boy bonding

The same weekend that I went running, Todd and Taylor took the opportunity to get out of town, too. Our friends, the Mortimers, graciously invited Taylor up to Utah for a skiing adventure and Todd happily invited himself along for the fun. As an added bonus, Grandma Beth joined the road trippers to visit a brother in Utah.

They rose bright and early to get their 10 hour drive started. They passed through a canyon that Todd remembered from a childhood trip - he remembers his dad pointing it out, but refusing to stop the car and look around. On this trip, Todd realized HE was the dad this time, and HE was the boss. So they all got out to see the dam, cave, dinosaur tracks, and take care of "business". They even worried Grandma half to death as they got what she percieved as being too close to the edge of the canyon (good thing mommy wasn't around).

They did eventually reach their destination. The very next morning, they all headed out again and traveled a bit further north to ski at the beautiful resorts.

Taylor had never skied before and was SO excited. Dave's ski-instructor nephew gave Taylor some private tutoring one morning. It was fun to get text messages from them while on my run reporting that Taylor was picking it up quickly and couldn't believe how well he was doing.

After a day of skiing, they still went night tubing and had a blast! Then they followed it up the next day with more skiing. Todd says Taylor began to get real brave and go on some surprising runs.

Taylor had a lot of fun with Dixon skiing, tubing and playing in the snow. I'm surprised by how well my self-proclaimed "Arizona boy" did in the cold weather.

Of course they didn't take nearly enough pictures to satisfy me, but I'm glad that had such a wonderful time. Our visits with the Mortimers are too few and far between and we can't wait until our next one. Watch out guys! Next time, we're bringing the entire family!

Here's a peek at Taylor's first run:

Way to go, Buddy!

And p.s.: A BIG thank you to all those who helped watched Paige and Gabriel at home. Todd's mother said that it's something she can look back on fondly - now that it's over. :)