Week 14 &15: Passion in peculiar places.

Our mornings over these two weeks were pretty routine with 'school' work.  But the beauty, as we keep learning, is the flexibility.  One Wednesday I went skiing with my boys--first time on the slopes for Seth and me.  It was the nicest day of skiing I have ever had:  we were all on the same page as far as run selection and difficulty level, the snow was soft everywhere including McConkeys and under Thaynes, no crowds, no lines, perfect temp.  Best of all, after several runs, Grant asked Seth for advice on how he was skiing.  Seth gave him a critique, Grant then applied it to the next several runs and made major improvements and knew it was because he had listened to Seth's advice.  This was a huge divergence from years past when unsolicited advice was generously given but not well received, much less heeded.   Seth is passionate about skiing.  It meant the world to him that he and Grant had reached this milestone of skiing together.  It meant the world to me to see it unfold. The very next day Gregg had signed Seth up for a ski training session on carpet at The Ski Institute.  The man running it was a USU graduate named Alan Schoenberger who was a friend of a friend.  Seth and Grant took in their own boots and  Seth harnessed up first --he ate it up and I think Alan really appreciated all of his questions and ability to synthesize what he learned.  

Seth 'lays the b****es over'

Grant soaked up a lot of what was being said during Seth's session and then had a turn as well.  When I got home I googled Alan and found out that  he's an even more incredibly interesting individual than what comes to the surface during the first meeting.  He has many passions and seems to have been good at all of them.  One write up talked about his 2002 Winter Olympic one-man-show:

Alan is a man who has combined many passions and turned them into a business.

""Schoenberger Skis the Stage," is a bizarre anomaly of a theater that happens to be entertaining, artistic, and completely delightful. The one-man show stars Alan Schoenberger, a world champion freestyle skier who is a gifted performance artist. Talents for mime, clowning, magic, juggling, dance and skiing are combined into an impressive new art form. Words are not missed in this unspoken performance." Salt Lake Tribune 2002.
All this ski business inspired Grant to build a box for doing tricks.  He and Gregg spent hours and though, here a month or so later I have to admit I don't know if it's been used but  sometimes that's beside the point .




By the 1st Sat. in December the house and tree were all decorated for Christmas and the season's social calendar amped up a few notches, as it always does.  The 2nd Saturday we were packed and ready for our trip to New York City!  Really, it was crazy, totally spontaneous (other than it's been on our list of things to do for a long time)...sometime in the first week of December Gregg said, "How about a trip to NYC?"  And by the end of the next week I had flights, hotel reservations, play tickets, CityPass, maps and guides!