March 2024

We started out March with a trip to West Yellowstone, Montana and skiing at Big Sky.  This has also become a fun tradition of a trip.  We drove down Thursday after work and got dinner on the way.  Friday morning we took off early for the hour drive from West Yellowstone to Big Sky.  It was really snowy, but Jim is an excellent driver in the snow and we ended up passing a long line of cars.  One of our friends who is Emmett's soccer coach and we ski with some texted and asked if we were on our way to Big Sky.  They were in the line of cars that we passed and had recognized our car.  We saw a few slide offs and came to one with no one helping, so we pulled over to see if we could help.  It was a couple in a rented 2WD SUV and they were very stuck.  It was in Yellowstone National Park, so soon after a park ranger pulled over to help and ended up calling a tow truck for them.  The boys wanted me to take a picture making it look like our car was pulled over.  We continued on to Big Sky and Emmett got to ski with his coach and friend.  Ezra skied a few runs with me and was ready to be done by lunch time.  Ezra and Elliott decided they were both done after lunch and spent the afternoon holding doors for people coming and going from the lodge.  They got lots of kind words, chocolate chip cookies, and brand new hats from Spyder reps that were bring gear to the store.  They LOVED being doormen.  It was the last day for the National Brotherhood of Snowsports meeting and that made for a whole different demographic of skiers.   

Saturday was an absolute blizzard in West Yellowstone and was also Ezra's 13th birthday.  Jim made HUGE pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  We had planned to go out to dinner, but due to the blizzard and lots of leftovers, we ended up staying in.  Ezra opened his gifts and was thrilled to get his first phone, as well as lots of other thoughtful gifts.  We hung around the resort and town, doing a little shopping, watching movies, swimming, playing ping pong, playing the xbox, exercising in the work out room, etc.   I had also made a chocolate zucchini cake for Ezra, which was his request for his birthday cake and we brought it on our trip with us.   

Sunday we checked out and used a storage room at the resort to leave some of our stuff so that we didn't have to take it all skiing with us.  We had beautiful weather for skiing and I skied some areas that I had never skied before there.  We had good weather and roads for our trip home.

Trying to help a stuck car

Waiting for our pizza in the lodge

 

The next weekend was the state competition for Mathcounts.  Ezra got to go down on a bus with the team on Friday.  They stopped at a mall in Twin Falls for lunch and shopping and then continued to their hotel in Boise, where they went out for Pizza as a team.  After I worked, Jim and I went to Boise too, leaving Emmett and Elliott home with the dog.  I had been struggling to figure out how I could support Ezra, if I should go to Boise for the day or what, and it turned out to be a great little getaway for Jim and I.  Ezra kept in contact with us (glad he had a phone) and we ended up not seeing him until Saturday at lunch time.  The competition was at Boise State University and Ezra also got to eat lunch on campus.  We watched the countdown round, where the top 10 from the day go head to head.  The top 4 from the day get to go to Nationals.  The team from Ezra's school got 2nd place.  We aren't totally sure how Ezra did, but it was a good experience and Ezra is hoping to go again next year.

Ezra also started taking an online math class.  He can take Algebra 1 online and be eligible to take geometry as an 8th grader.  This will put him 2 years ahead in math and open up some other possibilities for him.  The state pays for the class and it appears on his highschool transcript.  His teacher is really great and although it is a lot of work, he is doing really well.  

We celebrated Everest's 2nd birthday.  We baked him dog treats and got him some gifts.  He is a really good dog.  He never gets into food in the kitchen, although he always waits patiently right next to me while I'm cooking, waiting for handouts.  He will eat absolutely any food and seems to like EVERYTHING.  He loves going on walks and wants to smell everything.  Our dog sitter says he always gets along with other dogs and knows how to greet them politely.  He is still pretty excitable and has puppy energy, but he's grown out of most of his bad puppy habits.  

Ezra will probably be promoted to Yellow belt at the beginning of May

For Spring break we took a trip to SLC.  We had good weather at the start of the trip and it gradually got worse.  The skiing wasn't very good, but we still had fun.  We skied at Alta and Snowbird.  Ezra hung out in the lodge and worked on his math class and played his Nintendo Switch.  Jim and I had some time to ski together which was fun.  We rode every chair at Alta together.  We met up with some friends that moved away and skied with them.  We also went to a fun playground, swam at the hotel, shopped and ate at Ikea, shopped at an outlet mall and Scheels, and ate at Post Malone's Raising Canes.  

This ski tunnel at Snowbird takes you to the back side of the mountain on a conveyor belt

Our outdoor soccer season started the last week of March with outdoor practices and our first 2 games.  Both Elliott and Emmett are excited to be playing.  We dyed our Easter eggs.  On Easter we went to the 8am service at our church.  Elliott helped me make cinnamon rolls the night before and we baked them after church.  Elliott took some over to our neighbors.  I worked on our meal and then went back to church to help in the nursery for the 11:30 service.  Emmett watched the Manchester City/Arsenal game which ended tied 0-0.  Jim brought Elliott to the church for the Easter Egg Hunt which was a little damp.  The weather got worse throughout the day which made it perfect for indoor egg hunts and cooking.  We had ham, Cracker Barrel cheesy potatoes, asparagus, deviled eggs, and fruit pizza.