CMH Heliskiing Trip - 2013

Stanton went on the skiing trip of a lifetime in February.  He went to Canada to HeliSki. 

I can't even do the trip justice because 1) I didn't go, and 2) skiing at this level is pretty much my worst nightmare.  But for Stanton, it was heaven. 

They flew into Calgary and then took at an 8 hour bus ride North to the Gothic Lodge.  (This was after the biggest giant fiasco of Stanton taking the wrong passport to the airport - he took his passport card instead of the actual book, which he found out at the airport is required for air travel - they wouldn't let him on his originally booked flight.  At the same time, I had a friend (Jared Day) visiting and when Cannon opened the door to let him in, Charlie ran out and ran away.  He was nowhere to be found.  I had decided to just let him stay out for a bit when Stanton called to tell me what was happening at the airport.  Of course I had to take the passport down to him, which meant asking a neighbor to find my dog and take him to my house and asking my mother in law to pick up the kids and do the crazy after school get ready for gymnastics rigamarole.  I was halfway out of town when I got a call from Stanton's dad offering to take the passport down for me.  I turned around in a flash!  I was so thankful to him.  Oh, and not 2 minutes after praying that Charlie would cooperate so my neighbor wouldn't have to spend a long time looking for him, she called to say she had found him and he was back safe at home.  Whew!  What a start to his trip!).
Aaaaannnnyyywwwwaaaaayyyy..... he made the bus ride up to the Gothic Lodge with all of the other guys, so all's well that ends well.

The ski trip was supposed to have 4 or 5 days of skiing, but the weather was so warm and the fresh snowfalls were so huge that they weren't even able to go out for the first 2/3 of the trip.  The avalanche danger was crazy high.  In fact, Stant took a few pictures of avalanches that they ended up skiing over later in the trip. 
By the last couple of days, the avalanche danger had subsided, so they were able to ski.  And it was (I don't use this word ever...) epic skiing.  As they hopped out the of helicopter, they would sink into powder up to their armpits.  Once they got their skis on, they'd still sink to their knees or further.  It was technical skiing through trees, etc.  They had to ski the trees because the avalanche danger is much lower there.  They did get to ski the open bowls the last day and Stanton said it was awesome, but he was surprised at how much more he enjoyed the technical skiing in the trees.

The company they skiied with credited the first days of their trip, so guess what Stanton is going back to do next year?!  I love so much that he has a hobby that he is passionate about.  He is under so much pressure and stress at his job that it is awesome for him to have something he can look forward to to unwind and maybe stress in a different way.  It's been fun to watch him pick back up with skiing in the last few years.  Oh, and I had a ball with the kids that week, too.  They were so fun.

Here are some pictures from the trip.  They won't even remotely do justice to the experience, but maybe they'll jog a few memories for Stanton when he's old and grey.  :)

Spring Break!

We headed south for Spring Break this year....along with 3/4 of Cache Valley.  Ha!  It was super busy down there, but a ton of fun.

We rented a house (VRBO) with Stanton's family and swam and hiked and ate and had the best time ever.

Hawaii - Marriott Ko'olina with Dave & Judy

We went to Hawaii with Dave and Judy the first week of December.  It was a great little getaway and break from the craziness back home.  Both Stanton and I missed the kids SO much during this trip, though...not like us!  :)  We're getting to that phase where we would love to experience a lot of these things with our kiddos instead of leaving them home.
They were in great hands with Adam and Angie, my mom, and Jim & Rachel, though, and did really well.  Thanks to them for helping with the kids while we were gone!

We didn't do a whole lot of new stuff on this trip, so I'm going to just throw up pictures without much explanation.  Of note - we stayed on the leeward side of the island - opposite of Lai'e, where we usually stay.  It was so different - a total desert except where they water (sprinklers...in Hawaii - crazy!).  It had its own beauty and it was really cool to see a different part of Oahu.  Henry started rolling over with greater consistency on this trip.  He was fun to have along - he changed it from a vacation to a trip, for sure, but I'm glad we brought him! 

We got a kick out of Dave & Judy's technology in the seats ahead of us. 
Henry had a rough flight out (he was a total gem on the redeye home - thanks to some awesome seat maneuvering from Stanton).  We ended up walking around with him for a good portion of the flight to Honolulu.  We met lots of nice people as we made the rounds....one was Nancy - in this picture with Stanton.  She was a doll and talked to us in her seat and at ours for a half hour or so.  Total sweetheart.
As you can see, Henry's ears were really bothering him as we descended.  Stanton sucked on them to help relieve the pain - I tried nursing him, but he had nursed so many times on the flight (just to try and keep him quiet) that he was just plain sick of it by then.

 Henry perusing the activities available at the resort.
Oh, Judy got stuck on the elevator for an hour at the resort!  That was an adventure for her.  :)

 The Marriott was a gorgeous property.  Totally different from the Hukilau house, for sure.  It was really fun to stay there.  You can see the Disney resort down the way - it's the all brown one in the back.  Really neat.

 Dave, Judy, Stanton.

 Dole Plantation for a whip (no more cinnamon almonds *sniff).  Haleiwa to visit Surf and Sea for a new t-shirt or two. 

 We drove to Laie to visit a friend of our neice Jessica's.  His name is Spencer.  We ate at Tita's and had garlic shrimp.  It was divine. 
While we were there, our battery died.  It wouldn't even take a jump from this nice cook's pickup truck.  We had to call the rental car company and wait for them to bring us a replacement.  It was a long afternoon.  Henry and I took a few walks to pass the time.

 We took a beautiful hike in the nice part of Oahu - the part that President Obama visits when he goes home.  :)  It was a great little hike and provided a gorgeous view from the top.  Judy stayed behind with Henry, which I so appreciated.

 Whoops, the two view shots are from that same hike. 
We headed to Honolulu to eat at Cheesecake Factory and walk around Waikiki.  I had to check in on the kids, of course.

 Flea Market (actually called the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium), shave ice in Haleiwa (with a t-shirt, of course), and the Cheesecake Factory.  Oh, and we bought these fun hand carved musical frogs for the kids.  The wood echoes like a croak when you rub the ridged back with a wand.  They are really cool!

 Dave and Judy took 3 mile walks every morning.  I was up and going in time to go on a few with them.  Fun to be with them.  Stanton stayed home and did P90x most mornings while we walked.

 Playing with the underwater camera.  Not bad! 

It was a great trip.  We really appreciated Dave & Judy inviting us to go along.  They are SO dang fun to travel with. 

Weekend Getaway to Moab

This was Stanton's 4th or so time to Moab, but a first for the rest of our crew.  Whew!  What an amazing place!  I'm telling you, Utah is such a unique state -- we have incredible variety in our landscape and some of the most beautiful places on earth!  Moab was BEAUTIFUL and so dang fun.

We left Thursday late afternoon (the hope was to leave around 1:00 on Thursday, but Stanton's OR cases went much later than expected - isn't that always how it works?! - so we didn't get on the road till 4:30 or so).  We towed the Jeep and had a looooong evening's drive south and west.  We ended up making two stops along the way, which made the drive seem even longer.

Quick aside -- I had a random prompting to grab windshield wiper fluid on the way out of the garage.  I thought it was super weird and ignored it.  After about 15 minutes on the road, Stanton said, "Shoot!  I forgot to put windshield wiper fluid in the motorhome!"  UGH!  You'd think I'd have learned that Heavenly Father really is interested in even the small details of our lives by now!  We had to make a detour to buy washer fluid (which ended up including snacks, too -- yay!  more money! Ha!).  I'm going to listen and OBEY better next time.

We stopped near Price for dinner - Chef's salad that I had made before hand.  The kids snarfed it down and then we got everyone ready for bed.  We were back on the road after about 45 minutes and the kids did a good job getting to sleep.  I ended up getting really sleepy, too, and slept for the last hour and a half or more.  Stanton is a rockstar driver.  I so appreciate him!!!

The next day was spent at the Sand Flats Rec Area (I think that's the name?) where we went on Hell's Revenge, a pretty awesome Jeep trail over slickrock.  It was so crazy and fun.  That took us a good couple of hours, followed by lunch back at the motorhome.  For the afternoon, we headed to Arches National Park.  We drove all the way through the park and did the short little hike to the Delicate Arch lookout point.  It was so beautiful and crazy to see the things that nature can do.  The kids really enjoyed Arches, although they were pretty hammered by the end.

For dinner, we met up with Adam and Angie Chandler and their two adorable kids.  We went to Zak Pizza and had a great time.  It was so easy and yummy.  We were glad we happened to be down there at the same time and were able to hook up!

We ended the night with an intense game of giant (yes, giant) checkers back at the RV park.  Stanton and I played for a good hour and 45 minutes without a winner.  When it started to get dark, we called it a draw, although I will point out that at that point, I DID have more players on the board.  :)  The girls happily served as our checker movers and the boys played around the rec area -- making steering wheels out of giant chess pieces, etc.  (Oh, and if it had been chess we were playing?  Yeah, Stanton would have won within seconds).

Everyone had showers and watched an episode of the Flintstones before crashing for the night.

Saturday morning was Lily's birthday!!!!  We got on the road early so we could hit Cabela's on the way home and still have a bit of a Saturday at home.  The kids were amazing on the ride home.  Maybe the best they've ever been on the road.  That was really pleasant!  We went to Cabela's where Stanton looked at guns (blah) and I took the kids around to see the taxidermy (which, although I'm not much of a fan, it was pretty incredible and even sort of beautiful), get a fudge sample, and look at toys till Stanton was ready for lunch.  We ate at their cafe and gorged on fried foods.  Yuck! 

We were able to make it home by about 2:30 or so, which was awesome.  Also, I have to note that I drove from Perry to home.  Maybe that doesn't sound impressive, but I do not enjoy driving the motorhome (it makes me really nervous) and this time I drove it AND towed the Jeep behind AND drove through Sardine Canyon.  It was a pretty huge feat for me - definitely noteworthy.  :)

We got home and Stanton mowed, edged, and fertilized the lawn and unpacked the motorhome (with the kids help).  I made and frosted Lily's birthday cake and got the house ready for our birthday guests.  More on that in the next post.

This was a great weekend getaway for our family!  We enjoyed the scenery and the experience so much.  I hope the kids feel a closer bond from these activities.  I know Stanton and I do!

I loved seeing Chloe with her head out the window enjoying the scenery!  That's Charlie all tucked in on the couch of the motorhome there.  Chloe loves him!

 We made a couple of stops during our Hell's Revenge outing.  A couple of little hikes to see Green River and some fun technical detours.  The boys had fun sliding down one of the water pots...as evidenced by their dirty bums!  :)  The scripture in Proverbs, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" kept going through my head on this trail.  I think we might be raising some Jeep enthusiasts!  :)

 This shot shows just how steep and small that water pot was.  The Jeep handled it like a Sunday afternoon drive.  I was amazed!

 Some of the formations at Arches.  (Clockwise from top left) Balanced Rock, 3 Gossips, (I don't remember the name of this, but I think it looks like an Egyptian queen!), ah, I can't remember the other two, either.  Sorry.  But they're amazing, aren't they??!!!

 I marked Delicate Arch in the background there.  We didn't make the real hike to it, although the kids probably could have made it.  One of these years, we'll hike to all of the different arches.

This was the final result of our checkers game.  Stanton was black and I was white.  I am still playing it out in my head and wondering how much longer it would have taken us to finish...and who would've won.  :)

Birthday morning for Lily.  Chloe and Brigham were trying to help her get up on the bunk.  Their methods were cracking me up.

This is definitely a trip we'll do again.  What a great place!!!