Abigail has certainly been a blessing to our family. However, her sleep habits feel more like a curse at times. Cristal and I haven't slept a full night in months. In fact, the majority of nights, the most consecutive hours of sleep we get is 2-3 hours. There have been those blessed nights of five consecutive hours here and there; but they're teasers that lull us into a false sense of hope. I'm reminded of a quote from the series Band of Brothers - '...Hope is the Denial of Reality'.
We do still find time for adventures and Sam's sporting activities; we've had a few powder days this winter. Although, here I sit writing as 24" of glorious powder lay untracked at Snow Basin this morning...parenthood???
Here along the Wasatch Front we've exceeded 60 days of measurable snow in the valley - the fifth longest stretch in recorded history for our area. Old man winter has been relentless. However, the winter provided me an opportunity to hike and ski the foothills above my house with Pele. Something I've never done. We skied into a herd of about 40 deer; which has never happened to me at a resort.
Christmas came and went as it does. It was wonderful, even through the haze of exhaustion. Our family tried to focus on a celebration for every day of the Christmas season. Sam and I thought it meant we got a different gift for each of the 12 days. Cristal gave us good morning kisses as our daily gift; which suited us just fine. Abigail was introduced to the snow, since we have more of it than we've ever had at our house.
Abigail did her second road trip to St George Utah for one of Sam's soccer tournaments. Two sets of grandparents and an uncle followed us there.
The tournament did not go too well. After winning three consecutive tournaments in St George, Sam's team didn't even make it to the semi-finals for this one. It was a good, humbling experience for Sam and the rest of the team.
Fortunately, the loss provided an opportunity for Abigail's uncle and I to get our first mountain bike rides of the season in. We rode over 35 miles of trails in the sun of St George; 22 miles on the Goulds/JEM/Hurricane Rim loop and then 13 miles on the Bear Claw Poppy trail.
Abigail loved playing in the sun at the hotel with baby William Skorut. The Skorut's joined us on our activities in St George.
Since the soccer tournament ended so abruptly for us, Opa Max and Grandma Becky invited us to the Desert Pearl Hotel in Springdale near Zion National Park for the remainder of our stay. We had a wonderful time, as always, in Springdale. The Desert Pearl was magnificent; nothing beats sitting by the river in the shadow of the majestic Zion cliffs.
The next day, President's Day, it was time to depart beautiful southern Utah, likely my favorite place on the planet. However, after my morning, 20 degree run, to the entrance of Zion Canyon, I think Cristal was feeling poor and picked on because she didn't really get an adventure; I at least had an early morning run. So when we packed up we ventured into Zion National Park prior to departing.
The park was beautiful. We couldn't help ourselves and drove to the top of the canyon where the scenery was magical; snow mixed with redrock and slickrock. The views were breathtaking; I think Abigail was pretty impressed too.
The adventure didn't end for us at the end of Zion National Park. In true VanDongen fashion, Cristal suggested we extend our drive home, take the back roads through Utah and visit Bryce Canyon. Which we did. The drive was absolutely spectacular. Small towns, rivers and creeks, snow covered mountains, and the reddest rocks I've ever seen in Red Canyon.
A hike through the snow at 8300' at Bryce Point in Bryce National Park rounded out our adventure.
Sam Kappernicking - really???
When the facilities are closed for the winter...Sam improvises.
Sleep is something I'll do plenty of when I die. I'll gladly continue to give it up to live the life we're living. We are truly blessed living in one of the best places on the planet to raise kids and find adventure right out our door step.
