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

2022 Annual Holiday Newsletter

 

End of the year already? For the first times in our lives, we live vicariously thru the seasons.  Within a 12-month cycle is a rhythm and a cadence as we go from snow to snow melt to green leaves and grass to bright colorful leaves and back to snow.  We embrace each newness for the best parts that each season brings and then let nature run its course and we move to the next.

I would say that each of us embraces each season in our own best ways...

For Rick, he's the guy with the hobbies and passions.  When the snow is fresh, he lives and breathes skiing, wants to talk to everyone he meets about skiing, spends hours on YouTube perfecting his skiing, and shares his love with his family.  When the snow melts, the skis are waxed and stored, traded for bikes and golf clubs.  Rick once again passionately embraces- organizing group mountain bike rides, encouraging his family up the hill on bikes, and filling in any gaps on the golf course, again with his family and friends.  We camp, we kayak, we do all the summer mountain things.  And when there's a crispness in the air, Rick has a sense of urgency to get in "that one last bike ride" or "that one last round of golf."  Not to fear because when the snow hits, we do it all again- hiking up to find that first special stash of new white powder, long before the resorts even officially open.  

Oh yes, he actually still works, too.  Quite a bit, just like always.  But our mountain life gives him that work-life balance that he dreamed of from an urban downtown office and makes work more manageable when his bucket is more properly filled with the great outdoors, too.

For Palmer, his passion is just as great.  His love for the snow, whether finding the best jumps and powder or skiing race gates, is true.  He and Rick found snow in the summer and trained at a camp on a glacier in Oregon in July.  Again, they kicked off the winter season with another camp in Colorado.  Palmer is burning the candle at both ends these days between a full middle school schedule and training for ski racing five days a week.  We are carefully watching this love for the sport and quietly making plans for the next few years as the demands on his time grows.  In Palmer's "free" time, he still loves to read and play with his sister and is so helpful around the house.

Grace is an all around bundle of joy.  She loves to dance, sing in the mirror, flip endless cartwheels, and tell tall tales to anyone who will believe her.  She's a true entertainer- going for the shock value when at all possible, for better or for worse.  Grace is also interested in ski racing and is going to give her first season a go this season.  Time will tell if this will be a fit for her, too, but for now, we know she loves her pink and green racesuit and she loves "impressing" people with her tales of going on double black diamonds (actually true.)

I manage the seasons and am leaning into travel when I need to get away.  Not as in love with the winter as the rest of my family, I enjoy it for a bit and then live for planning trips away in the strategic times when the snow is too much for me.  I love to build travel itineraries and especially enjoyed a trip to the Pacific Northwest this summer and Kauai in the spring.  We had the chance to take Palmer to NY solo for his birthday and Grace to Chicago for a quick musical weekend of Six.  These trips fill my soul and then I love retreating to our mountain for the quiet again.  I spend a lot of winter weekends on indoor tennis courts while the rest of my family is out skiing.  I also enjoy hiking in the summer and fall, with girlfriends or family.

We love when friends and family come to visit and love to share our little mountain life with visitors when they pass thru. Texas remains in our hearts and we aim to visit and get our share of tacos as often as possible.

Love,

Bethany, Rick, Palmer, and Grace Jordan

2021 Annual Holiday Newsletter

It's the end of 2021 and we are still in the mountains transitioning between "the new normal" of a lingering (and hopefully winding down) pandemic and building our new lives in Park City.  We've spent the year making friends and getting into routines.  We left Texas with the intention of having an adventure and keeping our minds open.  We found that we fell in love with a more laid-back lifestyle, friends who value adventure and the outdoors like we do, and a built in playground for hiking, biking, skiing, golfing, and tennis.  This little spot of paradise makes it hard to reimagine our lives anywhere else for the moment, so we've decided to stay put for now.

With vaccinations underfoot and new procedures in place, we were able to travel a bit this year and maximized our closer proximity to Hawaii with a trip to the Big Island in April.  In true Jordan fashion, we combined a little bit of adventure, hiking, and volcano hunting for the first part of the trip and then basked in the sun and had some pool, golf, and snorkeling time for the latter part of the week.  Grace has decided she is going to the University of Hawaii and tells us she will never get island fever!

Rick and I also snuck away for some fun adult tennis time at the US Open, a new tradition with Dallas friends, and to Newport Beach, California with already dear Park City friends.  Thanks to all the grandparents for helping us make that happen!  

This summer, we nearly evacuated due to a nearby wildfire and saw firsthand the perilous effects of a stubborn drought.  We are hoping for much needed snow this winter!

Palmer switched schools in Park City and is so happy at a charter school that focuses on outdoor education.  He has made some really nice friends, loves his teacher who regularly tells old war tales from his Marine days, and enjoys walking a block down the street after school to a giant indoor extreme sport gym/outdoor ski and mountain bike park.  He is gearing up to try out for an alpine ski racing team and looking forward to training and competing in regional ski races.  He enjoyed a junior city golf league this summer, but Rick and I mostly think it was because he was dropped off for nine holes with buddies where they snuck sodas and candy bars before teeing off.  Park City is a small enough town to be able to give Palmer independence to ride the local bus and he is enjoying a new level of freedom that we wouldn't be able to provide in a big city.  It's not a bad childhood!

Grace is thriving in the dual language program at her same school as last year.  She spends half of her days in English and half of her days in Spanish and is blossoming with a new love for linguistics.  She will happily sing Spanish songs to anyone who will listen.  In her free time, she does cartwheels at all of the appropriate and inappropriate times and is working her way thru gymnastics levels and skills at a local gym.  She has a wonderful group of friends and is looking forward to her own recreational ski team and nordic jumping in the next few weeks.  Grace is feisty, daring, and prefers to do everything herself, never mind the risk profile of the situation.

Rick is happy as a clam from his deep dark basement office.  In truth, he's actually back to traveling a few days a week, but loving that when he's home, he's working at home and with family.  Golf is back in our lives in the mountains and he's been happy to play in the months without snow on the ground.  And having biking and ski trails in the front yard make a long day of work worthwhile for quick evening bike rides up the mountain.

In this new town, I've acquired a great group of friends with similar interests, passions, and personalities.  As official manager of the Jordan family social calendar, I quickly found us go from a quiet pandemic quarantine life to wall-to-wall plans many evenings with new friends.  Although fun, we are striving towards maintaining that balance of not over-scheduling our lives and keeping some days open - a lesson we learned while stuck at home for months.  I've found pals with whom I can play tennis and hike and am looking forward to ski touring with some ladies this winter, an early morning hike up the mountain and ski down as the sun rises.  I'm also working full-time for the next few months managing the press office for Sundance Film Festival.  The job is fast-paced and a lovely challenge and then it will nicely wrap up after the festival, a dream of a schedule.  I'm also, of course, doing what I do and remodeling the house room by room.  It's a slow process, but we are putting that Jordan stamp on things as we go!

We love living in a place where so many of you choose to visit and we love seeing familiar and old faces as you pass thru.  Happy new year.  Things are looking up!

2020 Annual Holiday Newsletter

My, oh my! How little any of us knew this time last year when I reflected upon 2019.  Here we are, deep into 2020 and I come to this moment of contemplation with gratitude, peace, and an itch to move on with life.

For some time, we've been talking about having an adventure period in Park City, Utah. We've been feeling the urge to experience year-round nature and slow down our life.  

First, the spring of quarantining in Dallas forced us to stop and smell the roses.  Yes, life of an uncertain future was stressful.  But, it was also a chance for our family to be present, pause and reprioritize what we wanted out of life.  When everything is stripped away, what is left?  Many of us found out the real answers and also realized that spring in Texas is an incredible time that we had always been too busy to notice.

Second, the life of working remotely and virtual schooling opened up opportunities for us to branch out of Texas and stretch out in Park City, Utah.

Here we are in snowy Park City five months later after the most gorgeous summer and fall (with all the colors!) where we hiked, rafted, biked, stargazed, and overall slowed our pace of life.  The kids are now in person at school, making new friends and enjoying new experiences along the way.  

Palmer is eager for the Park City All Mountain ski team to begin and loves mountain biking, skateboarding, and golf.  He has a goal of reading 115 chapter books by the end of the year and is on target to mark that goal.  He is also loving an after school STEM program that gives him opportunities to dabble in inventions and engineer projects.

Grace is a social butterfly and rules the roost in her kindergarten class.  Her best playmate lives across the street and is also in her class, so the two girls spend most hours of the day together.  Grace loves to crank up music in her bedroom while playing with her dollhouse, dolls, or drawing.  Grace is doing tap and jazz dance and also loves her STEM program.  She loves to keep up with her brother and dad on the mountain bike and ski trails.

Rick (gratefully) hasn't missed a beat while working during Covid.  He moved his operation out of the office and paused traveling and spends his days downstairs in his office with his top half of his self dressed for Zoom calls.  Rick's personal pride is the fact that he only wore shorts for 8 months straight (despite a trip to Yellowstone in the snow) and brags that there will likely never be another time in his life where he can achieve such a feat. Rick is loving the mountain bike trails right out our driveway and loves to climb a few runs whenever he gets a spare minute in the evenings and on the weekends.  He has put together a backcountry ski outfit and is scheduled to take an avalanche safety course soon so that he can explore the world of backcountry skiing.

I've been helping everyone find their place here and making friends thru a local hiking group.  In September, we trained for a 16 mile and 5300 vertical climb hike and it was a great bonding experience with twelve new friends.  We are now transitioning from the hiking season to a winter of snowshoeing and skiing. I joined a local club for beginner cross country skiers where I hope to meet more people and learn a new hobby.  I also empty the dishwasher 1-2 times a day and cook more meals for this family than I have ever cooked in my life.  Luckily, I enjoy the domestic time.  As I have more confidence about the kids staying in school despite Covid, I will pursue work outside the home again.

We have also loved a new center of the universe and enjoyed fun weekend trips within driving distances from Park City like Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park and visits to Jackson, Wyoming and surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton.  The drivable options from here are endless and we love the exploration of new surroundings.

When things become normal-ish, we would love to see visitors.  We had several fun visits this summer and we look forward to being your tour guides in our favorite mountain town one day again soon.

Here's to the reflections and adventures 2020 brought and oh the fun we hope to have in a reopened society in 2021...

Bethany, Rick, Palmer, and Grace

2019 Annual Holiday Newsletter

Although I've taken an official break from this old and dusty blog, I thought I'd use it to sit down and reflect on the past year.  This year involved an emphasis on life and experiences. We tried to focus on what really matters to our family and how can we make changes to maximize those priorities.  

Earlier this year, we rearranged some real estate investments and bought a condo in Park City, Utah.  The plan is to try to spend as much time in the mountains during the summer and winter, and rent out the space when we are not using it.  We love who our family is when we get out of the hustle and bustle of city life and want our kids to experience nature and calm more often in their lives.  We are grateful that we have the flexibility to create that balance.

We enjoyed getting all FOUR Jordans on the ski slopes where Grace is now tearing up blue runs.  Palmer was such a proud big brother and patient as Grace maneuvered the new hills.  He even helped pole her out of some flatter spots.  In the summer, we basked in the glory of no mosquitos and tolerable summer temperatures while we hiked, ventured up to Glacier National Park and explored Montana.  While in Park City, the guys found new thrills on the mountain bike trails of Deer Valley.

Back in Texas, we are settled into our usual patterns.  Palmer is in third grade and a self-proclaimed lover of reading.  He's checked off all of the Harry Potter books and most of the books by author Rick Riordan, and is currently tackling the Texas Bluebonnet books for 2019.  He loves golfing with Rick on the weekends, plays on a baseball team, enjoys chess and other mind-challenging games, and loves snow skiing and mountain biking.  This summer, Palmer went to a ski jumping camp where the coaches were impressed with his determination and grit.

Grace graduated from her beloved preschool in the spring and is in a kinder program where she is flourishing with reading, writing, and math.  She loves ballet and tap with her friends, gymnastics, and will always sing every single word to any song at any time.  At home, Grace can be found playing with her baby dolls and dollhouse and is often heard bossing friends with imaginative play.  

We sold our beloved mid-century home remodel, and I've been busy remodeling a smaller flip home in a nearby Dallas neighborhood.  The home is a completely different style (think Texas ranch house) and has been a creative challenge for me while we try to determine what our next step is for more permanent residence.  The construction projects dominate most of my day, but I still fit in freelancing when the schedule allows, running the kids around to their daily activities, volunteering for school and neighborhood events, and playing on a tennis team.

Rick is busy making lists of all the things he wants to do before he is 40 (one year from now) and trying to find the balance of work and living a full life of experiences.  He loves getting out on the golf course regularly and has also found a new love for tennis where he subbed on a mixed doubles team this fall.  We were invited to one of his tennis team dinners and laughed that we brought down the average age of the group by a few decades.  

Rick and I got away to New York for a weekend with tennis friends to enjoy the US Open.  We loved the chance to see new sensation Coco Gauff play against reigning US Open Champion Naomi Osaka, and saw all the other current tennis "greats" - including Serena Williams, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal.  We are already trying to figure out how to make this weekend an annual tradition.

We are looking forward to hitting up opening day of the ski season in the mountains during Thanksgiving and dreaming up holiday menus to get us thru December's full calendar of fun.  We wish you a happy holiday season and best of intentions for the new year.

Love,

Bethany, Rick, Palmer, and Grace Jordan

Christmas 2018

In keeping with this year's theme of toning down the Christmas season and focusing on quality instead of quantity, we also put that same emphasis on Christmas week.  Samantha and I usually spend several days putting together a big production of a meal with numerous side events for the day of Christmas and surrounding days.  When we realized that Samantha wasn't flying in December 23rd, we scaled back our menu and planning a bit.

We also filled our pre-Christmas plans with early morning workouts in the drive way and reward trips to the specialty coffee shop afterwards.

The holiday turned out to be one of our most "relaxing" yet and we are uncertain if the kids are just getting older and easier or if we really nailed down the perfect menu that compliments both ease and good tasting food.

Good weather also blessed us and everyone enjoyed some back patio time with tunes/dancing and creek exploring.

Christmas Eve with matching plaid pants and four-yr-old candle holders...

 

Leaving notes for Santa (who surprised the kids with a Grace American girl doll, ski boots, and a Nintendo switch rental.)

Checking out the Christmas morning loot...

Samantha's annual Southern Living cake was perfection- it was a plain white cake (a tad on the sweet side), but an easier one to decorate than in years past.

The rest of Christmas week was spent with a new Mary Poppins movie, neighborhood Christmas fun,  outdoor puzzles, and lots of hand-holding with Aunt Samantha.

 

And on this "care-free" week of Christmas, I officially sign off from this blog.  The platform has served its purpose of memory keeping for our family and entertainment and updating for some of you.  We are moving to a new platform that will work in this next phase of life and I will continue to make updates to a new "thejordanjourneys" account on Instagram (that will once again be printed into books.)  Thank you for your support and for growing with us over the last 8 years.

-Bethany