Three New Rides

This past weekend Annie and I traveled to Salt Lake City to help move some inventory from Salt Lake City to Denver. After picking up a 24 foot moving truck (new ride #1), we headed on over to the warehouse to load the truck up with boxes and molds. It was there that I learned how to drive a forklift for the first time (new ride #2). Pallet after pallet of boxes filled our truck.


Soon after, Annie and I enjoyed a lunch at the Porcupine Grill with Aunt Rosie and Uncle Mike (Annie's aunt and uncle). It was great catching up with them and learning about the experiences they have had since being called to serve as a new mission president.

Shortly after our lunch we rushed up to Park City so that Annie could present her Christmas gift to me - A RIDE DOWN THE OLYMPIC BOBSLED TRACK. This is the only location in the world that allows the public to travel down the entire length of the track.


After sitting through a brief orientation and signing my life away, all of the riders and their guests rode to the top of the track. Here we were fitted with helmets and assigned positions on the sled. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience on The Comet (new ride #3)...


The first straightaway and turn felt more like a roller coaster. The scenery was beautiful and I was able to keep my head from hitting the sides of the sled. This all changed though once we hit the second straightaway. There is no way to describe the experience other than AMAZING. Although I was surprised as to how much I was actually able to see, much of the ride is still a blur. On the turns we hit up to 5 Gs. Our speed was clocked at 80.27 MPH. We had a time of 53.68 seconds. To put this in perspective, the Olympians are running this track in about 48 seconds.


After the exhilaration of flying through the curves of the bobsled track in Park City, it was back to the 24 foot moving van. Although the ride in the van proved to be just as bumpy as the bobsled track, it was nice to ride comfortably in the cab of the truck with Annie.

Exploring Colorado

Ian and I are enjoying exploring places in Colorado.  This weekend we took a day trip to Colorado Springs.  We started with a picnic in Palmer Park which has a lot of great picnic areas and a great view of Colorado Springs.

We then visited the U.S. Olympic Training Center.  We watched many of the olympic teams in training.    There are only three olympic training centers in the USA and Colorado was picked for one of them because of the high altitude.  

This is a picture of Bob Beamon who still holds the record for long jump: jumping 29 feet 2 1/2 inches.    I am standing 29 feet, 2 1/2 inches down the hall.  

Lastly, we met up with my family and went to a piano performance of The Five Browns.  For those of you who don't know who they are, you can check out their website at http://www.the5browns.com/.  I am still thinking about how incredible their music was!    

Must listen to...

For any folk music lovers, I just found a new artist (she has actually been around for a while, but I just found her music)- Kate Rusby. You can listen to her version of "You Belong To Me" on this YouTube video.  The video isn't great, but the music is amazing!  An artist with real talent.

A Good Read

I finished the book "Stones into Schools" by Greg Mortenson this week and wanted to pass the title along.  It is a sequel of sorts to his famous first book, "Three Cups of Tea."  This book details his efforts to build schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  As a teacher and proponent of literacy, I agree with his philosophy that to really empower a people or a nation you must give them opportunities to learn and educate themselves.  This second book was also a really interesting view into the lives of the Afghan and Pakistan people (one that we don't hear about in the news).  Happy reading!  I am looking for another good book to read if anyone has ideas.

When the World Gives You Lemons...

This post was originally going to be about a wonderful weekend of skiing and relaxing in Park City, but instead turned into a post about the generosity of random people.

As soon as we arrived in Park City, we rented our skis and headed to our hotel to pick up our lift tickets (free skiing at Deer Valley; shoot us a note if you want to know how to score this deal) and change into our ski clothes. To our great dismay, we found that I had grabbed the wrong bag off of the plane and we were in possession of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant's suitcase. Instead of snowpants and gloves, we had shaving cream and the Southwest Flight Attendant Manual. When I called the flight attendant's cell phone, he was extremely forgiving, told me to enjoy my vacation, and mentioned that he wouldn't need his bag until the following day.

Trying to make the best of the situation, we decided to ski in what we were wearing. Both of us had only a pair of jeans, wool socks, a beannie, and a fleece (luckily Annie had a pair of glove liners as well). Before we hit the slopes, one of the hotel staff donated a pair of gloves to my cause and while on the mountain, a ramdom camera man gave me another fleece. Annie ended up with a neck gaiter and a pair of gloves to keep her warm. While we were far from the winning the best-dressed couple at Deer Valley and definitely had the best story for all of the Deer Valley staff, we were warm enough and enjoyed a great day of skiing.

This weekend a number of ski competitions were being held at Park City, including the Skier Cross World Championships. It was an incredible site seeing four skiers race down the course and battle for the glory of being crowned the champion.

After warming up in the hotel we had some friends and family join us for the next skiing event, the freestyle aerials competition. We saw a perfect score on a lay, triple full, full (translation: a full-laid out flip, a flip with three twists, and a flip with one twist) which turned out to be the winning jump. Nick and Jordan Olsen (cousins), Brent and Kristen Ludwig (Annie's sister and her husband), Alana, Eileen Heng (Alana's friend) and Heather Balli (a former roommate of Annie's) enjoyed dinner, the aerials competition and some hot chocolate with us.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. Yes, we did receive our luggage (back in Denver) and yes, the flight attendant did receive his luggage (in Ontario). I have always been told by my mother that when the world gives you lemons, just make lemonade. Little did I know that it would be some random strangers that provided the much needed sugar to make this weekend as sweet as it was.

We Found Thomas' Tender

Annie and I took a trip to the Colorado Railroad Museum this weekend to learn about the railroad history of Colorado and the Czech composer, Dvorak. Dvorak possessed a great love for trains and steam engines and so the Museum thought it would be appropriate to have a special exhibit on the composer (many other Denver sites are participating in CzechPoint, a celebration of the Czech culture in Denver).

The first two pictures are of Annie and me in front of two of the locomotives on display. For you train experts out there, you will notice that each of the trains has a tender (a car full of coal), similar to that of many trains from the Island of Sodor.

We had the opportunity to ride in a passenger can that was built in the 1880s. It is from the narrow-gauge railroad called the Chili Line (so called because all the residents along the Souther Colorado to New Mexico route were always drying chilis outside of their homes). The light fixture above our heads is the original light fixture from 1880.

Our last stop was in front of the oldest operating steam locomotive in Colorado (yes, it also has a tender). What a fun afternoon of learning about trains, music, and tenders.

New Hobbies

I have picked up some new hobbies lately.  New year=new hobbies.  The first hobby is being crafty with my little sister Whitney.  This last week we made these cute flowers to wear in our hair or on a jacket.  

 Doesn't she make a great model?

The second hobby is growing and juicing wheat grass.  For Christmas, Santa brought me a wheat grass growing kit and a juicer.

 So, for the last ten days I have been growing wheat grass in my little apartment.  I have never had much of a green thumb, but it is kind of hard to mess up on this stuff.  You can start juicing the grass after it is 6-8 inches tall.  These pictures come from our first day of juicing.  

 The look on Ian's face tells you how good it tastes.  However, if you can get over the grassy aroma, 1/4 a cup of wheat grass juice has the same nutritional value as 2 1/5 pounds of green garden vegetables!  

So, if you want to drink a glass of the wheat grass juice to good health any time, come on over!