Spring Skiing

Original plans to do a complete post of our day at Beaver Mountain were scrapped. I'm lazy and my dad did such a good job here that I'll just send interested parties to Emmettville. Special thanks to Norda's for the new gear and the original Norda for filling in on Lily duty. A couple money shots:

Four Generations of skiing the Beav.

Jack rolling solo. Still has no idea how to stop.

Jack's first season pass, free with the purchase of an adult season pass. Beth and I laughed at this picture for days.

Dear Mr. Hawk

COME ON! I know it was my first ride of the year but am I really that slow? Did it look like I might keel over any minute and provide a tasty treat? What about that large doe and raccoon I passed earlier? They were already dead. It's really disconcerting and slightly depressing to see your shadow constantly circling me for the entire climb up S.R. 32.


Regards,
Not so fast

skithebeav

Check out the first couple photos at skithebeav.com.

Annoucement: In less than 9 months . . .

Lily will double in age. How cool is that? She had her 9 month appointment this week and although I don't remember the details I do remember she was in the 25th percentile across the board. I'll probably come back and insert the actual numbers so I have them available for reference. Earlier this week I couldn't remember how much she weighed at birth and came back to the blog to check. I was shocked to find out she was over 8 pounds! That just seemed too big for the little girl.

She loves pulling herself up onto anything, especially her brother if he stops long enough. Luckily she really hasn't experimented with stairs yet, at least beyond the first stair. She did seem to inherit the same toughness as Jack which comes in handy for all the face plants she pulls off. While trying to play with her cousins she made it up the first step only to roll off onto the hard wood floor. 4-year-old cousin Porter ran to report to Beth that she fell down the stairs and didn't even cry "It was like a trick!"

Her first tooth is making good progress and I can't think of any food she hasn't liked. The Green Pea baby food causes her to make funny faces but she'll eventually open her mouth up again.


Showing off her tooth to mommy.

Car trips are fun especially in Aunt Marci's minivan. Gives her a chance to get those darn socks off.

One of my favorite things to do is have two-year-olds give each other 5. They both want to be the one giving the 5 and end up whiffing several times. Porter understands a little better that someone has to take the 5.

Ice Cream treats at the Dairy Keen.

Jack finds out he's not the only "heaby" one.

Spring Forward

You know Spring is on it's way when Nativity scenes start showing up for an encore.
(one of several I've noticed that probably haven't been seen since the Christmas day storm.)

Good day

While I'm firmly in the iPod Love Group I've had quite a turbulent relationship with the little miracles of late. Amazingly we've owned 7 iPods (six models) but only ever bought one ourselves. That is what happens when you work in sales for an organization that figured out salesmen will do anything short of trading their first born into slavery for a chance at a free iPod. Sure the promises of hitting quotas, increasing job security, potentially $1000s in commissions, pleasing bosses, and job promotions are all nice but fleeting. However, give someone a whack at $149.00 of hardware in a cool box and watch them line up to run through fire.

In just the past few months the iPod gods have been angry:

1. The iPod video was removed from my back pack with what appears to be a bullet hole in the screen. But not a bullet from a gun, more like a bullet pressed at a slow speed with someone's palm. Or maybe it was from a gun and it actually saved my life. Maybe the iPod gods weren't angry. For $179.00 the Apple store can try to fix it but no promises. Or you can buy a used one eBay for way less.
2. While flying from Irvine to Dallas I had a layover in SLC. Jeff was on the flight so I put out the seat occupied card and walked with him off the plane. 15 minutes later I return and my iPod Touch and iPod Shuffle are missing from the seat back pocket. The cleaning crew was nice enough to leave the gum wrappers. When contacted by the airline the crew had no recollection of finding two iPods.
3. I kept the original iPod shuffle in my gym locker at work. A few weeks ago I couldn't find it only to later find it in my pocket. Of course it was after my shorts had been through the washer and dryer.

Now we were down to the originally purchased iPod mini* and the newly won iPod nano. Until yesterday they have been more than sufficient for the two of us. Turns out I own a lot of crappy music and don't need 60 GB to hold it all times. 8 GB is plenty. Plus my running shoes had Nike+ and I have loved connecting to the nano. I don't know about anyone else but I am terrible at estimating how long and far I have been running. I guess I could wear a watch or chart a run ahead of time but whatever. I would usually return after 27 minutes and 3.5 miles thinking it was more like 45 minutes and 6 miles. Nike+ has been 99% accurate on distance for me. (Disclaimer: this is for workouts in unknown territories, I'm not that big of an idiot at home).

Back to yesterday . . . I started really wanting another shuffle to keep at work. They are so convenient with the clip and the size. While thinking this I looked at the shuffle that had been washed, spun, rinsed, spun, and tumble dried. I had repeat visions of plugging it in and melting my own hard drive but decided to try it anyways. Nothing happened for several seconds and just as I thought I better not push my luck the orange light turned on. I then held up the earphones and pushed play, again nothing happened for several seconds until I hear the sweet sounds of The Mr. T Experience. I was so stoked to be back in business and immediately called Beth with the news.

"You broke another one?"
"This is the one that went through the wash."
"You put your iPod through the wash?"
"I told this, remember?"
"Which one the blue one?"
"No it was the white one."
"The video?"
"No the shuffle, the one that looks like a thumb drive."
"Oh, hmmm . . . good day."

Yes. Yes, it was.

* Looking at the iPod mini today brings back memories of Macs in elementary school. Little gray screens used to play Oregon Trail (that game owned!). But the mini to this day still has something the other iPods with screens don't, a clip that works. What is up with that? Why do we either have to use the arm bands or have it bouncing around in a pocket. The sweet spot on the arm bands is impossible to find. Either it's a tourniquet or it's falling down around my wrist. I just want to clip it to my waste and not have to dislocate my shoulder to adjust the volume.