Ski Patrol

The ski patrol is dragging on. Since we finished our Outdoor Emergency Care training in November, we have been doing on-hill training, learning to run the Toboggans, Snow King protocol, working on our skiing skills and practicing mock scenarios on the hill. It is an exhausting day of skiing and I have been going one day a weekend and one evening a week throughout January, hoping to get checked off and become an active Patroller. Well ski season ends at the end of March. Not sure any of us will finish by then. It has become quite tedious to keep up the enthusiasm and quite the bummer because I can't ski with Mike, so he skis alone or not at all. I won't be going the next three weekends though because it's time to head to Albuquerque again.

On the bright side I found a deal to ski free at Park City any day you have a boarding pass for, so I quick changed my Sunday evening home ticket for a Monday morning ticket (I LOVE SOUTHWEST) and when Mike picks me up we'll go skiing for the day before driving home.

The snow and cold has been relentless. I want to attach a photo, but there have been so few sunny days. I'll just illustrate by saying that we almost can't see the frame of our trampoline, because the snow is too deep in the backyard!

Tuck in the holidays... and on to 2006

Well the holidays are over. Time to get down to the business of 2006, and it promises to be "lots of business"!

We spent the weekend in Ogden with Mike's family on Dec 18th to pick the girls up at the airport and do a bit of shopping. The next week the girls slept in, made cookies, and played with the horses.. That was their jobs. Christmas eve they went on a long dog sled ride, Christmas Day was quiet, presents, games, movies, and then on Boxing Day (Dec 26) we had a big party.. Well at least we planned for big.. Invited about 50.. had 3 attend. That was kind of a bummer, not sure what the trouble was, some people were sick, some forgot.. Of course lots were traveling and we knew they weren't going to be there. I guess the bad weather that day took care of the rest.

The next day Mike's son's Josh and Dan and Josh's girlfriend, Rachel, came up from Ogden where they had spent Christmas. (Josh is from Albuquerque and Dan from Missoula). The house was clean and we had days worth of food (thanks to the party) so they did some shopping in Jackson and general visiting.

Wednesday, while they were in Jackson, I took off the afternoon and took the girls and the horses to the indoor arena near our house. This turned out to be very nice, since there is too much ice near the house to consider riding. I think the horses appreciated being warm or at least dry for a few hours in the last few weeks. The girls got to practice some of their skills and I got to see that they need to get a lot tougher with the horses, who were getting away with everything! Jane was doing her usual tripping routine, which made Kelsey uncomfortable to risk cantering, so I encouraged them to take turns on Sonny so that they could practice cantering in this ideal conditions. But another problem these two horses have is being separated, so with Jane tied up and throwing a FIT, you could hardly make Sonny canter away and not try to turn right back to her. (Again see note above about girls needing to be more forceful). Guess Mike and I need to get in there and work with these horses, who in reality are very good.

On Thursday Mike, and all the kids rented snowmobiles and played all day. A great time was had by all. Mike says we created a monster in Sara, who took no time to tell me she drove the snowmobile at 55 mph! Mike rode with her driving most of the day. She's hooked. Fun stuff. This was one of the highlights of the holidays, too bad I was working.

Friday Josh and Rachel took off for home. The rest of us went skiing at Grand Targhee (back side of the Tetons). They have nice terrain for intermediate skiers and the snow was very good, but the weather has awful, fog, wind, snow storm. The morning for the girls and I didn't go to well as they remembered how to ski, but the weather made us all cranky. After lunch we skied the easier area and didn't get up so high into the wind on the mountain, and improved the experience.

For New Years Eve we came up to Jackson and watched the torchlight parade at Snow King and Fireworks, getting home by 9pm and promptly falling asleep in front of the TV (story of my life!).. We did shake ourselves awake at 11:45, gave a "Woo, hoo" at midnight, and fell off to bed.

Sunday Mike and I took the girls back to Salt Lake to fly to Albuquerque. An eventful and nice visit for sure. The drive to Salt Lake and back took ALL DAY, with not much else taking time, although we did have a quick dinner with Mike's parents.. Oh yeah and spent an hour looking for an open fast food restaurant in Idaho Falls.. weird.

Dan is still here, probably leaving this weekend after another day of skiing and a day of dog sledding. He and Mike have been getting some stuff done around the house and doing a bit of other work. Mike had hoped to get a couple of jobs going that Dan could help him on for a week, but too close to the New Year I guess. In another month he should be really busy. At any rate, Mike has sure enjoyed having the boys here.

So back to life, back to work, back to ski patrol (which has been neglected the last month), on to alpacas (maybe March). Hope your holidays were fun-filled. Take care until next blog!