Spring Break

Only in the Rockies do you spend your Spring Break playing in the snow. We tend to accumulate the majority of our snowfall during the months of March and April. We had some great weather to which I baked out in the driveway while the kids played and then turned around the next day and the temp had dropped 50 degrees.

Yesterday I decided that it was high time Jared learned to ski. I've been skiing since I was 8 and I've loved every minute on the slopes and I wanted to pass that love on to him. We woke up early and began our 140 mile drive to Monarch Mountain. I started Jared off slow by playing "red light green light" in the snowplow. We marched on over to the bunny hill and spent our morning there working. After a battle of wills and Jared finally succumbing to my teaching he caught on. As he approached the bottom of the bunny hill, which was only about 100 yards, he would get the hang of it and then it was time to saddle up on the lift and start over. We broke for lunch and rejuvenated and went back out. One more try at the bunny hill and then I decided he was ready for the real slopes. We went up and he went down, a little too fast I might add. he wasn't getting that snowplow maneuver down and would just point down and go. A bit dangerous for everyone in the surrounding vicinity. I threatened that if he didn't get in control he'd spend the day in the truck and I'd ski by myself. That wasn't an option for Jared. Next run he went down slower and in much more control and made it to the bottom without crashing. We then decided to expand our repertoire of runs and explore some. I was so proud of him by the end of the day! He was a real shredder out there.

A storm was making it's way across the mountain so we decided that we better get packin and get home before we got caught in it. Boy was I happy we left when we did because by and hour after we got home it started with rain and then IT hit. We got so much snow, and the best part about this spring storm was that the snow was a wet snow, which makes the best igloo building snow. Jared, Payton, Liza and I geared up and went to the backyard and build "Cinderella castle" as Liza calls it. Liza quit after getting a handful of snow in the face and Payton wimped out as well. Jared and I finished it and I'm now exhausted. Not only am I a tiny bit sore from skiing yesterday now those muscles are more tired from lifting all that snow.

Next project for spring break is building a terrarium.