Skiing Adventures in Park City

 

Gramps took Kaylee and Cooper to Sundance to get a day of skiing in before our big day at Park City Ski Resort.  

The next day, they drove up to meet me at Park City where I was staying for the Avantguard Conference.  They were able to bring Spencer and Cameron Stump along and cram all the skis and boots in Gramps’ car.  I was able to score 6 lift passes from the conference from people choosing not to ski last minute.  I snatched those passes and we all were able to get in to ski free.  Day passes are normally around $300 per person, so I am super thankful they were willing to give us the extras.  

Skiing was a lot of fun, especially the super wide, not so steep green routes.  It’s so fun to feel like you are flying down a mountain.  I absolutely love the feeling.  We ventured on some medium blue routes and had some panic attacks at the challenges.  We got through those, but the mountain is so ginormous that there are multiple ways down the mountain and you often end up at the bottom pretty far away from where you started.  This happened to us multiple times.  When we were close to where we were hoping to go, the only routes left were mediums and hard routes, so we’d have to take another lift to another spot and attempt to get down a different way.  We still ended up far from our starting point and relied on shuttles to get us from one lodge area to another.  When we all finally made it back to the starting point we were all so exhausted.  It was a really fun day and now we are ready to rest!!

Here’s what the kids have to say about the Park City Slopes:

Park city was WAY bigger than I thought is was gonna be! It was a lot of fun to go down the greens because they were super easy and nothing to worry about. I was practicing my back and forths, and trying to go faster. As I was doing super well on my own, I fell really hard! I hit my tail bone pretty hard and it hurt the rest of the day. I had so much fun and I think I improved a lot!

Avantguard Becklar Ski Retreat

The Avantguard Ski Retreat was a fun time as always.  I went on my own this year since Nate was home managing the household.  I met many of the same vendors and business partners that we see at all the conferences from Avantguard, Becklar, Alarm.com, SS&SI, Freeus, and other Alarm Dealers just like us. It was a lot of fun to network and meet new fellow dealers, pick their brains, learn about how they run their operations.  It was also a lot of fun to meet Shireen in person, our Dealer Care Rep from Avantguard.  She helps us through any Stages challenges monitoring our alarm accounts and we spent a lot of time hearing each others’ stories and critiquing the appetizers at the reception.  We are in the process of joining ESTA, an Alarm networking association, and I met Ashley from Security Central who is heavily involved in ESTA.  I’m excited to learn more about it and be apart of the networking group.  

Springville, Utah Heritage

 Traveling into the past

We took a trip with my mom to Springville to look into our family heritage in that town.  Cyrus Sanford was a significant figure in Springville history, and he was also my 4th great grandfather on my mom’s mom’s side of the family. We found his photos and artifacts at the Daughters of the Utah Pioneer museum in Springville.  He was born in Vermont, lived in Illinois for some time where Orson Hyde baptized him into the Mormon church and he traveled with the pioneers to Nauvoo and on to Salt Lake City with his wife Sylvia.  When in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young called him and others to settle the Springville Mission, so they willing went and began building a town in Springville.  It was fascinating to learn about Cyrus, the town constable, school teacher, mayor, justice of the peace, along with other titles.  They grew flax on their fields, and Sylvia processed the flax plants by grinding them, pulling the threads out of them and weaving it into fabric to be used for all sorts of things.  

Cyrus was sealed to Sylvia, along with 3 other wives at the same time, practicing polygamy.  He married Happylona (Sylvia’s half sister), Olive, and Mary.  Sylvia and Cyrus had 2 sets of twins and several other children.  Our line comes from their daughter Martha who left Springville to travel to San Bernardino, California and later Peoche, Nevada.  Martha’s daughter was Cecilia, whose daughter was Rose, whose daughter was Thelma, all born in Peoche, Nevada.  Doreen was Thelma’s daughter, and I am Doreen’s daughter.  A line of daughters :-).  We visited the Springville Cemetery and saw where many of the family was laid to rest and tried to piece together the family tree.  It was a lot of fun and very inspiring to learn about those individuals that we come from. 

Cyrus Sanford's Polygamist Wives:

1. Sylvia Elmina Stockwell

2. Olive Pixley

3. Happalona Saphronia Clark (Sylvia's half sister)

4. Mary Coon Johnson

Sylvia & Cyrus' children:

1. Margaret Elmirea Sanford (twin)

2. Martha Levira Sanford (twin - our ancestor in our line)

3. Ceclia Elmina Sanford

4. Melissa Sanford

5. Sylvia Eliza Sanford

6. Cyrus Nathaniel Sanford

7. Mary Abigail Sanford

8. Happylona Sanford

9. Saphronia Sanford

Sylvia was the first wife, and is honored here.

Happylona & Olive were the 2nd and 3rd wives and are laid here, above.

Silvia E. is Cyrus' daughter and her husband who are laid here, above.

Sephronia was Cyrus' daughter who was born and died on the same day.

This was Cyrus' grandson (Cyrus Nathanial's son) who died at 1 years old.

This was Cyrus' granddaughter (Cyrus Nathaniel's daughter) who died at 12 years old.

Hyrum Clark was Cyrus' wife Happylona's dad and Sylvia's step dad.  Sylvia's (Cyrus' first wife) dad either died or left, and Sylvia's mom married Hyrum Clark.  Sylvia and Happylona are half sisters.

An honor to Hyrum Clark

Cyrus & Sylvia Sanford

Sylvia Sanford

Cyrus Sanford

Cyrus' lantern

February Trip to Utah

 Cooper, Kaylee & I went to Utah to visit family and friends.  They both missed a week of school but it was important to visit with Utah family and ski :-).  We had no issues with the airplane rides, and enjoyed seeing all the Giraldi's and Grandma and Grandpa Hutchinson. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with all of the Giraldi's (except Amanda who is in Argentina), and Grandma & Grandpa.  It was a really fun time.  We also were able to catch up with the Stump family.  Summer brought Cameron, Kye, Keagan and Kennedy to Lehi to spend an evening with us.  So much fun to be with these people who we love so very much.