Frigid February

Well, the Groundhog saw his shadow and six more weeks of winter are in full swing. Our days have been quite cold, and we've had a LOT of snow!!

The blue sky and sunshine days are a welcome sight after a storm, but it isn't melting the snow much because we haven't gotten above freezing temperatures long enough to really warm up.

We've also had quite a bit of bad air from the inversion between storms. 

              

Our air quality grew to some alarming levels of above 110 u/g, meaning individuals outside were likely breathing in plenty of harmful, particulate micrograms. Particulate matter contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. The valley's inversion let to the valley's highest PM2.5, which poses the greatest risk to health.

We need the storms to come in to clear the air!!

Dale's been a trooper and figured out ways to move the snow around so that we can keep the driveway open. It's been a heavy snow at times and his back has been feeling it. From what it looks like, the snow is going to keep coming off and on into at least mid-March. 

With the deep snow, we've had the deer down in the valley and have had up to 9 deer in our back yard at a time. Some have been sleeping under our big pine tree. It's been hard for the animals to find food in the mountains because of the deep snow.

Some in our area also felt an earthquake that was in Box Elder County--Here's what was in our Cache Valley Daily News:

BOX ELDER COUNTY — An area near Corrine where multiple small quakes were recorded over several days got an early-morning shake from a 3.2 magnitude event Thursday morning.

According to the University of Utah Seismograph Station, the earthquake was recorded at 2:07 a.m. at the Great Salt Lake’s northeastern tip, amid the Bear River bays.

The sparsely-populated area sits about 4 miles southwest of Corrinne, near the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

According to the US Geological Survey, more than 25 people reported feeling the overnight shaking.

Speaking of earthquakes; Syria and Turkey had a 6.6 one with around 196 aftershocks that killed at least 50,000 people. They found people still alive in the rubble weeks after too. One was a newborn child, and one was a younger boy among those found. A sad and happy situation for them. 

At home, Dale and I went to some USU Men's basketball games. USU vs New Mexico, (win) USU vs San Diego St. (loss by 6), USU vs Air Force (won). The Aggies have been doing pretty well, with having so many new players. Right now, they are in 4th place, with one more game to go.

They had an aerialist preform for one of the half-time shows. Pretty impressive.

I ushered at the Eccles for a BANNF ski show, Jazz at The Lincoln, and Newsies. All were great productions. We've had good attendance at them as well.

I got together with some of my "Golden Girls", Becky Olson, Kathy Bullen, and Teresa Maughan, for an early Galentines dinner. We went to Black Pearl to eat dinner and visit. My friend, Kathy Bullen had surgery on her eye and had to wear an eye patch, so we got her out. It's always fun to be with my gals.

I also got together with the ladies in our family, Zandra, Lindsay, June, Amie and Danica, for a Galentines Lunch, we were missing Diana, who is in Washington State. We met in Brigham City and ate and visited. Boy, am I one blessed momma.

 

Our State hosted the NBA All-Star International Events in Salt Lake. It was a big deal. Here's some of the scoop from the newspaper:

 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — NBA All-Star weekend is here! More than 60 players from the NBA and G League will be part of the showcase — the All-Star Game, the dunk, 3-point and skills competitions, and the Rising Stars games for first- and second-year players..

It’s a homecoming of sorts for Donovan Mitchell, the Cleveland guard who spent the first five years of his NBA career in Utah until he was traded last summer. Mitchell still has deep ties to Utah; he’s throwing a comedy show for charity this weekend to benefit Kearns High School, a place that he worked closely with when he played for the Jazz.

To grow into who I am today, I’m forever grateful, forever thankful

“You learn to appreciate those moments,” said Mitchell, who had to miss last year’s All-Star Game in Cleveland because of an upper respiratory issue. “You learn to appreciate those things because they saw me grow up. I was a young kid, just happy to be drafted and then given a role to be one of the leaders on the team early, making the playoffs, having big moments, having struggles, ups and downs. And to grow into who I am today, I’m forever grateful, forever thankful.

For some — Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. and Markkanen of the host Jazz — this will be their first All-Star Game appearance.

This is a really important moment for our state to shine

“This is a really important moment for our state to shine,” Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith said. “I mean, it’s been 30 years. To give you an idea of what the difference is, 10 times the hotel rooms needed to be secured … and we’re ready for it.”

Jason and Danica were able to get in on some of the action during the NBA All-Stars weekend with his brother and their family.

Dale's been out on the ice quite a bit, and even got in some fishing with Garrett, Zandra, and the kids, down their way, at East Reservoir. They only caught one fish, but memories were made. The kids and Zandra left early because it was so cold. That's why I don't go ice fishing. ;)

He also has spent a fair amount of time on the mountain slopes getting the most out of his season ski pass at Beaver Mtn. He's been skiing with Andrew a few times on days after a good storm, so they had some great powder to ski in. On their way up the Logan Canyon after a good snow storm they found that someone had made a big snowman by the side of the road. Pretty cool, huh?

Dale and I left our freezing cold for some slightly warmer temperatures in Iceland. Day 1: We had a bit of a set-back due to our flight to Seattle getting bumped back 1 1/2 hours. That made it so we had to cancel that flight and get another one. We found one on Delta that went directly to Seattle, but it ended up costing us another $800. Thanks to help from Zandra, we were able to get our money back from the flight with Alaska Air that got bumped back. We barely made that flight and once on the plane we heard the pilot say that we'd be arriving in Seattle about 20 min. early due to a tail wind. 

That helped ease our worries. We did end up landing 20 min. early and we needed it to get our luggage and then check-in again on Iceland Airlines. It was close, but we got through security and to the gate early enough, giving us time to use the restroom and grab some food to eat on the plane. I had said a silent prayer before we boarded for Seattle and God heard my prayer. We made our flight to Iceland!!

While on the plane when we were over Greenland, we got to see the Northern Lights in the sky out the airplane window. Pretty neat!! 

Day 2: We landed in Iceland at 6:15am (we went through four time zones; our flight was around 8 hours). We made it through customs and got our luggage then caught our bus that took us to our hotel. Where it was so early, we just checked our luggage in at the hotel and then waited around a bit for places to open. We decided to go to The Perlan- Wonders of Iceland and learned all about Iceland and the Northern Lights. This place even had real ice caves!! 

We watched a show about the Northern Lights at a Planetarium and that was pretty cool too.

We had some lunch at a little cafe there and then walked back to the hotel and were able to check into our room. We had only gotten about 4-5 hours of sleep since Friday because we had to get up early to get to Salt Lake. I never slept on the plane so we got a 3 hour nap in!! When we woke up it was dark and we just grabbed a pre-made sandwich and drink from the hotel. Our Northern Lights tour we had booked for that night got cancelled due to weather conditions. We got to see what it would have looked like from the ground at the Perlan, so we just lounged around in the room.

The hotel has these carved wooden people in the lobby, we called them our greeters.

Day 3: The hotel had a wonderful tasting breakfast buffet for us. We got our fill and then loaded a bus to go on a "Golden Circle Tour" of the island. We saw tundra in many different forms; flat, mountains, lava rock, wooded areas (we learned that most of the trees were brought over from Greenland or European countries and planted by humans). The Artic Fox is the only native animal on the island, all the other animals like the horse, dog, cat, sheep, cows, etc. were brought over in boats.

The bus weather started out with rain and then it turned into snow, sleet and wind. It got quite cold too. 

We saw a mini "Yellowstone" because we saw some geo-thermal pools, some bubbling pools, and a mini geyser go off kind of like a mini "Old Faithful" in Yellowstone.

We also saw a mini "Niagara Falls" that they call the 

3-step staircase of Gullfoss, but it was blowing REAL hard in that area, and it was WAY COLD, so we didn't spend a lot of time there. The water looked like it had a blue hue to it. So pretty!

To warm us up we stopped at a natural hot spring called "Secret Lagoon". It was SO nice and WARM!! We just soaked, relaxed and visited with some of the people on the tour. 

After getting warmed up we saw snow covered lava fields. I called it our little "Hilo Hawaii" look in winter. Iceland truly has it all.

The only real meal we had that day was our tasty breakfast at the hotel. The weather ended up getting bad again. We hit rain, snow, and STRONG high winds. It was so bad we had to stop for a bit to wait for the storm to let up some, so when we stopped to wait for the storm at a little town, we bought a few snacks and a smoothie. The restaurant at the hotel was closed when we got back, so we just got a drink and hit the sack. 

What an eventful day it was. I bought some different flavored Sea Salts, a Christmas sweater ornament, and a winter headband that helped keep my ears warm from the wind at some of the shops we visited on our stops.

The storm set us back 3 1/2 hours from the time we were supposed to arrive back at the hotel. This put us an hour late for our re-booked Northern Light Tour, so we missed the tour again!!Bummer!!

Day 4: We had another nice breakfast at the hotel then hit the road to see the sites. The weather wasn't way cold, so we walked the streets, but some of the sidewalks were pretty icy, so we had to be careful. 

We went to the Church of Hallgrimur. It's both a national monument, and a mid-town Parish Church. It's the largest Church in Iceland. It houses the largest organ in the country. The tower is 73 meters high. We went up to the tower and saw a panoramic view of Reykjavik, the surrounding mountains and the ocean stretching west to Greenland and the Americas. The church was built between 1945-1986, and the parish is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland. It was pretty impressive.

We walked downtown and checked out some of the shops and ended up buying hand-knitted sweaters for each of us to take home. The people were very friendly, and the town looked clean and inviting. For the most part the weather wasn't way cold, just a few times when the wind would kick up did it get really cold.

We walked across town and saw a "Lava Show" which combined an educational experience with fun as we learned about volcanos by recreating an eruption. We were able to witness the recreation a volcano eruption, similar to what the Eyjafjallajökull and Katla volcanos are famous for. We saw molten lava which reach a temperature of 1100°C, pour into the showroom and over ice. It was an epic battle between the elements and a unique opportunity to get close to red-hot lava, see it flowing, hear it sizzling, and feel the intense heat that radiates from it.

From there, we walked over to "Fly Over Iceland" where we were able to see locations that people aren't able to visit due to its location. We got an extended experience and were able to explore Iceland in a small show that introduced us to Iceland’s history, culture, and visual blessings. It was pretty cool.

The great thing about the area we were in is that there is a walking path that goes around the outskirts of the town. We just got on the path, and it took us back to our hotel. We stopped at Subway and got a sandwich for dinner because it was on the way and made it back to the hotel just before dusk. I got in 18,086 steps by the time I sat down in our room. We had walked 8.4 miles!! Our last chance to see the Northern Lights was cancelled again due to the weather, again!! We were glad we got a good glimpse of it from the airplane!! 

Dale and I had no problem going to sleep, our bed was very inviting.

Day 5: Our last breakfast in the hotel; we checked out of our room and had the hotel hold our bags until we caught our bus to take us to the airport. 

Our flight out went smooth to Seattle, and we got through customs quickly and caught our flight to Salt Lake. All went well! We landed to a lot of snow on the ground in Salt Lake, and more snow fell on our way home. The road through the canyon was snow packed, but drivable, we just went slow and it helped that their wern't many cars on the road.

We got home and saw that our driveway and walk had been cleared earlier, but there was about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. We pulled in the driveway around 1:15am and were in bed by 1:45am, which was 9:30am the next day in Iceland. It was a quick trip, but a nice one. This was our Valentines gift to each other, not bad huh?

As we looked out our back window we saw two deer under the tree, and the next morning we found out that Andrew and Titan had brought their snowblower here and cleared the driveway and sidewalk, which was very helpful because our Grizzly was in the shop waiting to be picked up, and with more snow coming we needed to use it!!

I ended the month by attending a Stake Women's Conference that was awesome! A young mom in our ward, Danielle Steed, was the presenter. The theme was "Destined to Create". They had a light lunch after as well.

 

Nate and Diana got away from the cold and spent some time in Tahiti!! From what we saw and heard, they had a nice relaxing trip and soaked in the sunshine. Just what the Dr. ordered.

They also headed our way to take advantage of the "Greatest Snow on Earth" here! They stayed with Garrett & Zandra and skied Snow Basin with some of the family, and then headed North to ski the Beav up Logan Canyon with the family. We had a soup and salad bar at our house after and to visit. Then the next day we went and had a dinner at Garrett and Zandra's to get one last day to hang out with our Washington kids. It was a nice weekend, and the snow lived up to it's name.

Jason and Danica even had June on the slopes with them at Beaver!!

The Mallory kids finished up their soccer and session of basketball. We got to see Mazin and Kennlyn play and they both got baskets in their game. 

The Mallory's also headed to warmer weather for a soccer tournament in St. George. They enjoy their sports!

Kennlyn's team ended up winning the championship game for her age bracket in the soccer tournament. Jaxson played on a co-ed team and Langston played on his competitive team; both came up short in the end, but they all played their hearts out and had fun on the field.

 

Here's what Amie said on her Facebook post about their time in St. George--10 games in 3 days! They all fought hard but only 1 came out on top! Rage FC and Icebreakers soccer tournament.

Lindsay was busy making shirts and earrings for her Lazy Lou Handmade online sales. She had more orders than she did for Christmas, so word is getting out!

Dale and I went and watched Titan play in a Church YM basketball game. We were thrilled to see him out on the court, and after he said he wanted to play again, so it was a great time for all. Way to go Titan!! 

While Andrews been home, he's been busy building shelfing for a storage closet. He also took Nora and Titan skiing at Cherry Peak. 

Eloise turned 10 years old this month! We joined them for dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe to celebrate her big day. She had a friend party earlier and we'll do our birthday day date next month. Happy Birthday Eloise! We love you!!

Garrett had a chance to go Backcountry Cat skiing with some of the men in his neighborhood, and it was one day he won't forget! It was a beautiful day of sunshine, unbelievable views and terrain, and great company.

He also took time out of his day and took Jorie out on a date. They played arcade games and ate at In n' Out for a night out with his favorite daughter.

The Hassell's headed to San Diego for a work conference where Jason was awarded as a President Club winner. The Hassell-free team is going strong!!

While there they celebrated his birthday. Happy Birthday Jason!!

They also took advantage of the new snow and spent a weekend at Bear Lake at his mom's place.  While there, they got in some skiing at Beaver, and some snowmobiling. 

To celebrate his dad's birthday, they headed south again in between storms and went to the St. George Parade of Homes tour while there. They also visited his Grandpa Hassell who lives in St. George.

The Hassell's seem to be on the go quite a bit, and June is a trooper to go along. Goes to show what can be done even with a little one.

I may of named this month Frigid February, but those days in-between storms when the air was clear, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining make where we live worth it. That look at our Wellsville mountains are always breathtaking. We sure live in a beautiful area.