I've been trying all winter to convince various friends to go cross country skiing with me. I have never gone, and thought it sounded like fun. Unfortunately, everybody else seemed to think that the sport was "a lame second to REAL skiing" or too much work for a Saturday afternoon. "pphaww" is what I say. True that it doesn't have the adrenaline of downhill, but it's 10 times cheaper, which makes me a fan! And no, it's not that much work. My 6 month pregnant friend Emily did it with no problems. So there.

I really did think it was a lot of fun. We spent the day at a cabin and had a gorgeous day with the forest all to ourselves all all the hot chocolate we wanted in between excersions. It was a little more skill that I initially expected, so we a fair bit of time the first while on our seats. Good thing the landing was so soft!

I've had the pleasure of spending several weekends in a row up at cabins in the mountains. Last weekend my church had a woman's retreat up near Heber, on another beautiful weekend. Below is a picture of the cabin. I would love to rent something like that out again sometime with a bunch of friends or family, so if your interested, let me know :). The best part to me was the hot tub under the stars. Living in the city, I hardly ever see them, and I almost forget about them sometimes. Out there though, they were incredibly clear!

snowshoing with a few ladies from church..

And hanging out a bit last week with cute little Nora..

I hate to end this blog on a tirade, but I would like to take a moment to tell the world that living in a city is NOT as covenient as living in a small town, contrary to popular opinion. The stores are huge, you have to DRIVE to them, and they are always out of things! Every time I go to Walmart, I end up making multiple trips because they never have everything I need. What a waste of time! I couldn't resist taking this picture since it shows just what I'm talking about. And no, there was not a big, irresistable sale on these items that cleared them out. It was this way last time I went to get this product too. Maybe I'll have success next week.. sigh..

Oh, I don't have to end it on a sour note! I have one more picture! I also went to the Lava Hot Springs in Idaho last weekend. Yay for hot springs and random road trips!

New Life

Ahh, I'm please to say that Spring is in the air! We had our first snow "storm" since Christmas last week, and it actually made things feel more like Spring! As you can see, there's a promise of flowers outside my window! I feel like my "blahs" are over too. I celebrated by learning how to Salsa dance :). It wasn't nearly has difficult as I always thought it would be. I thought the basics were actually quite a bit easier than swing. It's most certainly been on my list of "things I never thought I would do" list. My high school 10 year reunion is coming up this year, and it has made me reflect on my life since then, and how different it is from what I would have predicted. I'm pretty sure that, if I had been told as a high school senior to specifically predict where I'd be and what kinds of things I'd do, I would have gotten only 2 things on the list correct (I went to college and ran a marathon - actually, two marathons but who's counting). Here's a few things I never would have guessed... living in Utah (I'm pretty sure it would have been at least my 45th guess about which state I'd be in)..my job (hadn't heard of Child Life yet).. my travel experiences (Papua New Guinea is where??)..learning to rock climb and becoming proficient at a team sport (In Iowa, rock climbing is a little obscure, and my junior high sport endeavers were legendarily laughable).. learning to dance (where I come from, the "lawn sprinkler" is considered quite respectable).. repeated nominations for church deacon (I seem to remember several spirited classes discussing the appropriatness of such a position for females).. several interviews for the local news channel and my name in the Washington Post (although I am proud to say I made several entrees into the Sioux Center news growing up :).. and many other adventures too complex to describe here! Sometimes at the hospital I work with high school students who missed out on several typical life experiences because of their cancer. For them, understandably, it feels like the end of their world. I sometimes wish, though, that they could understand how much life there is after graduation. I never imagined how interesting life would be!

Another exciting event this week was the birth of my close friends' baby girl. I spent most of the day at the hospital on Wednesday cuddling this sweet little bundle. I'm looking foward to watching her grow!

I've posted a couple of pictures on this before, but I thought it was time to take a couple of pictures from the Open Door, the place I volunteer, again since it's a part of my weekly routine. Here, we are making the ever popular clay objects. It's always hard to get a picture or two in, because there's rarely a calm moment! We're looking foward to warm weather again, so that we can let the kids have a little bit more space outside!

Yet another highlight of the week was going down to St George for the weekend with a few friends. We went to a Colby Caillat concert, stayed up half the night chatting, went shopping, and watched a few chick flicks. A true girls' weekend away!

Looking foward to another fun-filled week ahead! :)