Hurtin' for more yurtin' (aka - Yurt me baby one more time)

I hate it when time gets away from me on a good post. It is so much harder to remember all the funny things that happen if I don't write them down right away.

So we headed back to the mountains a few weeks go for another yurt trip. It was great. The ski in was absolutely the longest 2 miles of my life. 2 miles just isn't that far. I can jog that in 20 minutes. Put me on XC skis and strap to a sled and suddenly it takes 6 to 8 hours. Okay - not that long, but it felt that long. My sled/pulk also totally stunk and that did not help. Sticky snow combined with a lousy sled led to a little harder work then I would have hoped for.

Before I give any details of the trip I'm wondering if you have ever been in a situation where someone has asked you to take a picture for them? I've been in that situation too. I hope you try and do a nice job when someone asks you for this simple favor. I'm no great photographer but I have two simple rules I try and follow when taking a picture for someone. First, make sure they are in the picture. Second, let them know that I'm going to take the picture. Seems pretty simple, don't you think?

NOTE TO GUY IN THE TRAIL HEAD PARKING LOT:

You are not a good photographer. Not really at all. I know we took a few minutes out of your day and gave you two different cameras and asked you to operate them. I know this may have been a lot to ask but you seemed genuinely interested and helpful at the time. The truth is, I was surprised when you gave my camera back. I assumed you must have decided to only take a picture with one of the cameras but no, you did take one with my camera. Even though you can't see some people and even though no one is looking at you and even though this picture is really terrible, I just wanted to say thanks. So thanks parking lot cross country dude. Really appreciate your help. If in the future however, someone asks you for photographic help just explain that you are sick or allergic to cameras or are legally blind or something. Lets be honest, this is not really better than no picture at all. Thanks again for your time but feel free to give an excuse next time. (see not so awesome picture below)Okay, back on topic. I'm a little obsessive sometimes and I was packed completely two days before we left so I could just put it in the car and go. The only problem was, two days before we left I wasn't thinking of my coat. The coat that is nice and water repellent and keeps me dry. It is a good coat. It did not come on the trip with us. I'm not sure why, but somewhere in my mind it must not have been needed. But really, who hasn't been planning to go into snowy mountains to camp at 9,000 feet and left their coat at home? Happens to everyone, I'm sure.
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We were with a fun family full of energetic boys, and since it was during the Olympics we decided to see if we could create a few of our own Olympic events at the yurt.

First we made our own luge track. It was an awesome and crazy luge track. It was awesome at first anyway. After a while it developed a mind of its own at the bottom and the track shifted in the direction of some trees. This picture is just before our second confirmation that something had gone terribly wrong with the trajectory at the bottom. I know its should have only taken ONE time running into a tree to stop and do something else but sometimes we don't learn that quickly. I really wish I had been video tapping so you could see Lainey go flying off the sled superman style, hit the tree and then totally face plant in the snow. Like the commercials say....priceless.

Our second event (and in my opinion clearly our best event) was the FLYING SNOW ANGEL! We have started a petition to the IOC to have this included in the 2018 Olympics. We'll post a link for you to sign later. Here is how a flying snow angel works. First, you pick a site where your intuition tells you there are probably not jagged rocks under the snow. Then you find a small child and you throw them into the air as high as you can. The child's job is to spread eagle backwards into the snow and make a snow angel. Extra points are given if the child completely disappears under the snow. Style points can also be awarded for amount of snow caked onto a face or accidentally doing a backwards dive. Here are a few examples of what was clearly, for me, the best part of the whole trip.

This is Lainey's first attempt. I think it is possible that she couldn't breathe under there based on how she came up coughing and wheezing. It is possible she was a little shocked by her face completely covered in snow. Maybe a little scared? Not that she would ever admit it.


This is Lainey's second try two minutes later after BEGGING to do it again. This time she was PUMPED! (posted just to prove that I'm not a terrible father and even though she ended the last one crying she was really having fun.)


In flying snow angels, the weight of the child is not uniform or regulated (say like in the shot put.) Here is a heavier version.



The final event was a little tackle football in the snow.
Part of any good sporting event is, of course, the refreshments so we had to wrap it all up with some snow cones!