Lots of sun and lots of skiing

This is how Allie and I like to start our ski day, 
laying out at the beach and watching the US Snowboarding Grand Prix at Canyons.

Kimber and Brett like to start the ski day tearing it up at The Pines.

And after enjoying the sun and the competition,
 Allie joins Brett and Kimber at The Pines.

Allie loves her Dad...
 and Dad loves skiing with his Allie!

Kimber loves her new skis!  Thanks Dad!!

And Kimber loves skiing 9990 with her new skis...

but mostly, she loves that Brett likes to ski 9990 too!

Allie taking a break at the top of the mogul run,

 after Allie, Mom and Brett foolishly followed Kimber and Dad,
 down a unchartered double black diamond run, 

which almost lead Allie over a cliff, 
and Brett and Mom almost saw their lives flash before them 

as they descended down the steep slope. 

 We were once again reminded that we should never trust our mountain guides, Kimber and Dad...

especially when it comes to skiing:)!

Once Brett made it down the top part of 9990,

he found that he loved the challenge of the double black diamond run,

as evidence of the big smile on his face!

The next day we headed over to the Super Condor lift first thing in the morning.

Brett studied the trail map and found a black diamond run off of Boa called Cains Lupus, 
which is basically a narrow gully, and thought that it looked like a lot of fun, and Dad agreed.  
The rest of us took a look at the run and decide that it is too icy and narrow, 
but Dad and Brett like an adventure and so they dropped into the gully. 
 We skied down Boa and waited for them to come racing down the run and right as they came into view, 
we saw Brett's binding on his skis pop right off!  

 Dad checks the ski and accesses the situation to see if he can fix it.

It was determined that the ski and binding couldn't be fixed so the only thing to do...

is climb out of the gully with one ski.

After ski/climbing out of the gully, good natured Brett is still all smiles.

Dad was too!  He excitedly shouted, "Guess who gets new skis?!"
Dad loves to buy new skis for everyone.
Years ago, when he and Jerry Martin were looking at skis,
they made up this silly reason why they needed new skis.
 They claimed that it was a "safety issue," that their skis were "dangerous!"
Since then, whenever anyone is looking at new skis or talks about buying new skis, 
Dad will tease and say, "It's a safety issue!"
For once, it really is a safety issue:)!

Here's a very short video showing Brett's skills skiing with one ski!

Pretty impressive!

Kimber was a good wife and carried one of his skis down hill.

 Brett finally took the ski off and walked down the hill.

Dad and Kimber took turns carrying the skis.

 Finally, Brett caught a ride on the snowmobile 
which took him and his skis down to the bottom of the mountain.

 We lunched and sat in the sun at the base of Doc's Run.
Dad and Ashley loved the new comfy chairs.

 Mark, Brett's brother, joined us for the day.
After lunch, he did a little shopping and found this great coat,
which Ashley and Mom agreed that he had to buy it!
Dad said that it's his "girl catching coat!"

 Ashley loves skiing with her Dad!

 And she loves it when her Mom takes lots of pictures of her...

 on every run...

 but she really loves to take pictures with her Mom on the mountain!

but she especially loves it when Dad skis right behind her and surprises her

when he has a "beginner moment" and almost taking her out as he completely wipes out!  

Thanks Dad for all the laughs and all the fun!

Wedding planning & skiing in Utah

Allie and I have spent the last couple of days doing some wedding planning

 and we are happy to say that we have got a lot done! Yay! 

 I love checking things off the list! 

 We also squeezed in some other fun activities

 such as lunching with my dear friend, Ruth Todd, 

shopping/visiting Rhonda and Elle Williams at Nordstroms 

and dinner at Cheesecake with Susan Duke. 

 It was so fun to accomplish so much and get to catch up with everyone!  

So today since we got so much done...

...that I decided to join Kimber and Brett on the slopes and enjoy the gorgeous sunshine!

First thing this morning, Brett and I headed for our favorite run on the mountain, "The Pines."

Then we lunched at the top of Dreamcatcher at Clouddine. 
 It was delicious and the views were amazing on such a beautiful day!

I felt guilty skiing without dad, but don't worry...he is on a plane 
and will be joining us tonight. At that time, the real ski party can begin:)!

San Diego

We spent the weekend down in San Diego.

We ate lots and lots of mexican food,

 spent a lot of time at Old Town and the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, 

visited the beach, drove to the San Diego Temple, 

watched Brooke race at the XC Championship,

 and lunched with Emily and Lindsy Ethington.

If you haven't visited the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center lately, you really out to.

The exhibits and interactive video that told the stories of the saints 

who served in the Mormon battalion were very entertaining and informative.

Dad and Brooke were able to look up one of Dad's ancestors, William Holt, 

who was in the Mormon Battalion.

Brooke and I had to get a picture of us driving the covered wagon.

And Brooke was trying to get a boyfriend.

While Dad tried to shot the cannon.

Then we drove over to the beautiful San Diego Temple.

They were doing some work on the temple so they had it all roped off,

which was great because I could get this gorgeous picture without anyone in the background.

But then we tried to get a picture together and got the caution tape in the background.

I'm sure that if I took the time that I could probably photoshop

that caution tape out of the picture...that is if I knew how to use photoshop...

Here is Brooke during her race.

After a delicious lunch at Old Town Mexican Cafe with Lindsy and Emily.

It was so good to catch up with these two darling girls!

SkiFest 2011

We arrived in Utah Wednesday evening 
and after picking up some discount tickets for the Canyon's at Utah Ski and Golf,
 we went straight to Tucanos at Gateway for dinner. 
 The Jack's and Skinner's loved the Brazilian restaurant,
 especially since they we don't have anything like it in Sacramento. 
 It was the perfect dinner stop before we headed up to Park City to begin SkiFest 2011.

Enjoying a delicious dinner.

A wonderful way to start the weekend.

Ashley and her roommate, Sydney came and joined us for dinner.

So did Allie, we just didn't get a picture of her...sorry Allie!

All six of us, riding the Tombstone chairlift on a bright sunny ski day at Canyons!

The girls sitting in the sun at Clouddine, enjoying the warm weather!

And the guys had to get in on the fun.

Doug, Liz and Mark enjoying dinner at Red Rock.

Dinner was fabulous, as usual, at Red Rock.  The bruschetti is simply the best! 

Liz and Sue ordered Root Beer floats for dessert.
They were delicious but definitely messy...very messy!

Dave and Lisa Shotwell, our neighbors from Weddington joined us a day of skiing at Deer Valley.

We enjoyed eating a lovely lunch outside on the patio at Empire Pass Lodge!

My good friend, Marci, gave me some these cute sunglasses.

They were perfect for a sunny ski day and I had to get a picture
 so I could send it to Marci and tell her how much I love my new sunglasses.

Hanging out at "the beach" at Deer Valley.

The Holt's.

The Shotwell's.

The Skinner's.

The Jack's.

At the end of a great day at Deer Valley..

with the Jack's.

That night we headed to Main Street for dinner, which was busy with all the Sundance Film Festival crowds.

We had dinner at Grappas, one of our favorite restaurants in Park City. 

Our dear friends and former Granite Bay residents, Scott and Linda Howell joined us that night. 

We all had a good time visiting and catching up with the Howell's.

The Holt's, Howell's, Jack's and Skinner's on Main Street.

Our crowd dwindled down to the Howell's, the Jack's and me at Zoom on Saturday night.

Mark flew home for stake conference 
and the Skinner's had an emergency so they flew home that morning.

Our group was small but we had a fun time.  

Earlier that day, while shopping on Main Street, 

Sue and I ran into Robert Redford, right in front of his restaurant, Zoom!

He was only about 4 feet away from us when he looked up and we locked eyes
 (seriously he was staring right at us!) 
and we must have looked so surprised that he just kind of smiled and laughed at us. 
 Sue and I just kind of giggled and then we both said, "Hi!" and he said, "HI!" back to us.  
I was scrambling to get my camera out but by the time I did, 
all I got was this picture of the back of  "Bob's" head as he got into the car.  

 So when we got to the restaurant that night and saw that this picture of the back of "Bob's" head, 

we had to get our picture with it:)! 

We found the moose on Main Street and had to take a few pictures...

The Jack's posing with the moose.

I'm sorry to say that this was the only moose that dad spotted on the trip!

The last night out, we went to Chimayo
 and I think we all agreed that it was by far the best southwestern cuisine that we have ever tasted!

Everything we ordered was absolutely amazing!

We had Crab Empandadas and Sugarcane Elk Skewers for appetizers. Yum!

We tried the Crab & Corn Chowder and the Tortilla soup.  Yum! Yum!

Sue ordered the Stuffed Avocado with Marinated Vegetables Salad. Amazing!

I ordered the Mustard Seed Encrusted Grilled Salmon. Out of this world! Really!
 Doug had Grilled Buffalo Flank Steak. Wow!

And Dad ordered his favorite, Crown Roast of Barbecued Spareribs.

Here we are at the end of the most lovely meal and we are all happy and our tummies are so full!

We spent our last day skiing at Canyons.

It was much colder than the previous days so Sue and I were happy to quit a little early
 and drink hot chocolate with caramel and eat peanut butter chocolate donuts.

While Doug was getting his foot sized up for his new boots, 

Dad and I shared another hot chocolate while enjoying the sun at "the beach" at  Canyons!

It was the perfect way to end SkiFest 2011, drinking hot chocolate on "the beach" with Sue!

Good times with good friends, great food, good snow and my favorite, lots of sun!

*Some have asked, after reading this post, if we should change the name from SkiFest 2011 to FoodFest 2011.  

That is a legitimate question.  It does seem that there was a heavy emphasis on food during this trip.  

I've always said that I ski to eat and this ski trip was certainly evidence of this:)!