Annual Family Ski Extravaganza

February 9-14 we had the pleasure of once again hosting Jason's family for what is becoming our annual (this was the third) ski extravaganza in Colorado. We have always been blessed with great weather and this time it was no exception. The first day at Breckenridge Ski Resort was very cold (how does -20 sound) and windy, but that only served to make our next two days at Vail seem even more amazing. Most of the documentation we have is video via Jason and Jarom's helmet cams, but I snagged these individual photos off of the resort "Sharpshooter" photographer's website. They sell these full size digital for $60 each (I don't think so....) but I snipped these smaller ones from my account gallery. Vail is about 2 hours away, but the drive goes by fast by fun conversation and great scenery. Leslie's altitude meds make her a little drowsy so she sleeps most of the way. Last season I was recovering from knee surgery but this season I'm much improved so we all kept together pretty well, even on the steeper stuff. I also tried my first "double black diamond" (expert) run and survived. Leslie upped her game this season with hot pink pants and plaid jacket, and this was Kevin's first trip to Colorado with us having just come home from his church mission in Poland and he did great. Both Jason and Leslie sported new boots and skis. We missed having Brandon (on a mission in Bolivia) and Seth (at BYU) with us this year. If you don't know our color schemes: Randy: torquois pants & white jacket, Jarom: yellow pants, Kevin: multi-color jacket, Leslie: pink pants & plaid jacket, Jason, camo jacket (we'll have to talk Jason into something flashier for next year).

Snow Day: Church Cancelled

The e-mail this morning read:

"Brothers and Sisters, We are all grateful for the moisture that has come today. We have some concerns about the side roads and parking lots that are not plowed and will make it difficult to be safe entering and leaving the church. Because of this we will not hold regular block meetings at the chapels today. Today is still the Sabbath and an opportunity to teach one another and have personal study and worship. Today is a good missionary opportunity to go out and meet our neighbors and to invite them to church and get to know them better while shoveling snow. Please give your leaders a report on who you meet today. We wish you joy and happiness in your efforts. Best regards, Highlands Ranch Stake Presidency".

I know this isn't much snow compared to what Staci has been dealing with, and that Levi and Chelsey sometimes have to cope with up at Tahoe, but its pretty hard to feel disappointed when church is cancelled. I wish they would have provided a bit more direction about what to do about Fast Sunday though. Like are we fasting next week? Is there too much snow to fast, like, do we need the calories to shovel the snow?

Molly and I did a bit of shoveling yesterday, but we received another six inches or so last night so we were out first thing clearing the driveway and sidewalks so the infrared coming throught the clouds could help with the melt. While Molly and I were shoveling Mom took some pictures. The funny part is that Allie's said they got about 1/8th of an inch, and they are just an hour north of us.

Shower Damage: For Jason

Beaver Creek, Colorado

Jarom and I and Jarom's friend Nick decided to give the Beaver Creek ski resort a try today. It is pretty upscale; even a little more than Vail, but much smaller in terms of acreage. It is about 15 minutes west of Vail, and we were hoping for something new, and also hoping to escape the weekend crowds. There were some really fun runs, and the weather couldn't have been prettier. All told I skied over 20,000 vertical feet and Jarom snowboarded over 24,000 today. Wish more family would/could join us!

Jarom tackling a big jump in the terrain park. Notice the perfectly groomed snow.

Jarom's Big Jump at Beaver Creek, CO from randy guthrie on Vimeo.

Experiment: Night Photos of Snow

Starting Saturday evening we had about 18 hours of steady snow that left us with about 6 inches in the yard and some respectible low temperatures (like 3 degrees). I wanted to take some snow pictures and decided to do some experimenting with my 50mm lens and new tripod. All of these pictures were taken in natural light at about 11pm with very long exposures and an ISO speed of 100. You can tell it is night by how brightly any artificial lumination source glows. In the third photo taken from the loft, you can see the lights from the high school off in the distance. One cool thing is with the long exposures (about 6 seconds) you don't see the falling snow. All of the color is "natural" (no photoshop). Since most of the outside lighting is sodium vapor with a single wavelength, you end up with a mostly black and white sepia-tone affect.

Science Feature: Lunar Eclipse

On Monday, Dec 22nd Christmas we had a total eclipse of the moon. It started around 11pm and didn't finish until after 3am. I was having a restless night so I got up and put on my 200mm telephoto lens and captured a couple shots. Not having a great tripod made this hard (thank-you Staci for helping Mom get me a good one; I love it!) but having an image-stabilizing lens helped a lot. I'm really thinking as a grandpa I need to get a decent telescope that will take my camera body so we can do a better job when these things happen. For those of you who didn't stay up to see it, or were busy doing other things (like James and Allie finishing their Christmas video), you can see what you did or didn't miss. The last photo is the constellation known as the Pleiades, that appears in the winter sky near Orion. It is a tiny little "dipper" that you have to have good vision or good glasses and a dark sky to see.

Christmas Photo Assortment

Christmas was full of quality time with family and friends. Our camera was usually at hand with Molly and I taking turns. These are the best of over 230 pictures taken. Some of them are kind of experiemental. For you photo buffs, I have a new Canon 50mm 1.8 f-stop lens that has a very short depth of field when it is cranked all the way open, which gives me about 3 inches of area that is in-focus but it is super-sharp if you get the focus right (that is why some of these seem out of focus just a little because the focus isn't always at the best spot - sorry we're still learning). The week started off with a trip to a near-by retirement center that had a fun train layout with a complete "Dicken's" villiage. Then on Tuesday, Molly went to the temple for the first time. On Thursday Jane and I went on a double-date with Seth and Alyson (Seth's girlfriend) to see some Christmas lights at a botanical garden close by. Christmas Eve was at our house with Allie's family, Jarom and his family, and us . Christmas morning we opened presents at home. Jarom's family started off upstairs with their little tree in the loft then we finished up downstairs with our tree in the family rooom. Then we went to Allies about 90 minutes away for late breakfast and early dinner. James had set up a big slot-car track, and it was warm enough to play outside a little. On Boxing Day Jane's Aunt Sheila and her husband Rudy and two granddaughters (Raven and Gabriel) came over for tacos and some fun down in the basement with our new XBox Kinect. Everyone got into the action, including Jane. We thought Sheila was going to either die of a stroke or fall and break her hip with all jumping, ducking and dodging she did in the virtual obstacle course. We've gone to the movies several times and have done lots of quality recreational reading. We've gone skiing twice so far and will go again on Thursday. It's been great having Seth home and we will miss him a lot when he returns to school on January 2nd.

Jane and Sheila Play with XBox Kinect from randy guthrie on Vimeo.