It was a day of snow boarding and fun for the Flanders & Simpson crew.    There were thrills and spills but for the most part, these peeps are quick learners!

So here’s a collage of the days events.

There is a very important lesson learned today though.  Our lodge has been covered with about 6000 pounds of ice from heavy snow.  As the temperature has risen here, the ice has begun to melt.   Take a look at these two photos:

Now check out what happened two days after this photo was taken.

About two thousand pounds of ice came crashing down on that very spot someone was standing on just a couple of days ago.

The day was finished with some nice snowman building!

Categories: Salt Lake City
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The day started out with an intense snowball fight which quickly escalated into using shovels of snow to drench opponents.

After a snowball truce, we headed over to a quick lunch at Mickey D’s before we headed over Gorgoza Park to do some snow tubing.    Unfortunately, only video is available from this visit and I don’t have time to upload video clips at the moment as I am running low on disk space!

After spending a couple of hours tubing, we headed over to a local grocery store to pick up some steaks for dinner tomorrow night.    After the grocery store we made a quick stop over at Olympic park where the 2002 winter Olympics were held and took in the magnificent views.

Check out the gold medal winners below:

And check out this Olympic torch runner

And of course the great views:

After the park, it was time to head back to the cabin and cook dinner and savor the memories with a nice glass of wine.

Categories: Salt Lake City
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We got a bit of a late start with the time change but the time difference from central time zone made up the difference.   We headed over to the Brighton Ski Resort and got situated with an array of skiis, snowboards and other gear.   The Flanders opted to go snow boarding while Marge decided to go skilling while Bart & Lisa hit the snow boarding slopes.   All took training classes while I sat back to document the experience with video and photography and to get in a few good laughs.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words so here are a few hundred thousand words in the following brief video clip.

After a long day of skiing and the brief but notable injury, we headed over the the lodge to hang out and enjoy the fireplace and jacuzzi.

Categories: Salt Lake City
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It has been a long while since we’ve updated the website and that has been primarily due to the harsh economic conditions and lack of travel but with the economy improving we decided to head back to Salt Lake City for a quick vacation.  As an added bonus, we have the “Flanders” joining us on our vacation to Salt Lake City.

We arrived late yesterday and there was not much to report as the trip was without incident except for our flight being overbooked and nearly losing 50% of our travel party but in the end it all worked out.   This morning we hit the sites of Salt Lake City.

The first stop was the Temple Square where the famous Mormon Temple sits in all its splendor surrounded by the ever friendly staff of the church.

As the temperature continued to drop, we sought the shelter of the warm indoors so took a tour of the visitor’s center but not before we snapped another shot of the Flanders’ outside the main temple.

And this interesting shot of the bronze reflected in flesh.

After the Temple visit, we headed over to the State Capitol to give the Flanders a look see at Utah’s State Capitol.

The kids had fun and took this great shot in front of the big bell.

After visiting the State Capitol, we headed over to lunch at Chili’s.   There wasn’t much to report on that front since the food is universally the same across the country.   We then headed over to Target to pick up some supplies for our stay at the cabin.   Here’s where the real fun started.

As we approached the cabin, heavy snow began to make the roads slick and the van we are in did not have enough traction to drive safely.  We got to the cabin but we couldn’t drive into the drive way.  We were literally 15 feet from the driveway but the wheels kept spinning.  Some good Samaritans helped us push the vehicle back out into the main highway.

The ladies tried hard to clear the snow for the van to drive in but it just didn’t happen!  After unloading, the kids had fun exploring the national park near the cabin.

The fun didn’t last too long though because we were running low on fire wood so the whole gang went on a trek to a nearby store in search of some firewood.

Unfortunately, we came back empty-handed as the store was closed!

It was a cool 20 degrees as we came back empty-handed.  Check out the icicles hanging off the roof!

Categories: Salt Lake City
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