Spring Snow......

Don't get me wrong......I am all for spring to be here and to put away my snowboard for good. But if it is going to snow then I'm going to take advantage of it. Today I took a "Snow Day" from work and spent a full day at Sundance cruising through the powder with my friend Wendy.

The powder was AWESOME and it is a great way to end the season (see how I'm willing spring to be here??). In addition to the powder I was lucky enough to have lunch with Robert Redford and stare at him and all his beauty as he talked to my friend Wendy about the book she just wrote and that he is interested in reading (they had talked previously). He was totally nice and remembered her and is very, very interesting in reading her manuscript and helping her to get it published. So pretty much she is going to be famous soon and on Oprah promoting her book (its a biography) and I'm going to get to tell everyone I was there when it all went down. Hopefully she'll get me tickets to Oprah!!

Here are some pictures and videos of the day (you don't have to watch them all if you don't want to, but they made me laugh).

Check out these powder shots!!


My awesome skills until I crash at the end...LOL!!!



Me attacking Bishop's Bowl



Wendy - I promise she is better than this run indicates, but I was laughing so hard when she crashed right into me (her photographer)

Remembering Aunt Mary

My sweet Aunt Mary passed away last week on March 16th. She had held on for a long time, but died peacefully with family around her. Her funeral was this past Wednesday and it was one of the best funerals I've ever been to. Mary was finally free from her handicapped mortal body and it was time to celebrate her life. I can only imagine the sweet reunion she had with her Mom and Dad and many others when she passed to the other side.

Her funeral was beautiful. In addition to seeing so many family members many of Mary's handicapped friends were there. With so many sweet spirits I literally felt I was surrounded by angels (in addition to the many actual angels I'm sure were also present). I was deeply touched when her roommate, Ann (who is also Down Syndrome), was the first to pay her respects after the family prayer by running to the coffin to give Mary a kiss on the forehead. It was so touching!! Her funeral really reminded me what a sweet spirit she really had.

Here are my top 5 favorite Aunt Mary "isms"

1. Jingle Bell Rock at Christmas time. This is a Christmas tradition that I will greatly miss. It was a Christmas tradition that I really looked forward to. Even in the last years of her life she would take off her oxygen and do her choreographed dance to "Jingle Bell Rock."

2. Mary Poppins & The Sound of Music - She watched these movies everyday of her life. I truly believe that my love of these movies is directly related to her love of these movies. It was only fitting that at her funeral we heard a piano solo of "Climb Every Mountain." Talk about bringing me to tears!!!

3. Teasing her - She was so fun to tease. She took it so well and often had a great comeback. I especially loved it when she would say "yeah right!" I loved that phrase!!

4. Being "reprimanded" by her - If Mary didn't like what you were doing she made sure you knew it. Often she would beckon you aside and let you know of her disapproval. I especially loved hearing what her "punishments" were going to be. She always came up with some great ones such as "taking away the ribbons for your hair."

5. Her imaginary kids. She had 1,000 imaginary kids and she would at random talk to them, discipline them, etc. She also told me that I could marry one of her kids. I considered the offer, but thought that it wouldn't work out since that would be marrying my first cousin...LOL!

I will miss her. I truly believe that her presence at so many family functions and throughout my life helped me to grow as a person. Her sweet spirit was evident wherever she went. During our final good-bye's I did tell her to tell my future kids hello and that I'm sorry and trying hard to get them here to earth. Hopefully she passed on the message....

Here are some pictures from the funeral (sorry there are so many, but it will help my blog book at the end of the year).

Draper Temple Dedication

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I promise to be better in the future, but not much has been going on.

Today I took Madison to the Draper Temple dedication (at our Stake Center). Since Jenny & Scott were out of town on a cruise I thought perhaps Madi would like to attend her first temple dedication with me. Since she is only 8 I knew she probably wouldn't "get" most of what was going on, but I hoped to just add to her reservoir of spiritual experiences in her childhood that will hopefully keep her on the straight and narrow as she gets older.

Well Aunt Jen did not really plan accordingly for an 8 year old to sit quietly for 2 hours. We got there about 40 minutes early (instead of the instructed 30 minutes early) and being the bright Aunt that I am I didn't bring anything to entertain Madi while we waited. Not even scriptures she could read. She had her white hankerchief and that is it. Needless to say Madi was bored to tears after about 20 min.....and the temple dedication hadn't even started yet. Here are some one-liners from her in what had to have been the longest 2 hours of her life to date:

"Jen, I'm not thinking this is very fun yet"

"Jen I think my tummy hurts, I think I'm getting sick"

10 minutes later......."Jen, my tummy really, really hurts. I probably need to go home." (Note as I asked more clarifying questions I determined that she was "faking" sick, especially since she was magically better the second we started walking to the car. I even called her on it and asked if she was faking to which she said "no" but i know better :))

Regarding the dedicatory prayer - "That was the longest prayer I've EVER seen or heard" (it was probably 5-7 minutes long at least). She did sit with her arms folded the whole time, but got really squirmy for the last 2 minutes.

To her credit she really did great. Her acting skills did have me thinking for a bit that she might actually be sick and had me trying to figure out how I was going to handle a sudden sprint to the bathroom (if necessary). However, once I gave her my watch to play with she never discussed being sick again....LOL!

When all is said and down I was sick of sitting on the hard chairs too so I can't really fault her. As Aunt Carol welcomed her home Madi proceeded to say "Yeah! Finally!" Guess I can't fault her for that. She probably hasn't had to sit that still with nothing to entertain her ever in her life. Hopefully she doesn't equate her boredom at the temple dedication with going to the temple in the future. Guess she is still only 8......