Turkey Time

I'm late with an update (sorry) but things have been real busy here the last month.  We had a nice Thanksgiving with Becky's friend Shannon coming to visit.  It was the first time we haven't spent Thanksgiving with one of our families but we managed to have an edible meal and enjoy some areas of Utah.
The highlight was our trip to Park City.  It's a ritzy place with a schwanky ski resort and the location of the annual Sundance film festival.  Lots of movie stars own places there so it was a neat area to look around.  We visited the Olympic park where a number of events were held back in the 2002 Winter Olympics and were fortunate to see the Canadian Olympic team training.  The park has ski jumping, freestyle jumping, bob sled, and luge tracks.  Seeing the skiers doing the jumps was pretty amazing.  It looks like they are coming straight down a high-rise building and then launching into the air.  I even managed to get a picture with one of the guys.  Not something you'd see in Virginia!
Other than that we are starting to feel the difference in snow levels each day.  We have about a foot on the ground and are expecting another foot this weekend.  The valley has a lot less so once we make it off the mountain we are fine.  They take great care of the roads so no worries there. 
We are starting the search for a new home which is fun, frustrating, exciting, and time-consuming.  We've found a few that we love but the short-sale process is annoying.  So far we are still just looking.
Things are kicking into gear for Christmas around here and it will be nice to spend some time off work with family.  100% chance of a white Christmas.  And it's fun to see the girls get so excited each day.
Here are some pictures of the dogs, the kids, Olympic Park, and a nice picture Becky took of the moon rising over the mountain- visit our flickr site for more!

Snow is Cold....

Just a quick update after an interesting weekend.  I think it's hard to describe the snow here with just a few pictures from our crappy digital camera.  It was different in Virginia - the sky would turn a solid greyish color and you didn't really see clouds.  A full day of snow would build up pretty well and occasionally the wind would drift it in places.  Not here is Utah - the storms roll in quickly and even a quick dusting is like being in a blizzard.  There is no visibility up here on the mountain and the snow is much lighter - so it blows everywhere.  This weekend we got about 6 inches but there are drifts that are a couple of feet and other areas where you can see some grass.  I make it sounds terrible but it is actually very pretty!  A few pictures below showing our fun in it.  Still waiting for the deep snow I keep hearing about....
So it snowed and felt colder in the house.  We turned up the heat (anyone that knows me understands this was not a decision taken lightly) and went to bed.  This morning we woke up to about 49 degrees in the house.  Around 11:30 and $400 bucks later (one good thing about renting - we aint paying for that!) we had the heat back.  Not a fun morning though!
In other news, poor Madison is in a cone again.  That's the 3rd time this year and we are at a loss what is going on with her.  She keeps scratching her eye and our new vet had no clue how either.  They suspect she has something in her eye and irritates it by rubbing.  But they check her each time and nothing is there but the scratch.  I just hope it isn't some permanent problem.
Lastly, I'm taking part in a team-building activity at work by growing a beard.  I've never really done that so not sure what I think yet.  It will be 2 weeks on Wednesday and I have another 4 to go after that.  I promised Becky it would be gone by Christmas!
My extended family is traveling to the Outer Banks for Thanksgiving.  We'll miss being there this year and hope to be able to attend next year.  Safe travels everyone over the holidays!
So much for the short update.  Here are some snow pics:

Pumpkins, Costumes and Snow

Busy times here in Utah recently.  My job is going well and our company recently signed some big accounts (Comcast, GE, McAfee, Vodafone, China Telecom, etc.) but....that means a lot of work for me.  Since I'm on the front lines with customer requirements this has equaled a lot of late nights.  Good problem to have though!

We had a recent bought of sickness at the house.  Nothing serious - just some nose blowing, headaches, sore throats, etc.  Lauren seems to complain the least but she got the brunt of it and spent some time with a nebulizer (sp?) which Sarah had a ball hooking her up to.  It's been a challenge trying to get this swine flu shot and finally got some 'tickets' for next week to get the girls inoculated.  Part of me thinks this is just a media circus but we want to be safe.

We did more harvest-type activities including Sarah's school trip to another pumpkin patch and our own trip to buy some pumpkins.  Utah pumpkins are cheap - we got 4 for about $10.  The girls decorated them 3 or 4 times before we finally carved them last weekend.  And we roasted some pumpkin seeds which were a household hit.

The girls got to come by my office for some early candy-collecting.  They had fun seeing where Dad works and everyone enjoyed seeing the kids dressed up.  Thankfully one of my co-workers who dressed up as a crazy zombie was in a meeting at the time.  Sarah had a Halloween party at school so basically stayed in costume 2 straight days.

Halloween went off pretty well and it's fun to see the girls get so excited about going around the neighborhood. 

We had a little bit of snow last week as well.  Nothing that caused any problems but it is certainly going to be an interesting winter.  The tops of the mountains are now covered but we expect 60 degrees all week so some of that will melt off. 

We are looking forward to some visitors for the holidays.  Becky's friend Shannon is coming out for Thanksgiving and my Mom will be here for Christmas.  I hope they like snow!

Here are a few pictures - check out our flickr site (Click Here!) for the full report!  Click the pictures for bigger versions.

Dorothy and the not-so-cowardly Lion

Ready to go!

Trick or Treating in the neighborhood

Bounty from office visit - Lauren chose the M&M costume

Sarah showing off the pumpkins

Searching the patch for pumpkins

The dogs are friends now

Lauren applying swine flu shot to Sarah

Lauren and Sarah playing in the snow

Mountains with snow

Pumpkin Patch Plus Some

We went with some of our new friends - the Beck Family - to a pumpkin patch this past weekend.  I've been to pumpkin patches before and thought this would be more of the same.  Some hay, a few rides, moon-bounce, and of course lots of pumpkins.  I'd seen signs for this place on the way back from work - it's called 'Corn Belly's' and was by far the grandest of all pumpkin patches in existence. 

Imagine Disneyland with a harvest theme and you have Corn Belly's.

I'll post some pictures to give an idea of what we enjoyed.  The girls enjoyed the slides, princess dress-up castle, the corn maze, and the pig races most.  I think the high point for the Beck's was the pumpkin cannon that fired pumpkins a 100 yards at some old cars.

Inspriations

I planned to fill this blog with stories about our family in Utah.  Today I wanted to pass along a story that is both heartbreaking and uplifting.

I work with a guy named Vance Checketts.  He is one of those people that just impresses you after spending a few minutes talking to him.  I interviewed with 10 people and Vance was the last person I met with.  We spent an hour talking about life in Utah and how my family would make the adjustment.  He was more concerned about the transition we would make than the job at hand.  Later I emailed him to ask a couple of questions about schooling and health care in the area and Vance responded with answers as well as his home phone number and his wife's cell phone number.  I was sold on the leadership here at Decho after that experience.  Vance and his wife have 9 children - amazing.  And he recently returned from a trip climbing Mt. Denali which blows my mind.

Vance's sister and brother-in-law were involved in a plane crash months ago.  They survived but had a very difficult and long recovery.  Stephanie received horrific burns and still struggles with her day to day life.  This video was a feature from the Oprah show.  (Sorry about the subtitles!)
Video of Stephanie and Kids

Here is a link to the original story:
Original Story

And here is a picture of Vance on the summit of Denali with a tribute to Stephanie:
Vance on Summit

Views from Utah

Just a quick update with some pictures of some different things we've seen here at the house.

Rainbows, Snow, and some really pretty scenery when we took a drive on the other side of the mountains.

The drive is called the 'Alpine Loop' and it meanders around the Unita National forest through the American Fork canyon and then around the Timpanoga peak.  At the end you pass Sundance resort - very nice drive especially with the fall colors.  Lauren slept through it all.

We got our first dusting of snow on September 30th.  From work I could see the storm hovering around the mountains all day.  Becky said it snowed off and on for a bit at the house - but nothing that stuck to the ground.  The mountains stayed 'snowy' for a few days but that has mostly melted off.  Still...snow...in September...uh oh....

One of the real interesting things that happened I didn't have a chance to get any pictures.  A Moose ran along the road behind our house this week!  Going out on the back deck I noticed some cars stopped and heard what sounded like a horse.  Then I noticed the huge black moose trotting down the highway.  Becky and girls got outside in time to see it jump into the fields and run up the hills into the mountains.  Those things are a lot bigger than I ever expected!

The girls also got to visit a petting farm and the zoo recently.  They loved both.  The zoo was fun because they had a bunch of baby animals there right now - elephant, giraffe, snow leopard, etc.  It's a very nice place where you feel much closer to the animals than back in DC at the National Zoo.

I'm throwing in a picture of Bella and a spider we saw out back - both are about the same size.

Keeping the pics small - I think you can click on them for a bigger view!