so this is spring?

This is what we woke up to this morning. We had about a foot of snow at the house overnight (over 2 ft at the mountain resorts). You can see how deep it is piled up on the patio table. It's been a strange Spring so far. We've had days with temps in the 70's (20's C) melting all the snow at the house, (and encouraging us to get the patio furniture out and strike up the BBQ), and then a storm system blows through dropping temps into the 30's (around zero C) and we get more snow. The poor daffodils and tulips don't know whether to open up or hide!

winter view

Our lives have been pretty quiet since our return from Australia, so there hasn't been a lot to "blog" about. We have been skiing once or twice a week every week through January & February - but there's only so many times that's of interest in a blog! Just thought I'd share this wonderful winter view that we have from our kitchen window, looking out across the snow-covered back yard and neighborhood to the picturesque Wasatch Mountains. How lucky we are! It always lifts my spirits when I look at the view. The snow hasn't been as heavy this year as last, but still enough to keep the ground permanently covered since December.

the canyons

This week, for a change of scenery, we headed over to The Canyons Resort at Park City for our skiing / snowboarding day. The weather was warm and sunny, although it had been a week since we'd had any fresh snow so the slopes were a bit hard packed and icy in places. The Canyons is the biggest ski resort in Utah with 163 trails and 17 lifts spread across 8 mountains!

Here's Mark on his board on our favorite run called "Snow Dancer" with great views across the valley; Heather heading down the trail through the white trunks of the aspen trees, and us enjoying lunch on the deck at the Lookout Restaurant.

bluebird day

Mark & I have been skiing/snowboarding every week since Christmas - mostly at Solitude, using our custom season pass. On Thursdays Solitude really lives up to it's name. Early in the morning we practically have the slopes to ourselves, and never have to wait in a lift line! Today was what they call a "bluebird day" : "a beautiful sunny day after an overnight snowfall. It's a perfect skiing day with a clear blue sky, bright sun, and fresh snow."

getting to work

How did you spend Australia Day? At the beach? Wilting in the heat? Well here in Utah we enjoyed another snow storm. This is Mark clearing the driveway of snow at 6am so he could go to work!

happy new year

We had a quiet New Years Eve this year - getting up at 5am because it was a work day for Mark, so we were in no shape for a late night. We invited our neighbors Matt & Kathy over for dinner and had a nice evening chatting, eating and drinking even though we didn't stay up late. The following morning we were up early again in time to see this lovely sunrise over the valley. A pretty start to a new year.

christmas ski day

This year we did something a little different on Christmas Day - we spent it out in the snow! With Christmas Day falling on a Thursday, it was the perfect opportunity for us to use our "custom season pass" at Solitude Mountain Resort, which allows us to ski/snowboard every Thursday. (Much cheaper than a full season pass). Mark's brother Ben joined us for the day. Here he is with Santa, who was handing out candy on the slopes!

It snowed pretty much the whole day, so we had to get the snowblower out to clear the driveway when we got home so we could get the car back in the garage.

welcome home

Our return from Australia didn't go as smoothly as we'd hoped. Our Qantas 747 developed a water leak, and half way over the Pacific had run out of all water for drinking and toilets, so we had to stop in Honolulu, to fix the leak and take on more water. Now a brief stopover in Honolulu might sound like a nice idea, except we arrived at 2am local time, and had to sit on the plane on the tarmac while the problem was resolved. Where's the fun in that? This little detour made us 3 hours late getting into LA and so we missed our connection to Salt Lake. Unfortunately, bad weather across the US had put the regular airline services into chaos, and due to the backlog of other already delayed passengers, we weren't able to get another flight until the following day. So as well as an unscheduled stop in Hawaii, we got to spend a night in LA at an airport hotel. When we finally arrived home, we were greeted by falling snow. It was quite a shock after the Summer heat of Australia. Thanks go to our dear neighbors, Shaina & Edwin, for clearing our driveway of snow so we could get in!

ready for ski season

We enjoyed our skiing / snowboarding so much last winter, that this year we have signed up for discount passes at a couple of local resorts. We bought a 5-day "cherry picker" pass to The Canyons, that allows us to use the resort 5 times during the season on any day we choose. The Canyons is a huge resort in Park City with lots of runs so it offers some good variety to our other more "local" resorts. As you can see from the pic I took today the resort has already had some snow (21" so far). In fact we've had some pretty good early season snowfall here. Last year we had no snow on the ground at Thanksgiving. Alta (the highest resort) has had 57.5" with more snow falling today and Snowbird (same canyon as Alta) has already opened. Solitude (30" so far) is due to open on November 14th so we're planning to use our Solitude "custom" season pass (ski every Thursday) to get our first ski day in before Thanksgiving.

first snow

We got our first snow of the season at the house last week. It started snowing overnight & I'd say we ended up with about 2 to 3" on the ground. This is the view out of our back sliding door. The patio table has a pretty good cover of snow. You can't see the mountains because of all the low cloud. The snow didn't stick around for long though. Temperatures this week have been back up in the 70's (20's celsius). Bit confusing for the plants that haven't lost their leaves yet. The marigolds and zinneas have been brought to a premature end although the cold doesn't seem to bother the pansies - even after being buried in snow!