Like Mother Like Daughter

This past weekend was planned about a year ago when the news came out that Lady Gaga was coming to Salt Lake City. And, guess who was the most excited of all to drive 342 miles to come see her live? SKIPPY!!! We started out our wild weekend Thursday night when I got off early and Skip came with my favorite homemade chex mix, samoa girl scout cookies and Gevurtraminer!! We rented "Love and Other Drugs" and both drooled over Jake Gyllenhaal.

Friday we hit up Park City Mountain Resort for a really great day of skiing! Wind shut down some of the lifts in the morning, but we were able to ski around the open terrain until they all opened. For the most part it was a sunny day and we were both zipping down the mountain! We randomly found one of my favorite riding buddies in the park and then Skippy got lost. I always say that Skippy needs a harness with a leash attached..... luckily from where she wandered off, she only had one option to get to the bottom of the lift. She greeted me about 15 minutes later at the bottom with lots of big waves and a smiling look of relief on her face :) We ate lunch up at the top and had a beautiful view of all of Park City and Deer Valley. It was wonderful!

I think Skip's favorite part of the day was when she did a 360 kick flip in Three Kings.....oh wait...that's not what happened! Skip was hauling ass and went off a jump! It was totally accidental, but she landed it! Way to be Skip!

We took a little detour on the way home and drove down through Provo Canyon (my favorite!) and she bought new dishes at IKEA. After all that, we went to our favorite pizza place, Settebello. We both had a margharita pizza, delicious vino and fabulous blood orange and mango gelato. It reminded us both of our time in Italy and all of the amazing thin crust, slimy Italian pizza. Yuuuum!!! We went to see "Limitless" with Bradley Cooper...who with his incredible blue eyes and perfectly wavy hair, was far from being long in the tooth, like we had referred to Matthew McConaughey as. We both really liked it!

On Saturday, we got up early and drove up to the Canyons. The wind was blowing upwards of 60 mph and the majority of the lifts were closed. We decided to go up anyway and headed straight over to Iron Mountain where Skippy would be able to enjoy some fun runs. It turned out that she loved the Canyons even more than she loved Park City, which was a lot!!! Her favorite were the beautiful tree runs on Cascade. We even explored a completely new bowl...which whetted my appetite to hike a new ridge and drop the bowl, now that I know I would be able to get out of it! Overall, it turned out to be a really awesome day, even though I wasn't able to show her some of my other fun runs.

After that, we went home and got all glammed up and we were off to LADY GAGA!!! My ticket broker buddy totally hooked us up and we had amazing seats. The Scissor Sisters opened which was quite interesting...needless to say. Lady Gaga put on a fabulous show that was full of energy, lots of cool costumes and props, dancing, a piano on fire, claws, blood, lights, smoke, really cut back up dancers, teeth, her love for the gay community, a huge monster, see through tops and a fan base that ALL dressed up in everything from leotards to colored hair, bubbles, panda bears, monsters, death....I'm not quite sure what was happening, but it was FUN!!!

So...THANK YOU SKIPPY! I LOVE YOU AND HAD A FABULOUS WEEKEND! I can't wait for the wedding!!!

I Love This Baby Girl

It took over 2 years but I think me and my baby girl are finally both in love with each other. I have been getting so much enjoyment from her lately; watching her hop and run through the snow, spooning with her while we both lay in front of the hairdryer and laughing at her haircut. Mischa really is a sweet little baby girl. Now, if we can get her to calm down at Grammie and Grampies house so that Grammie doesn't have to chase her with the broom anymore, we'll be in business!

Hello My LOVE!

The 2012 Travis Rice 153.

EPIC Spring Blue Bird Day!!!

I have to admit....I was a Canyons hater at the beginning of the season. But....after having some really epic days up there this winter, I have realized that the Canyons has done me right. I took my friend Josh up there today and we had an absolutely amazing day!!! We tried to hit up Canis Lupis, but they shut the lift down right as we reached the chair! I am completely incompetent at operating the tow rope, so I had to hike back up to the gondola....

Once back at the base, we decided to sit on "The Beach" (cute lawn chairs in a line at the bottom of the mountain) and sit in the sun for a minute. (Picture 1). It was about 45 degrees up there and I was so thrilled to be riding in my sweatshirt. After lounging on the beach, we hit up the mile long park, which was awesome! They really have done a great job with it....little boxes, big boxes, mini kickers, monster kickers, a gong, corrugated tubes and walls, rails, tree jibs...the works. After only rolling through there once, we headed straight for Ninety Nine 90. Both of us agree that dropping "Big Mac" bowl is the best run in Utah. Granted, it is quite a hike, but the view is incredible, the hike isn't too bad and the run is totally epic. Without being dropped off by a heli, this is the best run accessible via a chairlift + hike in Utah.

I really, really love, love, love sitting on this peak overlooking Big Cottonwood Canyon, Park City and Salt Lake. I enforced my 10 minute sitting rule and Josh was even conciliatory enough to let me take a picture of us. (He likes to hike and drop immediately. I like to sit and enjoy the scenery, observe the silence and rest from hiking). The third picture is from the top of Big Mac bowl. We hiked the ridge past Dutchman's and Easter Bowl. We swapped phones and he videotaped me and I did the same for him. I cannot even explain the body high I get from riding this bowl. The top of the bowl was fresh powder from the recent storm. My video shows HUGE rooster tails. Of course, I was riding my magic carpet...my new T Rice, and was flying like a bat out of hell all the way down. I took a picture of my line from the bottom and laughed at how erratic it was compared to the skiers tight S turns. When I got to the bottom there were about 10 people who stopped to watch and almost all were videoing/photographing my descent.

The Canyons is kind of an anomaly. The resort is wide with large proclaimed acreage, but the runs are short and the chair lifts are long. The tree runs can be wonderful and the groomers are average. But....there are some really amazing niche areas; Canis Lupis- the natural half pipe, incredible back country bowl access and a technical park run. I am glad that I gave the Canyons a second chance because it sure has provided me with some memorable days on the mountain this season, and not least of which, my favorite run in Utah!!! :)

Buona Festa Della Donna!

La giornata internazionale della donna, comunemente definita festa della donna, ricorre l'8 marzo di ogni anno per ricordare sia le conquiste sociali, politiche ed economiche delle donne, sia le discriminazioni e le violenze cui esse sono ancora fatte oggetto in molte parti del mondo.

Festa Della Donna means "The Day of the Woman" in Italian. It is tradition to give the women in your life mimosa flowers, or other yellow flowers to celebrate this day. I have been celebrating this day for the past 10 years and it is one of my favorite traditions that I acquired since living in Italy. To the confident, loving, fun, adventurous and wonderful women in my life- Tanti Auguri!!

Take a Swig, It's On Me

Cheers! This is for all the people who wonder why I'm not married, don't have kids, don't have a "real" career...and this is especially for the people who tell me every day what an awesome life I have. Cheers to snowboarding in the best place in the world on a Monday afternoon with a bottle of delicious Park City whiskey to swill on while floating over powder pillows, ducking and dodging trees and branches, alley- ooping in a half pipe, riding rails, catching snow in my mouth, rockin out to my favorite thuggish ruggish beats and having one of the best days of the season.

Surprise Serenity

I have been out for a week with a sore knee, but decided that today was the day for the big comeback. I would not consider myself to be a fair weather rider, but this morning I looked at the snow cams and considered whether I should just stay at home, ice the knee and do Arabic homework, of if I should brave the conditions and head up. I decided that I have had so many beautiful days this winter, that it almost hasn't even felt like winter and that a good snowy day would remind me that we haven't even hit the best part of the season yet!

So, I threw on my snowpants and drove in the rain up to Park City to the Canyons. All season I had been itching to hit up Canis Lupis, the natural halfpipe, and that became my mission for the day. The Canyons have debuted many new features this year on their mountain including a whole new area on Iron Mountain and a heated chair that is covered. I have been laughing about this heated covered chair all season because the weather is always nice when I go up (lucky me!). But, today....oh today...I realized the benefit of the heated covered chair! Instead of heading to the gondola line (which I hate riding) I headed straight for the heated covered chair to try it out. By this point, it was snowing pretty hard with really big wet flakes. I had to laugh at how brilliant and yet how ridiculous this contraption is!!!

Pictured above: 1: From inside the covered heated chair looking out. The empty seat next to me was heated and the orange cover comes down almost to your feet.

Pictured above: 2: Me getting my face ready to go from inside my covered, heated chair. Very warm and dry in there!

Pictured above: 3: From my seat looking at the ones in front of me. Little orange heated pods.

I immediately headed for the farthest chair over, which was Super Condor and was disappointed to find that GNU had a tent set up and they were sessioning the pipe and had it roped off. I went to the bottom and decided to try it again and rode a little ways past them and then dropped into Canis Lupis farther down and it was great!! It's like a roller coaster, I loved it!

I stayed on that side of the mountain for a couple hours finding new fun tree runs and lots of untracked powder. Somewhere along the line I put on the Twilight soundtrack and just mellowed out. Normally I am rockin out to Marilyn Manson, Static X, 50, Sly Boogy and the other thuggish ruggish bones, but today I listened to the Twilight soundtrack, which included a beautiful version of Clair de Lune. I found two really, really beautiful runs. One was off of Eazy Street off of Super Condor. I had on my Clair de Lune and rode through the big snow covered trees, with no one else around. I did that a few times then headed over to Iron Mountain where I found the same type of run.... fresh powder, lonely trees, just me listening to Clair de Lune watching the snow fall so silently, but it was so beautiful. I hadn't anticipated having that kind of day- one that was so quiet, serene, beautiful and zen like. I enjoyed my day so much I couldn't stop. I had only planned on doing a few runs but just kept riding. I definitely plan on having more days like this... I really, really enjoyed it.

Home Sweet Home

I hadn't been to my Home Sweet Home since New Years! I had a random Saturday night and Sunday off so I packed up the kids, the ski boots (he he) and my torn Christmas tree jammies and headed for the border!

I got in about 8:00 pm and Squirrel had his new recipe for romesco ready for my gastronomical pleasure. Skippy, with her "expensive taste in wine" (a comment some lady made to her in the checkout line at Winks, regarding her $6.99 bottle of Fetzer Gevurtraminer)(which is my favorite wine of all time) prepared an awesome salad and pumpkin pie. Yuuum!!!

Sunday morning we stopped by church to listen to Squirrel sing in the choir to a new version of "The Lords Prayer". It is one of my favorite songs and was really happy to hear them sing it. After that Skip and I stopped by McQ's and rented MY FIRST PAIR OF SKIS!!!! I asked for skis in the 153-159 range, with a rocker.....the boys over there paired me with the K2 Burnin Luv 153's. I got really excited driving up to Bogus on that pretty blue day with Skip and our skis! Once up there, Skip asked if I wanted to hit up the Bunny Hill.... HECK NO!!! I clicked into those bad boys, took the lift to the top of the mountain and was OFF!!! It was similar to skiing on snow blades, just longer and a lot heavier. We made it all the way around and to the back of the mountain with no falls and quite a bit of speed! I don't know if I should be so bold as to say that I was "whipping" around the mountain, but I think I might just say that. It was a very successful first day of skiing. I refuse to "snowplow" and only do it a limited amount in the lift line. It drives me crazy to watch ski instructors teach that to newbies. I learned some bad habits when I learned to ride and am hoping to avoid learning bad habits while skiing.

Skip and I had a really, really fun day! The weather was beautiful, the snow was really nice and new and it's always a blast to be skiing with one of my favorite mountain buddies- the Skipmo! The middle picture is of me pretending to be one of the little boys who bomb the mountain by bending way down....we were going pretty fast when this picture was taken and was surprised at how well it turned out, especially given Skip's inability to see what she is actually taking a picture of through her viewfinder!

After a fun and ultimately tiring day of skiing we went home, Skip made funeral potatos and asparagus and we watched the Oscars and she fixed my jammies. Thanks Skip!

So....after trying this whole thing out, I am going to consider purchasing my own pair. A few posts ago I brazenly stated that my "new mission in life" was to learn how to ski. I was disappointed to see how badly skiing hurts my knees, compared to riding which never hurts them. But, in order to really experience the back country, I may need to overlook the pain. Skiing really makes for a different experience on the mountain. I can't say it was better or worse, but just different and I really did enjoy it. I am going to try out a wider pair and then see what I think.... But, contrary to what Josh feared and accused.. I am not going to be a traitor to my riding buddies! Being on one board is my favorite place to be!