Snow, Man

The title of this post comes from Lucy, who has trouble separating or differentiating words. After the first snowfall, she kept pointing outside and saying, "snowman." At first, I looked and looked for any snowman I could find, and finally I realized that she was pointing out the fact that there was snow on the ground. Not "snowman," but "snow, man."

We spent Christmas in Utah. Santa came early to our house, and two days later we picked the girls up from school and drove straight through the night. Most of the time, I can't believe that we would even consider driving all night, let alone do it repeatedly, but when I consider how poorly I usually sleep in cheap motels somewhere in Wyoming, I might as well try to sleep in the passenger seat. Actually, this year I downloaded Angels and Demons to my iPod and I could have driven all night (until the end; it got a little too fantastic for me). The picture below is from one of only four stops we had to make in 21 hours. Unfortunately, this was the unplanned stop when Lucy's breakfast was revisited. In Wyoming, of course. We have an aversion to the I-80 portion of Wyoming, apparently.The rest of the girls traveled so beautifully and the trip was largely uneventful.

The night we got to Salt Lake, while we should have been sleeping, we went to see "White Christmas" at Pioneer Theater. We both fought waves of fatigue, but it was so much fun to be at the theater and the production was amazing (by that I mean the dancing and singing; the show itself is a little trite and fluffy).

The next day I took Lizzie and Anna skiing with the help of my dad and my brother Dave. We also had Steve and his kids. This was Anna's first time on skis and only Lizzie's second. We do have skiing here in Wisconsin, but the best day here is worse than the worst day in Utah and there are no mountains, but the ticket price is the same.

Christmas Eve day at Alta was one of those days skiers dream of. Azure blue sky, soft snow, warm enough to ski in a t-shirt. It was spectacular!
Lizzie figured it out pretty quickly, thanks to Dad and an edgie-wedgie (which sounds much worse than what it actually is).
Anna, on the other hand, preferred to point her skis downhill and hope for the best. Thankfully, the hill wasn't at all crowded.

On our way down the canyon, we drove into a foggy soupbowl. It was cold and cloudy in the valley, another reminder of why I LOVE Salt Lake. When the weather is gloomy, a 30-minute drive puts you in a winter paradise.
Christmas day was filled with family, family, and more family.
All the Stephenson cousins with their annual ornaments from Grandma.
We didn't get enough of this the whole time we were there.
Or this, for that matter:
This is all the Warner cousins (minus the babies) opening the present ball at the Engar family party. The present ball is a giant lumpy ball of crepe paper with little gifts wrapped inside it. As it is unrolled, the little gifts get unwrapped gradually. The highlight this year: $2 bills.
One of the highlights of staying with Grammy and Gramps is playing games. They got some great ones this year.
We visited Uncle Ryan at his fire station and each girl got to sit in the fire truck and try on the gear.

We loved going to Gardner Village with the Stephensons...
...and lunch with the cousins was THE BEST!
Another highlight was tubing at Soldier Hollow. This is always a favorite activity, but it was extra special this year because we went with MY cousins. We spent a lot of time together when we were younger, but now we live all over the country, so it's harder to get together.

I think that this is one of the best things to do with kids in Salt Lake in the winter. The view is superb, it's easy, and the lodge is close by just in case you need a bowl of chili or something.
The trip back was uneventful. Uneventful means that the highlight was stopping at The Cracker Barrel in Council Bluffs, Iowa for dinner where Lizzie lost her retainer and the manager dug through the garbage until he found it.

We hope you, too, spent Christmas having fun in the snow, man.