It’s been a fun experience living downtown Salt Lake City these past few weeks. We are walking distance to coffee shops, city parks and cool food places.

But that’s less thrilling that the snowboarding we have enjoyed. The kids absolutely love it. The boys are now carving and zooming down the slopes. Isaac took a bad dive into the woods off of a black after losing some control on a blue. But they still love it and are learning their limitations.

The snow has been a reminder of our time living up north in Rochester, NY. In the middle of the night, it’s a thing of beauty when everything has quieted down. Nothing to be heard but the crunch of snow under my feet.

But it’s slush and ice on the roads and the car. There’s still the warming up of the car to deal with that we never even thought about in Austin. It’s slower, but there’s still adventure and fun in it for us.

The kids have been out sledding, making snowmen and throwing snowballs. They are having such a fun time wherever they are at.

We even have them in a soccer league with a team to play a few games indoor to keep their fitness and skills up.

It’s a blend of many things, and we love the cold being together in a warm home with warm drinks.

Sonya has been great and flexible with schooling. I love walking into a room and seeing everyone reading, focusing and learning. There was even a scene one weekday morning after getting some coffee where all the kids were snuggled under covers working through their books. Total quiet and academia going on.

Salt Lake City has so many things to do downtown, and we have tried to get out and see a few things when we are not snowboarding. I really enjoyed having my brother, Mike, visit. The family misses him a lot. He made it a ton of fun. We were able to get out and find some good Vietnamese, German and Chinese food while he was here. It surprised us to see the variety.

Christmas is coming, and things are slowing down. I have been working a lot and looking forward to the break to enjoy the great outdoors. It’s so amazing to walk around and always see mountains in the backdrop. For Sonya and me, it is definitely a connection. We want to look at them, climb them, snowboard on them and just take it all in. We think it’s the best part of God’s creation. The mountains remind us how small we are and how great this world is.

I guess that’s true for this journey. We have met wonderful new friends and seen great places. And the natural beauty of the northwest is something that continues to excite us.