Its no secret we were excited to come back to Idaho and fully immerse ourselves in a winter wonderland. Since setting out on the road in our Airstream in 2013 we’ve managed to mostly avoid the snow for long periods of time. In 2016 we had an epic Christmas in Zion (complete with snow on Christmas Eve) but most years we mountain bike in Arizona or swim in the Florida Keys.

This year is different and we are loving it.

We flew back to California from Hawaii on Dec. 27th and after spending a few days seeing family, had a quick stop in Utah and then arrived in Idaho on Dec. 4th. Our kids’ wintersports ski school started the very next day. Apparently we don’t waste any time.

The problem with not having winter for so many years, AND being in an amazing winter, outdoor friendly town is that I want to do it ALL. Snowmobiling in Yellowstone? YES! Snowshoeing up Teton Pass? We are in. Cross Country skiing at Grand Targhee? Can’t wait to try it.

On top of all the winter activities is the effort and financial strain of settling back into our condo. We are learning how many things we tossed haphazardly into the garage before we left last August. There’s also acquiring groceries, snow gear I forgot we didn’t get (ahem, snow pants for Rachel), and getting back into our church community and those activities.

We feel like we’ve been back for 2 months instead of 2 weeks.

I told Sam my frustrations about not feeling we had time to do everything I wanted and his response settled me back down. “We can do a lot of things okay, or we can do one thing really well. We are rocking skiing,” he told me.  And we are. Skiing is new to us as a family and its okay if we have less time for other things because we throw all of our energy and time into it. I imagine in future years we’ll branch out a little more.

So, if my house is messy, the laundry doesn’t get done, or I don’t ever get caught up on blog posts from Hawaii just know that we are out on the hill taken full advantage of the beautiful place we call home.