Oil Painting

Today Colton and I tried our talents at oil painting, supplies offered by Bree and Ben. It was lots of fun! We spent over an hour on the paintings, and we had to leave them to be finished for a later time. It's fascinating to me how people can paint huge paintings. Ours were only about 7X9 inches, and we were straining our creativity as it was. Here are the half-finished products.

From top to bottom: Ben, Colton, Bree, Miara

President's Day

Sore throat, fever, cough, headaches... Perfect health for snowshoeing! Just kidding. But that was what I was suffering from when I went snowshoeing with Colton, my sister Amria, dad, brother Aarim, and a bunch of Aarim's friends on President's Day. 

You see, we had already rented the snowshoes from the University of Utah, and I wasn't about to let my family have all the fun without me, so I sucked it up and went snowshoeing. It was perfect conditions for it. Up North Canyon was about four feet of snow.

Colton trying to climb up a snowbank.
The snow was so deep!

Colton dived into the snow, literally, to see how deep it was.
The weather was cool and sunny. We hiked up a few miles, then stopped for lunch on a log. The said log my family had visited a previous summer, and it was a log we had climbed on which stood above our heads. 

Now we used the log as a seat a few inches above the snow. Two of Aarim's friends broke their homemade snowshoes, and it was super funny watching them trying to hike in the drifts of snow. On our way down the trail, we did a lot more 'off-roading' with the snowshoes, which was much more exciting and difficult than walking on the packed down trail. 

Aarim and Colton also decided to climb up the entire face of the mountain, which took forever. 

A tired Colton coming back down the hill.

This is the same log we were sitting on in the summer. It's a good four to five feet high.

After snowshoeing, Colton and I headed over to Bree and Ben's house for an evening of conversation and dinner at the Pizza Factory. We also stopped at the Farmington Bay Bird refuge again and watched a beautiful sunset. It was a fun and memorable President's Day.

A solitary eagle sits on the water.

Pizza Factory in Bountiful. We stuffed ourselves
on salads and couldn't even finish our pizza.
And the breadsticks were delicious

Farmington Bay Bird Refuge

See the updated version of this post at: http://thymeandmint.com/farmington-bay-bird-refuge/

Gymnastics and Car Crash

Today Colton and I, along with my family, went to watch the gymnastics meet against the University of Utah and Michigan. The U is really good, and it was amazing to watch these talented girls throw themselves all over the floor and balance beams and somehow not hurt themselves. It makes me wish that I had never quit gymnastics when I was little.

There was so much traffic trying to drive through Salt Lake. We barely even got out of the parking lot before we were stopped completely at the intersections. Well, while we were waiting for the light to turn green, completely stopped, right next to Rice Eccles Stadium, all of a sudden there was a loud sound and our car jerked forward a bit. I turned to look at Colton right as the car who had hit us zoomed by and pulled away, barely missing the car in front of us. Colton was basically in shock because it hit his door which his leg was resting on and scared him, but I hurriedly took down the license plate number because it didn't look like the driver was going to stop. He did, however, and we pulled into the parking lot at Rice Eccles Stadium. The side-view mirror on Colton's side was completely hanging off, and there were scratch marks along the left side of the car where the other driver had scraped against our car. The other car looked worse, with a large dent in the right side and scratched plastic. The driver said, "Oh, that dent is from another accident. This car has been in so many accidents. It's only that small scratch there." So, our car was definitely more hurt than his car.

It took forever for the police to find us, one because we forgot to turn on our emergency lights, and two because the freaking Salt Lake City dispatcher told the officer the wrong place. If I was dying, I would have died before the ambulance found us. Colton's mom finally called the police again and told them where we were before he found us. The cop came finally, figured everything out, and we thought we were good to go. Come to find out the next week that the driver who hit us is trying to blame Colton for the crash! He's trying to say that it was our fault and trying to claim more damage than was done to the car. What a liar! He told us to our faces that the dents in the side of his car were from other accidents, AND we were COMPLETELY stopped! I wish we had asked other people to stop to be witnesses. But even without asking, you should always be a witness to a crash. If I ever get in another crash, hopefully not, I will now be ready for anything:

1. Take down the license plate in case the other car drives off

2. Ask other people who witnessed the crash to pull over as well

3. Turn on the emergency lights

4. Take pictures of the damage right after it occurs, and if you're inspecting the cars, record the conversation secretly on your phone.

It makes me so mad that there are actually people who lie about crashes (I know, I know, this world isn't as good as I believe it to be). Just know that there is a special place reserved with the Devil for people who lie...

Skate Skiing 2

We went skate skiing at Mountain Dell Golf Course a second time with Colton's entire family. It was much harder than last time. The snow was icier and our skis were different. It was still a lot of fun though, and definitely a great way to stay in shape during winter. I gave up before everyone else did because it was just too hard; I took pictures instead.

Stuff. Mostly mine I think

Colton's mom and dad

Ben and Debbie

Colton

Bree

Skate Skiing

We have (finally) found our winter sport: Skate Skiing! Colton, Bree, Ben, and I went to a free REI sponsored event at Mountain Dell golf course, where they offered snowshoeing, classic, and skate skiing lessons all for free! There were also samples of hot chocolate and energy drinks. I didn't think it would go so well, especially since I fell twice in my regular shoes walking down to the sign up tent (boots from Wal-mart offer NO traction!). We geared up and followed a lady down the little hill where she proceeded to instruct and critique us in skiing. 

It was a lot easier than I had anticipated, and definitely the most fun sport we've tried all winter, though there was still no lack of falling. My ego was a little bruised when these kids probably younger than ten zoomed by me on their skates much more smoothly than I. After the lady taught us a little, we were free to roam the course. Bree and I tired out first, so we waited for Colton and Ben to finish. While waiting, we saw some INSANE people who were skate skiing while carrying children on their backs or pulling this sled thing with two children inside! I mean I thought skate skiing was fairly easy, but I still lost my balance and fell over plenty of times. I could barely get myself up the hills, and here were these Super-skaters pulling themselves and their kids! It was impressive, to say the least. After skiing, we shopped around the Park City outlets, which I had never been to before. Overall, it was a successful and fun day, and we're all looking forward to skate skiing again!

New Year's Ice, Powder, and Moose

Negative 10 degrees. Eyelashes coated with icicles. Prime conditions for skiing and snowboarding, right? Well, only if you are as bundled up and crazy as we and the many others at the resort that night were.

On New Year's Eve, Colton and I teamed up once again with our partners-in-adventure Bree and Ben to a night at Powder Mountain Resort near Eden, Utah. Our adventure packet that night included skiing, snowboarding, dinner, and glow sticks! We headed out around 3 o'clock. The closer we got to Powder Mountain, the lower the temperature read on the car's thermometer. We were already rather upset when it was 12 degrees Fahrenheit partway there. Then it dipped down to 7 degrees closer to the resort. The moment we got out of the car, every part of our bodies immediately screamed in protest to be warmed up again. By the time we were all wrapped up, we looked like a bunch of crippled people by our lack of mobility due to the layers. The only part of Bree's face you could see were her eyes.

Bree and Ben chose to ski, and Colton bravely decided to try snowboarding with me so that I wouldn't be left behind. This was only his second time snowboarding, and the first was six years ago. After the first run, Colton was rather discouraged and really hating his decision of boarding.
After the second run, he was about as good as I was. By then our eye lashes had also been coated with a sparkling array of ice.
After our second run we went to eat dinner.

 It was my ideal dinner, with all my favorite foods. Mashed potatoes and dark gravy, ham, turkey, potato soup, chili, chips and dip, and Dr. Pepper! There was also a side of vegetables Colton and I forced ourselves to eat to be healthy. 

We all ended up getting so much food that we couldn't finish and were full to bursting. During dinner we checked the temperature, and it had gone down to -3 degrees. I had never been in conditions that cold before, or willingly put myself in it for any amount of time. After bundling up once again, and hanging the glow sticks they offered at dinner around us, we boldly faced the cold once again. This time, as Colton was now as experienced as I was (or more daring, which was also true), we went down a steeper, more powdery run. This resulted in him front flipping and back flipping, and beating me down the slope. We ended up going down that run the rest of the time. The slope was so wide that we could cut across the entire thing quickly and smoothly. We also found a secret way that went behind some trees and was complete powder. The first time I went down it, I discovered why people loved skiing and snowboarding so much. It had gotten dark by the time we stopped for dinner, so the only lights were the ones on the sides of the runs. This powder spot was farther away from light, however. It was dark, cold, and quiet. I went down before Colton, and my board slid through pure powder. All I could hear was my board slowly rushing through the powder, and absolute silence around me. Funny how silence is something we always describe as hearing. There was no one else around me, and I just had such a feeling of peace and excitement rush through me at the same time. I was where no one else was at the moment, doing what no one else was doing. Three quarters of the way down, I turned and looked for Colton. He was still stuck near the top. Once you get into the powder, it's terrible to try and get out of. Needless to say his experience on that run was opposite of mine. 

Colton snowboarding down the slope

One of the last times on that same run, Colton and I laid in the snow and looked up at the stars before going down. It was so peaceful there. The sky was clear and starry. By the way, it looked like it was snowing slightly the entire time we were there. The reason being that it was so cold that any humidity in the air was just freezing. It hurt my eyes when I went down the hill. My ski goggles were of no use because the way I had my wrappings fixed up was making my goggles fog up. So I used them to melt my eyelashes while sitting on the lift instead. It was also too dark to use them. We finished up about ten o'clock, and skied right into the parking lot. 

My face, hair, and eyelashes coated with ice.

This trip was definitely less bruising than last week's cross country skiing expedition, but I still came away from it sore, cold, and with an extra sore neck from back flipping over my snowboard. The temperature reading in the car was -7 degrees, not taking into account the wind chill factor. So at least -10 degrees! On our way down we were completely exhausted. Driving down Trapper's Loop, all we could see was the road immediately in front of our headlights. There were no other cars on the road, and snow piled on the edges of the roads. Halfway down, I called my cousin, Micadyn, because Colton and I had planned on going to her house to watch the ball drop on TV, our New Year's tradition. While I was trying to talk to her, I noticed a large shadow out of the corner of my eye. I figured it was a tree and my attention turned back to the phone. All of a sudden Bree said from the back seat, "It's a moose!" at the exact same time I looked up and saw, not two feet from the car, a giant of a bull moose, with huge glowing eyes and legs longer than the car was high.I seriously thought I was going to die, and the word 'MONSTER!' printed across my mind because 'moose' still hadn't registered. Colton had a similar reaction and we were both so adrenaline-rushed and scared silly that all we could say was, "Oh my gosh" and breathe deeply. After we had somewhat regained our composure, we quickly turned the car around to get a picture. By then the moose-giant had lumbered across the street, and it was far too dark to get a picture. However, thanks to editing, you can make out the tracks of the moose and the shadow where the moose was standing. The rest of the ride home, I was convinced I was going to die from another moose. I couldn't get over how close I was to a moose squishing me to death had it been any further into the road. It didn't help that not three minutes later down the road we saw two more moose on the other side of the road. Stupid moose. I can't ever drive down Trapper's Loop at night again. And I now have a fear of moose-sasquatch-monsters.
I suppose one good thing that came out of that was that I was no longer tired and paid better attention to the road, as did Colton, who was driving thirty miles an hour on the fifty-five mph road. That was a good thing though; who knows that might have happened had we been going faster with moose lurking around...
We ended up going to a family friend's house for an hour to watch the ball drop and bring in the year 2011. I wonder what it means to go into a new year being almost frightened to death by a moose. Guess we'll just have to see.