. (LOL mom)

Cyclocross Family Style

We did the COOLEST race today! And by we I mean our entire family! There was another cyclocross race in Twin. It was held at Rock Creek Park. The course was awesome. Grass, pavement, swampy stuff, deep icey puddles, sand traps, barriers to jump over......

Paige did the kid race, one time around the course. I did the women's - three laps. Brady and Justin did the men's short course - four laps. Justin took 4th, and Brady did awesome too. There were only adults who did this besides them. One point on the course had a steep, sketchy downhill that started off on snow/ice. All of the women walked/carried it. Justin came up to two men slowing to contemplate it and then went between them and flew down it! Brady rode it also.

The owner of Spoke 'n Wheel bike shop lent me his cross bike. I loved it! I am thinking about asking Santa for one of my own. (A girl can always wish).

Darren did the long race - 8 laps. He rode the cross bike as well. We are both addicted.

Darren took tons of pictures of us cruising through mud, lifting our bikes over barriers.......there was no card in the camera.

So below are the only two pics we have about this event.

I am loving my kids being at this age. Our truck was LOADED with cool bikes. A family that plays together.....

O Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we dropped the boys off at Magic for opening ski day and took still-in-a-boot-Paige to cut down a Christmas tree.
She did it herself. Cut it and hauled it out!

Messing About in Boats

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

-Kenneth Graham (Wind in the Willows)

Apparently many people agree! We hit the kayak roll session at the Y.

I was proud to be married to the "most experienced" kayaker there. That is another way of saying the oldest. The guy who puts this on is the son of the guy who helped Darren kayak when he was Justin's age! But in all seriousness, no bias here, he is one of the best around.
Justin teaching a friend to roll.

Brady could still do his back deck roll.

Darren and Brady teaching Paige to roll. She needs a little more practice, but is determined not to be left behind in the kayak rolling category!

Second Snow Day in a Week!

Look what can be accomplished on a snow day!

My house is going to stay so much cleaner. Now that the kids have their own house and all!

Paige in her bedroom.

Snow snow and more snow has been our life for the past week! Snow days, snowy roads to Utah, snowiER roads back from Utah. We made it home Sunday despite running into two closed roads. The freeway was closed, so we took a side highway. Sneaky us, we thought. Imagine our despair when after 2 hrs on it we came upon another ClOSED sign! Darren, upon seeing our "side"road being shut down, flipped a U turn and took us over Conner Summit - he had ridden it to Malta a few summers ago. Guess I am grateful he rides hundreds of miles. Total white out, but it was open!

We got within 1 mile of home and came upon 4 ft. drifts! Apparently our ward had sent everyone home after Sunday School because of the drifting. We would not be thwarted from reaching our destination as Darren plowed us through the drifts. It was actually fun. We were so glad to be home!

Now we get to be home some more! No school today for the second time in a week! We could get used to this!

Snow Day!

Monday night the word spread like wildfire about the SNOW DAY! on Tuesday. Text messages, automated school phone call, neighbors! Woo HOOO!!!

Not willing to miss out on anything, she talked her brothers into pulling her in the sled to the neighbor's house (they're not close) to try their sled hill. They pulled her back too. Such gentlemen.

This is the bottom half of a two part slide. We are instructed not to step on it! Smooth is faster!

I loved this day. We got lots of snow and then the wind kicked up. Perfect recipe for a snow day here. The drifts get crazy across the roads. Darren barely made it out the end of our road because of a huge drift. I told Darren this morning that I wanted to move somewhere where we could get snowed in all winter long. We had such a great day.

The boys were in and out of the snow all day. They trekked up the road on skis to try the neighbor's hill, tried the bungee sled, soaked in the hot tub then ran around in their swimming suits. Paige and I baked bread, then snickerdoodles. I put in a P90X DVD, plyometrics, yikes. Had to do something to justify all those cookies. I have to admit I was glad to have Diet Coke in the fridge, I wouldn't have trekked all the way to Sonic, but I have been known to do dumber things.

The Time Has Come

When I start finding lines like this strung throughout the house

I know it is time.

Snow kite season has begun!

Tonight was the first snow kite day of the season. They met out by the church on Falls. They have been scouting out farm fields all year.

Today had plenty of the two things you need for snowkiting:

Wind and Snow.

I guess I should add a third: Ted, who has all sizes of kites.

Chillin'

We decided to just hang out and watch a little TV yesterday.

Just chillin'.

Monster Cross Race

Today was Twin's first (I think) Cyclocross bike race. Our friend Jerrod Kuerth organized it. It was held at Dierke's Lake. A cyclocross race usually involves a cyclocross bike, sort of a road bike with fatter tires. Most people around here don't have them, a lot of us rode our mtn. bikes. Even if I owned a cross bike I wouldn't have ridden it around Dierke's Lake!

Darren and a few friends have spent some serious time working on the trail. They have cleared sagebrush, moved rocks, opened up narrow areas in an effort to make the trail more user friendly. People walking and hiking around the lake have been thrilled. The trail has needed some work for a while now.

The race was free, Jerrod was just feeling out the interest for something like this. It was a better than expected turn out on this freezing cold day!

I run around Dierke's, I swim in Dierke's, but have never had a desire to ride/carry a bike around it! There are 127 stairs! The newspaper was taking pictures first step on the first set of stairs is about waist high to me! The newspaper was there on the second lap. I thought, you've got to be kidding me, take pictures of my TRYING to get up this thing with my bike? Not very graceful I will tell you that! The race went clockwise around the lake. I did the 30 min course, where we did 2 laps. Darren did the hour course with 4 laps.

Darren and Terry on their twinner bikes. So special.

Darren and I both rode the same bike. I warmed it up for him. The bike and I were so muddy when I finished that everyone asked me if I had crashed! NO! Hello people, it just took my whole body to carry that bike over 1/3 of the course! Hence they called it a MONSTER cross race.

Darren spent some time with me on Thursday riding the course. I tried three different bikes, always sure that the next one would be easier to carry! Darren showed me what side of the bike to get off and when, where to grab on the bike, etc. I went over my handle bars once and have a plethora of bruises all over my legs from hoisting the bike every which way to be able to carry it. After today the biggest bruise is on my right shoulder, where I learned the rest the seat of the bike for the carry.

Darren can ride the loop in under 12 min. He is a little insane, riding some of the stairs. But what do you expect from Darren. Nothing less than insanity.





Darren did awesome staying up with those young Ketchum guys! He crashed twice! The course got pretty muddy after the first lap of my race. Even the stairs were getting covered. Since only 3 women entered the 30 min. course (1 woman in the hour race, go girl whoever you are!) They raced us with the guys. I came in about middle of the pack overall. Darren came in 5th. The first place finisher, Terry's son, Brad, raced in Europe in his teens and is a serious competitor.

This was really fun and I'm so glad I did it, even though I was really nervous! There will be another cross race next month at Rock Creek, and one in January at O'Leary. Neither will be nearly as technical. I'd like to get a hold of a cross bike. I think I'm really liking this new challenge!