7 states in 6 weeks

Idaho, Wyoming (twice), Montana, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada...all states that we have visited in the past 6 weeks.  In order to get our money's worth out of our Mountain Collective pass we have tried to stay busy skiing.  After Jackson Hole January 1st (last blog post), we hit up Grand Targhee on January 9th (beautiful day and good snow) and then took a trip up to Montana for 2 days of skiing at Big Sky the next weekend.  We went up to Montana on Wednesday night after work and stayed in West Yellowstone.  We encountered the slickest highway section I have ever experienced.  Luckily Jim was driving (sliding) and we stayed on the road.  The worst of it was only 5-10 miles, but it was dark, windy and scary!  We got up early Thursday and drove up to Big Sky which is about an hour away.  They hadn't gotten much snow lately and the day before had been quite a windstorm so it was a little rough skiing.  As usual we skied together some, broke off into groups, took breaks, and left somewhat early since the conditions weren't great.  It's a pretty drive through part of Yellowstone National Park to get back and forth from the resort to where we were staying and the road wasn't too bad.  We spent Friday relaxing at the condo, having the kids do their schoolwork, playing in the game room, watching movies and going sledding.  The pool was under repairs which was a bummer, but we knew ahead of time.  Saturday we went up to Big Sky again and they had gotten about 4 inches of snow and we had a better game plan of where to ski.  It is such a huge resort that we decided to spend the morning working our way all the way from one side of the resort to the other and then back again.  That went pretty well and we were all ready for lunch by the time we had accomplished our goal.  In the afternoon we split up more, going back to favorite spots.  They had a covered/enclosed "magic carpet" conveyor lift which was kind of fun and they also had a couple lifts that heated seats and a "bubble" that protected you from the weather.  

Gotta love a clear day at Targhee

Targhee snack break

Lone Mountain at Big Sky

Inside the "bubble" on Ramcharger

This lift seats 8 and has heated seats!

Enclosed Conveyor Lift

Photo Op in Yellowstone

We spent the last day of January skiing at Jackson Hole again, and enjoyed yet another nice day.  We have found that all of us except Elliott enjoy having a Cup 'O Noodles for lunch when we ski.  It warms us up and hydrates us and is so easy and inexpensive.  With COVID protocols in place limiting lodge use, we have made it a habit to go to our car at lunch time and eat in the car or in camp chairs outside the car.  I usually pack a bag of food the night before with sandwiches, cup o noodles, thermos of hot water, granola bars, fruit, trail mix, etc.  Each kid also has a pouch of fruit snacks and a granola bar in their pocket for snack emergencies and Jim and I usually have peanut M&Ms for treats to hand out on the lifts.  

Sunny day at Jackson Hole

Lunch of Champions

Jim's Grandma died at the end of January and we were able to make a trip to Oregon to be with family and attend her service.  We were thankful that we had seen Grandma Ellen during our trip home at Christmas, and so glad that after 95 years of living she is in her eternal home with her Savior.  It was a short but sweet trip to see family and bring closure.  

Graveside Service (Nothing indoors permitted because of COVID-19)

Barn Owl from Great Grandma's barn

Shooting a target with the pellet gun

Playing Uno

Making brownies with Grandma

Sorting through old coins

Visiting my parents for crepes and cocoa (3/4 of adults fully vaccinated against COVID-19!)

After 3 nights back at home and trying to get caught up with school work, we were back on a road trip down to St. George, Utah for Emmett's first soccer tournament with his new team.  We had bad roads for the first 50 miles and then pretty good the rest of the way.  It is a 7 hour trip and Emmett was scheduled to meet up with his team at 4 to get ready for their 5:30 game.  Because our roads were good we had time to go into the Kolob Canyon part of Zion National Park.  We did a little site seeing and a very short hike and then continued on to St. George.  We hit 68 degrees on our way into town and enjoyed seeing the red rock, Joshua trees and palm trees.  We got checked into our hotel and unpacked and then took Emmett to his practice.  We didn't have much time, but the other boys took a quick dip in the outdoor pool and then we headed to the game and made PB&J for dinner while we waited for the game to start. The game was at Dixie State University under the lights.  Emmett's team got behind in the first half, but ended up winning the game.  

On Saturday we went to a couple parks in the morning and then to Emmett's first game of the day.  It was a little chilly before the game and it started to get pretty windy and rainy.  This game ended in a tie. We went back to the hotel to warm up and have the boys do some schoolwork.  The weather mostly dried up, but was still windy and chilly for the late afternoon game.  Emmett didn't get much playing time, in fact only about 5 minutes in the first half.  The second half wasn't much better, but for the time he was in he got fouled in the box which resulted in a PK (the first point for his team) and an assist which resulted in the only other point for his team.  They lost this game, which disqualified us from the final game scheduled Monday.  We're not sure why he's not getting much playing time, but hoping that as things progress this will change.  Emmett chose In 'N Out Burger for dinner and we had to wait in a pretty long drive through line but it was totally worth it (the kids even got free hot chocolate since it was a rainy day). We also met up that evening with some friends at their hotel pool because it was warmer than ours and the kids enjoyed going between the hot tub and pool.  

We thought about going home early since we didn't have a game Monday, but it was too late to get a refund on our hotel and we decided to make the most of it.  St. George is super close to the border of Arizona and not too far to Nevada, so we decided to take a short road trip on Sunday and get pictures by the state signs.  We also got up close and person with a big Joshua tree.  We went to a park that has some preserved petroglyphs.  Then we went to another park that has a Ninja Warrior style playground with a timed obstacle course and a place for sprint races.  We tried going to a park that has hiking trails, but it was extremely crowded with no parking so we moved on.  We went back to the dinosaur playground and saw some friends who happened to be in town also.  We went back to the hotel for some swimming although the kids didn't last long because it was cold and the hot tub was being re-filled.  We got food from 2 different restaurants for dinner and watched some TV.  Just before the trip our school district had sent a copy of the Mouse and the Motorcycle home for all the families to read.  We had finished that book and we owned a copy of Runaway Ralph, the next book in the series, so we took that along and I read it some each day and we finished it on the trip home.

A Joshua Tree in Arizona

Petroglyphs

Ezra (Right Lane) racing a bigger kid

We left town Monday at 9am.  The roads were better than we expected and we were glad to get home nice and early to shovel our driveway, do laundry, and get ready for the week ahead.