Schneider-Farris Family Update - Memorial Day 2021 5/31/2021

I seem to have had writers block ever since the Pandemic began, but today I am going to try to write up an update on what has been happening with the Schneider-Farris family.  It seems like our lives have been moving at a rapid rate and it is really hard to keep up with all that is happening.

In November, 2020, around Thanksgiving Day, I wrote up an update, but so much has happened since!

I am writing this with my feet elevated since I broke my ankle Telemark skiing in Winter Park on May 12, 2021.  That has been a bummer since there has been no scootering and biking for me, but I have been able to kayak and use the knee scooter we saved after my daughter Rebekah broke her ankle in 2008 just before the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships.  The knee scooter has given me the mobility and freedom I need, but of course having two good legs is way better than this.

Anyway, Joel and my dad and I took off for Sun Valley right on the Saturday after Thanksgiving 2020 and settled into life in Sun Valley.  Life became a bit like Groundhog Day there....it involved getting up, getting dressed, eating something, checking the mail and then skiing!  Joel enjoyed his job teaching skiing (mostly teaching little kids on Dollar Mountain) so very much.  

 

On the days he was off or sometimes even after work, we’d ice skate.  It was really cold, but if we timed things right we could skate also on the two outdoor ice rinks that were free to use (one in Ketchum and one in Hailey) in addition to Sun Valley’s famous outdoor ice rink.  We also of course did cross country skiing and sledding.  Life in Sun Valley really is like a very good dream.

Annabelle drove out in late December.   We downhill skied together three times (one time Baldy, one time Dollar, and one time Rotarun) and did cross country skiing together three times (one time Galena, one time Sun Valley, and one time Quigley Nordic in Hailey).  We also tried to cross country ski in Elkhorn in very packed snow but our dog didn’t like that, but we did it anyway.  

 

I cried when Annabelle drove away on New Years Day, but it wasn’t horrible since she left our dog Duchess with us.  Having Duchess with us in Sun Valley was the best!

Rebekah drove out just a week or two later and bought herself a ski pass.  She skied every day, but also skated.  We found a gymnastics place, so she did tumbling too.  We did some cross country skiing together and Rebekah even joined the YMCA so she could swim.

We all skied together.  One day, Rebekah and I skinned to the top of Elkhorn and skied down.  One evening we even went night skiing!  

 

“Eat, sleep, and ski” really became our family’s motto.  We ate out a lot since eating out is good for my dad. We had Chinese food on Christmas Eve, took my dad to Shorty’s Diner in Hailey at least once or twice a week, enjoyed Perry’s and The Kneadery in Ketchum, KB’s Burritos in both Ketchum and Hailey, and of course ate at the Sun Valley Hotel and at Pioneer Saloon in Ketchum.  I think by the time we left Sun Valley in late April, I’d taken my dad to almost every restaurant in the area.

Joel left for rehearsals for Disney On Ice on February 16 and Rebekah left on March 8.  After they left, my life turned into one big Groundhog Day experience.  I would wake up, feed the dog, make my bed and get dressed, wake up my dad, help my dad get dressed and fed, take the dog out, check the mail, and then SKI!  Very rarely did I skip a day of skiing, but once in awhile, I would skate or cross country ski instead.

Dan came out in mid-March and stayed for about two weeks.  The snow had begun to melt so we scootered from the top of Sun Valley Road down into Ketchum one day.  We parked one car at the top of the hill and the other at the bottom and had a blast scootering down even though Dan’s hip hurt a lot.  We did a virtual family Passover Seder while Dan was in Idaho.

 

Our family discovered the wonderful Magic Lantern movie theater in Ketchum and began seeing movies every week.  I’d never sat through all of Casablanca and taking my dad to see the free showing of Casablanca there was a delight.

When the mountain closed on April 12, I was there skiing until the last lift closed.  I skinned up Baldy a week later and skied down.  I went cross country skiing in Galena and in the National Forest on the Prairie Creek Trail.  I did some bike riding and scootering with my dog Duchess.  I skated a bit more at Sun Valley’s outdoor ice rink.

We took my dad out to eat at Gretchen’s at the Sun Valley Lodge for his 92nd birthday on March 24, 2021.

During the time we were in Idaho, we took a few trips to Twin Falls.  We got my dad’s COVID vaccinations there.  I ended up getting vaccinated right at St. Luke’s Wood River Hospital in Ketchum, but had to wait a month between vaccinations, so I couldn’t leave the area until after my Thursday, April 22, 2021 second Moderna vaccination.  

On Sunday, April 25, I drove away from the Sun Valley paradise I’d been at for five months and arrived back in Colorado on Monday, April 26. 

My husband Dan had his second hip replaced on Tuesday,  May 4, so my daughter Annabelle flew out  on May 2 from New York State to help out.  

All went smoothly, so Annabelle and I went skiing on my birthday on May 7.  I also went skiing in Arapahoe Basin with my friends Maureen and Jim and Dan took me to Loveland to ski.  I was amazed I could ski in May!

We did some scooter and bike rides in Larkspur and just enjoyed being together as a family.

We had planned to ski on Mother’s Day 2021, but the weather wasn’t agreeable, so we waited until Wednesday, May 12 (which would have been my mother’s 99th birthday).  Annabelle and I decided to try Winter Park out.  What we didn’t know that only Blue runs were open in Winter Park, but we did okay and had a blast skiing all day.  Around 2:30-45, I switched to my Telemark skis which I had done in Loveland on my birthday.  Unfortunately, I just fell the wrong way as we were skiing down and as I was attempting a Tele turn and my right ankle twisted around 360 degrees.  I really didn’t believe I was hurt and tried to ski down, but it just hurt too much, so Annabelle called the ski patrol who got us to our car.  We stopped at the Urgent Care in Castle Rock and after an x-ray we learned I broke my ankle.  Such a bummer, but I’ll be okay by the end of June I think.  At least I got a good ski season in and skied most of the day on May 12!

Enjoying Drew’s Rowing Machine In Long Beach

Drew,  Grandpa, Lynnellen 

Dan “working out” on Drew’s Rowing Machine in Long Beach

I had planned to go to Long Beach with my dad from May 17 to May 31, but due to the broken ankle, I shortened the trip.  I really wanted my dad to see my sister since her had not seen her since before the Pandemic and now that we are all fully vaccinated, I decided going was essential, so we traveled to Long Beach on May 20 and flew back on May 27.  It was the first time my dad and I had been on a plane since March 3, 2020. 

Wow...was it difficult to travel through the Denver airport with a knee scooter and crutches and my 92 year old dad though.  It didn’t help that Dan just was recovering from a hip replacement.  At least I got my wish...I can legitimately scooter in restaurants, grocery stores, and other public places!

During our trip to California we were notified of the sad news that our dear friend Hellene Anderson passed away.  She was only 60 years old and she was so close to us....like family.  We’ve been mourning off and on. 

Hellene Orenstein Anderson 

It was wonderful to be in sunny California again and I especially enjoyed knee scootering on the beach bike path with my friend Rhonda and doing the bike path at El Dorado Park with my husband Dan.  It was also great going kayaking with my friend Bernadette.  With Dan’s and Bernadette’s help that was possible.

We also took a trip to Woodland Hills to see our friends Lisa and Mike Cohen.  When we were there, we went by the house I lived in when I was five to eight years old.  We also saw our good friends Josh and Gina Moss at their home in Irvine and shared a meal with them there.  We realized how the Pandemic had kept us away from seeing people, so now it is nice to be vaccinated so we can visit friends again.

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It was so nice for Dan to be able to see 97 year old mother and his brother and sister.  

My dad got to see my sister Lynnellen and also my nephew Drew so the trip was well worth it even though it was difficult traveling with my broken ankle, a new hip for Dan, and my 92 year old father.

When we returned home to Colorado we jumped right back in to kayaking since Annabelle and her boyfriend Ben did all the work and got me into Monument Lake.  Ben’s parents were visiting Colorado so we had a really nice time at the lake with them and also for Shabbat.

As I finish this blog post, it is after a wonderful Memorial Day holiday day with our dear friends Paul and Judy Steiner who we haven’t seen face to face since 4th of July 2020.  Unfortunately in December, both Paul and Judy had Covid, but everyone is better now and we are all vaccinated so we can be together.

More changes are in store as the summer approaches.  Annabelle and Ben will work at Ramah in the Rockies summer adventure camp, Rebekah will be in Colorado for a month and then go back on another Disney On Ice tour.  Joel and I and my dad and our dog Duchess will go back to Sun Valley so that Joel can pass his gold dance test.  Dan will hold down the fort in Colorado.

To those reading this, we are thinking of you and hope you may be able to be out and about after this strange year and a half.  It looks like the world may be turning back to being somewhat normal!

   

Remembering My Dear Friend Hellene Orenstein Anderson

Something really horrible happened on Saturday May 22, 2021... I learned that one of my dearest and closest friends, Hellene Orenstein Anderson, died.  

My entire family is in shock and so are some of us who were close to Hellene.  

Below is a photo of Hellene with my kids and me and her son Sam from 2005.  The song “Remember Me” is in my head right now.  Even though she is gone, she is forever in my family’s heart.💕❤️  

Below are my memories of our friendship with Hellene which goes back for more than two decades.

On July 23, 1999, my daughter Annabelle was born.  A week later, our family celebrated the birth at a Hebrew baby naming ceremony at Temple Shalom in Colorado Springs.  As we left the Bima (the front platform stage) after that quick Hebrew baby naming ceremony, I noticed a very pregnant woman smiling and smiling at the bottom of the Bima.  The joy on her face was overwhelming.  I will never forget that smile and that face.  I knew deep inside that this very pregnant woman was so, so excited about the birth of her own baby that she was experiencing the joy I was experiencing holding my new baby!  It was like the two of us formed a bond that day.  That smiling very pregnant woman was Hellene Orenstein Anderson.

A few years passed.  One day I was at the Ice Arena at Chapel Hills Mall in Colorado Springs and I recognized the woman I’d remembered from Annabelle’s Hebrew baby naming ceremony.  She had a cute little boy with her who had been the baby in her tummy.  I introduced myself.

“You probably don’t remember me, but I remember you,” I told her.   “You left a distinct memory in my brain when I saw you smiling at the bottom of the Bima at my daughter’s Hebrew baby naming ceremony when you were VERY pregnant.  I knew you were just so excited about having a baby and now I see that baby is three years (almost four years) old!”  

Hellene was so sweet.  “Yes!  Wow!  This is Sammy.”  

Sammy was wearing white skates and had a cute little bunny helmet on.  He took private lessons from Ren, the mother of Jenna and Ben.  We found out later that my dear friend Larisa was friends with Ren.

We exchanged contact information and I told Hellene we were going to Temple Shalom’s Friday evening family service and invited her to meet us that night.

And...sure enough...Hellene showed up and we had a nice time getting to know one another after the service.  That seemed to begin what was to become a very close friendship.

Hellene taught a preschool program through Hadassah called Training Wheels and invited my three kids to join in even though Joel and Rebekah were no longer preschoolers.  The group met every Sunday for 4 or 5 consecutive weeks.

It was at that group that I approached Hellene about making Sam and my little Annabelle (who was only about five weeks older than Sam) into ice skating partners.  

Annabelle and Sammy - Ice Skating Partners - Four Years Old!

Sam and Annabelle were the cutest pair and ice dance team ever!  They’d stroke around on different feet, but it didn’t matter.  They were just too darn cute!  Annabelle’s ponytail sometimes slammed Sam as they spun around.  

I’d teach Sam and Annabelle right alongside Joel and Rebekah at the mall rink and all four kids became friends.  We were family.  People thought I had four, not three children at times.

Hellene and Sammy were very close to Betty and Kelli Knight.   Kelli also took private lessons from Ren. Kelli became part of “our little family” and played with Rebekah and Ren's daughter Jenna.  Ren's son Ben played with Sam and Joel.  Annabelle played with her dolls and everyone.  Hellene would bring her Pokemon cards to the rink.  We even played musical keyboards at the ice rink and I recall teaching Sam to play a little piano in the ice rink!  

Joel and little Sammy were close buddies and sometimes Hellene would drop Sam off at our house for the kids to play together.

My dad told me to tell Hellene to get Sam some black skates since his skates were white, so eventually she bought him black boot covers.

Life then was like a Peter Pan adventure...together we’d jump from one adventure to another!  

All the kids participated in DeeDee Knierim’s Cat’s of Ice in 2005.  Sammy was the older cat version of little Annabelle I recall.

Sammy and Annabelle in Cats On Ice 2005

Then my life changed forever on September 16, 2005 when my husband Dan was in a horrible accident. Hellene and Betty came to the rescue and helped me get through one of the darkest times in our family’s life.  They cared for my kids while I was at the hospital with Dan.   Dan miraculously lived, but during the time he was in a coma and supposed to die, Hellene and Betty brought their children to the rink to play with my children.  I would skate in the middle of the ice doing figures as the kids played.  We also went roller skating together.  

After Dan miraculously recovered, life seemed to return to normal, but during that time of recovery, the wonderful Ice Arena at Chapel Hills Mall closed.  I took my kids to the World Arena to skate and Hellene followed with Sam.

Annabelle and Sam 

I continued to teach Sam and Annabelle there and the four kids continued to play together there.  Every Monday we’d skip the heavy duty World Arena training and we would go to Colorado College to skate instead.  Sammy even suggested Annabelle and her American Girl Skating Doll do the Rhythm Blues with him at Colorado College!

The stress of skating at the World Arena took some of the fun out of skating, but I do remember Sam and Annabelle doing a pair skating routine together to Star Wars at one Friday Fire and Ice exhibitions.  They continued to be the cutest pair team ever!

Larisa and Sam

Sam began lessons with my dear friend Larisa during the time of Dan’s accident and Larisa took him far, but eventually the pressure to have a World Arena coach took over and Sam switched to Eddie Shipstad as his main coach.  

Sam did incredibly well under both Eddie and Larisa and qualified for Junior Nationals at the same time my kids did.  Hellene was a true and very nervous skating mom I recall.  Sam won the Juvenile Boys regional title and Annabelle won the test track Juvenile Girls regional title.  

Jeff, Sam, and Hellene Anderson at the Renaissance Festival

As the kids grew, we continued to do special things together.  We especially tried to get together at Passover.  We did a Break Fast at Hellene’s parents’ townhouse after Hellene moved her parents from Queens, New York to Colorado Springs.  We went to the Renaissance Festival with Hellene’s husband Jeff, Hellene, and Sam.  We played at the park.  I took Sam to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with Annabelle.  We went to New York City in 2007 and skated at the Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers together and Hellene showed us NYC New Yorker style.  I remember the kids having a blast at FAO Swartz toy store and going on a Ferris Wheel together right in the store!

After Hellene’s mother Selma passed, we got to know Hellene’s father Leo better and grew to love him.  What a wonderful grandfather he was!  I remember at a Thanksgiving meal at our home that Leo said he was so thankful for Sam and Hellene and they both had given him hope after Selma passed.

Hellene and Leo 

When Sam had his Bar Mitzvah, I will never forget the look of the proud grandpa on Leo’s face.

On the tragic day when my dear friend Larisa’s 25 year old daughter Valerie was murdered (Memorial Day weekend 2008), Hellene was the one who called me with the horrible news.  At Valerie’s funeral, Hellene saved front row seats for us to sit in so we could be together.

Larisa, Hellene, Jo Ann 

Sam also took part at Mountain Vista Homeschool Academy and the Colorado Springs Conservatory, so we had that in common.  Hellene homeschooled him for a time.

Thanksgiving With Sam, Leo, Hellene, and Jeff

As the kids grew older, Sam left skating and went to public school.  Hellene and her husband Jeff divorced.  We saw Hellene and Sam less and less, but we continued to have Shabbat dinners, Passover Seders, and Thanksgivings together.

If I needed something, if Hellene could handle it, she was there for me.

She helped me buy all the food for my daughter Rebekah’s Bat Mitzvah in June of 2012.  Sam helped usher and greet people.

She would watch our dog.  She would feed our tortoise.  I would bring her my unwanted care packages from Torah Mates around Purim, Passover, and Chanukah.  

Sam, Joel, Rebekah, and Annabelle at Rosh Hashanah In the Mountains 

In 2019, I needed someone to drive with me to the mountains to see Annabelle at the Ramah Outdoor Adventure Camp and we had a wonderful time together.  She was at Rebekah’s 21st birthday celebration and showered Rebekah with gifts.  

When Rebekah had surgery to remove a benign tumor, both Hellene and Betty were there.

When her father Leo died, I HAD to be at the service.  Betty was there too and so was Larisa.

In August of 2020, Rebekah delivered a birthday cake to Hellene.  She told me how proud she was of Rebekah.  “You raised an incredible daughter,” she told me.

Betty died suddenly at the end of 2017, leaving Kelli without a mother, so Hellene tried her best to be a mother to Kelli.

During the Pandemic shutdown, I called Hellene a several times, but I did not see her face to face.  We’d text once in a while too.  We’d both been a part of Temple Shalom’s Tuesday morning Torah Study so once in a while we’d both listen in to the study via Zoom during the lockdown.  She told me that the lockdown had not affected her much since she'd been withdrawing from socializing for a long time and had only ventured out for doctors appointments, shopping, and Pokeman (she loved Pokeman!).

Kelli texted me via Facebook Messenger on the Saturday morning May 22, 2021 asking if we could go by Hellene’s townhome since she had not answered her phone for three to four days.  Kelli lives in Texas now and said that Hellene had never gone that long without responding and was worried.  I told Kelli we were in California visiting family, so Kelli asked a friend in Colorado Springs to check on her instead.  Late on Saturday afternoon, Kelli called me and told me in tears that Hellene was no longer with us.

Hearing this news is and was a shock.  I think of Carole King’s song “Now and Forever” when I think of Hellene.  Some of the lyrics are:  “Now and forever, you are a part of me, and the memory cuts like a knife...didn’t we love together?  Didn’t we laugh together?  Now and forever, I will always think of you.”

Yes, Hellene, your were part of my life and the entire Schneider-Farris family will always be with and think of you.  You are a part of me; a part of us.  Hugs and love also to her son Sam and also to Kelli and to her two ex-husbands, Jeff and David.  We love you Hellene.

Late November 2020 - Schneider-Farris Family Update

COVID-19 made it possible for this photo shoot to happen!

Thanksgiving 2020 weekend is almost over, so I thought it would be a good idea to write an update on what is going on with the Schneider-Farris Family.  

Our holiday was very non-traditional this year.  I imagine many others also experienced Thanksgivings that are not normal during this strange 2020 year.

Thanksgiving weekend should be about a relaxing holiday weekend, but our family is about to undergo a lot of changes and actually have already experienced many changes!  

ThanksXmas 2020!

On Thanksgiving morning, we've decided to open presents together since we won't be together in December for the holidays.  Who knows when we will be together again?  Covid-19 made being together possible in the first place!

We called our November 2020 holiday ThanksXmas! We even sang "We Need a Little Christmas" together which is really true during 2020.

On Wednesday, November 25, 2020, my daughter Annabelle flew back to Colorado from her college in upstate New York.  Because of Covid-19, Binghamton University decided to send its students back for the Thanksgiving break and to not have them return for the remainder of the fall semester. The college also required all students to take Covid tests before leaving campus and to self-isolate.  With these precautions, we hoped Annabelle had a safe flight back to Colorado.  

We had a Thanksgiving Breakfast rather than a dinner because Rebekah and Dan left for Florida at 1 pm on Thanksgiving day..  Rebekah has an internship at Panther Ridge Conservation Center working with Big Cats and began the internship on Sunday 11/29.  Dan flies back to Colorado on Sunday morning.  They drove there so Rebekah can have a car while she is in Florida.

The day after Thanksgiving Joel and I packed up our cars to get ready to drive to Sun Valley.  Joel and I begin training to begin our jobs as ski instructors in Sun Valley during the first or second week of December.  Joel and I and my dad left for Sun Valley at 6:15 am on Saturday morning.

In late December, Joel will go to Florida to begin rehearsals for Disney On Ice!  Yes..."it's complicated!"   (In 2021, Rebekah will also be going back..the two will be together!)

Annabelle and our sweet dog Duchess will join Joel and my dad and I in Sun Valley in a couple of weeks after she completes the rest of her semester online.

My husband Dan will continue to work from home in Colorado for Veterans Affairs and "hold down the fort."

That's the update for immediate future plans, but I will now summarize what has gone on in our lives since my last blog update:

After spending most of March, April, and May enjoying the Colorado mountains and not going anywhere and doing hiking, biking, scootering, and kayaking and stand up paddle boarding while quarantining, Rebekah took on an internship at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Annabelle did summer classes online through Pikes Peak Community College.  Ice rinks began to open in June, and so Joel and I began to skate.  Rebekah and Annabelle skated when they could fit skating into their busy schedules.

One of the first rinks we went to was Big Bear Ice Arena in Denver.  We just loved the rink!

The first day we went to that rink, we met Jill Mintz.  That encounter changed our lives a bit since Jill asked us to teach skating for her Lace Em Up Skating program!

For me, that was such a breakthrough since I had essentially "retired" since there are just so many coaches in Colorado Springs that I just didn't think I was needed, but Jill appreciated my teaching and coaching talents so much that I just had to accept her offer to teach!  Joel, too, was thrilled to teach for Jill since she just makes teaching skating fun!

Lace Em Up Skating

Annabelle and her boyfriend Ben left Colorado in a rented car for upstate New York at the end of August to begin the fall semester at Binghamton University.   

In early September, Joel and I and my dad drove to Sun Valley and spent a month there.  Joel got to finally see the condo he bought in Elkhorn and got to enjoy it!  We skated almost every day at Sun Valley's outdoor rink and both of us found that our skating improved!  It was absolutely amazing to be in Sun Valley too.  We hiked in Galena and on Bald Mountain and did some scooter and bike riding too.  We also went to Redfish Lake and went kayaking and stand up paddleboarding.  We enjoyed eating out in Hailey, Bellevue, Ketchum, and at the Sun Valley hotel.  It was a great month.

When we returned to Colorado, we began teaching for Jill and Lace Em Up Skating quite a bit.  That kept me and Joel so busy!  Rebekah began a new internship at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  Her first internship was working with gorillas and apes and the second internship was with Australian animals.  

For Dan, 2020 has brought a loss in his family.  His Uncle Ford, his mother's brother, passed away.  Dan has been so supportive of me and our kids and my dad during this very difficult year.

As 2021 comes near, like most people, we hope a vaccine for this horrible COVID-19 virus is available soon and that the world will return to normal. 

To all our friends:  We are thinking of you and are sending virtual hugs.

Joel and Jo Ann in Sun Valley, Annabelle in New York, and Dan and Rebekah in Colorado September 2020

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