Ice Skating in NM

One of our normal Christmas vacation activities is going sledding.

Unfortunately, Sawyers hill was closed and I guess we don't know anywhere else to go. (Truth be told, sledding isn't my favorite activity, other than the fact that I'm with my family. Too much work for a 2 second scary ride down.)

So we went ice skating!

Gage kept telling his Mom and Dad to leave him alone.  Rather independent little soul.

But I think his Mom didn't mind too much :-)

Can you believe some of my neices and nephew relations have never been ice skating?

I know.. craziness.  We grew up roller skating so ice skating isn't that far removed... same muscles and moves.  Just takes a moment to get used to the differences.

Angela went for a spin as well.

Sometimes its nice to have something to hold on to, but she always wants to go way fast and then have you fling her around.  Tires you out cuz who is doing all the work?  That's right, me.  Can't get alot of traction on the ice.

Aaron and Alec fell down a bit but that's cuz they were trying all sorts of tricks.

Just as we were getting ready to think about going home, they called us off the ice and the zambini came out.  So of course we had to wait and see what it was like to skate on new ice.  So nice and smooth.

Dad spent the whole time watching us... after paying.  Cuz that's what Dad's do.

Little Gage had gotten pretty good by then.

Of course, I couldn't get a good picture of Jared cuz he was all over the place, doing tricks and going fast (I should have video'd him but didn't think about it until later).

Then he'd hockey stop right up close... making Jenny go Huh?

Of course I didn't get any pictures of myself cuz Dad wouldn't use my new phone...

So here is Emily as we take our skates off and head back to the car.

Just take my word for it that I was a pretty awesome skater. We (Jared, Emily, and I) practiced skating with big long sweeps and one arm swinging in and out.  Just like Apolo Ohno... except without the goatee.

Thorpe gets Shoes

I will post about our other christmas exploits but this is the easiest.

Thorpe is Angela's assistance dog of 9yrs and this year Angela will be up in Idaho for school during the winter.

So Emily got him shoes to protect those old feet.  He gets ice in there that can really bother him and the cold/ice can hurt his paws.

This is the video (There were a lot of other people taking video so I didn't get all of the very beginning...and I cut out the part where I complain loudly :-).

He's used to having people do things to him (like having to wear a vest) so it wasn't quite as funny as other videos on the internet, but we shore got a kick out of it.

Merry Christmas!

I know most of you are already vacationing but I wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas.

I found the top angel while cleaning out my closet and couldn't remember for a second if I had made it, it had been lost so long.

Since my cheap little tree (Home Depot baby!) had all these random sticks at the top from when they shaved it, I thought I'd do a choir of angels at the top.   Don't have anywhere else to put them... my mantel was full.

Ignore the scarves being blocked on the carpet... I'll be posting about my knitting exploits AFTER Christmas and all the present giving :-).

My tree is on a timer so it's on when I get up in the morning and when I get home from work.  My goal is always to be in bed before it turns off... not always attainable.

The poor thing is dead.  All these pictures were taken last week before it completely crumpled.  But.. you get what you paid for when u get ur tree from Home Depot.  And never fear, I'm going home to NM tomorrow and my tree can finish drying out all by it's little lonesome while I am away. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

The Great Turkey Shoot

This Thanksgiving there was lots of fun and games in Idaho Falls... and a turkey shoot.

Here are most of the participants.

Don't see the turkeys?

They are very round.

There is a small one and a big one.

Ohh.. look at that concentration!

I've got the stance down.. I watch Castle.

And now to go along with the following silly pictures, I will tell you a story... that has nothing to do with the pictures.

Its a common theme on my blog.

Once upon a time, Jim and Bethanie had cable in their rented house but no TV.

Emily wanted to rectify that situation so we could watch football on Thanksgiving.

Cuz that's what you do on Thanksgiving.  So she got onto Craigs list and found a TV for 20 dollars in Rexburg.  Woo Hoo!

Jim thought it sounded a little big and really the Dietrichs weren't that interested in a TV... but the Aunts persevered by saying Emily could take it back for Megan to use at college. 

And off they drove to Rexburg in Emily's Forester.

They found the house, climbed the stairs, and saw the monstrosity sitting on the floor.  The man selling it smiled, recieved the 20 dollars, and said, "good luck". 

The stairs were narrow and Emily and Alecs hands hurt very badly by the time the thing was manuvered into the back of the car (in my defence I didn't realize it was SO heavy!).  It filled the WHOLE space.  There was no way it was going back to Utah unless the travelers decide to leave all their luggage in IF.

Well, Bethy can sell it on Craigs list after we watch some Football.

The TV was brought into the living room, this time with the help of others to help spare Emily and Alecs hands.

But alas, the cable did not work.  After a few calls to the cable company and trying different connections in the house, Jim found out the cable had been turned off by the owners the previous month. 

There was nothing to be done until after Thanksgiving so instead we had to rake leaves, talk, cook, eat, and play games.  And tell the story over and over again to whoever would listen.

The End.

Another Tri.. Kinda

Emily was so sad to miss the Pumpkinman Triathlon a couple weeks ago so I told her I had been thinking about doing the Telos tri again up in Orem.

Next thing I know Bethanie and Angela decide to drive down (just for me of course... ignore the fact that Angela was already coming down for a concert in Salt Lake) and my niece and nephew in Provo decide they are going to watch.

OK OK! Twist my arm! I'll do it.

Most of my cheering squad.  It was cold!

Did I mention I've been obsessed with Harry Potter and knitting?  Oh wait, haven't done that post yet.  Well,  lets just say sitting on the couch knitting until the wee hours of the night every night doesn't make for great triathlon preparation.

But no matter, I told myself, its a low key race.  And low key it was.  Low and slow.

About here is where I could finally feel my toes.... coming into transition (they do it backwards with the swim last cuz nobody wants to develop frost bite by running wet with little snow flakes falling around them).

After taking my bike across the wet grass and racking it before the start, I came back later to find ice on the tires.  It was cold!

Apparently someone warming up on the bike had crashed and gone to the hospital so they limited the ride to the parking lot... about .05 miles, give or take .02 miles.

I shouldn't have bothered to put my shoes.  But do you see those two water bottles? This time I had no problems with dehydration on my .01 mile bike ride (gets smaller every time).

FYI, take off ur helmet BEFORE trying to strip down to your swimming suit.  Its a good thing they didn't get a picture of that.. 

All in all it ended up being pretty fun, even though the pool part was pretty annoying... as I knew it would be.  That's what I get for being such a slow runner.  I finally just started swimming over and through people, although I did try to be nice to the dad walking his swimming son down the lane.  I also didn't realize I was at the end and so started another lane b4 turning around. 

Low key, Melanie, Low key.

It WAS nice to be done in less than 45 minutes.  Then we could get Megan and Alec off to their other commitments and the rest of us off to Neaders for a French toast breakfast.  YUM.

The rest of the weekend we helped Emily get her garden ready for winter.

And by help I mean played in the leaves..

He's Escaping!

Watch out for falling leaves :-)

BTW, because of the "modified" bike ride Telos has given me a $10 coupon for their next tri in April to "keep you motivated to workout through the winter months". 

Hasn't worked yet.