Out There {January 2023}

For such a month that was so cold and snowy (my CoCoRaHS monthly report was 25.4 inches of snowfall at our house = 5.9 inches of water!!), I'm quite surprised and pleased that most of my photos are from outdoor things. (Maybe I have as many bookish photos on the round up post . . . but that just screams January, doesn't it? Skiing and reading?! Perfection!) We did a lot of skiing, skating, walking around the neighborhood. We even broke out the snowshoes for the first time in . . . a decade? . . . at our Red Canyon weekend and for a hike later in the month with my friend. All pictured here.

2 January 2023: First Nordic Ski Day of the New Year!

And it was a zoo! The crowds have definitely increased since we started skiing there regularly, and we typically avoid weekends and holidays, but our blackout week between Christmas and New Years had passed and we were itching to get back on the hill while we were still not working/schooling. Well, everyone else in the county had the same idea and we were parked in the third lot across the street and we were there 15 minutes before the resort opened! Just another reason I love having a season pass . . . we skied a couple of runs and called it a day once the lines got super long. We'll be back later this week, when everyone else is back at school/work!

Cal and I riding up Apollo - don't know why
I've never taken a pic like this before.

Gregg and Sam ahead of us.

bonus video!

"lift line"

(this was a video of the lift line at Nordic Express, taken by our friend Evan;

we didn't even go over to that lift and I'm glad!)

This just to show what our backyard path is looking like
these days. So much snow!

4 January 2023: Back at Nordic

Just the way we like it . . . no lines, plenty of parking, the mountain to ourselves!

And some more backyard views . . . love seeing all
the snow on the seven sisters.

I was trying to get the lovely evening light on the mountains,
but it didn't show up so well in the photo.

10 January 2023: Shoveling Rain

Ick. I hate when it rains in winter. On snow. I tried to shovel the standing water on our driveway. It was insane.

bonus videos!

"shoveling rain"

11 January 2023: Backyard Shenanigans

I went out back to examine a giant limb that had broken out of our poderosa and found that the snow was deeper than my boots in some spots! We had already had a limb fall from this same tree and flatten our lilac bush, but that one looks puny compared to the most recent broken branch!

11 January 2023: Old Highway Solo Walk

It's been a while since I've been down here. It was a lovely day with some blue sky peeking out for a walk to the lake.

13 January 2023: Solo Walk on Stringtown

While the kids played in the snow at our friends' house, I walked to the end of the road (and beyond, down to the lake) and back and it was lovely.

14 January 2023: Huntsville Ice Rink

Oh brother. Here is a story of a grumpy boy. He did not want to come skating with me and Cal, but I made him come anyway "for some fresh air". He moped in a snowbank for a good long while. Then complained he was cold. Huh. Imagine that. Slowly but surely he made his way to the ice, first with just his boots, then with his skates. He needed the help of a chair for balance, but by the time Cal was tired out and ready to head home, he was going full steam and didn't want to quit. We just had to shake our heads. Silly boy.

17 January 2023: Backyard Snow

Do these count if I took them from inside? Probably not! Just wanted to document the snow levels for posterity. Gettin' deep out there!

17 January 2023: Neighborhood Walkies

But I did get out later, so I'm going to count those pics above! ;) So much snow all around the neighborhood!

It's hard to see around the piles at the intersections.

18 January 2023: Icicle Situation + Old Highway Nature Walk

That shovel was completely coated in ice! Later that afternoon, we took a nature walk at the Old Highway, and even attempted to go out on the ice on the lake, but it was super slushy at the edges and I sunk in to my calves so we turned around back on solid ground.

The snow is so deep is covering the bottom strand of
barbed wire on the fence next to the trail.

The snow is so deep that this little tunnel is barely
passable for 4 ft tall humans.

That buoy is not in water/ice, but it still looks cool to stand
next to it.

19 January 2023: Art Nord-Icebox Canyon Loop

My friend Janice from YW has been trying to get out weekly for hikes with friends and I was finally able to make one fit in my schedule. We did my fave Icebox Canyon loop, starting at Art Nord and going down toward Wheeler first, then up through Icebox, then down the old Snowbasin road back to the car. Why have I never done this in the winter?! It was magnificent! And so fun to chat all the homeschool chat with my friend. We were making great time when we decided to complete the loop at the halfway point rather than turning around and going back the way we came. This turned out to be unfortunate, because when we got out of Icebox we started noticing moose prints and droppings and soon enough, we came upon the moose himself. I'm lucky Janice was paying better attention than me because she had to yell at me to stop a couple times before I registered what was happening. For the record: she saved my life! Haha. The moose was munching trees right in the middle of the trail, so we backtracked a bit and then attempted to cross a snowy field (with a couple of ravines in the middle) to get up to the road (that somewhat parallels the trail) to make our way around the moose. Well, as we were tromping through the deep snow (thank goodness we were wearing our snowshoes after all! - the trail was very well packed down, but not the hillside!), we noticed a biker coming up the trail, heading for the moose. The next thing we knew, we had made it to the road just as the biker was going up past us, the opposite direction we wanted to go. He told us he had scared the moose off the trail . . . and onto the road! Right where we wanted to go! So we had to make another detour around him, through the snow and keeping some trees between us as best as we could. Luckily we made it back without any close encounters, but it added an hour or so onto our hike that we weren't expecting! But it was a fun story, too! And a marvelous time in the mountains!

This is when we were passing the moose
the second time. We kept these trees between
us and him, but you can barely see him there
in the middle across the road, munching trees.

Here's Janice's pic - she walked up to the edge of the trees
to snap a pic and the moose turned, looked right at her,
and took a step - freaked us right out! - and then turned
back to his trees to munch away.

This was the view as we looked back to make sure he wasn't
following us.

20 January 2023: Eden Park

We haven't been to the park forEVER, but I convinced the kids to come enjoy the sunshine for their outside time. Holy smokes! The snow is SO deep!!

Buried benches.

Short swings.

Table cave.

Chin up bar at chin level.

Dino in the deep.

Those little humps in the middle of the pic? They're
boulders marking the edge of the parking area and they
look like little puffs of snow!

It was so sparkly in the sunny day (we've had so few
of these bluebird days this month!). Didn't show up super
great in the pic, but you can pretend.

We climbed on the piles at the north end of the park,
from one end to the other.

I love these marshmallow puffs on the stumps by the
horse arena.

20 January 2023: Nordic at Night

First night skiing for me of the season. Nate brought his kids down to learn to ski and we met up with him to lend a hand and get a few turns in ourselves. It was a fun, chilly evening with the cousins!

Ski cousins! Next time, to the top of Crockett!

24 January 2023: Huntsville Ice Rink - at Night!

The Young Women were having a combined activity at the ice rink in Huntsville, and I decided to bring Cal and Sam along since they have their own skates and have been wanting to try skating there at night. They LOVED skating under the lights and didn't want to go home when it was bedtime!

no photos, just a (dark)

bonus video!

"nighttime skaters"

27 January 2023: Ski Day at the Beav!

Gregg was meeting up with some college buddies, Steve Nance and Josh Sulser, at Beaver Mountain, so we tagged along and made a fieldtrip out of it. It was dumping snow all day, which made for great powder skiing (if you like that sort of thing ;). I personally don't love powder, but even more, I don't love snowflakes flying in my eyes and making it hard to see very far in front of me. BUT, even still, I had a great time. It was so fun to be back on the mountain where I learned to ski, and to share that with my kids. Good day!

Heading up the Face Lift - my first time on this lift!

While Gregg went off with his friends, the kids and I lapped
Little Beaver, which was also a new lift since the last time I
skied here.

And when I needed a break, the kids just rode up
by themselves. (Cal is just past the tower on her way up.)

Even Sam started riding the lift by himself today!
Milestone! I tell you what - it's a gamechanger for this
old, tired, out of shape mom to let them keep skiing while
I sit out a run or two.

Melted my heart when they wanted to go up together
- just them! (I could have ridden with them since it's a triple
chair, but I got to watch from behind which was sweet.)

29 January 2023: Snowpile Status

Just needed to snap a pic of the snowpile situation in our backyard and driveway. I had a memory pop up of this week in 2018 and Cal was out in Minnie slippers with barely any snow on the ground where we had shoveled it off the driveway (scroll down to Jan 25th)! Not this year! This is the most snow I can remember in our time living here!

I mean, just look at the pile on top of the fireplace
back there! And the fence is getting so short that the kids
just hop over with hardly any climbing to play in the pasture.

31 January: Neighborhood Walk + Backyard Shenanigans

Look at that sky! That's what my mom has been calling "Severe Clear". I think it had warmed up to about 6 degrees for my walk this afternoon. Up from -17! (And it was even colder in Cache Valley this week!) But that hasn't stopped the kids from getting out multiple times each day. They've been asking to go out, and I'm definitely not going to say no to that request, even if it's 10 minutes before dinnertime. What are they doing out there? They're snowboarding on the stick pile in the backyard on Gregg's old snowboards (without bindings, just balancing). They're loving it!

bonus video!

"snowboarders"

That's our "barrel" disc golf basket and the barrel is
totally buried. Gregg measured our snowpack back here
at 32"!!