Hap Hap Happenings

February 19, 2017 By

Our busy winter season is sadly winding down and I’ve been trying to hold on for as long as possible. Here are are few of our happenings:

  • All of our glorious snow is almost gone. In Ambruary. In the mountains, spring is replaced by a not-so glorious mud season before ushering summer. I’d mentally prepared myself for this in April in May but not in February. Winter, come back!
  • Jamie speaks my love language. For Valentine’s Day and our anniversary the following day, he took me hiking and to the Blue Boar Inn, a fine-dining restaurant in Midway. We also had our family’s traditional fondue on Valentine’s Day. Jamie and I vowed not to get each other gifts to save money and for once, we actually stuck to that resolution (as opposed to Christmas when we said the same thing and yet somehow ended up buying each other the exact same gifts–A Magic Bullet blender and the Jason Bourne movie). However, we did get each other cards where we wrote several things we love about each other but as it turns out, all cards are not equal and he bought one of those huuuuuge over-sized ones. That guy wins at everything, including love. 
  • Bode is winding down his third month of Nordic ski lessons at Soldier Hollow. With the dwindling snow totals, it makes parting less sorrowful but I have truly loved volunteering with his class twice a week. I learned to skate ski and once I get my knee problems fixed, I can’t wait to do it again. He is in an awkward intermediate school and will be bumped up to middle school next year so I thought his days of class holiday parties were over until he came home from his Halloween party and told me how lame it was. So, I took over for Christmas and Valentine’s Day. I thought I was soooo over volunteering but I’ve enjoyed holding onto his final, fleeting moments of childhood. If no one is going to step up to help, I’d rather just do it than have nothing at all.
  • Hadley is a teenager with all the boy drama that involves. Not that she tells us anything but we have this glorious thing called text messaging where her love life (or lack thereof) unfolds in all the glories of unrequited teenage angst. She and Jamie have been swapping a virus for weeks. She was finally feeling better but then had a lot of late nights for her science fair project (an ode to–what else–pumpkins and nitrogen in the soil). She didn’t have to do a project because she’s not in Honors Science but as the top student in her class, she was the only one who chose to do a project. Did I mention she made the HONOR ROLL? However, her rundown body caught up with her and I told her she could sleep in as late as she wanted on Saturday but she did much more than that. She came home from school on Friday and took a nap, refusing to wake up for her volleyball team party she had been looking forward to and slept straight through the night, cranking out a whopping 17 hours of sleep. Just like her father–an overachiever.
  • The cat. Still fat.
  • I’ve been keeping busy. I went to a SkiUtah networking event a few weeks ago where I made some great contacts as we skied Sundance (the best kind of networking). My friend Sheri and I have vowed to try to ski together at Park City every week until the end of the season and we had a blast on the mountain last week. A few of us hiked to Stewart Falls a few weeks ago and got some fascinating avalanche training with beacons and probes.  I’ve been on a couple of hikes at Wasatch Mountain State Park but I need to either have the snow stick around forever so I can snowshoe it or just melt. Having snow that isn’t deep enough for snowshoes but not optimal for hiking is jacking up my knees. For the first time in my life, I’m feeling limited and it’s a constant source of frustration. I’m still fortunate to be able to do the things I love but I’m in pain when I do it.

    Park City Snowmamas

    WOW! Trail

    Sundance

    Stewart Falls

  • I feel like I’m in such limbo with work but there isn’t a lot to be done at this point because other people I’m relying on are engaged elsewhere. The kids are going to the acclaimed Keystone Science School this summer (thanks to a campaign I’m doing for Mile High Mamas) so Jamie and I will have five glorious days to ourselves in Colorado’s backcountry after dropping them off. I’ve been researching a lot of options but one is finalized: we’ll be staying at The Broadmoor after we pick them up, the perfect reward after several days of roughing it.
And the great finale of our happenings (crammed into one big paragraph):
Tomorrow is my birthday and we’re skiing Alta. We have new friends coming over tonight to play games, and our house is slowly coming together. We’ve taken a hiatus over the winter with projects but come spring, we’ll be delving in full-throttle organizing the garage, setting up shelves and putting in our yard. Jamie and I confessed we won’t truly love this house until we can finish the basement, something we can’t afford to do. (And I try not to focus on the fact that everything was done at our Colorado home and we were in a good place financially). My parents sent me some birthday money and I bought a cute mirror for our front entrance. By downsizing from a two-story house to a ranch with only one great room, a constant struggle is the kids don’t have anywhere to put their backpacks and schoolwork so our living room constantly looks like a bomb exploded. Our mudroom/laundry room is super small and inconvenient so we’ve debated moving our washer/dryer to the basement and building lockers/storage closets for all their c-r-a-p but again, that takes money. So, a temporary fix is I bought a beautiful console for the living from an upscale furniture consignment store in Park City and it has helped alleviate the mess. For now.

It has been six months some we left our beloved Colorado. In some ways, it feels like we’ve been here forever and in other ways, I wonder when we’ll finally feel settled. I read a quote this week that really hit home.

Sometimes it’s hard to watch other people “succeeding” when you feel like you keep getting knocked on your face. I get that. It’s hard to watch friends and family and peers storm “ahead” when you feel like you’re indefinitely stuck at ground zero. But from a life that’s been chopped down at the knees more than once, let me tell you… ground zero is a sacred space to be. Don’t wish it away in yearning for the mountain top. There is so much this space will give you…if you let it. Stop looking 10 miles ahead, and spend a moment or two taking in the totality of where you currently are. The juxtaposition of beauty and ashes is REAL, take it from me. But many of us miss this completely in our mad dash attempt to be anywhere but “here.” And I get that. Because pain is real, hurt is significant, fear is debilitating. Even so, trust me when I say, don’t pass over dollars to pick up dimes. What you have the potential to find in the rubble of your life, if you’ll just stop and LOOK, is beyond your wildest imaginings and will serve to propel you on to spaces and places you currently don’t have the capacity to foresee. Pinkie swear. Hang in there, beautiful you. God is on your side. -Natalie Norton

Duly noted and a much-needed reminder: we can do this.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Jamie, outdoors, skiing, Utah

The Anti-Ladies’ Man

February 14, 2017 By

For as long as I can remember, Bode has been really nervous around girls. Watch kissing on TV? Forget it. Tease him about the hotties in his class? That kid turns the color of hot tamales.

As we were working on his valentines for his class party (that I’m somehow in charge of), I saw him scribbling on some of the messages.

“Bode, what are you doing?”

“Don’t worry, Mom. I’m crossing out all the valentines that say ‘you’re cute.’”

Smooooooth. It reminded me of one of my favorite Bode stories EVER and believe me, there are a lot of them. When Bode was 6, we met Hadley at Camp Chief Ouray. Because I was partnering with them for an article, we were granted special access to attend the final festivities on the last night. Camp tradition is to hold a final dance, followed by the Closing Campfire Ceremony with games, skits, songs and traditions including the awarding of the Spirit Stick to commemorate the most spirited cabin. I was the most excited about the dance.

Because isn’t it every kid’s dream to have her mother at her very first one?

Crazy costumed counselors

Even my Bode had some action of his own. He was hanging out with me on the rock when a tween hottie asked him to dance. Stunned into silence, he turned bright red before literally crawling away on the rock. But she didn’t give up. Fifteen minutes later, she was back and oh-so sweetly repeated her offer. He looked at me to save him.

“Go dance with her.”

He shook his crimson head, steam coming out of his ears. Why did a girl want to dance with him?

“That’s fine if you don’t want to dance but you need to at least say something and politely decline.” It was one of those teachable moments in which I wanted to bust out laughing.

“I don’t want to dance right now,” he mumbled. At least I think that’s what he said before I apologetically thanked the sweet girl and bookmarked the moment for future blackmail.

Some things never change.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

My Husband: The Romantic

February 13, 2017 By

To be fair, Jamie can be a romantic, thoughtful guy and there was full disclosure before we got married that he hates to do dishes. In fact, his friend Carolyn was so disgusted with his kitchen that she would regularly clean it for him. I also happen to be OCD about the sink and hate to have dishes in there. As much as I’d love to have the kids unload the dishwasher, I have it in my mentally-ill mind that they can’t do it fast enough and if the dishwasher sits unloaded for hours on end, that means dishes will pile up.

So, I do the unloading in the hopes that throughout the day, my family will actually put their dishes in the dishwasher vs. dumping them in the sink. Despite my best efforts, it doesn’t happen and I’ve learned to live with it during the day. But after dinner, I always insist that we clean the kitchen and run the dishwasher. And I refuse to go to bed, even if we have a party until late, with dirty dishes in the sink.

It’s too bad my OCD doesn’t extend to the rest of the house.

The other night, we were watching my favorite show on TV, NBC’s This is Us. There was a scene when the doctor who delivered the main character’s triplets was walking through his home. His wife of 50+ years had passed away 14 months ago but there were memories of her everywhere. Her prescription bottles. Her clothes. Her perfumes.

It was dually heart-warming and sad. I turned to Jamie:

“When I die, will you keep a shrine up for me?”

“Of course! It will be a pile of dirty dishes.”

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie

Family updates

February 10, 2017 By

There were so many things about last year that were a blur. I feel like we’re finally starting to come up for air and I’m hopeful life will start clicking in 2017. We recently had Bode’s parent-teacher meeting and it made me want to remember it all.  Where we’re thriving. Where we’re struggling. Because life is a compendium of it all.

Bode. We moved into our house late-September when the neighborhood posse started burrowing down for the winter. There’s allegedly a very active group of boys who run around together on their bikes and I’m hoping he will get thrown into the mix once the snow thaws. As we sat down with Bode’s teacher, she told us how he’s the smartest kid in class and she wishes every kid was just like him. Obedient. Helpful. Friendly. Surpassing goals they had set together. Many of the kids go to him to check their schoolwork before they go to the teacher, which he loves.

“But how is he socially?” I asked. I worry that he hasn’t found a bestie at school or church because usually, he easily makes connections. His teacher acknowledged that he’s doing a lot better than the beginning of the year and is well-liked by everyone. The sports of choice for the boys during recess are football and baseball, neither of which he plays. So he floats between groups. Sometimes he plays sports. Sometimes he does four square or plays on the playground. Sometimes he referees, thereby proving he is an old man in a 10-year-old’s body! He seems content but will get thrown into an entirely new mix next year when the sixth graders get bumped up to middle school.

Bode and I have had a blast during our bi-weekly Nordic ski lessons (OK, he’s in lessons, I just tag along for the free skiing) but it’s been a fun, bonding experience for us. He has started piano and in the spring, we’ll probably enroll him in the crummy rec soccer league again because we can’t afford competitive but it will at least give him another season to be the superstar.

Hadley. She continues to exceed our expectations. Don’t get me wrong: she’s a frustrating tween who speaks an entirely different language. But while other parents are agonizing over their teens’ newfound desire to be aloof and independent, it’s just par for the course because Hadley has always been that way. She wants her space; friends, schoolwork and crushes have consumed her existence. She still doesn’t have a phone but we set her up with Google Voice on her iPod and she texts her friend Allie constantly.

She’s got almost straight As (where the heck did THAT come from?) and declares math is one of her favorite subjects (ditto on the incredulity after years of tutors). She refused to do Nordic skiing with Bode, which made me sad because I actually think she would thrive on the local team here but at her request, she’s playing volleyball and has really come into her own. I haven’t wanted to pressure her (volleyball was my great love in high school) but something has finally clicked and she’s caught a glimpse at how good she is…and can be with the proper training. Her coach has pulled her aside to emphasize her potential and offered to work extra with her anytime. I’m currently looking into enrolling her in BYU’s volleyball camp this summer.

She spends hours getting ready in the mornings so the bathroom upstairs is a constant eyesore. Our next big project (after putting in the front and backyard) will be saving up for another bathroom…after the gazillion other expenses we have. When we were snowed in (interlodged) at Alta, she and I actually had some great bonding time with mother-daughter ping pong and pool tournaments and setup several challenges in the weight room. It was a reminder that yes, she’s hormonal and complicated but there’s still a really delightful kid in there who’s turning into a really great young woman.

Jamie. Worked all day in the basement in Colorado. Works all day in the basement in Utah. Obsessed with BYU sports. Not too many changes for our hard-working guy.

Me. Still swimming, swimming, swimming despite the fact that I hate getting my face wet. I’m super thankful to be in a great ward where I’m making great friends and adventure buddies.  I’m building out some cool projects and have been networking like crazy. I’m hoping things start coming together in a profitable (remember all the expenses?) and promising way.

Stay tuned!

 

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley

My Elsa Confessions

February 9, 2017 By

After a glorious month of snow, February has been rain. Slush. Cloudy. And yuck. But I’m trying to ignore and remember.

Five months from now when I’m melting in summer’s inferno, I’ll remember my climb a few weeks ago as I soaked into my breathing pattern, my sub-zero heart splashed and alive.

And I’ll ignore the mockery of the “wussy, overheated Canuck” because I’ll remember there is always winter.

Filed Under: skiing, Utah

Family Fun at Great Wolf Lodge Colorado Springs

February 1, 2017 By

I watched as Hadley brazenly stepped into the Wolf Tail launch pad at Great Wolf Lodge. This was a slide unlike any I’d ever witnessed. She followed the staffer’s instructions to cross her arms and legs and wait for the countdown. Then just like a magician’s trap door, the bottom DROPPED out and she free-fell 20 feet before being catapulted around a 360-degree high-speed loop.

Bode was almost purple with worry and we made a pact. “Don’t worry, Bode. I’ll only go if you go.” Surely, there was safety in numbers when my cautious son was involved?

Despite the certain death that awaited us on the Wolf Tail, my family was having a fabulous time at the grand opening of Great Wolf Lodge Colorado Springs’ expansive indoor water park, fun-filled attractions and family-focused entertainment.

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Filed Under: Colorado, Family travel Tagged With:

January: Midway’s magical month of snow

January 31, 2017 By

I haven’t had a winter like this since I was a wee lassie growing in Canada. The Heber Valley has had an endless barrage of glorious, fluffy snow and I don’t want it to end. Sadly, we’re kicking off February with 40-degree temps but I’m hoping “Ambruary” won’t let me down.

Since moving here late-September, we’ve tried to limit our schedule to church and the occasional activity. Bode played soccer in the fall and has continued with Webelos. Hadley has weekly Young Women activities and Science Club (she’s thrilled to be doing a snowshoeing field trip today to learn about how animals adapt in the wintertime). It’s a bonus to have world-class mountains right in your backyard.

But now we’re full speed ahead. The kids are doing a six-week downhill ski rec program on Saturdays that will end mid-February. Bode and I Nordic ski twice a week at Soldier Hollow while Hadley has volleyball at the same time. Bode (and maybe Hadley) started piano last week and as much as I try to limit extracurricular activities so we can maximum family time, being busy is working well for us in the winter.  I hate the thought of them hunkering down down with their technology during these dark and cold winter nights.

Here are a few January highlights:

Snowshoeing

I’ve never done so much snowshoeing in my life! Our texting group is 35 women and growing and I’ve loved getting to know these fabulous women.

Wasatch Mountain State Park

Dutch Hollow

Ice Castles

Just when I thought our resort town couldn’t get any cooler (literally), we spent one evening exploring the Midway Ice Castles’ crystal grottoes with shifting translucent white and petrol blue lights in scalloped ice. 

It would have been a scene out of a Russian fairy tale had I not biffed it GETTING ON (not off) the 50-foot ice block slide. My bruised ego and butt are more of the Brothers Grimm genre.

Skiing

I ventured out to Park City with some ladies a few weeks ago and we’re doing round 2 tomorrow. I enjoy being by myself for most activities but downhill skiing is not one of them. I love hanging out on the lift with these fellow Snowmamas!

I’ve enjoyed spending every Tuesday and Thursday Nordic skiing with Bode at Soldier Hollow Olympic Center and had an epiphany last week: As much as I love downhill, I actually prefer X-country skiing. I find it much easier to connect with nature and the workout is intense. We tried skate skiing for the first time last week and if my knees weren’t shot, I’d probably trade in my classic skis for skate–that gets your heart pumping like nothing else! 

This week, Soldier Hollow is hosting the USANA FIS Nordic Junior & U23 World Ski Championships 2017. It has been so fun to see 750 athletes from 40 nations in our little community.

Of course, nothing will ever compare to the time I was on a flight with the Austrian Men’s Ski Team. Hubba. Hubba.

Interlodge

We’ve been trying to ski Alta for more than a year and last week was finally our time! Until it wasn’t. We drove up Sunday after church, settling in for the night at Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge. And then an intense storm blew through, Little Cottonwood Canyon was closed due to avalanche danger and “Maximum Interlodge” was declared. Interlodge means you’re on lockdown indoors but “Maximum Interlodge” also involves staying away from windows and doors. 

Many details to follow on this crazy 24 hours but suffice it to say, we did not ski.

Sledding

We had a grand ol’ time sledding Lime Canyon on Martin Luther King Junior Day.

So much so that when my friend Sarah announced she was throwing a sledding birthday party for her son, Charlie, I volunteered. She had posted some cool pictures of her husband Ben’s secret haunt toward Cascade Springs and I wanted IN.

The powder was thigh-deep in places and we hiked about a half-mile to the start of the hill (not to mention hauling sleds up and down).

It wasn’t as idyllic as it looked, believe me. Case in point: Bode’s awesome wipeout.

And then the real misery began as we were hiking out. As Sarah and I cut trail through the deep snow for a half a mile, her husband and I pulling the injured birthday boy and cold friend on their sleds while she sacrificed her gloves and carried two sleds and helmets in 17 degrees, she commented,

“I mean, really. This is next level crazy.”

And then she glanced over at me, Miss Maximum Interlodge, and said nothing.

I think they’re onto me.

Filed Under: outdoors, skiing, Utah

Time Travel

January 26, 2017 By

I occasionally like to check my “On This Day” Facebook feed to see what I was doing 1, 2 or even 5 years ago. Today’s reminder was a cool one: Seven years ago today is when I learned I had won the Microsoft Office’s Winter Games Contest and would spend 10 days hobnobbing with celebrity athletes including Bonnie Blair and Wayne Gretzky during the 2010 Vancouver Games.

I’m thinking I need to do several strolls down memory lane next month to keep all the fun alive!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Sledding Lime Canyon in Midway

January 26, 2017 By

Despite living in the gorgeous Heber Valley, I’ve been surprised by the lack of information about quality places to sled. Soldier Hollow offers the longest tubing lanes in Utah but it’s lift-serviced and costs money. Beyond that, there are small pockets of hills whose locations the locals won’t disclose. And who can blame them?

So, I was happy to hear someone recommend Lime Canyon as a great place to sled in Midway. Located a few miles behind the Zermatt Resort, we found a powder-perfect playground on Martin Luther King Jr. Day with our friends, Zoie and Jonas.

Bode: future sled model

We had a blast but we arrived at the hill just as the shadows were creeping in and the lack of sunlight made it cold. Bitterly bold. So we only lasted an hour.

Yes, there is such a thing as too much powder when sledding!

The Slow Crawl to the Summit

The tween declared “I’m too old for sledding,” and I vehemently disagreed, taunting her that I’M never too old for anything.

Until she turned the sledding hill into her personal skeleton track and I declared I’m too old for THAT.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, outdoors, Utah

Updates from the Edge (of glory or insanity?)

January 23, 2017 By

January has been a blur and I can’t believe we’re almost into my favorite month of the year: Ambruary (so it was affectionately named by a friend due to my birthday, anniversary and Valentine’s Day within the same week).

There have been a lot of happenings so here are a few updates.

Return to Winter

What I’ve loved the most about living in Midway is our return to winter with fun ice skating, sledding and skiing, oh my!

I’m incredulous that just five minutes from our house is the Nordic ski venue for the 2002 Salt Lake Games. Bode and I have had a blast skiing at Soldier Hollow twice a week for his lessons and am sad that will be wrapping next month. But I’m not sad about all the trail passes I’ve been accruing from volunteering.

We didn’t budget for downhill season passes so we enrolled the kiddos in the local rec center’s program for six weeks of half-day lessons at Sundance Ski Area. It would be totally ideal if not for Hadley. She’s a level 6 skier and wants to tackle the moguls and harder runs. We signed her up for Level 6…but she’s the strongest skier there and so they’ve bumped up some other kids (like Bode) who are definitely not level 6 and have consequently dropped the level of difficulty. It justifiably infuriates bored Hadley to ski easy runs all day and so I’ve been on the phone every week either demanding a refund or that they give us what we paid for: level 6 instruction. They have three more weeks to get their act together or Hadley might combust.

Bode and I had a memorable mother-son date skiing at Park City and as a total bonus: he didn’t get sick. Twice. And make use cancel our trip. Yes, Beaver Creek: I’m talking about you.

My friend Julie texted to see if anyone wanted to ski Park City so last week, we had our first Snowmamas: The Next Generation meetup. It was so fun to skip out during the day and ski to our heart’s content. We’re going to try to make it a regular thing if life doesn’t get in the way. 

You know, those inconveniences like family, responsibilities and jobs. 

The Jobs

I announced a few months ago that I was taking a new part-time position with an awesome travel company that plans luxury vacation to Central and South America. I loved the owners, loved the company but just didn’t love what I was doing. It didn’t tap into my skillset at all (lots of numbers, spreadsheets and details) whereas my talents are writing, community building and marketing. I was feeling trapped because I didn’t want to bail on these wonderful people but also knowing I couldn’t give the position my all. Our family has a lot of daunting things ahead of us: putting in our yard, building out our basement and trading in my 2003 Honda Pilot.  And even though I wasn’t making very much  money, I still had a regular paycheck so, I stuck to it.

I got my out when the owner recently emailed me a questionnaire about my feedback thus far with the job. I had forgotten we were on a 3-month trial period and I was relieved when we both reached the consensus that the position just wasn’t a good fit for me. Now, onto something that is!

My friend Krista and I met at the Chicks Who Click conference in 2009. She was the brilliant Marketing Director at Park City Mountain Resort and I was building my empire at The Denver Post. :-) I helped her launch her groundbreaking Snowmamas community, the first of its kind in the ski industry and we’ve wanted to collaborate on a new project together for years…but the timing was never right.

Well, last year she left her job as Sr. VP at Powdr and with my recent move, we are finally making it happen with our new community, OutdoorsyMoms.com! Many more details to come but in the interim, follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as we build this community that will go behind encouraging moms everywhere to play outdoors but to also form deeper connections with each other and ourselves.

Onward and upward for 2017!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: skiing
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