On Set

I'll let My Hero post about "Berlin", but I just wanted to share some photos of our family on set.  Mermaid was cast as baby Christian (nepotism? yes, but very sentimental).  She had an authentic costume and was a favorite with the cast.  Trpedo was considered for toddler Christian, but he's far too combustible for film.  Still, we got some sweet shots of him in the costume.  The rest of us had fun hanging around and learning how movies are made.

Always time for cheesecake

Happy Birthday, My Hero! 

He only had 50 minutes to join us for lunch and a luscious Keylime cheesecake. 

(Kendra C's lemon cheesecake is still number 1!)

Skiing

This was my 4th time skiing, but it was a first for the girls.  It was so fun to watch them go and, I'll admit it, it was really fun to leave them with the instructor.  I mostly stuck to the blue routes but My Hero took on a couple of black diamonds for his birthday.  

pulling over for directions

 The Smith's grocery store in Heber was so gigantic that I got lost on my first visit.  They offer about 30 different choices for Spaghetti sauce...dizzying.  Sometimes more is just more.  Fortunately, we found the milk since that is clearly a staple in our home and I wanted to visit this labyrinth as little as possible. 

Highlights

In an unexpected twisted of fate, My Hero's H.S. sweetheart offered me such a sweet gift: highlights, lowlights and a whole morning of pampering! If you live or visit anywhere near American Fork contact me so that I can give you her information because she is a fantastic person and a wonderful stylist.

WAHOO!

After 12 years of marriage, another first... snowmobiling!  I was definitely nervous because I didn't want to get stuck or hit anything, so we played it safe and went to the gorgeously groomed trails of Daniels Summit Lodge.  My Hero got the hang of it right away and was tearing up the snow off trail.  I think I was more of a 'cross country' snowmobiler.  I was just taking it nice and easy only taking a couple of well worn off-trail circles.  

Slow and steady wins the race.  Because I was taking it slow and My Hero was hopping off the trail every chance, I got ahead of him and we were separated.  When he caught up with me, I think I wanted to show off a little.  You know, impress my man, so I went off trail and ended up WAY off-trail.  I couldn't make the turn back onto the trail and went over the slope.  I fell off the snowmobile right away as it dropped out from under me and it just coasted down the hill until it finally parked itself in the trees.  Wah-oops!  There was no serious damage to me or the snowmobile, but it was exhausting trying to stamp down 3 feet of snow or use a pine lever to help it out.  Unfortunately, I wasn't much help trying to budge a 500 lb. machine buried in powder.

We finally admitted defeat and headed back to the lodge for reinforcements.  Yikes!  I had been taking it about 20 mph on my own ride, but now I was hanging on around My Hero's waist going his normal speed - 40-50+ mph.  There were some awesome off trail rides he just couldn't resist, so he was tearing it up with me hanging on the back.  Did I mention the snowmobile seat was branded with a picture of two people riding a snowmobile with a slash indicated Do Not Do This?  Well, it's a good thing we did because I got to enjoy some adventure I never would have considered on my own and it was a totally blast despite practically blowing out both of my knees as I tried to stay on.  My Hero actually liked riding with me in the hootchie-mama seat following all of his moves and keeping him warm.

Once we reached the lodge the lovely and wind chapped Jesse came to help us.  What?!  I thought we could just tell him where it was and go home.  I could barely stand.  Evidently, we had to show Jesse the stuck snowmobile guru where it was and then I had to be there to drive it back.  So...I hopped back on with My Hero and braced myself for another ride.  Jesse wasn't just a stuck snowmobile guru, he was also a speed demon like My Hero.  We made it to the crash site in record time.  Two brawny men were able free my ride in about 10 minutes.  It's a good thing I was there.  I had to rev the gas as they pulled it in reverse, very important. ;)  

We were finally on our way again.  I was still cautious on the ridges, but when the trail opened up, so did I.  After all, My Hero had shown me how to do it and the worst of my snowmobiling fears had already been realized resulting in little more than a dented bumper.  In fact, I was loving this adventure.  When I came to the flats, I actually pinned the gas and broke 50 mph on my own.  I saw My Hero take a jump and a spill, but he just hopped back on his machine and continued tearing it up.  WAHOOOooooo!

P.S. I think the reason I don't look as cool as My Hero is that none of the adult helmets fit, so I had to wear a squinky child's size helmet w/o fierce face guard.

Feeding Horses

Today is March 3rd. Today is the day that we, (me, Urban Tangerine, Angelfish, Mermaid, Sparkle and Torpedo) went to feed the horses. First we went to ask permission. Then we went to feed them. The first thing we had to do was climb over a barbed wire fence, which to me is always a little bit scary to do with Torpedo. Next we had to walk on a very short but very muddy path that took us into the pasture where the horses were. When we said we were going to feed the horses, I had thought that meant with a fence in between me and the horses. Instead we were feeding them right there with them walking around us. We fed them apples and threw carrots at them (without hitting the horses). When the horses started coming closer to us, I started running. I was so scared, I was the one holding the bag of carrots and the horses were sort of half following me.  Sparkle had already run out of the pasture for fear too and was yelling "Run for your life!" and guess what, I did! Angelfish, Urban Tangerine, Torpedo and Mermaid stayed back and they fed the horses some more. Finally though we did leave the horses but they followed us to the edge of the pasture which made me think that they might follow us all the way out. But thankfully they didn't.

Posted by Star