WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!

Well, I got the white Christmas I was hoping for!! Chuck made this snowman for the Grandkids, however, before they ever got to see him he was buried in snow!

It is SO exciting to be knee deep (or more) in snow! We are having so much fun, and to have it snow on Christmas day was a bucket list wish fulfilled!

The snow didn't keep anyone away from our Christmas gathering: Sam made it home from school in Idaho, Becca made it here from Bellevue, Chuck's sister Linda drove up from St. George and Rachel and Nate were able to come with the grandkids for Christmas Eve.  So we got to see everyone but Jared and he was sorely missed!

On Saturday, Becca and I decided to be adventurous and go snowshoeing out our back door!

We used the 2 sets of snowshoes I made when I was young women's president in the Somerset ward a million years ago.  Rod Beacham had the necessary equipment and taught me and the Laurel's how to make them. After we were done constructing them, we had a Laurel's retreat to a cabin at Crystal Mountain that we had to snowshoe to- there was no road to the cabin in the winter.  All of our gear, food and supplies had to be backpacked in.

We had a great time, and Young Women leaders that were up to the challenge to trek in on foot, like Sue Dixon and Terri Skeen.  I remember Sue's van actually got stuck in the snow on the way up the hill and had to be left right on the road, where it was towed the next morning so snow plows could get through.  I have no idea how much it must of cost to get her car out of impound!

Those snowshoes have held up over the years and have been the source of a lot of entertainment in the snow- and they are getting a new lease on life!

THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE

I drove up to Idaho last week to celebrate my grandson Douglas' 4th birthday.  Since his party coincided with the opening day of the new Star Wars movie, the theme was an obvious choice.

Rachel did a great job coming up with related activities for the party: storm trooper bowling, jedi knight training (she made light sabers out of wrapping paper tubes and hung balloons from the ceiling that looked like Baba Fett and storm troopers for them to whack, and then a paper craft where they could make their own R2-D2. Culminating with a storm trooper cake. It was a cute and creative party!

While I was there, I picked Sam up from college to bring home for the holidays. As he is now off track he will be here until April. Giving us the opportunity to go see the new Star Wars movie together as a family, minus Jared who is still in Washington.

Douglas (sitting next to Rachel not looking at the camera) wore his Darth Vader Costume to the movie!! So cute!

SNOW WHITE

More snow did show up last night as the weatherman promised!

I went out and started the snow blower yesterday morning all by myself! It is easy to operate, but so heavy, it is hard to turn around.  And the wind was blowing, so even though the direction of the chute is adjustable, a gust of wind would come along and blow it all back in my face! This monster has a headlight and heated handles, but the fact of the matter is if you are going to drive a snow blower you are going to get GOOD and wet!

Chuck took a snow day yesterday, because the SLC valley actually got hit with more snow than we did up here in the mountains and road conditions were dangerous. More that 200 accidents reported.

However, today it was supposed to stop snowing in the valley by 10am, even though it is still snowing up here. So, Chuck was going to try to make it down the hill in his Chevy Malibu (company car) which is WORTHLESS in the snow.

Chuck decided to get out there and do a quick touch up to the driveway before he tried to pull his car out of the garage.

Either he has really gotten used to Park City weather or he has found a novel way to ice his knee that he had surgery on 10 days ago!

MUCH BETTER

It is looking much better around here! This is the Park City I was hoping to experience. We even got out both the snow shovel and the snow blower yesterday for the first time.  We bought the snow blower second hand so we don't have an owners manual for it, and it took a little while for Chuck to figure out all the knobs and dials, but it starts right up!

We only got about 4-5 inches, but more snow is expected over the next 2 days, so I am keeping my fingers crossed it will really dump next time.  They are so good around here about keeping ours streets plowed (ours was done at 3:30am) that I haven't really gotten to try out my snow tires.  All the roads are always bare and dry.

But it is fun to get all bundled up just to go to the grocery store. It really is starting to look a lot like Christmas.

THE SNOW GOES

My greatest expectation of moving to Park City was living in snow for 6 months of the year. I was really looking forward to deep snow, rather than the sissy stuff we have in Seattle once a year. Having grown up in San Bernardino (yes, that mass shooting happened in my home town) in Southern California, snow was a wonderment to me. In my 30 years of living there it only snowed once in the valley where I was raised, and then not enough to stick. This, I am sure is where my fantasy of living in a cabin in the woods originated.  Basically, I grew up in a desert.  However, a desert that was only an hour away from Southern California beaches, Palm Springs and LA. So I appreciated my surroundings and made the most of being a Southern California girl.

But, especially at Christmas I wanted the Currier & Ives stereotypical winter scene.  All the Christmas cards showed snug little houses hibernating in deep snow, with icicles hanging from the eaves, carolers bundled up against the frost at the front door.  The Christmas carols told me to dream of a white Christmas, and gave me visual images of sleigh rides
and snowmen. I wanted a blazing fire in the fireplace, with stockings hung and snow boots by the front door.  Some how, the desert doesn't seem very Christmassy.  I am sure that Hawaii residents have the same problem. The calendar says its Christmas, but the environment doesn't.

So here I am in Park City that advertises the "greatest snow on earth" and it is bare and dry outside- IN DECEMBER!!

We have had one snowfall since I've been here-

about 3 inches or so...

But unfortunately the snow is now long gone. I am lobbying hard with the powers that be for a white Christmas.  We are ready: we have put snow tires on both of our automobiles, I have chains in the back of my Suburban, we have bought 2 snow shovels and a MONSTER snow blower.

I just want to live the words of that song..... "The weather outside is frightful..."

STAYING HEALTHY

When you move to a new area there is always the challenge of finding doctors, dentists, nail salon, place to get your hair cut, convenient pharmacy, etc.  Neighbors and ward members have been very helpful in helping us with recommendations.  Both Chuck and I have needed doctors since we've been here.

Right before I left Bellevue, my Family Practice doctor there noticed a spot on my nose that he thought was basal cell carcinoma and told me to get it checked soon.  Which I did, and needed a deep excision to go deep enough to get it all.

The size of the lesion they removed

This is how much they had to extend the incision to close it without any puckering!!  That is down to the cartilage.

All closed up.  It is now healed with no visible scar!

Chuck just had his knee scoped yesterday to clean up 3 separate areas of shredded cartilage.  So we had to find an orthopedist- which is easy to do in a ski town.

All's well that ends well!

SO MANY PERKS!!

There are so many perks to living in Park City!!

First is much closer proximity to my grandbabies.  It only takes about 3.5 hours to drive to Rigby from here, compared to 12 hours from Bellevue. Which means that I will be a regular visitor, hopefully every few weeks or so.

My darling grandbabies- Evelyn, Levi and Douglas

Another perk of living in Park City is being near my adopted parents Dick and June Elder

And then there is the advantage of being close enough to BYU Idaho that Sam can occasionally get a ride home on the weekend (and sometimes brings all of his roommates with him)

Park City is growing on me!

THE HOME FOR US

We are finally settled in our new home enough to open it to family and friends for a Thanksgiving gathering.

It has been a long time in coming. It took us 3 months to locate the house of our dreams and put an offer on it, then another month of escrow and moving in, but here we are and loving every minute.

My main criteria for a house was large enough to house my children and grandchildren for visits and extended stays, but main level living for Chuck and I, so that as we age we don't have to negotiate stairs.  Mission accomplished!

We have accommodated 12 with everyone sleeping in a bed- my idea of Nirvana! And as you can see in the above picture a kitchen large enough to accommodate 5 cooks at once without stepping on each other.

Dick and June Elder joined us from Draper, here visiting with my daughter Rachel and grand daughter Evelyn.

The Escoto women- Chuck's sister Linda from St. George, Becca from Bellevue, Rachel from Lewisville, ID.

Rachel's husband Nate with their youngest child Levi.

Sam home from college with his girlfriend Suzanne from Virginia.

This house already feels like home.

SEASONS OF CHANGE

So much has happened since my last blog, I don't even know where to start!

First of all there was a lapse in my blogging because my laptop died.  I went without a laptop from January until my birthday 10 days ago when I received a new laptop from my husband and kids!

So now I can chronicle all the changes which have been going on in our lives. Our top story is that we have moved to Utah! I truly thought it would never happen.  Chuck and I have been talking about moving to Utah, specifically Park City for about 8 years.

 During most of those years the state of Utah was in Chuck's district and he could have managed it just as easily from Utah as he did from Washington as long as he was in commute distance to a major airport, which obviously SLC has.

We chose Park City because after living in Western Washington for 30 years among the trees and lush greenery we couldn't bear to move to a desert. Park City was within commuting distance year round, was high enough in elevation to give us the evergreen trees we sought, not just the aspens so we would have greenery all year, is always 13 degrees cooler than SLC, and doesn't deal with the smog/inversion layer, or traffic of the valley.

Best of all, it would put me 8 hours closer to my grandkids!

Chuck kept trying to get his company to relocate us, but they said no.  It was ok if we wanted to live there, but moving would be on our dime. We knew it would be expensive to move so we just kept waiting, hoping they would change their mind. Then the company realigned districts and removed Utah from the Northwest District to the Southwest District, which meant there was no hope of moving while Chuck remained manager of the NW District.

After every attempt to convince the company to move us failed, we would decide to be happy where we were and update or remodel something in our Bellevue home. Bit, by bit, we had changed every single room in our home and the front yard, back yard, even put in a new driveway, until there was nothing left to remodel but the kitchen. Finally we tackled that, and we finished all except the backsplash tile.

When we were at the point where we only had about 2 days worth of work to complete the project, Chuck's company, out of the blue offered to relocate us to Utah.  They would pay for the move, put us in temporary housing (which we are still in), until we could find a house to buy, pay to store our furniture, etc.- the whole package. Within 2 weeks our house was on the market: FOR SALE BY OWNER, which sold in 10 days for $35K OVER our asking price. Truly all those years of prayers were answered, but on the Lord's time table.

 

So, here we are in Park City for 3 weeks living in a cute 3bdrm 3.5 bath condo looking for a house to buy.  Apparently, we are very picky! Our poor real estate agent has shown us probably 2 dozen houses and none of them are quite right.  I feel like Goldilocks unwilling to settle for anything less than perfect.

 But we want what we want, and worse yet- we know exactly what we want.  It isn't just the house, the setting is just as, if not more important.
I have always wanted a cabin in the woods as a vacation home, but now we are living our vacation setting dream and Chuck has bought in on wanting a home set in the woods, surrounded by trees and wildlife, where you can't see or hear your neighbors. Eventually, we will either buy or perhaps build the house we have been looking for. 

 

 

 

WATERFRONT VIEWS AND CURDS AND WHEY

Chuck was scheduled to work a medical convention in downtown Seattle, with acomodations on the waterfront. Sounded like a lot of fun, so I tagged along.  While Chuck was downstairs glad handing physicians, I was up in our corner suite enthralled by the view. The waterfront was directly across the street from the Marriott where we were staying.



 

I could lay in bed and watch the ferries run all night

The next day, while Chuck was working the convention, Becca picked me up for a day exploring downtown Seattle.

It was an overcast day, so my photography is somewhat dark, but this was a curious sight noticed in an alley we were walking down. I don't know if this is functional or just an example of funky Seattle art, but interesting, nevertheless.