Scott's Adventure

Yesterday I got the phone call I've been dreading since my kids started skiing and snowboarding. Scott was doing an off-axis 360 (he told me to write that) off one of the Dew Tour jumps and somehow caught his hand on the landing. He knew right away that it was broken, but he never crashed, so he rode his board to the bottom before he got help. John and I met him at the ER here in town.

Scott was amazingly calm and he wanted us to take pictures of his crooked arm. It was a compound fracture so he went to surgery right away.

Here's a picture of the X-ray of his broken bones.

Scott got to stay the night in the hospital. Word traveled quickly, and he woke up from surgery to a phone full of texts from friends. He was texting with his left hand almost as soon as he was awake. He finally had to stop answering them so he could go to sleep. His nurses let a few of his friends who were with him during his accident come visit when they called at 10:30pm even though it was after visiting hours.

Glad to be home!

Swedish Party

Saturday was our annual family Swedish party. Last year it was held right before Mom and Dad left for their mission in Russia and this year it was right before Jeanne and Dave leave for the same mission! Hard to believe, but Mom and Dad will be home by the end of the summer! Time flies! (at least for us)

Jeanne and Dave -a little nervous, but still smiling!

Niel and Amy

Lining up by height for the pinata -a little-known Swedish custom :)

Kenny, Susan and Brian

Sasha (looking great 2 weeks after her 4th baby!) and Marilyn

Dew Tour at Snowbasin

This weekend there was a fun event at Snowbasin. The Dew Tour was in town for one of its three winter stops. It's a ski and snowboarding competition kind of like a mini X-games. Snowbasin has been preparing for weeks building a giant half-pipe and lots of jumps at the base of the resort. Scott has been so psyched, especially when he learned that there would be lots of places to watch for free.

Scott and Andreas Wiig (snowboarder)

Half-pipe

I made the kids take cameras and they were very obedient and took lots of pictures. Some turned out pretty cool!

There was a big "Festival Village" at the base with tons of sponsors booths. The kids, especially Scott, because he was up there Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, came home with tons of free stuff. You'll notice that Scott's wearing a different hat in every picture. I think he got three different ones. They thought it was cool to rub shoulders with all the famous skiiers and snowboarders, too. They were all autographing posters and taking pictures with everyone and were relaxed and chatting with everyone. Scott, especially, was in heaven.

There was a cable (or internet -I'm not sure which) station called Fuel TV that had a hut set up where they would interview the athletes. They called it Dew Underground. They would let a few people in each time to watch and then ask their own questions. Scott and his friends went in to watch this snowboarder named Sage Kotsenberg be interviewed. Scott was able to ask a question. He asked the guy where his favorite place to snowboard is. He said Park City. (That's where he's from). The video wasn't posted on their website yet, but these photos were. As you can imagine Scott thought the whole weekend was pretty cool. He was a good boy, though, and watched the finals today on TV instead of going back up with some of his friends.

Wanna See Something Gross?

These pictures don't do justice to the pool of haze that has filled the valley, but we've got a classic January inversion going on. It just gets worse as the day goes on...

morning...

afternoon...

evening.

All we need is a little storm. Is that too much to ask for in January?
*cough, cough*

Cupcake Games

Click here for a fun site. How well do you know your games? Kevin knew more than me -I don't know enough video games. I just like the cute cupcakes. :)

Sometimes Wishes Come True!

Okay, so here's the deal. Scott got his drivers license on Monday, but a car for him wasn't in the plan for a while. What was in the plan was a 4-wheeler. We had our eye on a nice used one with a snow plow that we saw on KSL.com before Christmas, but we decided to wait a little, and then after Kelly's accident we kind of decided that 4-wheelers probably weren't in our immediate future. We still weren't seriously thinking about buying a car for Scott right now, though. Then John treated a woman over New Year's weekend whose husband owned a Ford dealership in the area and he was so grateful he offered to sell John a used car at $100 over his cost. Well, John decided that it wouldn't hurt to look, so he and Scott went and found this 11 year old F150 that's still in great shape for a crazy price. We thought about it for a while then finally decided that it was too good to pass up, so we went ahead and bought it today. It turns out that even with the tax and license it cost less than the used 4-wheeler would have. Kevin should be able to drive it, too, because he turns 16 when Scott leaves on his mission. I don't know if it will make it to Matt, but we'll see! Anyway, Scott's a happy camper, except for the fact that we're making him obey the law that he can't drive with anyone other than family for 6 months. Apparently we're the only ones who enforce that rule.

New Years Day

On New Year's Eve we all attended Kelly's funeral. It was a wonderful spiritual experience. Their family is in the same ward as Elder Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, so he spoke, and President Eyring of the First President spoke, also. That was really uplifting, but the most powerful part, I thought, were the testimonies given by Kelly and Kim's children and by Kim. The kids talked about different things their dad taught them that we should be doing to live up to his and our Heavenly Father's expectations. Kim bore her testimony to her kids that they are never alone and that our Heavenly Father will always be with him. Michelle and Kim talked about how much Kelly wanted to serve a mission and that they knew that he was happy and doing what he wanted to do. Both Steve and Kim talked about the comforting, warm feeling that had been with them since the moment of the accident. The family was amazingly strong and composed, and I think everyone who attended the funeral came away with a determination to live a better life.

Since everyone was here, we decided to get together the next day for New Years Day lunch at Mommer's and Grandpa's. It's been a while since the whole family has spent so much time together. It's been fun to spend time with the Texas cousins, particularly. Matt has had fun getting reacquainted with the twins.

Matt and Zach L.

Samuel H. and Abby L. playing with Eric and Robby S.

We hadn't seen Seth for a long time so it was good to reunite with him, too. Here is Seth, Steve L. and the back of Lauren L.

John and Steve S. talking shop. Steve is planning on applying to medical school in a year. He looks more like his dad every time I see him.

Kim holding her grandson, Rowe, and talking to her son-in-law, Judson, while Grandpa enjoys some of his yummy ribs and Rob and Jeanene clean up.

Here is Matt S. holding a weather balloon. He has a fun hobby with his friend where they send weather balloons up into the air with a GPS device and a camera. They get awesome pictures of the earth from thousands of feet up and then when the balloon bursts they track the GPS and recover the camera. To see some of the awesome pictures he's taken and learn more about it go to www.lorenzoswank.com. It's pretty amazing. Since he didn't want to spend the day tracking, though, he just launched the balloon for fun for the kids to see. They drew pictures and put their addresses on them and attached them to the tail of the balloon.

Matt holding the balloon. Lauren, Abby and Zach L. and Jeff S. and Oscar from Matt's mission in Brazil look on.

There it goes!

Snowball fight! Matt and Eric S.

Matt and Brad L.

Christmas Toys

Matt loves his new tools! Anyone need a screwdriver?


Kevin's making a Lego car. It has over 1600 pieces, and he just finished sorting them, so now he can finally begin building. Luckily Kevin is very patient.

Kevin and Matt and their Lego creations.