Skiing. It's awesome. This April Talia skipped school to spend a day on the slopes at Alta with her Dad and Uncle Justin. The attendance office might disagree, but I feel like we have our priorities in the right place.
Justin seemed pretty thrilled to hit the slopes for the first time since moving to Utah.
It may have been awfully chilly and windy, but they still had a great time.
In fact, Talia had such an awesome experience up at Alta that she and I went back on a different day. Turns out that her Ski Utah pass lets a buddy parent ski for free too!
This time the weather was perfect.
Plus, hot chocolate. Do days get better than this?
Encouraged by my successful ski venture with Talia, I then took all the kids up to Brighton on my own. Brooklyn helped me coach Annika for a little while, then ventured off to join her siblings for some faster paced fun.
The one big blooper--we forgot Annika's coat.
Fortunately, tuna fish sandwiches work smiley miracles.
The hardest part about skiing with Annika is scooping her up onto the ski lift, but we manage.
All in all, it was another delightful day. I never imagined that skiing with my five year old could be so enjoyable.
In the wake of this beautiful ski season, our family took the plunge and splurged on early bird season passes at Brighton for next year. It's a big commitment, but it feels like the right time. All of our kids are old enough to enjoy skiing, yet not too busy to join us. Truth to be told, we are pretty stoked. Even though summer isn't officially here, Jason's already told me a dozen times how much he's looking forward to next winter. Fingers crossed for some great snow!
Other April happenings: we went to the Jordan River Temple open house.
The big girls and I also went camping overnight with Girl Scouts at Trefoil Ranch. Since she didn't know anyone else there, Talia let me hang with her. Brooklyn on the other hand, got adopted by the cadette troop who organized the activity and immediately disappeared into their teenage mysteries.
The camp property is absolutely beautiful.
Headed out for a night time hike.
Early in the morning I conned Talia into going for a run with me.
We also did a yoga class together. I've missed seeing Talia upside down.
Hey, Brooklyn reappeared! Here she is overseeing some of the clean up.
Without an Annika to hug, Brooklyn adopted a couple cute Brownie scouts.
Moving on to the male members of our family, here's Eli running around Sugarhouse park. He ran his first 5K just a few days later and totally rocked it.
Come April we renewed our membership to Red Butte Gardens.
Eli and Sammy,
Hannah and Annie.
Xuân loves spring.
Springtime at the zoo. The peacocks were sure eager for some attention from the peahens.
Jeff and Annie checking out the giant tortoises.
Splayed gecko, anyone?
Wild lions.
During our next zoo visit, a wild creature conned Brooklyn and Talia into carrying her back to the car.
Backyard playtime with our friend, Lizzie.
I guess all the Pet Shops wanted to go for a swim too.
Can't forget our last family member, Spark. He will stretch way out to give Daddy kisses in exchange for a carrot.
At the end of April, Eli, Talia, and Brooklyn all performed at the Cathedral of the Madeline with the International Children's Choir.
Such a beautiful place to sing. The acoustics are lovely.
I think it's great that both their choir and Susie's choir (the American Festival Chorus) performed in the same concert series.
Our beautiful performers. Well done! Singing in choir takes a lot of commitment, but they've worked really hard and stepped up to the challenge.
Do you like Brooklyn's new costume? This one is from Belarus.
Brooklyn also had her final concert playing cello with the Jack Ashton Youth Chamber Orchestra. She's been putting a lot of effort into practicing consistently this year.
Since social media has a tendency to make life picture perfect, here's a reality check of what day to day life looks like. Annika dumped her preschool plant, after which somebody else proceeded to drop dinner as well. Little Caesars of course. 'Cause that's how we roll.
Finally, to bring things full circle, this is what our house looked like on the last day of April. More snow.
1 comment:
Another enjoyable post. It is inspiring to see a good family going about doing good.
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