04 December 2007

Let it, Indeed!

Alli's recent post made me realize that I ought to talk about my memories of snowing.

In Dallas it snows sometimes. It snows and then it ices. And everything shuts down. It did this a few times when I was in elementary school, and we got snow days. My brother and I spent those days wandering around the neighborhood, sliding on ice and having snowball fights. That is, we had snowball fights until we realized that snowballs were actually sleetballs and they rather hurt. Mostly, though, we just enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to go to school.

When I was a senior in high school, we got two and a half snow days because of snowy/icy weather. I spent both of the full days working at the grocery store where I was employed. Because I lived so close to the store, the bosses knew they could call me in to cover shifts. One day I worked 13 hours. The next day I worked 11 hours. Those were long days. But they resulted in overtime, and a pretty substantial paycheck. It wasn't so bad. Plus, I got to sleep in and go to school late on the third day, which was also quite nice because, Hello! Early Morning Seminary was canceled. I enjoyed seminary, but it is hard to be somewhere at 6 every morning.

Then I moved to Utah.That year we got a lot of snow in the valley. In fact, we had a lot of snow by Halloween. I remember the during the first snowfall I ran around playing in it with two of my friends from California, Prisicilla and Chad. We probably looked like idiots. We didn't care. That year I also made my first snowman. On my birthday, it snowed, and I called my mom and told her, "Mom! Guess what! God gave me snow for my birthday!" It was a fun birthday. (The snow, combined with the fact that I had the flu that week, and on my birthday I was allowed out again without the risk of pneumonia).

That year, I visited my brother and his family in Jackson Hole. I went sledding for the first time, AND WOW! I love sledding! It is so much fun! I should probably be a little more mature and prefer skiing over sledding, but sledding is easier and less painful. Also cheaper. So I choose sledding.

The next year I visited my brother for Christmas, and I went skiing for the first time. I really enjoyed it, only fell a few times and ended the day pretty unscathed. Although, my brother did trick me into taking a pretty big jump saying that "Yeah, you can do that. You've been skiing great all day." Um....no. I biffed it pretty badly. Skis flying. Body rolling. Snow in face.

I went skiing again with my brother and his family about a year later, on a more difficult mountain. My nephews (8 and 6 at the time) whizzed by me as I fell, got up, fell, got up, fell, etc. Nonetheless, I rather enjoy skiing and one day hope to have it as my family hobby like my brother does. His boys go down black diamonds and have been doing so for a couple of seasons now.

Of course, the snow has been slow in coming this year. We got a little bit at the beginning of November, but it promptly melted. And then nothing. Until this weekend. I hope we get some more by Christmas so Eric and I can go sledding and take a walk up the canyon enjoying the snow-covered, leafless trees.

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