OK, it's only been 4+ months since I blogged.  But I'm back with a new resolve to post.  Last week, our family returned from a week long vacation to snowy Utah, where we skied our little hearts out.  What a great trip for our family!

 

 

We flew up on a 10:00pm flight December 26th, which ended up being delayed, so we didn't arrive at our hotel until a little after midnight.  Still, it was better than driving for 12 hours without a doubt!  We spent our first night in Salt Lake City right by the airport, then left the following morning to begin our adventures.  We enjoyed the afternoon in Park City, where we ate and played at The Shed Clubhouse at Promontory, then drove into Eden, Utah (right by Powder Mountain Ski Resort) and got settled into our condo.  My good friend who works at Promontory let us use his ski condo for the week while his family spent the holiday in Peru.  Sweet gig for sure!

 



We skied our first day at Snow Basin, about 15 miles from the condo just east of Ogden, along with a ton of other fellow skiers.   It was busy for sure, but the lift lines still moved quickly.  Snowbasin is such a nice ski resort!  And the lodge...holy cow!  Talk about fancy.  They spent a ton of mula upgrading the resort for the Olympics and it sure paid off.  To their dismay, I signed Easton and Rowan up for a refresher day of ski school so the rest of could ski.  I think it was a great decision as they both got back on the saddle so quickly and were super ready to ski with the rest of us by the end of the day.  We all skied together the last hour and had a blast.  Sadly, Afton was a little under the weather with a bad sore throat and fever and took a long mid-day break in the lodge.  Thanks to an emergency prescription call in, we were able to get her some antibiotics later that night and she recovered well. 

All in all, the first day on the slopes was a little slow going getting everyone back into the routine of skiing and getting everyone where they needed to be, but it was all good and so fun to be back on the mountain with the kids.  The snow was fantastic (they'd had a ton of fresh new snowfall the 2 days before), the weather was gorgeous and crisp, and the good times began.  We even ran into some friends of ours from Mesa (the Rheads) at lunch in the lodge!  Crazy small world!

On our second ski day, we celebrated Rowan's 9th birthday by shredding some powder at Powder Mountain ski resort (only 5 mins from our condo).  I really, really liked the hills and sweet snow at Powder Mountain, although the whole joint is definitely a throw back to the 1960's.  It's so different than Snowbasin, but very cool.  When we were just about to start our first run of the day, a nice older man who was a "ski host" at PM approached us and asked us if we had any questions or needed directions on runs, etc.  We told him this was our first time skiing at Powder Mountain, at which he lit up and said, "Well, great.  Then I'm your guy.  I'll be your host for the morning and show you around."  He seriously skied with us all morning and showed us various runs and lifts that would suit our family well.  Amazing service!

 

Easton had a partial meltdown after the first very long 3-mile run as his fingers were freezing to death (or so he claims) and his nose was running from the tears.  Being the low sympathy mom that I am, I struggled with his "sit down in the powder boycott to go any further" and told him to get up and quit acting like a baby to which he just got more mad and ornery.  Not my finest hour.  Or his. The two older girls took off down the mountain somewhere, so Ry and Rowan and our ski host left to meet up with them, so I finally bribed Buddy into getting back on the lift to head up again with the notion of hot chocolate at the top.  He quickly agreed, and we made a little pit stop at the lodge at the top of the mountain for some warm beverages. 

I have to admit, it might have been just about the best hot chocolate I have ever consumed, and worth every cent of the $3.00 I paid to make this little man so happy again.  After the warming up, he was like a new man, and was a skiing machine for the rest of the day.  We had so much fun.  We had burgers and fries for lunch, and I visited with some super cool people from Texas who had been coming to Powder Mountain for over a decade and who proclaimed it to be their favorite place to ski. 

 

After 2 fun and tiring days on the slopes, we finished off celebrating Rowan's 9th birthday by dining at the only Mexican food joint in town, Carlos & Harley's, for some really delicious grub.  Of course, Rowan got to sport the obligatory sombrero and enjoy a birthday song.  She shared her "churro split" with the rest of us, since our crazy girl doesn't like ice cream?? Go figure.

 

Sunday we took a break from skiing, went to church at an ultra packed building in Eden, Utah (the small little town by Powder Mountain) along with a ton of other visiting skiers.  The meeting was awesome, followed by leisurely day.

 

Later in the afternoon, we went on a walk, played in the snow, and sledded for a bit on the hill right behind our condo.  We all had so much fun.  As always, the Sunday weather was the most exquisite of the week (totally clear and sunny).  We watched a couple of movies and had pizza in the condo that night by the fire.

 

 

 

 

New Year's Eve day was spent skiing at Snow Basin again, this time with everyone together.  We rode the gondola lift up all day long (so many times), which was fantastic because we had a chance to warm up on the ride up the mountain.  Since the gondola only serves blue and black runs from the top, the kids were happy to ski blue all day long, and their abilities all seemed to increase quickly.  Easton was a crazy speed demon and it was almost all we could do to keep up.  Ry and I took turns playing sweeper (the one who skis in the back of the pack to help "sweep" any fallen kids and gear) along the way.  We did stray and take the kids on one black, and they all survived, happy to report that they skied a black diamond.  Barrett unfortunately took a bad crash on her last run of the day, and ended up with one heck of a huge egg on the back of her head and a crazy sore neck and headache to boot.  She had unfastened her helmet on the gondola ride up, and forgot to re-hook it again when we started skiing.  So it flew off when she crashed and didn't protect her head like it would have had it been latched.  She was a hurting pup that night and the next couple of days with a sore neck and bruised ego. 

 

 

On New Year's Day, we went back to Park City and ate lunch/dinner at The Shed, played some games, and had a blast.  Later that evening after we checked in at a hotel in south Salt Lake, we went to Temple Square to see all the lights.  They were incredible!  Probably our highlight was touring the tabernacle and getting the "famous pin drop" demonstration from the sister missionaries.  It was so neat to hear all the acoustics in there.  It was so cold that night, and lightly snowing too.  Such a winter wonderland!

 

Barrett ended up sitting out the last day of skiing, reading a book in the lodge, because she was so sore. We are not sure if she had a concussion or not, but we watched her closely and gave her lots of ibuprofen for the pain. All is well now, but she sadly missed out on our last day of skiing at Brighton on 1/2/13, which was the best weather day of all and probably the most fun with the kids. They were crazy skiing through trees and taking small jumps and having so much fun. I was all grins watching my kiddos on the slopes.

 

 It was a trip to remember for sure, and I am so thankful that we are able to create these fun memories with our kids.  It was so cold the whole time we were there without a doubt (temperatures in the teens and single digits), but we were blessed with mostly sunny skies.  We are already looking forward to our next ski trip the first week of February and hope that the Sunrise snow stays sticking strong!  We will be there with Mike & Shari's family and can hardly wait.



Monday will be better...

Sometimes you've got it, sometimes you don't.

Whatever "it" is, I definitely did not have it this morning.

Um, let me think of the best way to describe the workout...

Brutal.  Miserable.  Torturous.  Yep, any of those will do.  

So as I literally wrung out the sweat from my clothes and then soaked in a cool shower (partially by choice, partially because our hot water heater went out this morning), I tried to figure out why I got my can kicked so hard.  I am sure I am exaggerating, but I can't remember feeling so beat up since I ran the Sedona half marathon with crazy hills and elevation, and today I only went half that distance on more or less flat ground at 1200 feet.  Surely, I must be mistaken.

Still....

• Stayed up a little too late reading.
• Fighting a head cold.
• Third day in a row for my running legs and they were mad at me.
• Started an hour later than normal (not til 6:30 since I figured it was Saturday and I was entitled to sleep in til 6:00).  Stupid decision in hindsight.
• Full on sun.
• Ridiculous humidity.
• Bean burrito for dinner last night.
• Bleachers, bleachers, bleachers.

I guess it could be any number or all of those things, but I'm going with bleachers as the straw that broke my back.   After running to Mtn. View along the canal (one of my usual runs), I did my climbs up and down the bleachers many, many times trying to simulate the climb out of the canyon (it's the best training I know) and then I ran home.  Nothing new.  6 miles plus bleachers, so I should not have felt have as bad as I did.

Today I lost the battle of mind over body.
Today I wondered why in the heck any sane person runs in August monsoon season.
Today I wondered how I could possibly be this hot.
Today would have been a good day to turn off the alarm and go under deep cover.

Good thing I get to try again on Monday.

Inspired by Miss Prine

When I go long stretches without writing in my journal, I always feel the need to quasi-apologize in my writing about why it's been so long and then feel like I have to catch up on everything that's happened since the last entry.  Sometimes that seems too overwhelming to try and catch up, so I just keep putting if off until it seems impossible.

I guess that's how I feel about my blog, too.  I have no idea what's changed in my world this past year that makes it so hard for me to make time to blog.  I still enjoy it.  I still have fantastic kids involved in everything.  I still have a great husband and we've enjoyed all kinds of great memories together this year.  I still think about writing all the time and dream of finding a solo hour to just sit.  I'm still working, still serving in the church, still running, still hiking, still living the life.

At any rate, I just finished reading a fantastic fiction book, "These Is My Words, the Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine," by Nancy Turner and I absolutely loved it.  I cried at least 10 times and had the hardest time putting it down.  I catch myself thinking about the fiery Sarah and her trials and her spunk and her love for Captain Jack, all the time.  What a life she endured living in the rugged Arizona Territories in the late 1800's.  I think we would have been great friends.  I noted that in the midst of her child raising years, she went a whole year without writing, so I guess I'm in good company in that regard.  And that inspired me to write.

With school back in session, I feel like we've shifted back into gear again and are hopefully starting to remember the routine.  Summer brought many late nights for the kids and equally late wakings.  They stayed so busy with all their sports camps and the vacations and hanging with friends, but the structure of our world was no where to be found.

As of this week, all the peeps are fully booked with school and all the extras.  Miss Rowan is officially a gymnast now, taking a couple hours a week at Desert Devils.  She says she loves it and can hardly wait for her newly ordered leotards to arrive.  We've seen a number of back walkovers already and clapped at some pretty good headstand attempts.  Who invented the head stand, anyway.  It should be outlawed.  Nothing good can possibly come from standing on your head.  Anyway, she's also 3 weeks into piano lessons now, so we've been blessed to hear the likes of Old Joe Brown and Mary Had a Little Lamb over and over.  She's excited about her new activities, though, which is all that matters.  And she's a new 3rd Grade student council representative and loving her activity days.  She also has a new friend in the neighborhood, Emma Alston, who we already love to pieces.

Buddy Boy, first grader, is most excited about a couple new friends and his upcoming 7th birthday in a few weeks.  He's been loving playing with our new neighbor, John Alston, and his school buddy, Spencer Arnett.  Unfortunately, he and the treadmill had a misunderstanding last week at Spencer's house and he came walking out to the car a little bloodied up on the chin and nose, but still claiming to have had a blast on his play date.  Easton learned the hard way that the treadmill doesn't just stop when you decide to stop.  Mr. Easton is also so dang excited about soccer, which started this week.  I have to say he looks way cool all decked out in his gear and dry fit shirt.  His ear to ear grin was absolutely contagious when he showed me his new soccer ball he got at practice and proudly walked around the house with both of his new balls.  We are entering the unknown with this whole soccer thing...we've been pure softball/baseball parents forever, but somehow I finally caved and said OK to the soccer sign up.  I'm still not sure what happened in that weak moment.  Does this mean I'm a soccer mom??

Afty Cakes is also playing soccer for the first time at 11, and hopefully won't be too much at a disadvantage for never having played before.  I kind of doubt it.  She's so athletic and coordinated.  She came home from her first practice so excited about it all and loving it already, so I guess so far, so good.  Afty will be our craziest fall child this year with fall ball softball, soccer, piano, and taking an extra math class at Stapley every day.  She tested into 7th/8th grade accelerated math, so after going a full day at Hale, we take her up to the junior high for 6th hour math, and then she rides the bus home with Barrett.  Afton also ran in her 6th grade class election for President and won, so she's the fearless leader with all the smiles and sense of humor to boot.  Way to go, Afty.  She made up a song to "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and sang it to the Karaoke version of the music.  All the kids ate it up.  She's got guts for sure.  And she thinks maybe the brownies and cookies helped a little too :)  Afty's best friend in the world, Sydney Bauer, is gone to Snowflake, which we are still sad about.  Thankfully, they both have their iPod Touches and FaceTime each other a couple times a week to keep in touch. The two of them have been stuck like glue for a year and a half, so it's still a little weird not having Syd at our house all the time. 

Barrett is growing up crazy fast.  Just about every week I look at her and wonder how I got a full on teenager so fast.  She's beautiful and smart and so involved in school and more social than ever, so apparently 8th grade life is good.  At almost 14 years old (in less than 2 months), she's really busy with her 8th Grade Class President duties and all the extra time that involves, and is gearing up for fall ball to start next week.  We've also been training together for our upcoming Grand Canyon Rim2Rim hike, which is only 5 weeks away.  We are all getting excited about that. 

Ryan and I just celebrated 16 years of marriage last Friday.  We went for massages during the day, then out to dinner and a movie that night.  Then on Saturday, we went up to Flagstaff with some friends and did a 21 mile hike in the San Francisco Peaks (the Weatherford Trail). It was so incredibly beautiful!  I will post about that separately with pics.  We are both busy in our scout callings and just finished up the summer court of honor last night.  I made a DVD featuring pics and video from all their 2012 outings to date, so that was fun for all the parents and boys to watch.

Well, my allotted half hour is up, so I'm logging off and hope to be back to visit my blog soon.

Rita Allred Goodman

Rita Allred Goodman

August 15, 1917 - May 18, 2012

Today I had the good fortune of sitting next to my Aunt Katrina in Relief Society.  After the lesson on missionary work was over, she leaned over to me and said, "You know that Uncle Chad has been going through Grandma Rita's records and files and journals working on family history.  I thought it was interesting to note that the very last entry she ever made in her journal simply says, 'The church is true.'"

In Sacrament Meeting, Bishop Uncle Jim got up at the end of the meeting and said that he was prompted to share something with us today.  He'd been preparing for this sabbath day and praying to know what he needed to do, and he felt this inspiration.  He said he was trying to talk himself out of getting up, but decided he needed to listen.  His counsel was that we need to share our testimonies with our children and with our parents, in word and in deed.  He shared an example about his son, Jimmy, and also spoke of the faithful testimony that his parents (my Grandpa Harry & Grandma Rita) lived by going to the temple every Thursday.  I know that they loved the temple and that they loved their Savior.  They lived their testimony.

Last night at my Grandpa Reid's 90th birthday celebration, my Aunt Diane kindly reminded me that she was still waiting to see my pictures (of the funeral, of our vacations, of everything...) since I'm so behind on blogging.  So with both of my sweet aunts' and my Bishop Uncle Jim's reminders of Grandma Rita, I thought today was a perfect day to finally post these gems.  I love my family.  Truly, I am so blessed to be numbered among the Goodmans.

Here are a few of the pics taken at Grandma Rita's funeral services on May 25, 2012.

The pallbearers - the grandsons - carrying the casket to the burial site

my sweet girls, with Randi and Grandma Cindy

It's far too seldom that we see the Allred cousins these days, so it was an extra special treat to have them up in Mesa for the funeral.

After the dedicatory prayer, all of the girls were encouraged to take one of Grandma Rita's beautiful hot pink roses.  Pink was grandma's favorite color without a doubt.

Yes, all 10 of Rita & Harry's granddaughters are in this picture.  I love my Goodman Girl Cousins!  From left:  Karrie Platt, Laura Fodera, Julie Chesley, Jodi Goodman, Kathryn Whitlock, Kristi Zundell, Kim Marble; front row: Kelli Brown (me), Rita Wilstead, Dyan Ricedorff

All but two of the grandsons are here.  We're just missing Van the Man (serving his mission in Atlanta, Georgia) and Mark, who was working up in Snowflake and couldn't get the day off.  From left: Chad Willis, Dale Goodman, Craig Willis, Matt, Michael, Willie, Jimmy,  Joe & Luke Goodman.  What a handsome crew!

I love these pictures!  Jodi, Rita & Diane

Kimmie, Kathryn, & Kristi

 

Aren't they cute?  Bishop Uncle Jim celebrated his birthday yesterday along with my Grandpa Reid.  Happy Birthday, Bishop!

Jules, Dyan, Laura & Karrie

Me & Julie

Taylor, Julie, & Kylie Chesley

Aunt Betty, Uncle Clyde (Grandma Rita's brother) & Alexa

Uncle Clyde & Aunt Iva Jean (Grandma's surviving siblings)

The BIG FOUR:  Bishop Uncle Jim, Uncle Dale, Steve (also goes by Dad and Grandpa Steve) and Aunt Katrina

And this is my favorite.  Just trying to keep up Grandma's Rita's spice and sass.  We love you, Grandma, and will forever miss you.  Until we meet again...

Cabin Fun: Memorial Day

Memorial Day at the cabin is usually one of our best memories.  It's the first trip of the season and really signals the kickoff to summer.  Late movie nights, lots of card games, walks to the creek, homemade ice cream, time with cousins and friends.  It's summertime at its best.  No doubt about it.

Our crew plus the Bauer girls (Hallie & Syd) at the cabin for Memorial Day

We never have any fun...

 

I love this guy!

These girls crack me up. Oh, we are going to be soooooo sad when the Bauers move.  What will we do without them?  They're practically family.

 The hair flippers...Hallie & Barrett

Making homemade ice cream with Grandpa Steve, one of our favorite cabin traditions!

The beautiful Grandma Cindy, right where she loves to be at the cabin - baking in the kitchen!