Winter Olympics, here we come!

Jonah was 18mos. old when we first put him on skis. So why not put Naomi on skis at 17mos.???

It was a wonderfully beautiful day at Snowbird... sunny and lots of snow. This was a perfect opportunity to put Naomi on some skis.

She did fine, for the most part, but we could tell she didn't love it or hate it. She seemed to be wondering what we've put her into. She was fine just standing there, but as soon as we would move her, she started to sit back. We offered a ski pole for her to hang onto, but as soon as we'd pull away, it was as if she thought we were taking something else away from her and would let go.

All we really wanted to do was get her on some skis to feel what it was like to be on snow. She didn't last very long, but it was enough to take some great pictures of her and Jonah!

The prettiest girl I know...

Naomi is quite the dancer...
She still loves to move to the beat, whether a good one or a bad one!
She's such a funny little girl. She loves tormenting her big brother. I swear, she's a big, little sister to him. And he does wonderfully well... most of the time!
She's nearly 17 months, going on 6! She wants everything her brother has and is sure to make a point to get it from him.
Her appetite is also as big as she is. It will be interesting to see how different their eating styles will be... she's definitely not as picky as he is!
She's also getting prettier every day. Oh... she'll be a handful!

Jonah's 1st day on the slopes for '08

Wow, what a day...

As you can see from the picture, I took Jonah through Snowbird's tunnel. For those of you that don't know, this tunnel goes straight up the mountain and spits you out to the top of Mineral Basin, Snowbird's backside. There is a Green run for the beginner skiers, but it definitely wasn't beginner enough for him...

I had a momentary lapse of reason and thought my son would be able to 'slowly' make it down the mountain. As it turns out, I 'overterrained' him...

The first part of Lupine Loop (the Green run) heads down a pretty steep hill and as we came around the corner of the cat-track, the flat light made it tough to see that the other side of it was a cliff. At that point, I grabbed him and at that moment lost my ski. This, in turn, made him freak out and start losing it. I had to stabilize him and hike down to get my ski. Once I was able to calm him down, I took our skis off and had us trek back up towards the cat-track. By now, I'm sweating in 20degree weather and had to ask myself if I could do this. But for the sake of safety and sanity, we stopped and composed ourselves. And this part of the run was probably the easiest... Yikes!

We eventually made our way down the hill... A run that normally would take 10-15 minutes took us over an hour. By this time, my phone is ringing off the hook. Yes, it was Ethan calling to see where the hell we had gone. By the time I was able to call him, we made it to the Tram deck. Once I told Ethan where we were, he was sure to give me an earful...

Finally in the safety of the Tram, I was able to get Jonah to realize how brave he was...

Next time, I'll let him pick the runs!

Christmas 2007

Once again, Christmas was wonderfully fun for the Smith family. Lola & Lolo were able to spend Christmas with their favorite Utah grand-kids. It was such a treat to see that Naomi & Lola (my Mom) were able to bond so quickly in such a short amount of time. We seem to think that Naomi can see the resemblance and figured that she must be of relation to her, therefore, feels safe amongst her.

Lolo (my Dad) has a sister that lives in the Big Apple and was able to come out to Utah with her boyfriend, James, from London. They were die-hards when it came to skiing at Snowbird. Every single day they were here, they met Ethan in the morning at 7AM to head up to the mountain... talk about hardcore!

Jonah and Naomi were once again spoiled for Christmas. Children sure can make the holidays fun and exciting again!

Thanks to everyone that helped make Christmas a memorable one. We feel so blessed to have such a great support group and loving family!