M's first solo run

You guys sick of kid skiing videos yet?

This weekend we went to the other base of PCMR with the girls for the first time, which was awesome because they have a "magic carpet" (aka a treadmill that goes up the hill for folks just learning) that's open to the public. M thought it was much fun and C and I took a break to watch. May I present, M's first solo run at a ski resort.

Now we just have to teach her how to stop :o)

Fun on the hill

Unfortunatly Alex wasn't feeling great this weekend, so our plan for a family ski went out the window. Fortunately, C and I still got out. And it was BEAUTIFUL out there.

Museum of Natural History

So turns out Salt Lake has a museum of natural history - who new? Me and M went and hung out there a bit with Avi and her family this weekend.

The whole place was pretty awesome, but the best were watching the scientists (aka the people like Aunt Rachel) at work :o)

Something wicked this way went

I did a couple of beautiful skate skis while up at the ranch this weekend. Of course I forgot my phone for the afternoon skate, but I remembered it in the morning. Which was good because it was beautiful...

...and because I could get evidence of something that came before.

I stopped to check out the tracks because they were big enough to catch my eye and I thought they might be moose, but I'm pretty sure moose don't have claws...

Norm's vote is mountain lion. I don't have a clue, but I am glad it was long gone by the time I came though :o)

M sings the blues

No caption needed, but be sure to turn on your sound :o)

And the little one too

Just got back from a lovely night up at the ranch. Sally and crew were also up, which means I have zero pictures of C who was attached at the hip to her cousins the whole time. Instead, the next several posts will feature the little one who doesn't mind hanging out with her mom still :o)

While the big kids went sledding I took m over to the cross country skiing tracks to see how she'd do skiing hills. The answer is fine.

Check out the stop at the end of the first try:

And more fun once Grandma and Sam arrived

We're planing on heading over to the resort tomorrow to take advantage of the day off - hopefully the little extra practice will pay off!

Zoo update

In case you were wondering, we still like the sculptures zoo...

...but luckily the lioness seems to have lost her taste for small blond children.

No pictured, the grey wolf who was more than a little interested in both small blond children about 5 feet across the fencing from him. We didn't linger too long there...

Weekend of Cousins!

It was an excellent weekend of cousins here in Park City. Lenore made the trek from Wyoming to go skiing..

and the Zierk crew including baby Jane made the trek to hang out! 

We had a delightful time with all and all the activities. The only thing that presented a bit of a challenge was when baby Jane went to bed and we had to find something quiet for the girls to do. Off the cuff I asked C to line up the beanie babies in color order. She took her task seriously.

And then the real fun started...

Race Day!

Break out the Milestone label - C had her first ski race!

She's been doing lessons every Wednesday with school. To celebrate her last day with the program, the hosted a cookie race.

Practice went pretty well...

But we did have a bit of trouble with the gates on the actual run

Lucky she still finished strong :o)

Air traffic control

Apparently the girls can throw paper airplanes. And throwing airplanes requires REALLY awesome outfits :o)

On Sundays we wear purple

After skiing the weekend we went to bunch. And took lots of selfies.

Skiing as four

So we finally did it! Alex and I took BOTH girls skiing this weekend. And to the surprise of no one, everyone did great.

Where we park to where the first actual chair lift is actually a pretty significant journey, especially with little lets and big ski boots, but m did amazingly well.

I think it definitely helped that we took the same gondola LOTs of times this summer for hiking/playing, so at least that part was familiar.  Off the gondola we got everyone in their skis..

...and hopped on the first actual chair lift

On the way down I followed c and alex skied with m between his legs, and both girls had a ball.

About the same time we were ready for a hot chocolate break

 we ran into our neighbors who were also taking a pit stop. M was about done at that point so c and I headed out with Sadie and her mom (who happens to be an awesome skier) to tackle a few blues. We called it about noon and headed back down, everyone still smiling.

Especially when we got down the hill and the boots off.