3 April 2016 - Powder! / General Conference in Idaho

Tuesday morning I woke up with the weight of an unpleasant task that evening weighing on my mind and heart. I was having a hard time facing it, but I had some free time that morning. A late winter storm had hit Utah Monday and Tuesday. Sundance had forecast 1-3" of new snow. When I checked the snow report it said they had gotten 5". The snow up there has been melting pretty badly for several weeks, and 5" wasn't enough to really save it, so I was skeptical, but I really needed something to help diffuse my anxiety so I figured I would give it a try. When I got there, I found that the snowfall was more like a foot of light, fluffy powder.

I was the first person to cut tracks into Grizzly Ridge. Before dropping into the bowl I stopped to take a picture looking back uphill at my tracks.

With less than one full run under my belt, I was already feeling better about my day. My looming task was no less ominous, but my outlook was much brighter and more positive. I looked down at my feet. In the deep pockets in the bowls, the turns were thigh deep. My foot really is down there, attached to a ski.

I stood at the ridge of Grizzly Bowl before cutting the first tracks into the untouched field of white. One picture, then time for thrill. Time after time, I rode up the lift, moved two feet over, and floated down the freshly blanketed mountain again. Each time, my stress released, and soon I was feeling much better. This is why God made mountains. This is why God made snow. He made them for me.

I skied and skied. On a Tuesday morning, there were very few people to compete with for fresh tracks. In Bishop's Bowl, I stopped to take this selfie for my dear friend Shauna (I wish the sign was easier to read: Shauna's Secret is a black diamond at Sundance).

My Tuesday went much better than expected and the rest of the week went by quickly. On Friday morning, I volunteered at a high school code camp, where teams of kids were challenged to come up with a software solution to a problem within 24 hours. It gave me a chance to dust off some of my old coding skills.

Later that afternoon when the girls got out of school, we loaded up the car and headed to Idaho for General Conference weekend. We stayed with Jerry and Danae who moved to Meridian in December. On Saturday I helped Jerry set up a new compound miter saw, while the kids built a fort from the box.

A triumphant Eden in her finished fort.