Happy Birthday James! December 4, 2010

Open Presents:  This cute travelling car garage and track and Hot Wheels are from my Mom.  He also got ski gloves and headphones from me.  And a cordless drill from the McCalvys.

Blow out candles!  This is just a little piece of his cake.  Chocolate Cost-Co cake.  2/3 of it went to work with James.  We enjoyed the rest for the rest of the weekend. 

Jessi & Mom (yay!  Mom's in town!) & Kathleen went to Tiffany's bridal shower.  Ooh la la!

Jessi, Tiffany (soon-to-be-McCalvy), Kathleen and Kathy.

And then to Justin & Kat's wedding reception.  Wedding cake for James' birthday.  Aunt Lynn, Uncle Glen & Mom & Kyan.

32 years old!  Happy Birthday James!

SKIING! Solitude - November 20, 2010

If you're crazy with jealousy that the Jessi James Gang and Kathleen got to go skiing before Thanksgiving, please read only the blue lines.  That way, we'll still be friends.  If you love us forever - even though you're crazy with jealousy - and want to know the real story, read the red lines.

You really wouldn't want to have been skiing with us.  The wind was blowing like crazy.  The ridges protected us from the wind and then it wasn't so bad. 

Only the bottom part of the resort was open, which means that lift tickets weren't full price yet. 

The limited terrain meant that all the runs got skied out pretty quickly, but it was still fluffy and fantastic and there were always lines along the trees. 

Coverage is still very thin and early season, so we often had to ski through bushes to get to runs that were less tracked out and then the powder was almost knee deep.

Because it snowed overnight and most of the morning, there were no groomed runs - so we skied powder all day. 

The only break in the storm was about noon, when we saw a tiny bit of blue sky.

But after lunch it really started to blow and instead of snowflakes, it was like little hail pellets that really sting your nose - and really filled in the morning's tracks.  Kind of like skiing on the little styrofoam balls from inside a bean bag. 

Because of the storm, the temperature dropped and it got cold!  And sent most of the skiers home early - it was like having our own resort after lunch.

Visibility was terrible away from the trees; it was often difficult to see the terrain changes because of the flat light.  So we skied the edges near the trees and the snow was fluffy and forgiving and fun.

While riding the lift, we had to block our faces with our hands to protect from snow pellets and we got completely covered.  By the end of the day, all the runs skied like freshies! 

At the end of the day we were tired from skiing powder all day.  And we had to scrape off six inches! of snow from the windshield and windows.

Solitude - November 20, 2010

Kathleen

James

Jessi

Happy Thanksgiving!

First Snow - November 9, 2010

Let it snow!

Hoist Training - Rescheduled - November 4, 2010

After our near miss with Hoist Training last week, I kept tabs on the potential for a reschedule.  And today, James took the day off work and we spent the afternoon (a beautiful, warm afternoon) up at Little Dell Reservoir as hoist patients.  Did you notice the rope (in the bottom left corner of the above picture) attached to the bag?  It is called a tag-line.

Video of James in the seat.

Waiting for the helicopter. Curtis Andersen, James and Cathy Cooper

Curtis and James near the helicopter.

James and Curtis near the ground.

James in the bag - like a big red burrito!

Jessi in the bag.  Cory Christensen and Cathy Cooper

James took the camera during his 'bag' experience.  Here are some Point-of-View photos from inside the bag. Jessi

POV. Paris Napoli

POV. bag straps and Little Dell Reservoir.

POV. Paris waving down the cable.

POV. helicopter, cable and Paris

POV. bottom of the helicopter.

POV moving back away from helicopter -  love to see the helmets peering out through the door!

While James was being a patient in the bag, I got to do something new.  A new-to-me part of hoist training is the tag-line.  It is a long rope attached with easy-release clips to the bag. 

Someone on the ground (me!) feeds out the rope and keeps enough tension on the rope to prevent the bag and paramedic from spinning around.  But not enough tension to release the rope (the paramedic will do that once they reach the helicopter).  Don't forget to step on the bag handle to keep it from blowing away.  Don't step on the rope. Afterward, gather up the rope and put it back into it's bag.  Chase the bag down the hill - you forgot to step on the bag handle and rotor wash from the returning helicopter blew it away.  Gather up the rope (again) and put it back into it's bag (again).

New Calling - October 31, 2010

Today was my last day in the nursery and James is soon to be released from his Elders Quorum calling.  Starting next week, we teach the 4-5 year old CTR 4 class in Primary.   Wish us luck!

We stopped in to meet the new class today and took a picture with their current teachers, Colin & Jessa Anderson.  They're our apartment complex neighbors. 

The little girls are Ella (brunette) and Julia (blonde).  The little boys are ???, Ryan, Tyler and Grant (L to R).  There are two additional girls on the roll and a couple more boys.

I'm so glad that James and I get to have this calling together.  I'm looking forward to seeing James during all three hours of church - I won't get to sit beside him during Primary because they're not old enough to read, but they do know how to wiggle!

Halloween - TRICKED! - October 30, 2010

Life Flight has an incredible Search & Rescue service called "The Hoist."  It is used when a patient is located somewhere that it is not possible to land the helicopter nearby and it would cause Search & Rescue to take serious time to extricate the patient. 

The helicopter hovers over the patient and the Paramedic leaves the helicopter and is "hoisted" down to the ground via a long cable.  The Nurse is the Hoist Operator and they communicate via hand signals. 

The Paramedic then stabilizes and prepares the patient for transport.  Either a "seat" (if the patient is not seriously injured and they can sit upright), a "net" (looks like a hammock) or a "bag" (looks like a big, red, person-sized duffle bag). 

The helicopter then lowers the cable back down to the paramedic who hooks up with the seat/net/bag and the the cable. 

The Paramedic and the patient are then hoisted up to the helicopters door frame.  They fly (outside the helicopter) to the command post and are then hoisted back down to the ground. 

The Paramedic unhooks the cable.  The helicopter then lands nearby and the paitent is loaded into the helicopter for the transport to the hospital. 

It's a pretty neat service.  And of course, they have to have training.  I got to be a 'hoist victim' a few years ago, but James never has.  Usually, hoist training is on a weekday - during work hours.  TODAY IS SATURDAY!  So James and I went to hoist training.  The hoist helicopter (left) and another duty helicopter (right) at the parking lot of Little Dell Reservoir.

James is getting a safety helmet placed on him by Paramedic Paris Napoli.

Paramedic Cathy Cooper is doing the training review for Paris (in the helmet and preparing to catch the cable).  James is in the net.  Ready for hoist.  The net is one-size-fits-most.  James is just tall.

Here comes the helicopter over the reservoir.  Past the pick-up site for a visual of the scene.  And back to the parking lot.

And landing without hoisting James.

 And taking off again to go back to the Life Flight hangar for maintenance.  There was some kind of fluctuation in the engine guages on the helicopter.  The pilot (Denny Patterson - who also took our wedding photos) wasn't comfortable with that - since it affects hovering and hovering is important for hoisting and safety is important for surviving.  So he aborted the hoist and aborted hoist training and James was THIS CLOSE to being a "Hoist Victim" for Halloween.

There they go - The far one to the hangar for maintenance, the near one to a scene in Big Cottonwood Canyon for an actual patient.  Good timing.

So SAD to miss hoist training.  So GLAD that James' life was not endangered for training purposes.  So HAPPY to go on a Saturday afternoon drive out to East Canyon Reservoir with James - still a bit of snow on the ground from the last storms.