It turns out Mom and Dad were right about 1 more thing....

...Mittens ARE warmer!!! Especially in -15 degree windchill.

I haven't worn mittens since I was about 6 years old. I've always thought they just look silly. Mom always told me mittens were warmer, but I would have none of it. I wanted to look cool (besides that, the significant loss of dexterity was extremely annoying).

We had some incredibly cold and miserable (really, REALLY cold!) days last season, and at our pre-season resort vendor open house, I thought I'd buy a pair. Mittens.

Let me just say, I'm happy I did. Today I made it through high wind, blizzard conditions with toasty, warm fingers. For the first time in decades. My new mittens even have special little wrist straps to keep me from loosing them (not unlike the string my mom threaded through my coat sleeves in kindergarten). Quite handy, actually.

I wonder what else Mom and Dad were right about...

I just hope my children don't take 40 years to figure I know a thing or two.

My season opener at the "fun job"....

Monday finally brought just a bit of snow. Ian and I both had our first day of the season at our second jobs. Christmas, in a way, as I skied on the new boards, and we had a bit of snow for me to try them on. Only 6 runs open... pretty sparse for a mountain of 99 runs.

Yes, Ian is there, too, as a lift operator. He has worked there for the final 6 weeks of the last 2 seasons, after all the international employees go home and they are desperate for workers.
This year he decided a little too late (they had finished hiring the lift operators) that he wanted to work there again, and got a jobimmediately, without question. He's a hard worker, and builds a lift ramp better than just about anyone! Anyone want to ski at DV? Ian has extra passes, too.

Ian took this picture with his phone and sent it to me...sorry it's sideways... I'm technologically impaired.

It's Never Too Late to Give Thanks...

Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. We are well into December and I have yet to put up the Christmas tree. Life is busy, as always, but I need to follow Em's example and "give thanks."

Em had a "Thanksgiving Tag" on her blog, writing what she was thankful for using the letters of her first name. What a great example. I, too, have so many things I am thankful for. For in spite of life's pain and trials, I feel I am truly blessed.

I thought about Em's Thanksgiving tag (to which no one else did--get on it, people!!), writing things I'm thankful for with letters from my name.... I don't have enough letters!!!
... no N, for nieces and nephews...no B for bicycles, M for mountains...
no F, for family, friends, freedom, or food...
no S for sons, sisters, snow, skiing, safety... etc., etc.

I am so thankful for my incredible family, for my amazing boys, my nieces and nephews, my brothers and sisters. You all bring incredible joy to my life!

Thanksgiving weekend was a memorable one... out to Dan and Julie's... Fun, fun, FUN!

For a full description of the Thanksgiving weekend... see Dan's blog.
I've thrown in a few more pictures.
After a pre-Thanksgiving movie with the kids, we waited for Julie to pick us up... To get out of the rain at an open air mall, we went into the Blackhawk car museum. The car collection was amazing! Liza's favorite (I loved it, too!) was "the pink one!"

Thanks, John, for taking so many pictures! He used the camera and the phone. He was unstoppable, and had quite the eye for the art of a picture, and a car. I think I have 40 car pictures!


Heidi and Clay and the kids came for Thanksgiving day, and the post Thanksgiving activities...
A highlight was riding across the Golden Gate Bridge. We LOVED it!!
Sierra even did it on her training wheels, and was quite the speed demon on the way back over!

Talent certainly runs in the family....

November's great event was the junior high production of "Aladdin Jr.," starring our own Alyson and Cosi!! All the great songs of Disney's Aladdin.

They sang and danced and did a fabulous job! I was able to attend on opening night with Max and Tom, and on closing night with the whole family. We ran into Grammie, who is a big theater goer, as always, complete with flower bouquets each night for the performers. Enjoy the photos!










































Alyson and Cosi were the base for this stunt, as well as being in the base of the pyramid.

Aubrey's Birthday Party!!

Aubrey is 12!!
I was honored to be invited to an incredible birthday celebration! Aubrey turned 12 on November 1st, but her party came a bit early... on the last Tuesday in October she celebrated with High School Musical 3! I was a lucky guest with a lively group of girls (plus a token boy, one of Aub's cousins)!


Becky and Mike spared no expense... they rented the entire theater for our rowdy group! Well, not really, but we were the first to arrive, and had the theater mostly to ourselves. There's nothing like an early movie on a school night.
After cake and ice cream Mike and the boys stayed home, and we went to the show. HSM3 was a great show--with lots of singing and dancing. These girls were even dancing in audience!

We ran into the stars of the show right out in the lobby! What a night. Thanks, Aubrey!!

Waxing poetic...on the Divine art that we call...Autumn

I can't believe October is here! September just flew by, with my training trip to Alabama, then a trip to Las Vegas for Interbike, the annual cycling industry trade show, last week (no, I didn't have a career change, but went to this event as a "women's cycling/triathlon clothing consultant," with my friend Joy). I was able to ride lots of bikes, and found my next one. Now I just have to save my pennies!

Back home and back to work after being gone for a few weeks showed notable changes in the colors on our surrounding peaks... the mountains are ablaze with golds and reds. Yesterday at Solitude was incredible! Autumn is splendid...

Anniston, Alambama....

I left my home at 05:52 this morning, on the way to the Salt Lake Airport....flew to Atlanta, and rode a bus to McClellan Army Depot in Anniston, Alabama.

I'm here at the Department of Homeland Security's national training facility, for yet another training class (fully funded by you, the American Taxpayer-- and thank you, by the way) to help me with emergency preparedness in the ER, dealing with unknown chemical exposures and decontamination.

They teach a myriad of classes here, from incident command training, to deep water body recovery, to hospital emergency management, to weapons of mass destruction, etc., etc.
In our orientation briefing, I talked with a man who is here to learn about and deal with domestic animal pandemics... he asked if I knew anything about those pheasant deaths in Utah. I was CLUELESS.

I'm in the land of hurricanes (at our rest stop I picked up the Alabama Hurricane Evacuation Plan), Bar-B-Que, and fried EVERYTHING. The sides at dinner tonight included sweet potato cassorole (with toasted almonds, butter and brown sugar), turnip greens, and lima beans (you could also have mashed potatoes and gravy, of course) to go along with the fried chicken. My major goal is to not gain too much weight this week. I'm looking forward to the fried okra, hush puppies, dill pickles, and cheese that they had last year.

Pictures to follow. It should be quite exciting.

Thursday evening at 10,000 feet

Catherine's Pass Trail head starts mid mountain at Alta ski resort. Wildflowers are thick, the air thin... amazingly beautiful!! What a great ride. This is just one of the many trails along the Wasatch Front that most of us don't even know about. Get out and hike!


Yes, that's me. Ever so tiny under the shadow of East Castle at Alta.

The Xterra Mountain Championships...

I do love a race, and SaturdayI had my one and only race of the summer... the Xterra Mountain Championships at Snowbasin. This year I have had little or no training time... just a bit of mountain biking when I could fit it in. I am NOT kidding when I say I was in the pool swimming training laps only ONE time before this race. With my lack of training, I thought it prudent to only enter the "Sport" category, as opposed to the "Championship" distant which I did the last 2 years. WISE MOVE. 750meter swim (instead of 1500), 19k bike (instead of 30), and a 5k run (instead of 10). This race was fun!! I ended up 4th in my age group, but the greatest part was the fact that I finished before the majority of the racers had packed up and gone home!

p.s. the time above is not the correct time...the sport racers started 20 minutes later, so I was firmly sub-3 hours!

Ian is home!!

Well, no pics yet (unless I can steal Ian's memory card), but Ian is home from his adventures in Europe. It's great to have him home! My lawn and basic home fix up projects will be much happier (or, healthier and finished).

Berlin, Paris, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague, etc, etc.....

Driving on the Autobaun, flying out of the Tempelhof Berlin airport (oldest in the WORLD), seeing The Dark Night in his "favorite (classic) theater in the whole world" for $30 in Amsterdam (and "so worth it"--pictures of this art deco 1930's gem to follow), and trekking through the Alps staying in "national park" hostels were incredible highlights.

I love you, Ian! You were missed!

Bry meets Lance Armstrong!!

Click here to see the pic of Bry and Lance

As many of you know, Bry just returned from the Leadville 100, his annual epic, endurance mountain bike race in Leadville, Colorado. Lance Armstrong was there also, finishing a respectable 2nd place, but pushing the 6 time champion to shave 13 minutes of his time. I don't know how well Bry did, he got his pink "Win Susan" Fatcyclist t-shirt signed by the one and only. Susan Nelson is the wife of Elden Nelson, the "fatcyclist," who is currently battling breast cancer (go to fatcyclist.com starting May 1st for an overview). The Fatcyclist blog is one of my favorites, hilariously capturing the quirks of the mountain biking/cycling world and sharing them with the rest of us.

Hopefully you'll see the full Leadville/Lance story on the Christensen's blog... call him if you don't see it soon. Way to go Bry!

I'm just proud of myself that I actually added a "link" to my blog!!! The skills list does just keep growing!

The Wasatch Crest Trail

We certainly live in an incredibly beautiful world! Saturday I enjoyed a ride on a trail I have wanted to do for years, an "epic," in it's stunning views in all directions, the Wasatch Crest. In spots you can see down into valleys on each side. The wildflowers were spectacular. I've really loved being out on the bike this year.

"Stadium of Fire!"

July 4th, 2008
The Stadium of Fire, the crowning glory of Provo's Freedom Festival, was a spectacular event this year. Yes, this WAS a month ago, but I must share. This year it was extra special. For those of you who aren't aquainted with the Stadium of Fire (or SoF), this event includes a stunning fireworks display, and a concert, the guests changing each year. This year is was Millie, or Miley something or other. The artists come and go, but the true staying power of this annual event is none other than the Stadium of Fire Dancers. Yes, it's true... the DANCERS have been there since the beginning. Not being deterred by the fact that I didn't make the height requirements for the Rockettes (see earlier post), I felt like I still had a gift to share. Yes. I was in the SoF this year, as part of the incredibly complex SoF dance number.

I didn't dance (could of, though!). I rode my bike. Here are a few pics for you to enjoy!! In honor of the 2008 Olympics, the number included various summer sports. I rode with the Bike Peddler Velo Club. I'm there on the left. The girls got to be at the back of the pack.

There is also video available, and, though I had a lengthy one-on-one tutorial on how to load a YouTUBE video onto my blog (thanks Garrett!), I couldn't seem to make it happen (go figure!). So.... for all you electronic whizzes out there, go to YouTUBE and search for "velo club stadium of fire," and "stadium of fire dancers (2008)," etc. (there are a few). Watch for me at the end of the first "peloton" of cyclists who cross the field near the north end zone near the end of number. Don't blink. You'll miss us.

15 seconds of glory!

I was also able to watch the concert of that Millie, or Milley girl right out on the field, after our big number. She sang okay. Blue Man Group performed, too. Lots of fun!

Here I am getting ready to go... last minute check of the equipment.
Thank goodness no flats on the quick trip across the field! Yes. My skills ARE limitless!!

New York, New York!!

New York City. June, 2008...

Just one day after arriving home from sunny Burbank, I was off to the East Coast. I was lucky enough to be a chaperone on Megan's much awaited "Performing Arts Tour" of New York City. I met Heidi and Megan (and the rest of the musical theater, choir kids from Reed H.S.) in NYC, and we had a fun filled week! We went to the Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, MOMA, Met. Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Opera House, China town, Times Square, Broadway shows... it was endless fun, burning the candle at both ends!

Heidi and I were surprised to find we did NOT meet the height requirements to be a Rockette! Imagine!

It was fun to have some time to hang out with Heidi!

This is the whole group, at the fountain by the Boat House in Central Park. All talented, great kids. We saw "Young Frankenstein," The Little Mermaid," "Mary Poppins," and "Mama Mia." The post-show tradition was to meet the stars and get autographs outside the stage door. Megan looks beautiful with one of the stars from Mermaid.

East Coast beaches are beautiful, but very different from beaches of the Pacific. Paige and I sport our lovely red hats, and Leah (finally) warmed up to the feel of the sand. She didn't like to touch it... it was so cute!

What an incredible city! Before the tour group came into town, I had a short visit with Doug, Amber, Leah and Paige. Besides the beach, we spent some time in Cental Park, rowing a boat on the pond, riding the carousel, shopping, eating, and exploring the city.

Thanks, everyone... it was so great to see you all. I MUST say this--Amber and Doug are incredible parents, with incredible, beautiful girls!