Island Park

Island Park did not disappoint. The snow, even though meager compared to last years, was great enough to build snow caves, sled down rocky dams, and even cold enough to slice a face open. Most of our pictures are of outside yet we spent our time eating, reading, eating, playing games, eating and sleeping. Occasionally we went out and put on our snowshoes, sledded, rally raced, made donuts, cave built and star gazed.

I crossed the river here and received the nickname the beamon demon, which sadly has not stuck. 

St. George

 

We headed down to St. George on a whim last week. No regrets! We enjoyed beautiful weather and about 32 miles of great single track and a small hike up Johnson Canyon. We again did this on a whim so when Ashley called Angela to get together with them we were disappointed to find out they were out of town. However, they let us sleep in their house. Thank you!!

 Barrel Role

 Bearclaw poppy and then up Stucki Springs

Deer Valley

Deer Valley as usual did not disappoint!! Yes, it was cold. Yes, Ashley's feet became cold as mine did not (if you have seen my boots you would understand). The company was great even though a few only stayed for a brief stent. Those that lasted were able to see our American win her 14th World Cup in a row. Very impressive. 

The Survivors!

Those afraid of the Cold!!

Snow Shoeing...Not Snow Hiking

We finally received some snow in the Mountains this week. In the valley it still feels like March with lots of rain, some heavy snow, and temps in the 40's. We took advantage and went up to Snow Basin to do some snowshoeing which turned out to be awesome, really snowy, wet, and a little cold.

Ashley was not able to make it on the adventure but Gavin did tag along with Jace and Lindsey. To protect Gavin from the very wet snow we put a poncho over him which did its job of keeping him dry. 

Jace at the summit. 

Lindsey obviously did not move her head much and you could see how much snow accumulated by the end of our hike. It was about 4-5 in., which means that Lindsey was mostly correct but never wrong.

Snow hiking and belated Christmas

I think Brent is a bit tired of me not making any posts on our blog and is not posting to make his point. I get it.  Here you go.

As you can tell from my previous post, we don't have much snow here in Utah. We haven't been doing any snowshoeing, but we have been on a few snow hikes.  Our latest was this past Monday up Mueller Park in Bountiful.  It was a nice sunny day and we had a couple inches of snow overnight so the trail was beautiful.

 I was thinking I should share a little bit of Christmas too because we had so much fun and so that people in our family could enjoy some of the pictures if they didn't get them from us already.  We had a genius plan for Christmas this year (okay, it was initially my mom's).  We had Brent's parents come from Yakima and spend Christmas with our family. It was great. The Lovell family is crazy and loud but I think they had a great time.  Some of the things we did included a BSU basketball game, letter boxing (like geocaching), walking along the Boise River, volleyball and basketball at the church, games, lots of puzzles, the nativity, eating, eating more, and a Christmas Eve family relay.  I've had a great time doing other relays like Ragnar and Epic, but this was a step above as we all donned our Christmas headgear, drank hot chocolate instead of water, and ran blocks around Combes Park in 1/2 mile legs with varying combinations of runners. You can see we had a great time with our race and with all our other activities. Mostly, I really just loved being with my family and my niece and nephews. I'm so grateful for all of them. 

                                              

                           

January 2012

BEST JANUARY EVER! I've been mountain biking everyday that I haven't worked this week If we're lucky Brent and I will get one more day in tomorrow before a bit of snow comes. I'll say it again, BEST JANUARY EVER!

Red Cliff

After our little adventure in Zion we wanted to visit our friends Angela & Aaron and their two kids Eliza & Nora. We spent most of the day with Aaron fixing the sink and me supervising as Angela and Ashley made amazing double chocolate pomegranate cookies which are to die for!!! We also found time to do a little exploring in St. George.