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Grant & Matt after our early morning hike on Alta!	help center | e-mail options | report spam
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Perfect Moments (take 2)

We spent a day at Alta that pictures and video cannot do justice. The Clinton boys joined us, as they were spending school break in Utah, giving the boys a full day of catching up on Yarmouth.  There wasn't a cloud on the horizon and 17" of snow left a powder blanket which created a truly a storybook day. Avalanche warnings were issued so there were dynamite blasts all morning inducing slides around the backcountry of the mountain... a starling sound that we still haven't gotten used to. We hiked a ridge early in the day that lead us to endless fresh tracks. The views along the Cottonwood ridge were breathtaking against the stunning blue sky and I stood in awe at 10,500 feet. The intensity of the sun and sky gave the snow covered aspen trees a glow that was absolutely spectacular. It was our last day at Alta and one that is seared in my memory.

Jay

The Salomon Center

Today we went to the Salomon center to surf and fly. The Salomon Center is full of really cool simulated things to do, we decided to surf their FlowRider and mom & Grant went into the I-Fly to skydive (check out the videos!) We started out surfing, there was only our family and two other awesome guys. We put on our bathing suits and learned how to do it. It was best to start on a boogie board and then get surfing, a couple people went first and then it was my turn. My first time I let go and wiped out, the second time I started to surf without the rope.  I was going for about 10 seconds then I fell on purpose.The first time my dad, mom, Grant and Jack gave it a try they all fell too. Finally my turn to surf, after a few attempts we got the hang of it. You get an option to hang on to start with a rope and then let go, or just start out freestyle. I chose to hold on to the rope and moved into the water with the board under me.  After an hour of surfing and jumping in the water we got dressed and headed to the IFLY to see Grant and Mom skydive. Great day of fun, wish I could go back!  Hank

A day with the Utes

After spending the day in Salt Lake City,  we decided to go and check out the University of Utah. As we entered the campus, there it was...the Utes stadium.  This enormous stadium, seating 45,000, people stood proud in front of us. We stopped in a nearby parking lot and ran to gate in hopes of getting a good picture. As we continued to circle the gate, we finally found a good spot to snap the picture. At that point my Dad started checking to see if any of the five gates were unlocked. As he attempted, he found one that slightly opened, but got stuck right away. "Darn it," he said "So close." Next thing we knew the gate swung open... we were in! We looked around and dashed over toward the stands. This was the perfect view. After taking plenty of pictures, we headed back to the car. What an experience. We took a quick stop at the bookstore and decided that we were  going to come back to see the Utah Utes play Stanford in basketball. Can't wait!!
Grant

Jack and Hank at Solitude

Beautiful day at Solitude Mountain.  The powder in the trees was amazing!

VID-20120216-00002 Hank/Jack

Snowshoe in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Big Cottonwood is home to Solitude ski mountain. Solitude is a pristine, quiet mountain with pine, spruce and aspen trees providing an epic backdrop to ski. Cottonwood is a remarkably complex canyon filled with jagged cliffs and beautiful snow capped pine, spruce and aspen trees. One side of the canyon can't hold snow well with over 300 days of sunlight, while the other side has 5 to 6 feet of powder as it is more protected. We planned to snowshoe to Doughnut Falls, a popular Salt Lake hike that is that is approx 3 1/2 miles long, appealing only to the boys after hearing the word "doughnut." Check out their enthusiastic expressions in the parking lot....   It was a perfect day for a snowshoe with no wind, bright sun, mild temps, and a ton of fresh snow. The boys did an awesome job with an uphill climb on the way in and I think actually enjoyed the experience - Jack led the charge. The trail finishes with a semi-frozen waterfall spilling snowmelt into a river that winds the entire length of the hike. Fantastic day!

Jay

Let It Snow, Let it snow, Let It snow!

Yesterday we had the greatest skiing day of our lives as we encountered knee-deep snow. The minute we woke up we could all tell that it would be the snow we've been dreaming of. When we got to Alta, we met up with Kube (Dad's best friend from age 7) who later spent the night before he headed back to Detroit. As we got our skis on and went to hit the first chair, we could see that powder blanketed the top of the mountain. The first run was as good as the last. It never got boring or old even when we jumped onto the same run. It was by far the best skiing day of my life.
Jack

Dew Tour

Yesterday morning we packed up and headed to the Dew Tour that my Uncle Kube works for - he got us VIP passes. We pulled up and the first thing I saw was the super pipe - it was huge. We jumped out of the car, got our passes and headed over to the Ski Slope Style. Bobby Brown was standing right next to us. We climbed up the stairs into the VIP tower to watch and saw a skier fly of the jumps, like a planes taking off. The guy did a double McTwist 540! I looked at G$, we both smiled and watched the next skier do a huge trick...it was crazy! The VIP passes got us into this front row spot that all of the riders families were in and we watched Louie Vito hit the super pipe doing crazy tricks. We were even on television because the competition was on NBC. On top of it all, we got to drink all of the hot chocolate and Mountain Dew we wanted to.  It was a really great day.

Hank

The kids had a great day of school today as a foot of snow fell in the mountains.  We've gotten into a great rhythm with homeschooling. This month the boys are working on a compare and contrast essay.  Jack chose Portland/Salt Lake City, Grant is working on Maine/Utah and Hank decided Utah Jazz/Boston Celtics.  Last month each of them completed a three week long research paper on the habitat in Yellowstone. The plan is that they will tackle a different style of writing each month, focusing on what they find unique to where we are.  As far as math, Kahn has been a great program for the two older boys and Hank is working on a similar computer program called Math Score. We have also had the opportunity to spend a lot time on the primary elections and American political system. It all sounds so charming, right?  You've caught me on a good day!
Julie

Canyons Lessons Learned

*** Neither child was injured in this video!

We decided to check out the historic district of Park City this week and walked the same tracks that over 500 thousand people from around the world visited during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. It is a really fun, touristy downtown with a chairlift hovering above and boarders and skiers walking around in their boots. At one point we spotted sign that read $20 lift tickets...we had heard about discount ticket kiosks and figured we'd check it out.  We quickly realized that the tickets came with a 90 minutes tour of the "soon to be sold out" condos at the Canyons Resort. We bought season passes in Montana/Colorado but floated our ski commitments in Utah since there are so many choices - so this was very appealing. This super saver deal would save us $86/ticket and was definitely worth 1 1/2 hr. of our time.  Promising each other to keep questions to a minimum and get out of the sales pitch on time, we entered into the pitch and were cheerfully greeted by our sales agent Kevin, who smelled of Jack & Coke and a healthy dose of cologne.  No question it was a remarkable resort, but we made it clear to him upfront that we would not be purchasing a condo to which he replied, "No problem, we'll just show you around and have some fun. We never pressure anyone." Three salesmen and 2 1/2 hours later, we were still sitting at the table definitely not having fun. They couldn't understand why we wouldn't want to spend $149,000 for 1 week a year at this fabulous resort?  So they sweetened the deal. "Well, if you decide today, we could offer it to you for just $62,000 - I mean, you do take your family on vacation don't you? Okay, how about $39,500...No? Then how about just $2,500 to come back and kick the tires in the next couple of years...but the offer is only for good today, well, maybe tomorrow...but hurry, it would be a real tragedy if the inventory ran out."  Ugh...  We wearily left our seats and were finally directed  to the ticket office for our $20 vouchers. SUCCESS!?!  I'm sure skiing The Canyons would make it all worth it...oh, and I did bring the kids back to the indoor/outdoor pool later in an effort to justify my time. Although we weren't "officially" invited to use the pool,  I decided it was fair to re-coup the 1 hour overage for the torture tour.
Well...as it ends up, The Canyons is Vegas of Utah.  To ski, we had to walk through dozens of corporate tents selling everything from Paul Mitchell to Vitamin Water.  Once we finally got on the mountain we had to work hard to avoid getting killed by the beginners that rained down in droves. Most impressive, there were more fur coats than ski jackets and they were mostly on the men.  Hank summed it up best when he gave the day a 4...and not out of 5. Personally, I thought a 4 was a stretch but WOW what a savings!! Lesson learned...Can't wait to get back to Alta.

Our menu

Tonight my dad and I made: salad, bison sauce, spaghetti, bison burger (for Grant) and garlic bread. We cooked eveything from scratch even adding salt and olive oil to the bison meat. We added spaghetti squash because it can be really good with sauce. It was finally time to serve our creation to our family. We devoured the delicious meal, watched a movie, had blood orange sorbet for desert and went to bed a couple hours later. Hank

Jazz v. Lakers

The Mormon's were rockin' last night at the Jazz v. Lakers game.  I didn't expect there to be so much noise in Salt Lake City, but the crowd was wild...including a guy stripping to "Sexy and I know It" and getting tossed out. The game started out a little slow but picked up steam as the Jazz took the lead and the Lakers' coach freaked out and got ejected.  It was great to see the Lakers go down - sorry Kobe (and Jack)!!!
Grant

Alta Rocks

We pulled into Park City two days ago and are in transition mode. The Sundance Film Festival just packed up and left town, so we haven't had a chance to explore yet, planning to check it out this week. We were introduced to Alta today and it was amazing. It is tucked in Little Cottonwood Canyon about 45 minutes from where we are staying. Our ears popped every few minutes as we climbed toward the mountain. There was no snow in Salt Lake and then we turned the corner and it was winter again!  On each side of us the mountain peaks were jagged and dwarfed anything we have seen yet. When we got there the mountain seemed smaller than what we experienced. There was a great laid back vibe in the lodge, nothing fancy just a mountain committed to skiing. We heard a buzz of a helicopter over us as a group was headed out heli-skiing. The sun was bright all day and the mountain just had snow dump the day before.  Our first run was through trees and knee-deep powder surrounded us. Later in the day, my dad, Hank & I hiked up an area that had been roped off earlier. When I got to the top I realized why others had hiked up before us...untracked deep snow with what seemed like an endless run. When I made a turn snow flew over my head and it was super soft! This mountain is huge! Looking forward to getting back to Alta, heading into Salt Lake City tomorrow for the Lakers vs Jazz.

 Jack

Happy Birthday G!! 13 years