Snow Days

Utah is having the best December we can remember, and we are trying to enjoy every last flake! In the last week, Sundance got over 50" of snow - boy did the girls freak out when we held up a measuring tape to show them that the snow is taller than they are!

Here are some recent pics of us out and about in our winter wonderland.

Chorney loves our winter romps, although she does get a little frustrated with the snow clumping between her doggie toes. I ordered some snow booties for her today, much to the boys' chagrin. It will be an interesting experiment... I am betting she hates them at first but then once she starts romping she'll forget they're even on. We shall see.

In celebration of all our snow, we knew we had to get some new skis, so the Morningstar ladies are proud owners of four, count 'em four, new pairs of skis.

Steve talked me into trying alpine skiing again, so here's WanYing showing off her new powder twin tips alongside my alpine boards. I have to say that this new generation of alpine carvers is total ski cheating - I have never made turns so easily! It feels a little cheap not to have the quad-burning of telemark, but it sure is a lot faster and I have four very fast little skiers to keep up with now.

But to those of you who are worried I have sold out entirely, I transferred my favorite telemark bindings over to new powder skis. And with all this snow, I've had ample chance to enjoy them! Here's a very happy me and Sasha showing off our new powder skis.

Trust me, we both rip.

Chorney and I are enjoying our winter commute into work. My short 2 1/2 mile commute is just the perfect distance for her and she keeps up a steady 10-12 mph so she arrives at work with most of her wiggles worked out.

I think she looks very fancy with her Safety Dog vest on.

Here's my trusty pooch and trusty steed in front of the Qualtrics field. The Civia is doing awesome and the belt drive, studded tires, and bar mitts keep us rolling all season long.

And I know this isn't winter-related, but the boys, Steve, and I did go to a midnight showing of Star Wars. It was a ton of fun and we all loved the movie, right up to the point where the 3D was too much for me and I tossed my popcorn. Sigh. My poor brain just can't handle 3D movies. Never fear, I made it out of the theater first and watched the remainder of the movie from the wings.

My family didn't actually leave the movie to make sure I was still alive, but Steve did pause to text me, which is an awfully generous division of attention given that it was the opening night of Star Wars.

Ben competed in his first nordic race of the year up at Soldier Hollow last week. He's in the U14 age group this year, which means that he races a 3 km loop. He finished strong and reported that had a good time talking with another kid as they raced. The competitive mom in me wanted to suggest that perhaps chatting during a race implied that he could have been working a little harder, but I wisely bit my tongue and rejoiced that he had a good time.

Hup hup hup!

He might have gotten a little warm with all that skiing

We've enjoyed a marvelous start to the winter and couldn't be more grateful for all of our snow and free time to enjoy it!