Winter Olympics!

Due to each of my four siblings losing their minds and deciding to move into new homes last summer, the GFOOC (Glauser Family Olympic Organizing Committee) agreed to hold a Winter Olympics in lieu of our Summer Olympics. We gathered a month ago at East Canyon (in the hills behind and between Salt Lake City and Ogden) to measure our athletic abilities in a variety of indoor and outdoor events.

After team photos in our uniforms, we headed outside where it had begun to snow again. Among the events I didn't take pictures of were a sled race (parents had to pull their kids, but when my parents couldn't even get the sled moving with us on it, we let them just drag my sister) and an indoor sudoku event. My sister, Carolyn, had thought she was stacking the odds in her all-adults team favor with that one. What she didn't know is that Kent and I complete a sudoku puzzle at least two or three nights each week. So, without even meaning to, the Whites came home with the gold again this year. I think our strategy is simple irony. If you don't care about winning, you'll have so much fun that you will. (It's worked twice now!)



I'll end with a short video. We wrapped up the outdoor events with an obstacle course race. I had planned to arrive early and build hurdles out of snow, but since that didn't happen, it was very nice of East Canyon Resort to supply the obstacle course. If you're bored enough to actually spend one more minute of your time on this post, you'll at least maybe be amused by the squealing four-year-old who quickly and effectively demanded my attention at the end of the clip and made us both miss our team's run on the course. (I must say, though, boys are much easier to attend to in such situations than are girls.) Have a look if you like:



Just kidding. I'm not ending yet because I just remembered to journal the unexpected turn of events the following day. Our family stayed at the condo with my parents to enjoy a relaxing Sunday and late Church in Henefer. Well, the snow that started during the Olympics didn't quit all night, and we had at least another foot of snow when we woke up. About three minutes after I put cinnamon rolls in the oven and started sizzling sausage, the power to our condo went out. After we all sat around for over an hour eating PB on bread, my mom found a friend who was also at the resort and who still had power. We finished making breakfast at her building and then waited for electricity in our own, which never came back on. When the maintenance crew had finished digging the snow off one lane of the road, and the indoor temperature had noticeably dropped, we made our escape. I'm glad we didn't wait around to defend our gold against survival of the fittest!

Some Catching Up to Do

If you have surmised from my recent lack of blogging that I have had a very busy past several weeks, then you are correct! It must be contagious, because most of the blogs I follow have also shown recent neglect. I hope that means we all are so busy enjoying real life that we don't have a spare minute to write about it. My plan is to catch up a bit with posts that I'll schedule to show up throughout this next week, but I'm dating them for when they actually happened.

I also wanted to share this photo of #5.


He got really excited about playing in the snow a couple weeks ago when we had our last big snowstorm. He suited up and headed down the street to his friend's house, where there is a big dirt pile right behind the property. I think the boys started by sledding down the snow-covered pile; but as the afternoon sun melted away the snow, they ended up sliding down a mud hill. His friend's mom was very considerate to call and let me know she was sending my son home covered in mud, so I was ready when he showed up. I carried him in the laundry room, stripped his clothes off him and right into the washing machine, and plunked him in the bathtub. He had a great time, and I didn't have to ruin it by complaining about mud tracks or soggy clothes strewn around the house.

Life with a boy child is fun. :)