Utah Trip Christmas 2017 Part 5 - Winter fun

When we told our kids that we’ll be spending Christmas in Utah, they got really excited because they always wanted to try downhill skiing. While Opa was alive, he took most of his grandkids skiing (he was a big ski junky) but our kids were too little at first, and then he was too sick. I myself wanted to go skiing too. I grew up doing all kinds of winter activities and sports (sledding, ice skating, cross country skiing) and I fell in love with downhill skiing 16 years ago when a friend of mine took me up to Beaver Mountain in northern Utah. It was also 16 years ago when I last skied. So, naturally, my only Christmas wish this year was to go skiing!

Well, as far as I could remember Utah always had an abundance of snow by Christmas. But this year the adversary was really up to no good! It wasn’t just that there was now snow on the ground, there was no snow in the mountains, and with the abundance of sunshine and the temperatures well above freezing, it felt like April! I am sure there were people out there praying very hard for such weather conditions, and their faith was a lot stronger than mine!

But then a miracle happened!  Mican and Roger invited us to come to his brother’s ward’s night ski party at … Beaver Mountain! Northern Utah got a lot of snow on Christmas Eve, and the temperatures were perfect 20-23 F (-5-7C) up in the mountains. Of course, I couldn’t pass such a wonderful opportunity, and so we cooked up a plan to go visit Spencer’s sister Suzette and her family in Brigham City for a couple of days, and then take a trip up to Beaver Mountain from there.

The girls had so much fun with their cousins, Aaron and Sam! They really wanted to go sledding, so one morning Suzette and I took them to one small hill where there was a little bit of snow left. And even though the snow was very sticky and wet, the kids spent an hour riding their sleds while the family dog Jade spent an hour chasing them down the hill (she was wrecked and was just a big black blob in the middle of the room for the next 30 hours).

Kids having a chess tournament.

Brigham City had some snow!

Jade trying to save Sophie

Lexa

 

Jade is ready for the rescue mission!

I love Jade's "crazy" eyes in this picture! She really thinks she is saving the poor child. 

I am not sure what is going on here.

Sam

There was a huge snowman at the bottom of the hill with whom the youngest three struck up an immediate friendship.

Ahh, the forbidden taste of the snow!

Aaron

And, of course, hot chocolate afterwards! Nothing could be better!

The next day we Suzette took us to the train museum in Ogden but it was unexpectedly closed due to some “water related difficulties”. So we went to the Children’s Museum. The last time our girls visited a Children’s Museum was when we lived in Iowa 5 years ago, so we thought it might be interesting for them. Well, at the beginning the oldest two (Nika and Aaron who are both 12) acted like they left childhood behind 20 years ago ... until they found a school room! Then I guess their memory was refreshed and they found joy in just being kids!

Samuel and the twins are picking "groceries".

Nika and Lina continuing with their chess tournament they started the day before. 

The cowboys!

It was just a second week of our winter school break, and all of the kids were so excited to play school! Nika of course assigned herself to be a teacher!

Happy students!

 That same evening we met Max Acevedo (our second cousin) and went up to Beaver mountain for night skiing. Spencer, Mican, and her husband Roger didn’t ski for various reasons but the rest of us had a blast. Our girls have never been downhill skiing before, so the first thing I had to teach them was how to stop and to fall if necessary on the bunny hill. Lexa needed a little more practice, so I was giving her more instruction, but when I looked around, the three others were nowhere to be seen! Then I looked at the chairlift some 300 yards away and caught a glimpse of Sophie getting onto it all by herself! I quickly skied down to the lift and just in time before she disappeared up the mountain, yelled to her to wait for me at the top. When Lexa and I got to the top, we found the three other girls and Max (who also was skiing for the first time) waiting for us. They didn’t learn yet how to stop properly but they were ready to take on the big mountain! I told them to follow me praying that they all come out of this alive! They did! And they had a blast doing it! I guess being figure skaters (and for Max, being a roller skater) helped them to pick up skiing naturally. For the next 3 hours Nika and Lina skied with their Mayo cousins, and Max, the twins, and I stuck together going on all of the available runs. By the end we could barely stand on our feet but we had a great time with each other. My Christmas wish came true!

Arriving at the Beaver Mountain Ski Resort. The sun just started to go down.

Ready to go!

Sophie and Lexa trying to figure out how to move forward.

Max, Lexa, Nika, I, Rocky, and Emma at the end of our ski adventure (Lina and Sophie went on one more run)

Sophie is quiet a sight! She had fallen down on her face during one of her last runs and had a bloody nose but decided to ski some more. She had to be rescued by her Papa after her very last run because she got stuck in the deep snow and had no strength to pull herself out!