Ho, Ho... Snow!

We must have been feeling winter withdrawals after our move from Ohio to Arizona when we decided to take an impromptu trip to Utah for Christmas. We pulled the kids from their beds at 3:30 a.m. and loaded them in the car for what they believed would be a ski trip to the mountains. If you are familiar with our family, you may be wondering how our little chickadees did on the eleven hour drive and what we were daring enough to feed them on the way. To spare you the messy details, I will just say that the Hoover Dam and chocolate doughnuts do not go together. Thankfully, we stopped in St. George to visit friends and were able to give their new washer and dryer a run for its money.

With family parties and dinners, sleepovers and sledding, and a visit from Santa, there are many favorite moments from our Utah Christmas. But the highlight had to be the day we spent skiing and snowboarding at Snowbird. Since it had been over ten years since Ryan and I had skied, we decided to let the experts teach Braden and Emme while we fumbled on the slopes on our own. With a little pressure from Braden, Ryan decided to give snowboarding a go, while we girls would not succumb and were pleased to be on good old fashioned skis. By the end of the day I had not one fall to account for (which means I'm either an awesome skier or took far too few risks), while Ryan's arms would be sore for the next two days from pushing himself back up to his feet. Luckily, or unluckily, it was dumping inches of snow by the hour which provided plenty of powder for cushion. Meeting up with the kids on Chickadee at the end of the day brought back memories of skiing with my family from my childhood. Riding the lifts with the kids and making our way slowly down the slopes was definitely the highlight of the day!

Christmas was spent with family for the first time in five years, which made for tricky packing, but much more fun! Super Smash Brothers, Calico Critters, a whoopee cushion, Lava Lamp, model rocket, and the timeless Easy Bake Oven were among the spoils of the day.

Of coarse there always has to be something unexpected that happens to make a trip even more memorable. For us it was the flu that Chloe passed to Hadley, who then passed it to Grammy, who suffered from the symptoms all Christmas night. Grammy's washer and dryer also got a run for their money that week. We have heard of no other casualties within the extended family, though we're assuming some are too nice to come forward.

After a week of cold weather and constant snowfall, it was with a bit of sorrow we packed up and headed south. Somewhere before Cedar City the snow had melted from the car and the roads, and the only reminder we had of our visit were our memories...oh, and our salt laden car. Usually a car covered in salt feels dirty and unkempt, but for us it was a trophy of our first ski trip home to Utah. We soon found though, that it would be impossible to get too attached to Utah. Upon returning to Scottsdale we were awakened to a new love... December in the 70s!