December = Month of Family: Skiing Edition

The awful weather we experienced on Christmas eve was good for one thing. Well, two things, actually: tons of snow in the mountains and the knowledge that there is a Micronesian island nation called Kiribati (that sends female missionaries to be tour guides at Temple Square). You can guess which fact we were more excited about.

Scared off by the weather experiences from the day before, the parents decided to stay at our house for the day while the rest of us headed down to Alta to go skiing. One of the perks of my new job is transferable season passes, so all four of us got to ski for free. And despite this fact, Marshall and Mollie STILL haven’t been up to take advantage of them. tsk tsk.

We were glad that the weather and snow conditions cooperated for the boys, given their 10-odd year hiatus from the sport. Bluebird powder conditions abounded.

After deciding that the boys and I were ready for a little more excitement, Shane led us out of bounds to do a little bit of backcountry powder skiing. It was incredibly fun, even though we all had varying levels of success. I think David’s hooked. Despite his lack of proximity to snow (about 6.5 hours drive to anything decent), he’s already started to purchase ski gear from where else, but steepandcheap.com.

Jeff decided he wanted to take a break from skiing powder quite suddenly.

Luckily the powder was really fluffy and soft.

After our first run down through the powder with no falls and great turns, Shane decided to whip out the video camera to catch the next one on film.

Tragically we used up all our talent on the first go around, and our second round was only marginally better. What we lack in skill we make up in something else. We’re not sure what that “something else” is yet, but we’re bound to find it, eventually.

Check it out:

And an even more glamorous take two:

December = Month of Family: SLC Edition

After a wonderful weekend down in Zion and St. George, we headed back up to Salt Lake for my family’s first time in the city and first time at our new home. We decided to show them around town on Christmas Eve. It was great weather… in the mid 40s and sunny. We hit up a few of the must sees (our list is probably different than most everyone elses’): lunch at Pho Saigon, the backcountry.com / steepandcheap.com headquarters, and the massive asian and mexican markets in West Valley City. Nothing disappointed. David was nearly breathless when he arrived at his version of mecca. Really, we’re quite easy to please.

We headed towards downtown to see the city a little after lunch. Parking at the Gateway mall, we walked over to TRAX and waited for our trolley to Temple Square. Figuring that it is the landmark of Salt Lake, and that we actually had never been there yet, we wanted to check it out. When in Rome, I guess. The weather took a sudden turn for the worst while we were waiting the 3 or so minutes for our trolley. The sky clouded over, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped a good 15 degrees. Not exactly dressed for the weather (hey, it was really nice that morning!), my family got to see what winter is really like.

We waited in the visitor’s center of the temple for about 20 minutes for our “30 minute” tour. Apparently they had to switch the tour guides from Texas for ones that were decidedly more asian (one from Hong Kong and the other from Kiribati, a small island by the Marshall Islands). They barely spoke English and repeated everything the other one said. Normally this would be helpful since there was such a large language barrier, but the repeating sister’s accent didn’t assist in our understanding at all. It just made the tour last twice as long. While waiting for our tour to start, the weather took yet another turn. The rain turned to sleet and then to snow. Our tour was by far the most miserable, yet most memorable part of the day. We were able to take a break from the weather inside the tabernacle and pose for a picture that our guide insisted she take so we could remember our tour of Temple Square.

Luckily we were able to embrace the winter weather a little better the next day at Alta, where all the kids went skiing and the parents locked themselves inside our house, afraid of the mysterious white stuff that apparently was too cold for the Santa Barbarian lightweights.

December = Month of Family: Zion Edition

One of the great things about living in Utah is its proximity to absolutely amazing national parks and other attractions. We met my family down in Zion the weekend before Christmas. It’s a pretty easy 4.5 hour drive south from our house which culminated in my first van camping experience, per Shane’s insistence.

And despite the fact that it was in the 20s at night, it wasn’t that bad (please don’t tell Shane… It’s not like I really want to partake in that adventure again). I was warm and toasty but slightly disheveled in the morning. We met up with the fam at the Zion visitor’s center after a wonderful breakfast at a really local cafe in Virgin, Ut. And we were off exploring!

Zion in the winter is beautiful. We took several small hikes, risked our lives on the inch thick ice (we’re gripping the railing for dear life in the picture above), again risked our lives under the icicles of death, had an ill-advised picnic in the sun (the sun was only marginally warmer than the 30 degrees in the shade), and enjoyed spending time with my family. We hit up special meetings in St. George the next day and headed back up to Salt Lake that night for a white Christmas. And it sure was white.

December = Month of Family: ND Edition

Well, 2007 came and went, and I barely noticed since we were so busy. Christmas and New Years really snuck up on us this year. And now that it’s January, I had better remember our excuses for being so busy in the month of December.

It started out with a trip back to visit Shane’s family in North Dakota in the middle of the month. The week was spent watching a lot of hockey (both Tyler and Aunika’s varsity teams had several games each), visiting with siblings, parents and grandparents, pheasant hunting, the usual science experiments and eating, cooking, and all things pertaining to food.

As it is at my house, nothing is “normal.” On one of the errands that we ran, Mitzi (Shane’s mom) and I filled up the large dewar with liquid nitrogen (only $10!!) per Tyler’s request. And that night we had liquid nitrogen ice cream.

And going against everything I’d ever learned in school about proper liquid nitrogen handling, Tyler took a gulp of it in his mouth and shot the vapor out his nose. It’s no wonder he’s not able to properly smell or taste anything really well. Such a mad scientist.

Later on we experimented (more technical term than “played”) with cornstarch and water, vibrated at around 120 hz. Dad had given Tyler an old dental machine used to get the bubbles out of impression material, and after some creative methods of figuring out exactly how to know when it was at 120 hz (which involved using the piano), we were in action. Check it out:

For more videos about the non-newtonian fluid, check out youtube. Nerds of a feather flock together.