Utah!

It had been a long time since we'd gotten out . . . so a trip to Utah was a perfect get-away.  Well, almost perfect.  Ben had to leave a few days earlier to Denver for some work conventions and so he couldn't come with us.  Plus, he had to work for 14-hours on President's day, so he wouldn't have been able to come even without the Denver trip.  But Ben did have a good time in Denver with both his work conferences as well as hanging out with his family.

I checked the kids out at noon on Friday and we made it to Provo in time for Cafe Rio dinner and then BYU's gymnastics meet.  The gymnasts (from all three teams) were amazing and it was fun to watch!

 Lucy was an awesome little cheerleader for team BYU!

 The girls were impressed with all the fancy tricks those gymnasts do.

Miles finished a book while there.  I'm not sure he even watched one full routine.

We stayed for 3/4 of it and then headed up to my parents' home.  (My parents were away in St. George.)

Saturday we got up very early and got ready to go skiing.  I wanted to go on Monday, but seeing a high of 17 (versus 37 for Saturday), I opted for Saturday!

We skied at Brighton - a place I think I skied only once while living in Utah.  It had been almost 20 years since I've skied in Utah.  It was a first for the kids.  The snow was great.  The kids did great.  Lucy is totally independent on greens and did some short-sections of blues (though they seemed more like double-green to me . . .) and did awesome.  Jonas was obsessed with jumps and it was practically all he wanted to do.

 A cool spot overlooking the Heber Valley (where my parents live).

 Two cute ski babes.

 Two handsome ski bums (I don't know what you call boys?!).

Jonas going off a jump!

Here are a few videos of the kids skiing.  Yes, in every single video (there were a couple more than I'm not posting), I commented how I couldn't see.  Because I couldn't!  I really had no idea where the kids were and if I had even captured them on video.  But I did!

We stayed up late each night watching the Olympics.

Sunday we got to sleep in as church started at 11!  Yay!  Then when we got back from church, my parents were home!  They had decided to come home a day earlier because of the storm that was on its way . . .  So we had a nice dinner together and enjoyed our evening of Olympic-watching.

On Monday we woke up to about 10 inches of snow (my prediction the night before . . .).  I went on a super-awesome run - it was still snowing, but luckily the roads were plowed and so it was great.  The kids went out to sled.  The girls lasted as long as it took me to get them ready; the boys stayed out for a while and had fun.  Then we went for a quick swim at the pool, ate lunch, then headed to the Olympic Park in Park City - where some of the 2002 events were held and where athletes still come to train and practice.  It turned out to be pretty cool and the kids had fun!

 Sledding!

 The kids announced they were a 4-man (and girls) bobsled team!  They maybe went 5 feet before totally crashing!  :)

 So much snow!

 Jonas helped Grandpa "shovel" the driveway.

 This is at the Olympic park - they had some "virtual" experiences.  The kids were doing some paragliding ski thing.  Miles looks like a typical teenager in that shot.  No, I did not force him to do it.
(Jonas choose a different experience - a mountain-bike ride.)

 The kids also got to try the Nordic ski-jump.  My girls crashed all three attempts.  My boys landed 2 of the 3.

 Snowboarder Emmy.

 Maybe they would have made it more than 5 feet in this bobsled?  Or maybe not . . .

 We also took a tour at the Olympic park.  The bus took us to the top of the bobsled runs as well as here - the top of the Nordic jumps.  So scary!!!

Miles lighting the Olympic torch!  :)

I went for another run on Tuesday morning - it had snowed maybe an inch or two that night.  But it was super cold - 7 degrees!  I was fine during my run, but got cold as I had to pack up my car and trunk-trailer thingy.  My dad had to help my blow-dry the bag that goes over our trailer because it was so icy!

We headed out by 9:30 and stopped at BYU to talk to their Independent Study department.  We are very seriously considering having Miles (and if all goes well with him, all our other kids) do their high school courses through the BYU High School online program.  We met the director of the high school program and just asked a few questions.  He was super nice and afterwards walked us over to a room and got the kids a whole bunch of BYU swag.  :)

The drive home was good, thankfully - dry roads!

It was a dandy of a trip (except when the kids weren't so dandy)!