On December 30th we drove up to cedar city to go snowboarding and spend time with the Hoer family. On December 31st everyone woke up to go snowboarding but Anna and I didn't feel the best. I played it safe and didn't go snowboarding but later in the morning I felt better so Lucas and I went sledding in the Cedar Canyon. Around 4pm Anna, Kloee, Mom, Dad and I drove up to Brian Head to join everybody else and spend New Years Eve at the Nielson's cabin. Bishop Nielson was nice enough to have everyone at his cabin and since Lucas, Anna and I didn't get to go snowboarding Chandler took us on the snowmobiles! I have never been on a snowmobile, they are so much fun!! Chandler compared them to a jet ski but on snow and that is exactly how it feels when riding it. At times I thought I was going to be bounced off the back and if you don't lean when you turn it can tip over. It was freezing even though we had two, yes TWO ski jackets on along with a sweatshirt and two long sleeve shirts. Good thing Jason and Chandler convinced us to wear two ski jackets! We drove on a trail to the top of the mountain and I saw the most beautiful, breath taking view I have ever seen and it made me forget how freezing I was!! We were above the clouds and could see for miles. The pictures don't give the view justice. The white hills in the background that looks like snow is actually clouds. We were able to spend a good amount of time enjoying the view and watching the sunset. When we got back to the cabin we ate pizza, played ping pong and enjoyed each others company. At 7 or 8pm we went outside and saw the torch ceremony where people ride down the soaps with lights to celebrate the new year (we celebrated it early). Afterwards we played bean boozled, a game with good tasting and nasty tasting beans. We had to be blindfolded and then guess what our jelly bean tasted like. Sister Nielson and mom managed to pull every and any gift card from their wallet and make a prize pot equivalent to about $300!! To name a few of the gift cards it included 4 or 5 movie passes, a target gift card, and a $50 Paul Mitchell gift card. Chelsea ended up winning and shared the wealth because a lot of the gift cards were to places they don't have in Puerto Rico. Good thing we celebrated the new year early though because shortly after I started to feel shakey. I thought it was maybe because I hadn't eaten much so I ate a protein bar from my purse and ate more food but that didn't help. I thought I was dehydrated so I drank 3 or 4 cups of water. That didn't help so I took my pulse, it was 112!! Apparently with the high elevation and when the sun goes down and the temperature goes down it increases my heart rate because I didn't notice anything until the sun had been down for 2 hours or so. Despite having to head home around 10:45 due to Kloee getting sick and my heart rate the night was the perfect ending to 2015!
January 1st
On January 1st we headed up to the Nielson's cabin for some intense sledding! The Nielson's know how to sled the best way possible! We rode the snowmobiles up a steep mountain and then would sled down. Since we could snowmobile up it saved a lot of time and energy since we didn't have to hike up and we were able to go up a super steep mountain that we couldn't physically hike up! Who knew sledding could be so much fun!
