Road Trip to ski in Idaho - March 22-24, 2012

For Christmas, we bought 2-for-1 tickets to Soldier Mountain in Fairview, ID as a "present" for my Dad.  Basically, we bought ourselves a lift ticket to go skiing sometime with him.  Merry Christmas!

This week was James' Spring Break, so we drove to Idaho on Thursday night.  Friday, we skiied at Bogus Basin (THANK YOU DAD!).  Saturday, we skiied at Soldier Mountain (Merry Christmas!) and then drove the rest of the way home again.

Friday 3/22/12 Good Morning Lincoln and Bree

Base Camp at Bogus is the motor home.  Oma, thanks for being Lincoln's buddy!

My James!

Jessi and Lincoln watching the skiiers go by!

Lincoln even got out for a few runs - here we are on the Magic Carpet.

And on Lincoln's first chairlift ride - Coach beginner lift.  We didn't realize it until Kurt said something, but we had three people on a two-person chair.  Such Outlaws!

Carter, Lincoln and Jessi, and James skiing down the Coach beginner run.

Video of the same ski run (THANKS KURT for documenting all this!):

Saturday 3/23/12 Hi Lincoln!  Base camp is in the lodge at Soldier Mountain. Thanks Oma for being Lincoln's lodge buddy again today!

Lincoln and Opa.

Jed doing a 180 with Kurt in the background.

James doing a 180.

Kurt and James riding the upper lift at Soldier - you can see the top of the lower lift in the background.

Jed and Jessi - Say CHEESE!

Lincoln modelling a blanket that Oma made for a cousin's future boy.

Riding the paddle tow at Soldier.

Kurt took 36 short videos of our bunch doing jumps and rails, not a single one with Kurt in them.   Here are some of my favorites:
(:15) Tucker on the rail

(:12) Tucker 360

(:11) Hannah - love how she high-fives Jed at the end

(:19) Hannah 360

(:13) Jed back flip

(:13) James 180 fall

(:09) James

(:18) James x 2 jumps

(:12) James from a distance

(:14) James toe touch

(:13) James lost ski

(:22) James tire, Tucker rail

(:11) James 360

The Soldier Mountain Bunch - James, Jessi and Lincoln McCalvy.  Jed, Hannah, Oma, Opa, Tucker and Kurt Simpson and friend Josh.

Same group photo, with the mountain and blue sky background.

Quick trip. Fun trip. Let's do it again next year!

A balloon! March 20, 2012

Tonight was our Relief Society Birthday Dinner.  Lincoln and I went to the church and enjoyed dinner and played some games (that was tricky with a 6-month-old on my lap) and met some of the people in our ward.  We had birthday cake and at the end of the party, we brought home a balloon.

Video (:24) Look Daddy! A balloon! (6 months)

Adventures of James and Lincoln - March 18, 2012

I had to work today, which means the boys were on their own.  Lincoln was having a hard time falling asleep, so James and Lincoln drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon for nap time.  It was snowing and beautiful and Lincoln was sleeping so nicely.  James stopped in at Solitude to look for their avalanche beacon practice area.  As he took his second loop around the back parking lot, he took the corner too wide and The Outlaw ended up stuck. Very, very stuck.  Tilting crazily in the ditch at the end of the parking lot.  The snow cats were out and busy.  Too busy to stop or to help.  But there is always a sheriff in the canyon, so maybe they wouldn't be stuck for too long?

By this time, I was on my way home.  I stopped at the apartment for the diaper bag, my coat and better shoes, and drove up the canyon to feed my baby.  The sheriff arrived.  He called for another sheriff with a vehicle with a winch.  That sheriff arrived.  The controls for the winch were missing.  That sheriff left.  They called for a tow truck.  That tow truck, a flat-bed, arrived and didn't even try to get to the XTerra.  That tow truck left.  They called for a tow truck with a winch.

Lincoln was having a great time.  He got to play with my work ID badge and we visited our friends who live nearby.  Thank you for a bathroom and a warm place to wait and a cat or two to distract our sleepy baby.  Plus it was fun to show off our six-month old!

Finally, the right tow truck with the right tools arrived.  It was fairly simple to pull The Outlaw out of the ditch and all the way across the lower parking lot and up the hill to the main parking lot.  James could have driven, once the XTerra was out of the ditch, but the tow truck had all that cable played out.  So they used the XTerra as a 'weight' to spin their cable back into the spool tightly.

A simple drive up the canyon ended up being a long, expensive adventure (Reminds me a bit of Gilligan's Island... A three-hour tour!).  Poor James didn't even get any dinner (I was in such a rush to come 'rescue' the baby, that I didn't bring any food for my man. Sorry!).  No harm to The Outlaw, James or Lincoln so it was a good adventure after all.