Bachelor Party - December 11, 2010

Brian is getting MARRIED!  So James & Brian had a bachelor party at Solitude.

First, teach Brian to wax his snowboard - just love the lamp boxes propped up by the ironing board.  Great set-up!

Scrape off the wax on the front porch.

Took this photo just for the outfits.  Stylin!

Spend the day in the mountains - fresh snow!

Hike a little.  It's not a party unless you can say your life (or your snowboard) was in danger of falling down an entire mountain!

My James!

Good Luck Brian!

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!