Now. Where were we?
We made it safely (though possibly not psychologically intact) to Salt Lake City to spend Christmas with Sterling's parents. Believe it or not, this is the first time we have been away from home for Christmas. You see, we have a new understanding with Santa (about Santa) and we can go wherever we want. Even Africa. And we still get presents. So off we went.
I wasn't sure how I would like not being home for Christmas. And guess what? I loved it. It was different but just as fun and special. And we got to spend time with Sterling's parents without ten jillion aunts, uncles, and cousins in the mix. Don't get me wrong...we love the aunts, uncles, and cousins (and chaos in general), but this time we got to be selfish and keep them all to ourselves. And that's good too.
As is the norm with the Jones clan, we spent much of our time doing this:
The favorite family card game is Mormon bridge (we used to call it Oh Hell!). I actually learned this game from my Aunt Mary while at BYU, and I taught Sterling's family shortly after we were married. Personally, I think I should get a plaque at their house with my contribution to the family gaming tradition. Without Mormon bridge just how would we have spent the last 20 years? I shudder to think.
The Monday after Christmas we headed up to Midway to meet up with my family. We rented a house there for the week. We went through Vacation Rental By Owner, and the ad for this particular house boasted a number of "luxurious appointments", so we spent the better part of the week mocking the luxurious appointments. Seriously, it was a nice house. It was almost 8,000 square feet, which gave everyone plenty of room to spread out. But it had it's drawbacks...which our sarcastic family worked to their fullest potential. Like no locks on the bathroom doors. I'll just leave you with that.
We skied Park City the first three days. This was everyone's favorite part of the trip. I couldn't very well lug my big camera on the slopes, but I caught a few shots with my phone (when I wasn't anxiously gripping my ski poles).
Parker was in snowboard school, but we gave him a reprieve on day three and let him go with us. He was dying to show us his skillz. He wasn't the least bit scared at the top of a very high run. Weird, huh?
The other five of us took lessons for the first two days. Day one was a bit of a wash instruction-wise, but day two we had private lessons from Don...and he was the bomb. He had some people swishing down the mountain in no time. Jordan and I opted for some additional time with Don in the afternoon. I loved skiing with Don for the simple fact that he would ski in front of me and keep me from careening down the mountain. But because I knew I'd need money to buy groceries...eventually I had to let Don go.
THEN...I let Emily and Debbie talk me into going up a very high, very long run. It wasn't pretty folks, but Debbie stuck with me. We basically pizza-d in big S's all the way down a 3.5 mile run -- while laughing hysterically. It was either laugh or cry, and we opted for hysterical laughter. Don, Don, wherefore art thou Don (and why are your holiday prices so exorbitant)?
We are already looking at the calendar to see when we could fit skiing into next year's calendar. So that's a good sign, right?
P.S. I literally combed the Internet for months prior to the trip researching and sourcing the best ski gear (at reasonable prices) for the whole family. Obviously, we didn't bring skis and ski boots...but I did find all of the other layers, which amounts to ALOT OF STUFF. If anyone needs the info for an upcoming trip, e-mail me.
I feel it must be said that I would have never abandoned you on that mountain had I not been caring for the younger ones ahead of the group. I'm not one to take ppl out of their comfort zone and then leave them high and dry! Glad Debbie was there for you and glad we are stil friends after that. :-) you did great, really!!! I'm ready for next year and all your tips on purchasing--I deserve some more current ski gear.
Posted by: Em | January 03, 2012 at 09:14 PM