It's the wonderful time of year again - the time of year when we go skiing! Of course sadly this was from a month ago, but hey - better late than never!
It was Deer Valley again this year, which is absolutely one of our favorite places to go, and we're delighted now that everyone is old enough to come with us! Addison is pretty excited as well and loves to ski! We usually head out Sunday morning bright and early, but the flights were completely full so we took a flight out Saturday night late....
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| We're excited to go - waiting in the Orlando airport for Daddy to park the car! |
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| There is a pretty water fountain in the airport lobby that you can watch the birds fly around, so we were enjoying this while we waited! |
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| There are the lost members of the family - and of course Addison's gum - you can see she is excited to be showing off her gum in the picture! |
We met Korey (Karis' brother) in Salt Lake City and stayed at the same hotel that night, so that we could get up bright and early to hit the rental shop at 7A and then get out to Brighton before ski lessons at 10:15. It is a 45 minute drive, so we were happy to be on the road by 8:15, thinking we were very proud of ourselves. Proud of ourselves until we realized that it was snowing like crazy (which we knew) but that because it was snowing, everyone who lives in Utah also decided to go skiing that day! It took FOREVER to slowly crawl up the mountain towards the resort. We finally got to the entrance of the pass where you drive up to the mountain (almost FOUR HOURS LATER!), and then became stuck once again. Korey and Amy were antsy sitting in the SUV, so they separately both got out of the truck (Korey first, with Amy trailing behind after a few minutes of additional cabin fever) and hiked up the mountain. They discovered that an SUV had made it past the cop at the bottom of the mountain, who clearly thought that the suburban had 4 wheel drive, which it did not!!!!, and it slid right off the side of the road (thankfully into the mountain instead of off the mountain). It took about 30 minutes to pull it out and then we were on our way again. We made it there at 12:45, just in time to race up and get some food into the kids before they made it to their afternoon ski lesson.
Our day at Brighton was lovely - it is a great mountain, and we decided to get a picture of the group - Js, Cs, and two sets of the Zs. We also skied with Reeves, but they weren't in this particular picture.
The kids were super excited, and with how good the boys are getting, Zachary did just one day of lessons and Kaleb did two - while Addison did all days of lessons except Thursday. She believes that she may be the next Lindsay Vonn or something! She would get out of her lessons every day and then insist on going skiing again with us until the lifts closed!
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| Here she is, crouching with to go faster! |
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| "Dabbing" down the mountain with Kaleb. And Elin is in the front of the picture with the unicorn helmet on! |
Not only is Addison "posing" as she goes down the mountain, but on Wednesday when we were skiing after lessons, she was taunting poor Kaleb (who is a great little skier!!!) saying "Come on slowpoke, can you catch up to me!?" That burned poor Kaleb, because of course he is a faster and better skier than she is!
No trip to Deer Valley is complete without going to the Gorgoza tubing hill - we just have a blast there, and this year was no exception. In fact, this was one of the fastest years that we have had on the slopes - just flying down the runs!
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| we closed the tubing hill down that night! |
At the end of the Deer Valley vacation every year, Zachary has formed a "tradition" that he must ski down Big Stick run, which is a double-blue run at the very end. Amy did it with him a few years ago (praying her way down, as it can be death-defying if you're not a super confident skier), so now he cajoles her each year to do it with him. This year was no different, except for the fact that the whole family was going down. The run veers off to "Little Stick" which is easier right before the double-blue portion, but before Amy could blink an eye, Addison had skied right down Big Stick instead of staying to the right, so Amy had no choice but to follow her down. Thankfully Amy is no longer praying her way down -- although it still isn't a slam dunk if the snow is icy -- but she was still praying this year as Addison is only in her SECOND year of skiing! What is this girl thinking?! But, she made it down like a champ without falling, although it clearly tired her out because when we stopped to take a family picture and she insisted on doing it from the "prone" position! :)
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| We all made it!! Big Stick is directly behind Amy's head in the background. |
We are blessed on this trip as we have lots of friends that come to the conference as well, and some that just come even though they aren't in the conference! Cs have always come, Ds used to (mission trip this year) and then some new friends of ours the Wanderslebens. Our kids love them, with Zachary and their son being close and Addison loving their daughter! Such fun memories!
Over the course of the week there were lots of lift pictures taken of us as we enjoyed a break for our screaming thighs....
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| Amy, Karis and Kaleb |
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| One day Amy and Kelli skied with Erica - super fun! |
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| Gianna and Addison had an awesome time skiing together! |
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| At the very end of one day....this girl closed it down every single day! |
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| We were thankful, having three kids at different ski levels did make it tricky, so there were times when Kaleb or Zach would tag along with someone else - this portion of a day it was Kaleb with Heather and Kieran! Thanks! |
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| Kelli, Amy and Heather |
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| A rare moment in which Amy, Zach and Kaleb were all on a lift together. Zach has so far surpassed Amy that he usually only is with her at the beginning or end of the day! :) |
Kent got a go-pro this year, and so we all had a blast watching the videos of all of us skiing, and wiping out, at the end of the week. Thanks for the good fun!
Random pictures;
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| this is Addison's favorite hiding spot for her treasures....and apparently also herself on the occasional day! One night Addison took our house phone, left it on and hid it in the buffet. At 4:30 AM, Amy awoke to the beeping sound (about every 1 minute, so not frequent enough to identify where it was coming from quickly, but too frequent to sleep through). Amy was wandering around the house looking for the source of the beeping, even turning on her phone flashlight, when Karis finally woke up and strode out with purpose to the dining room where Amy had narrowed the sound down to, and opened the door and sure enough - there was the phone! Amy was wishing at that moment that he had woken up earlier as she was so awake at that point that she never did go back to sleep :( |
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| Playing a game in the pool - they had to hide their faces, throw a rocket and then dash around to see who could get it out of the water first. |
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| Gymnastics in front of the Biris house! Pretty good arm strength! |
