Grandma comes for a visit

Grandma came to visit us in April. It sure was great having her here and hanging out with her.

Played some basketball in the park

Emily knitted while we played basketball

Love this shot of Kyle shooting with the mountains in the background. 

This is my dad. My guess is he is a few years old than Kyle is now in this picture. Kyle totally has his eyes.

Ensign Peak

Exploring Salt Lake City and did a short hike to the top of Ensign Peak. It's a short, easy hike with a great view of the city. Apparently this is where Brigham Young went, saw the great view of the valley, and declared "this is the place" (which you see all over SLC), and established Salt Lake City as a new place for the LDS to settle. 

Donut Falls

We set out to hike Donut Falls for our first hike here all together. The scenery did not disappoint. 

Utah living

As we get settled into Utah life, we have found some fun outlets. 

Aaron playing basketball. But note his outfit. He really wants to go to work with Jeff one of these days. He said he chose a "collared shirt and collared socks" (dress socks) so he could. And as Mom pointed out, he has on collard green shorts. :-) 

Some pool side dinner

Perhaps one of my best timed pictures of Aaron jumping off the diving board but it sure looks like he's walking on water. The kids have become little fish this summer with all their swimming. And Aaron has decided that he doesn't need his flippers any longer. Last summer he ditched his life vest, this summer it's the flippers. Having a brother and sister 5 years older than you sure motivates you to learn fast. 

And the mountains are just beautiful. 

Day 1 in SLC

We dove straight into SLC on our first day. The kids were up early despite being up late the evening before with our flight and everything so I got them moving. Jeff went to work and we hit the hills. I think this route is called The Living Room. It's up by the Natural History Museum. We went on this trail when we visited back in December, but it was super muddy then. Now it was parched and dry and we were able to have a nice walk. 

At the top. 

Salt Lake City, here we come

From Chicago, we were Salt Lake City bound. We ditch the van there and put it on a truck for shipping because I couldn't bear the idea of 20 hours driving through Iowa, Nebraska & Wyoming solo with the kids and without any family, friend stops along the way to look forward to. So Jeff met us in Chicago to fly with us to our new hometown, Salt Lake City. 

In a first for us, we showed up at the airport early. An entire day early... We had marked our calendars that Sunday was when our tickets out to SLC were for. We get to the airport to check our bags only to find out our reservation was for Monday. Oops. What likely happened was that when Jeff booked, he defaulted to his normal fly to SLC Monday mode as he had been doing for the past 7 months when we had intended to fly and arrive on Sunday. Oops. Thankfully Delta was understanding and able to accommodate us on a later flight that day. We had about 6 hours to fill in the airport. After trying all the lounges we had some free passes for (all but Delta), but they insisted that the kids needed a pass as well to the tune of some crazy amount (noted after they realized we weren't flying their airline that day). So we found a nice, quiet hallway to chill in, play some iPad, do wall sits, and play Simon Says. 

On our way to SLC! 

And we have arrived. 

Skiing in Salt Lake City

We went skiing! The day before we planned to ski, there was a HUGE snowstorm that dumped 2 feet of snow and saw temperatures plunge into the negative and single digits. While we prepared for snow and cold, we didn't prepare for that cold. So we picked up an additional layer to help keep a bit warmer. After all, we've lived in San Diego for many, many years where it's just not cold (in any true sense of cold, but ask anyone in San Diego and they will tell you that 60 degrees is cold) and Raleigh where it has some colder temps than San Diego, but the city shuts down if it's in the 30s or any inkling of a snowflake or ice. Having been through snow and ice in Raleigh, the grocery stores and Costco are a mob scene and shelves are bare as everyone prepares to be stuck inside for a month. Salt Lake City on the morning of the storm was reasonably calm. We went to Costco to pick up some things for skiing (hand and foot warmers) and it really wasn't that crowded and certainly didn't have a sense of panic despite the big storm. Anyhow, I digress. 

We went to Brighton which we were told is a great local ski 'resort'. While it may not be as large as Park City or some other larger resorts, it was just right for us. There was plenty for each of us to ski, level and run wise. Kyle, Emily, and Aaron all did ski school on the first day to get their legs under them. This was Aaron's first experience with ski school. He did great as did Kyle and Em. Kyle and Emily had a great instructor who has his own adventure / climbing tour group back in Switzerland. He's also climbed the seven summits. Needless to say, they were in great hands. And it wasn't that crowded that their ski school was virtually a private group lesson with them, the instructor and maybe one other kid. Can't beat a 2:1 or 3:1 ski school ratio! Same thing for Aaron, he had 2 teachers and 2 kids (including him) in his class! Aaron made huge progress, easily graduating from the magic carpet after one run and spending the rest of his first day on the bunny green hill lift. 

The second day, Kyle and Em did ski school in the AM, Aaron the full day. In the afternoon, Kyle and Em skied with us, mostly with Jeff because they easily surpassed my green and blue level skiing. I shouldn't admit this, but that's fine with me. I have no business on a black diamond run, nor do I want to go on one. I enjoy my blues and enjoy skiing by myself as well. I was able to ski all the lifts and find a blue or green way down and also found my favorite run, California Highway I think it was called. The mountains, solitude, peacefulness, is wonderful. This isn't to say I don't enjoy skiing with Jeff and the kids, I certainly do enjoy it. I just don't mind skiing by myself either. 

Kyle good ski run - - video taken by their instructor Jean

Emily good ski run - video taken by their instructor Jean

Aaron skiing a long green at the end of the second day with me and Em

Aaron hanging out in ski school before the day started.

Emily ready to ski!

Kyle ready to ski! 

Aaron skiing!

Me skiing!

Kyle, Emily, and their one classmate. 

Me, Kyle, Emily on a lift

It was insanely cold. This was on the drive up the mountain that it was showing -4 degrees. That wasn't even at the top where it was colder. And thankfully our rental minivan made it up and down the mountain both days. That first day was very treacherous after the big storm the day / evening before. It was plowed mostly, but still had a good dusting and likely ice. On the way down the first day, the car directly behind us spun out, likely some black ice, to the side and thankfully didn't hit anyone or anything and slid safely to a parking lot. Very scary. 

It sure is pretty out there. 

Ready to ski!! 

Jeff and me skiing together. It was so wonderful to have some time together. A skiing date if you will. 

Top of the world! As we were skiing, Aaron told us that it was like we were on top of the world. We were in many senses of that. So much fun. 

Emily, Aaron, and me about to do a run down together. This was the end of the second day. Aaron's teachers had been taking him down the big chair lift green run. It's a long run (Mary's Back run). So we did one together. Now doing this at the end of the day, after two days of skiing in negative / single digit temps, is quite difficult. And one of us being a 4 year old. Taxing. Aaron did great though, showing off his skiing abilities. He will be better than me in no time. 

And headed back to Raleigh. We were just a little bit tired.