President's Day Weekend Getaways

Hey, remember me?  I used to blog on this site fairly regularly, mostly for the benefit of my parents and parents-in-law, who are presently out of the country.  Sorry about the absence, Mom and Dad F. and Mom and Dad Y.!  I think I'm finally coming up for air after a very busy, extremely stressful few weeks.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Shortly after I made my last entry, we were all able to get away for the long weekend in February.  The boys made their first solo (sans parents) trip and went down to Utah to play with their sisters, brother-in-law, cousins, and others.  They had a great trip, and oddly enough, once I knew they had arrived safely in Brigham City, I didn't even worry about them.  I guess Matt is officially an adult now, so I don't have to worry any more, right?  Right. . . 

It did help that I knew they were in very good hands.  Karen and Andrew hosted them in Brigham City the first night.  Then they went down to Orem to be with my sister's family.



I've always thought it kind of cute that my first and last children look the most alike.  I'm glad Karen and Adam seem to be good friends even though they're eight years apart.



You know you're a Young if you love ice cream.  Karen and Matt partake.





Matt and Adam's cousin Jake had school on the Friday they went down, and since Karen and Andrew had to leave for work, Matt and Adam stopped in Salt Lake City to walk around Temple Square and see the sites.  We've done that with them as a family, but it had been a few years.  The weather wasn't the greatest, but they enjoyed poking around.

This picture's a little dark, but you can still see Matt pretty well.  I'm not sure who this statue represents.

I guess Adam was missing his mom. . . .  Makes me feel loved.

Eventually, Matt and Adam arrived in the Provo/Orem area and got to meet up with Rachel and with my sister's family.  I've learned that my boys aren't the greatest photographers, so there are no pictures of Rachel on Matt's camera.  However, I did hear that they completely enjoyed seeing their big sister and that Rachel was super good about making time for them in her schedule.  Thank you, Rachel!

Of course, Matt and Adam also had  great time with their COUSINS!!  I wasn't blessed with a ton of cousins (only five, the closest in age seven years younger than me), so I didn't completely understand this cousins-as-friends thing.  Matt's cousin, Jake, is just two months older than him, so when the boys get together, they have a great time.





I would assume my brother-in-law, Brian, took this picture since he's not in it.  This is obviously the posed version.  These are the Hansen cousins and my twin sister, and oh yeah, there's Rachel peeking out over Adam's shoulder.



Here they are in their more natural state, as Rachel would describe it.

While the boys were playing in Utah, Mike and I got away to Sun Valley for a few days.  We went on our honeymoon there in August 1987, but we discovered that it's quite a different place in the winter.  There was a ton of snow (which made the locals ECSTATIC after a dryish winter), and we took advantage of the powder by snowshoeing and cross country skiing.  I'd never snowshowed before, and I found it to be super relaxing and peaceful.  It was just so quiet and pristine.  I'd definitely like to do it again.

Cross country skiing was fun, too.  We warmed up a little on some flat trails, and then Mike convinced me to try a couple of "intermediate" trails.  I learned that I probably won't be going on any "advanced" trails any time soon.  The uphills were tough but manageable.  What scared me the most was going down, down, down some of the slopes.  I just didn't feel like I could control my descent very well, and there were a couple of times when I actually took my skis off and gingerly descended in my boots until  felt like I could ski safely again.  Yes, I am a wimp.

Oh, wait!  There was one time I tried a steep downhill.  We were classic skiing so my skis were in the grooves.  I was careening down this section when my skis came out of the grooves, and I was able to pull it back together enough to get my skis back in the grooves before I hit the bottom of the hill.  I would have loved to have that on video, particularly if both the looks of terror and surprise on my face could have been captured.

In addition to spending time in the wintry outdoors, we also cuddled up by the fireplace in our condominium, watched fun movies, ate out at lots of cool little places, and just had time to talk and get to know each other again.  Seriously, we hadn't been away together in a long time (three years?), and Mike has been ridiculously busy at work the past year and a half or so.  It was awesome just to spend time together when we didn't have deadlines or the everyday stresses of work, etc.  I hope we don't wait another three years to get away.