The always there helper

One of my bindings on my board was lose so Gunnar had to be there to help. I just thought that this picture was so cute.

On Thursday when we were all there all day, Gunnar would not take a nap like he usually did. We could hear him in there talking to himself or singing. After about 2 hours, I told my dad to be the hero and go get him from the play pen. This is what he found...

Our snowboard bags were right next to the play pen. Gunnar managed to get one of the bags into his bed and lay it out perfectly straight. Now we know what he was up to.

McCall Winter Festival 2008

Every year McCall, Idaho has the McCall Winter Festival. The biggest highlight of the festivities are the snow sculptures that people spend literally hours upon hours on. It was actually really neat to be there the week prior to the festival because we were able to see the sculptures come to life over time. On the way to Brundage we would see the same ones over and over again. There was this one that we wondered if it would ever get a head. Friday we were finally able to see the head of the man (sorry I was not able to get a picture). There were many times we would be out at night and see the artist carving away with flood lights illuminating the way. They are absolutely amazing. There were about 40 of them, but we were really only able to see about 10. They are spread all over the town. Some are within walking distance, most you would need to drive to. I decided to take pictures Saturday and Sunday. Bad idea becuase the weather was aweful, so the pictures really did not turn out. I really wish I did it Thursday when it was clear.

The theme this year was "Wild Wild West".

This one is a couple in a covered wagon with two oxen. It is really tall.

This one is of a bull and the clown in the barrel. It also had an outhouse next to it. The detail is amazing (right down to making sure that we knew that this was indeed a bull)!

I loved this one. It was in front of the Payette Forest Service office. It has this really BIG train on railroad tracks. Across the walk way were these two guys. One was plugging his ears and the other was getting ready to set off the dynamite next to the tracks.

This sculpture was my absolute favorite. It was a herd of horses in front of this hotel. The way that the artists were able to manipulate the snow for their manes and the snow that they were running in was just amazing.
This sculpture was HUGE. I could walk under the archway easily. It is of a cattle drive with a cowboy coming down a mountain with cattle. Across the walkway was another cowboy on a horse. The really neat part of this one was that there were two indians inside of that tunnel. I did not even know that they were there until I walked in to take pictures.

A lot of the sculptures are built out of snow that had been compacted between plywood for some time. This next sculpture was built out of the snowbank that the snow plows created. It was just so perfect and peaceful...and HUGE! I now wish that I had Jeff stand next to it so you could see its size.

Another part of the festival is a Children's Neon Light Parade. It was exactly that. All of the towns children walked down the street in a parade. Kind of funny, because really we had no idea what to expect. We knew that they had a larger one at noon the next day (we ended up not going because we were snowboarding) but really this was quite funny. Afterwards they had a live band (which I actually really liked-and don't know the name of) and a fireworks show over Payette Lake. It was the best show I have ever been to. Let me explain. We were all really close to where they were lighting them off. The show started out well and then the fireworks starting exploding low in the sky. They were low enough that the firework flames were practically landing on people. They were showering in the road, on and under nearby cars. It was crazy and awesome at the same time. People were trying to dodge them everywhere. Great fun. I was able to get a couple great shots.

This picture is so cool looking. A red firework went off over head when I pressed the button.

These bears are pretty neat and Gunnar liked to ride them. The hazy part of the picture is actually the three of us breathing. Crazy! The best part of this night was being able to walk around all dressed up in your snow gear (thermal long johns and everything) and see people pulling their kids around on sleds instead of pushing them in strollers.

Gunnar's Fun

I definately have a little snow boy on my hands. He loves the snow. It could get on his face, get in his boots, or get his hands cold and he laughs about it. Most of the time when we would get back from snowboarding, we would take Gunnar out in the snow. He looked like a little overstuffed marshmallow in his clothes. He loved this welcomed change from staying inside with Grandma while we were gone during the day.

The first time he went out it was with my sister Heidi and I. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and sunny. This was one of my very favorite pictures of him. I love the sun and shadows in this picture.

Me and Gunnar

The second time he went out, it was with Grandpa. The ride was a little more extreme than before and very exciting.

My dad attached a rope to the sled so he could pull it better.

My dad also threw him really high into this really powdery snow bank. Gunnar just sunk right in. He was buried and stuck and could not see us.

The last time that he went out was with Jeff. The weather was quite snowy but equally as fun and the ride became quite extreme.

Jeff pushed the sled up a huge (kind of steep) snowbank and let go...

I am love with this picture of the two most important boys in my life.

This is my final picture and probably my favorite. Gunnar had just face planted it in the snow but he still loved every minute of it.

ONE FUN WEEK

As I have sort of eluded to in previous posts, I spent the last week in McCall, Idaho It is a smaller resort type town in the mountains of Idaho. It is about 2 hours from Boise, our capital city. My parents are part of a timeshare so they booked it for one entire week. The plan was to have my parents, sister/brother in law, brother, and sister there. We were going to be there the week prior to when the McCall Winter Festival starts. Our plan was the be there for the opening days and then get out of town before the 50,000 arrived. Having that many people there probably triples the towns population. The lady at one of two local grocery stores told us that during the second week, their shelves get bare. They just simply have a hard time keeping up with the demand.

It all started on Sunday. We left right after church and Gunnar left with my parents before church. We ended up driving pretty much in the dark there. We had such a nice drive and were making pretty good time. We turned on the first of two main roads we needed to get there. It was of course snowy. I clearly remember Jeff speeding up and saying that he was "testing" out the car. We drive a 2000 Passat with 4-motion (all wheel drive), so this thing is awesome in the snow. However it is NOT awesome on the ice. McCall had been dumped with about 4 feet of snow about a week before and was having a hard time keeping up with the roads, roofs, etc. So this particular road and incredibly deep ruts in it. Let me just say that we started sliding all of the way down the road, Jeff could not get it corrected and we slammed really fast into a gigantic snow bank on the left front side of the car. I WAS TICKED!! I was so mad. I tried calling my dad. The phones have a tuff time getting reception up there. We had just switched to their plan 2 days before so I was about ready to throw the phone in the snow because I could not reach anyone. The car was not moving, the wheels were all spinning. Finally these super nice people stopped to help. They of course were prepared. They had a shovel with them, tow rope and chains. They tried and tried to pull the car out but we found out the the car was completely high centered on the snow. All of the wheels were turning and nothing. The other problem was that their Tahoe was going nowhere but turning their wheels on the ice. Basically what happened was that the lady and I stood on the side of the road watching as our husbands kept shoveling out the car, chaining up the Tahoe and yanking the car out with huge jerks. Thankfully we found out we have a tow hook on the back of our car. The bumper had seperated slightly from the front of the car but that was the only damage. We were incredibly thankful for them. The next day we ended up seeing them up at Brundage. The next morning we also looked at our bumper and it went back into place. I should have gotten a picture of this 'problem' but I was waaaay to frustrated to even think about it.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day and the plan was to go up to Brundage Ski Resort. I am so in love with this resort. It is a fairly nice sized resort but it has the small community feel to it. About 45 minutes from McCall is the world renowned (and expensive) Tamarack Resort. Having that so close has really made Brundage that much more homier. It has better snow than our one hour away Bogus Basin Resort and the drive is so nice to get up there. My sister and I timed the drive from the condo to the mountain. It was 20 minutes and just about 10 minutes more in snowier conditions. Love it!! We were lucky enough to have about 100 people on the mountain during the weekdays. It was great. The weather was COLD the first day. It was about 10 degrees in town and about 4-5 on the mountain. The first day was slightly snowy. But the snow was not typical. It was what I called Tinkerbell's Fairy Dust type snow. It was just like glitter in the air. I tried to get a picture of it and this was the best that I could do.

I took my camera with me about everyday but the first day I just had to get a picture of the view. I took off my left glove to get the camera out and take a picture, put the camera back and took off. I had thinner gloves underneath so a few yards down on a really steep part of the hill, I felt my left hand being a little cold and drafty. Hello...I had forgotten my glove up the hill. I had to take of my board and starting hiking up. The cold weather made it hurt to breath and my sister kept yelling to me wondering what was taking so long and that I needed to keep going. Luckily a skier spotted a lonely glove, looked down to see me hiking and brought it too me. Never again will I do that.

I am pretty sure this was the picture that I took when I also left my glove.

The second and third days were absolutely fantastic. The runs were groomed and the sky was completely clear and blue. It was warm at about 25ish degrees. Jeff missed out. He had to go back to work but was planning on coming back up on Friday. He just started his job at the end of last year and did not have the time yet. On Wednesday, I caught an edge twice on the same stupid cat track and fell right on both of my butt cheeks. It HURT so bad. I have never been in so much pain there. I had a hard time just sleeping on my back because of it. It was so hard that I know that my brain bounced around in my head a little. Brundage also has a guy that will ski the mountain and take pictures of anyone along the way. The crowds were so non- existant that he followed our group around for quite a while. He was able to get a great group picture of all of is. He was also able to get some great pictures of the guys doing tricks/jumps in the terrain park. My dad bought the CD, so when I get the pictures I will post some. There is this great sequence of my brother in law Ren on a rail. First it looks like he is doing great, second picture the same, third picture is him in the middle of a fall on the rail. This fall was so hard right on his tailbone. Quite funny now. We also have video of my dad on a rail. The only problem is that he hit chest first and bounced off. It is so painful to watch. Thursday we all decided to take a little break. We were all in so much pain from some fall or another that we needed a much need break. But Friday morning we were back up there again. It was so nice to beable to snowboard for a couple to a few hours and then go back to a warm condo. We did not feel obligated in anyway to go a full day because of our season passes. It was great.

I love this picture of Heidi. She has pictures of me on her camera that I will have to post later.

This picture was taken on the Bear Chair as we were headed up. I just had to freak my sister out. I took off my glove and took out the camera while my sister was adamantly telling me that I was bound to drop them both. It was fun to scare her.

Friday night Jeff showed up without my little sister because her fiance got really sick. She decided to stay behind and we were all bummed. Saturday we were back on the mountain, this time it was slightly windy, extremely snowy and very foggy. Heidi twisted her knee really bad on the first run so we decided to go a couple more and go back. The powder this day was just awesome though. I love knowing that if you fall, it will be a great soft landing. We were both a little sad because this will probably be the last time we snowboard for some time. We are both hoping that we will have babies before the next season. We will see. :)

Everyone had such a great time and I was so happy to be able to spend a lot of time with my sister Heidi doing something we both love to do.

Brundage Mountain Here We Come

This last weekend, Jeff and I were able to get away for a weekend snowboarding trip. We went with my sister and brother in law, Heidi and Ren, my dad, and my brother Brent. We all have season passes, so this will be a regular accurance this year. My parents have a timeshare up in McCall, so we drove up Friday night and stayed over through Saturday. The rest of my family went up Friday morning and were able to get an extra day of boarding in. Unfortunately Jeff has to work until 5pm on Fridays and could not get away any earlier. Where was Gunnar you ask? He was with my mom and my sister Mindy who went over there for the weekend. He just loved it. All of the attention on him all of the time. I was told that he did not ask for me once...could care less where I was. Gotta love him. Friday night it started to snow. YEESSSS! That is exactly what we wanted. Saturday morning it was still snowing and perfect for the mountain. It snowed the entire day, creating great snow/powder. The buddy system was perfect. Jeff and Brent were together...they actually know what they are doing, can get down the mountain in style and actually do some tricks. My dad and Ren were together...they started learning last year, can actually consistantly turn, and are more willing to hurt themselves to try something cool. Heidi and I were together...we have been boarding inconsistantly for about 7 years, can't really do anything, afraid at trying new things and not willing to hurt ourselves. We all split up and had a great time. Heidi and I would just take our time down different runs and practice different moves. We would run into the others once in a while but not often. We pretended to know how to jump off little bumps, but if you saw what we were doing you would laugh. It was hilarious. I have a couple of pictures because Jeff had the camera most of the time. We will have to get more pictures of our actual skills the next time around. We will be up there for 1 week straight for the McCall Winter Festival in January! Until then...

My dad and brother in law Ren, all getting ready to go.

My brother Brent. He cracks us all up. He bought this new snowboarding get up that is gold and white in color. The helmet is this chrome color and we could spot him from afar easily with the color of his goggles. The bottom of his board also has brass knuckles embedded on both ends. Can we say, Pimp My Snowboard or what.

I am so not sure why I look like this. All that I know is that my sister had already put on her gloves, so I had to put the car keys in her coat pocket, zip up her coat, I think that I may have also buckled her helmet on. We had so much fun together.