a letter from a local

Dear Sundance Film Festival Attendees,

Contrary to your own belief, you are not the most important people on earth.

While we Park City locals appreciate our little ski town being on the map for all the glitz and glamour of the ten day movie-fest, I personally have had enough of your arrogance and oblivious attitudes.

I am well aware that this is a vacation for you, however, some of us live here and do have to get our children to school and shop for groceries and all the mundane, every day responsibilities that come with, well... life.  Therefore, it would be greatly appreciated if you would get off your phones while you are driving and pay attention to traffic lights, signs, and other drivers and pedestrians around you.

Along the same lines, please note that our traffic lights and turning lanes are not optional.  Like everywhere else in the good old U.S. of A, these things keep our world a slightly orderly and a little more safe for all of us to get around. 

Please don't sit in the center lane and then turn right just to get around the quarter mile long line of cars waiting THEIR TURN to turn on the next road.

Please don't sit in the middle of the intersection on a yellow light during a traffic stand still, causing me to miss my green arrow and waiting another five minutes to get where I need to go.

Even if you're late for your movie, the above still stands.

And, I know that sometimes you're strapped for conversation, but if you happen to sit next to me on the chairlift, please don't go on and on and on about how you make more money than you know what to do with and that you're really just a hippie in a rich man's life.

It makes me want to barf.

Lastly, coming from a girl who loves to shop for her colors, I thought I might clue you in on a little fashion detail.  Sundance tourists can be spotted from afar simply by your black jackets and movie star sunglasses.

Try to step out of your comfort zone in the fashion department next year.

And remember, red means stop.

Until next year,
A simple PC local

why our long winters are worth it

About five years ago we started talking about what it would be like to be able to ski with each other again.

It has been a long season of having little ones at home with so many demands on us.  We are finally on the brink of our entire family enjoying the mountain.

Today we enjoyed one heck of a powder day with some good friends.  I'm not in the video, but my man is the last one filmed. 

We were with our friends Deb and Doug who, funnily enough, you can hear crash into each other right after they pass by me.

p.s. I'm aware that my video is too wide.  I'm thinking my new HD Fl!p is just a different format than I'm used to.

ain't no stopping them

We desperately need snow to make this snow snob go up again.

My men approach thing differently.

With a smile...

 

sucker!

My beloved and I have been looking forward to this ski season, not for the snow, fresh air, or vertical feet.

We have THREE boys in a locals' ski program this year.

TEN Saturdays.

NINE a.m. until THREE p.m.

For a homeschooling family, this is bliss.  I am with my boys all week, so it is no problem for me to ship them off to ski with excellent instructors for six hours at a time.

PLUS, this is the first year that it hasn't been an overwhelming favor to ask of a friend to watch our angelic little Squirt for a few hours so we can ski together.

OR, my beloved and our crazy friends can drag my butt all over the forbidden parts of our mountain.

May I show you the illustrated version, compliments of my crappy Blackberry phone camera?

Allrightythen.

First off, my husband informed me that the chairlift is actually farther to the left in the trees than my photo shows, but I'm lazy and didn't feel like re-doing the picture.

You get the idea.  We took Jupiter lift up and skied that little hill down.  Then, all in the name of fun, we took our skis off and hiked UP.

About 45 minutes later I joined all the in shape people Kenyon, Pete, and Deb at the top of Pinecone Ridge.

Below are the crazy lunatics that convinced me that this was going to be fun (Kenyon, Deb, and Pete).  I think Deb just likes having another girl hiking with her, but I think she's cool for keeping up with the boys.

Or, she's just happy about the nice nap she had time to take while waiting for me to hike my sorry butt up the mountain.

I realized at this point that all three of them are sales people in the business world and I felt like I got sold a bill of goods.  They are out of my league!

The BAD NEWS was that the snow conditions were sub-par.  To be blunt, it was like navigating skis through thick ice cream.  We all took a few tumbles amidst all our laughter.

The WORSE NEWS is that my posse did not know where in the heck they were going and we found ourselves in a THICK aspen forest.  See Pete disappearing into the trees?

No path, no room, no fun.

In the end, I was a sweaty, sore, frustrated, skeptical woman with broken branches sticking out of my helmet and snow packed down my pants.

We were half an hour late picking up Squirt at Jenny's house.  You can go here to see what she did to fill the time.

Now, if our little ski town would just get about two feet of fresh pow pow, I'll try it again.

With a trail map.

what cartoons are good for

A conversation my beloved and I overheard in the car tonight:

Sauce:  "I know what a record player is."

The Hunter:  "Oh yeah?"

Sauce:  "It's something that's on Tom and Jerry."

The Hunter:  "Oh yeah!  Tom turns it on to play music!"

Who said cartoons are a waste of time?  Our kids are learning history!

FOR SALE

ONE EIGHT YEAR-OLD BOY

For immediate sale, one nearly nine year old boy.

Fiercely independent.

Does not like school in any way, shape, or form.

Delights in being the boss of his brothers.

Doesn't particularly like going to bed when told OR getting up with everyone else in the morning.

Consistently sprinkles when he tinkles.

Wants to grow his hair long like all the ragamuffin looking pre-teen boys.

Likes to play with messy toys with small parts such as Legos and K'Nex, in addition to creating junk with trash also resulting in a mess.

Did I mention he doesn't like school?

All reasonable offers will be considered, including a perfect little girl who sits still during school hours, plays dollies instead of war or hunting, and doesn't think fart noises are hilarious.

All sales final.

if I have any readers left

I have a file full of blog posts started, but not finished.

We have cruised through the Christmas break, not stopping or even slowing down as the new year passed us by like every other moment in time.

My poor blog has been virtually ignored for a few weeks, which is hilarious for two main reasons:

1.  This girl loves to write.
2.  I included my blog address in my Christmas cards this year, so any new readers that checked in here were bored silly.

So, here is my short novel to covered the omitted history:

Chapter One:
We had an awesome visit with my sister Amy and her family, as well as my mom.  It is tradition that we travel to them every summer and they travel to us every winter.  The boys love hanging with their cousins and Aunt Amy makes them laugh so hard.

Plus they give cooler presents than Mom and Dad do.

Not to mention the little ones get to go wild and crazy.

 

 

We did a little skiing, a little tubing, a little eating, gaming, bargain shopping, and a lot of laughing.

 

 

Plus, their family brought so many wi-fi gadgets that they crashed our router about 437 times in five days.

 

 

 

For the second year in a row, their trip coincided with Rufus's holiday preschool program.  Here's a snapshot of his five year old cuteness:

Chapter Two:
Family leaves and I spend seven hours getting intimately acquainted with an 1100+ piece Republic Attack Cruiser.

I would never admit that I had several extra pieces when I was done.  Or the height of my frustration when the boys picked it up the next morning and several miscellaneous pieces popped off.

Chapter Three:
We had a wonderful Christmas.  Presents all around!

Chapter Four:
New Year's Eve poker game until 4:15 a.m.  Ouch.

The silver lining was that the Sweeney's kept all the cash when everyone went home.

Pete was not happy about that:

Neither was Rob:

This crazy hat indicated who was the dealer and it made us all laugh:

Our friends David and Darcy joined our Park City gang and tried their hand at poker. 

They claimed that it was their very first time, but we were all quite suspicious when David won the battle to the death against Christa.

Here is a peek at the action at the table.

David arrived cash-less, so Kenyon and I paid his mighty $5 buy-in at the table.  He then insisted that I keep his winnings.  That's pretty much how generous he and his family are.

I'll still think twice before sitting down at cards with him again!  I think his quick study took everyone by surprise.

The End.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

p.s. might you leave a comment and let me know you're still out there?