2023 Annual Holiday Newsletter

 

2023 came in with a bang.  Living in a mountain town is not for the faint of heart.  Living in a mountain town with a record breaking winter was very interesting.  We got 612" of snow for the 22-23 season in Park City- compare that to 199" the year before.  We had more powder days than we could imagine, shoveled the front sidewalk, only to shovel it again hours later, and had a newfound love for our snow tires.  The family had a blast with all of the crazy skiing and I put a smile on my face and scheduled several warm vacations at strategic late winter and early spring times.

One highlight was when Palmer and his friends starting jumping from the second floor balcony to the ground because the clearance between the two wasn't much.  It was all fun and games until they started flipping to the ground from the railing and I needed to put an end to that...

Rick is living his best life and loves the balance of work and play.  He works harder than ever and logs more hours than imagined from the convenience of working from home downstairs- efficiency at its finest without wasting hours on a commute- and he travels quite a bit.  But, when he's not working, he loves having nature's playground outside- mountain biking and golf in the warmer seasons and skiing and ski touring (hiking up on skis to ski down) in the cold months.  He's the happiest I've ever seen, and that makes all of the nutso snow worth it to me.  He's also a lot more present for all of us since we get him at home downstairs many days.

Rick is ski racing dad extraordinaire.  He loves to prep all of the gear (Palmer alone has 10ish pairs of skis and the coordinating helmets and poles and boots to go with them) and loves to geek out on YouTube about anything and everything ski racing related.

Speaking of Palmer, he is also happiest on snow.  He is still ski racing and very excited about starting a new ski discipline for his age group, Super G.  This translates to racing at higher speeds and doing large jumps along the way.  Goodie.  Rick and I had the opportunity to take Palmer to Austria for a ski camp this fall.  We left Palmer at the camp for a week and celebrated our 15th anniversary while traveling to the Dolomites in Italy and Slovenia and Oktoberfest in Munich.  It was special for all.

Palmer also loves mountain biking and hanging out with his middle school friends at a parkour/jump park called Woodward.  Palmer is a great student in 7th grade and we are already touring high schools to figure out the next phase of life.  Wild.

Grace is an absolute joy and makes people smile wherever she goes.  She's found her passion in dance and joined her studio's competitive team this year.  She spends several nights a week at the studio and still feels like it's never enough.  At home, she cranks music in her room and keeps dancing in front of the mirror.  She's also an animal lover and after much persistence, she somehow talked us into a fish and then an outdoor cat.  She's in heaven with this cat and is the best pet owner.  Grace also enjoys skiing and the outdoors, but she is already a retired ski racer.

I wrapped up my second year with the Sundance Film Festival press office and decided to hang my hat for now.  The job was a ton of fun and rewarding, but a busy winter job is tough with a busy winter family who travels out of state at the same time for all of the ski races.  I keep myself plenty busy with all of our family coordination and I love to plan our travel escapes.  As a family, we are fortunate to prioritize travel because it's easy for the kids to live in a bubble up on this Park City mountain.  We want them to know what more is out there in the world.  I also play on a tennis team and I've found a winter saving grace with hot yoga.  There's nothing better than walking out of a 102 degree studio into the snow and feeling like you can tackle the season.

Life is good, we are living an adventure for sure.  We've found a place where we can prioritize what matters most in life and live each day to its fullest.  

Happy holidays to all of you and we would love to hear from you.

Bethany, Rick, Palmer, and Grace