THIS EVENT just maybe redeemed all of 2009

So if I had a scanner I would have scanned and posted two things: my Mammoth lift ticket from Memorial Day, 2009 and the ticket from October 16, 2009.

Yeah; that actually happened.

I snowboarded (at an open resort - i.e. I wasn't hiking) less than five months after the prior season ended. Kenny and I were very happy people. So were the 4,500 other die-hards who showed up for Mammoth's sudden - and unusually early - Opening Weekend. It was crowded, but so fun. And because I've been accused of not posting enough photos, here' s a WHOLE bunch.

First, from Memorial Day 2009:
Me, then Kenny, at the top of the Gondola. It's really high up.

Overlooking Twin Lakes

Now October, 2009.

Look! We found Autumn! In Crowley. I guess one only has to drive five hours to the Sierra Nevada's to find it.
Mammoth Resort is located in a the town, Mammoth Lakes, and it was fun to finally be able to get to all the lakes. When we're there, the roads are closed and the lakes all frozen over. These next few photos were near Horseshoe Lake.

The photo below is barely edited. It is beautiful up there. (Twin Lakes)

A random grove of Gold.
I forget which lake had all these boats...but we stayed here for a long time.



Can you see why?



After day one of snowboarding.

In my head I looked graceful...

Again hanging out on some dock. I could have lived forever right there. In my tight orange snow pants.


Flirting with death at the dam...that is just feet away from a waterfall.
Oh, don't we all love taking photos of ourselves? And then oversaturating the colors?


Some fisherman offered to take a photo for us. Yeah! a photo together! (that we didn't try to take ourselves...)
...like this one.
Mammoth, I Love You.

A Halloween Post

In honor of Halloween, here’s a list of a few things that freak me out.

• People who don’t “smile with their eyes.” You know what I mean? The person is smiling, but there is no change in the shape of his or her eye! It’s still wide open. He/she probably has no soul.
• Public restrooms. Oh I could devote a book to this fear...I guess it started with horrible eighth grade girls who would burst into the Junior Elementary bathroom (when I was maybe 6 or 7) and turn off the lights and start calling for “Bloody Mary.” (They swore she would appear in the mirrors. I never stuck around long enough to find out for sure.) We poor elementary girls would be stumbling for the doors in the dark trying to pull our pants back up. It was awful. Also, I slightly freak out when someone enters a stall next to the one I’m occupying. I can’t function properly with a stranger so close.
• The sound of cracking bones. Many, many visits to the chiropractor and physical therapist have helped me learn to tolerate this, but I still cringe and panic slightly when I hear it. (Insert shudder.)
• Washing my face (at my bathroom sink, with my back to the door) when I’m home alone. Seriously, could I be any more vulnerable?
• Thump Swish. This might be kind of a stretch, because although thoughts of Thump Swish (a fictional character my dad made up during bedtime stories) freak me out, I simultaneously love him. This duality of emotion regarding this unfortunate trucker (who, as the story goes, lost his foot while changing a tire in the rain and then spent the remainder of his days roaming the forest) is probably due to the fact that sometimes my dad made Thump Swish a good guy who rescued campers in distress and other times he terrorized innocent hikers. Either way, anything that reminds me of Thump Swish (i.e. the sound of a broom or - for some reason - the monster on The Village) slightly freaks me out.
• Backward handwriting. There was this kid’s Halloween movie my brother and I used to watch where the main kid is possessed and (while entranced) slowly writes "Karen" backward on windows. Wait, was this a kid’s movie? Should I have been watching this? Mom?
• Vomiting. I hardly ever do this. Ever. But when I do...yikes. Totally freaks me out.
• Entering my apartment after dark when Kenny is out of town. Seriously, I have to call him as I'm getting out of my car and then I keep him on the line as I enter and turn on ever light and check every potential hiding place, particularly the shower.

Anyway, I may add to the list as I think of more things, so stay tuned...
What freaks you out?

Man of Many Talents

I love when the husband surprises me. And that doesn’t necessarily mean with gifts (although I like that, too).

On Saturday, I woke up in a bad mood and immediately told Kenny that we would be spending some time cleaning and organizing because “this place is closing in on me!!!” Because he’s awesome, Kenny didn’t take my mood too personally and proceeded to spend the next three hours quietly organizing drawers and filing cabinets. When we were finished (and my mood considerably improved) I joined him on the couch. “You know,” I said “it’s finally clean enough in here that I’m no longer against pulling out my sewing machine and mending your jeans like you’ve been asking me to do (for a while).”

He looked at me slyly and said “Oh, I already did that. It took, like, ten minutes. No big deal.”

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I denied that was possible. He stood up (wearing the jeans) and showed me. He did a great job; it had been a pretty big tear. “You mean you got the machine out, threaded it, and actually did that all by yourself?! And you didn’t break anything?!” I asked/exclaimed, still somewhat shocked. He shrugged (and kind of smirked). “Yeah. Like I said it wasn’t a huge deal.”

My husband is a man of many (hidden) talents. I love him. And I love when he surprises me.

Edited to include the cause of said Rip in Jeans - apparently he ripped them while skateboarding to school. I sometimes want to take a picture of him with his back pack on holding his 80's Powell Peralta (sp?) board. It's really cute, actually. He kind of looks like a little boy. However, when I suggest it he rolls his eyes and walks out the door. I can almost hear my future son whining at me as I try to take a photo of him doing the same thing.

Stuff I learned today

When you spill a full 16oz glass of water all over your desk, keyboard, paperwork, lap, and even into your shoes, indulging in that extra-fattening, high-calorie snack you've been denying yourself all day (i.e. Kettle BBQ chips) will absolutely make you feel better. I promise.

(Is it time to go home yet? Please?)

Savannah the Ladybug

So some friends from church (the Rogers) totally flattered us and asked if we would take some photos of their little girl for her first Halloween. Because we knew their daughter was beautiful and that she was thus guaranteed to take great photos, we agreed. (I'll be honest though, no one outside my family has ever asked us to take photos. Because Kenny's sister, Amelia Lyon, is a legit professional - and an incredibly talented one at that - it felt a little weird accepting. We're not pros, by any means.) Anyway, it was a super fun way to get into the Halloween spirit - plus I got to spend an hour rolling around in some leaves. I guess all holidays are better with little kids!

You can see more photos on Kelly's blog. But these might be my favorite - for content at least. First here's Brian...nice prop placement.
And here's Kelly, doing everything possible to get Savannah to smile. (Which was totally unnecessary - that girl is the happiest baby ever.) Still, I'm glad I got to see this side of Kelly.
Thanks again, Rogers Family; it was fun!

You wanna know what makes a Friday even better? Learning / remembering you have Monday off. Happy Columbus Day indeed! (I love Banker's hours.)
Happy Weekend!

Because sometimes we're just bad people.

One of Kenny's favorite Peach Day's activities is to play "Count the Mullet." My whole family takes (hopefully, but not always) discreet cell phone photos of various mulleted individuals and, at the end of the day, compares said photos to determine the Best Peach Days Mullet of the Year. (Yes, we are horrible people. Sorry.) There's even been talk of us participating in the parade wearing fake mullets, riding a float fashioned to look like a giant mullet. (Again, I'm sorry. Please don't judge us too harshly.) Unfortunately, Brigham City had a shortage of mullets this year. (However, our disappointment was lessened somewhat by the abundance of women sporting the "Bump-it" look.)


Fast forward to last Saturday. It was our church's semi annual General Conference. The last session of conference on Saturday is only for male members over 12 (or those holding the Priesthood). My Uncle Don was able to attend this session at the Church's Conference Center in Salt Lake (where the meeting is filmed for mass broadcast). When Kenny returned home after viewing the session locally, I asked how the session went. Kenny responded that the session "was good. But oh yeah! Your Uncle Don texted me to say he saw an epic mullet at the conference center! I don't think he was able to get a photo though." Two things:


1 - apparently spiritual enlightenment is "good" but doesn't always compare to mullets
2 - My uncle DID, in fact, get a photo. Enjoy.

I have no words.

Kicking myself

I love autumn. Along with a bazillion others, it's my favorite time of year (specifically when we start to get the first dustings of snow). And, because I spent a good chunk of my life living in New England (arguably the BEST place to enjoy the Fall season), I am a certified expert on beautiful autumns. Southern California, you fail miserably. MISERABLY.

Kenny and I spent most of this weekend holed up in our apartment desperately wishing the 80 degree weather and warm Santa Ana winds would cool and that the trees in our neighborhood would magically burst into color. No such luck. Instead we kept the apartment dim and cranked the AC so we could bundle up in our favorite Fall clothes - Kenny even went so far as to don a parka and thermals for about an hour. We munched on pumpkin cookies and hot soup (which is when Kenny had to ditch the parka) and at one point Kenny ventured out to get us some hot apple cider. However, after stepping into the So Cal heat, he came back with smoothies. (Sigh.)

The bigger issue is that we had kicked around the idea of heading to UT for the weekend. However, after learning that half my family has swine flu, we nixed that idea and considered Mammoth instead. Economics ruled the day, though, and we stayed home.

You can imagine our disappointment when we learned that not only did Mammoth have great fall weather and scenery, but they got the season's first dustings of snow on Sunday. 6-ish inches to be exact. And that is why we spent the rest of our weekend kicking ourselves for not biting the bullet and going up there. Next time, screw personal financial goals and obligations. Autumn is more important. For those of you lucky enough to have beautiful Autumn weather, enjoy it. (But just remember, we have the beaches...and Disneyland, so there.)