ski day

 The kids had a day off of school on Tuesday (professional day/end of term) so we decided to take the kids skiing.  It hasn't snowed in the last couple weeks, so we were worried about the runs being icy and general yucky, but we were in luck -- it was pretty darn good for not having any powder and low snow pack.  We chose to try Wolf Mountain resort.  It's a little place in the hills above Ogden.  It has 3 or 4 lifts and most of the terrain is beginner to intermediate runs.  They also have some fun areas with obstacles and a half-pipe for the boarders. They offered some great learn-to-ski deals for locals and low cost Tuesday deals -- can't beat that!

 The worst part of skiing is getting all the equipment rented -- ugh!  Once we got past that, we got Jacob into a snow boarding class -- first time!  He absolutely loved it, and picked up on it really quickly.  He was dropping into the half-pipe by afternoon!  This was Matthew's first time ever, so we got him signed up for a ski class.  They have a great little conveyor belt lift for beginners (especially kids) with a very gentle slope.

 He got bored riding the conveyor belt after lessons, so Mark & I tried him on the lift for a beginner run.  It was pretty hard, so we convinced him to stick to the conveyor belt for a bit longer.  All-in-all, he had a fun time.

Jared and Ryan decided to ski.  Jared took off by himself while Mark & I helped Ryan get the jist of skiing again -- he's been boarding the last couple of times.  After a couple runs and a little frustration, his memory kicked in and he was off having a grand time.  As it turned out, a few families in the ward/neighborhood happened to have the same idea we did about a ski day and so Ryan and Jacob had a lot of fun with their friends in the afternoon.  When it was time to turn in all our equipment, we realized that someone had taken off with my skis and poles!  We looked around and couldn't find them and told the rental staff.  They helped us look around and finally located my skis in an area near the ski school (definitely not where I had taken them off!)  Thankfully, crisis was averted - Whew!  We had a fun day in the sunshine and clean mountain air!