My family and I lucked out this year and scored a very generous invitation to stay with some friends at their mountain house in Deer Valley, Utah. I had never been to Utah before but had been told that the snow is the best in the U.S. and I was just excited to have a new place to take some beautiful pictures.

We had only three days to squeeze in a snowmobile trip and of course skiing and I lugged my camera gear out there with high hopes of capturing some fantastic views from atop the gorgeous mountains. Unfortunately, the weather once again was not wanting to cooperate.

We had fantastic snow, yes, but it was cloudy and snowing during the snowmobile trip and the visibility was not good. I was very disappointed to have missed out on what we were told were typically "breathtaking views". My camera gear stayed strapped to the snowmobile for most of the trek, aside from one 15 minute break we took when I was able to snap some shots of my kids and some pretty trees.

The next two days we were up early and hit the slopes all day. I am not a good enough skier to risk taking my D3 on the slopes but I did take my point and shoot and got lots of family snapshots. Each day was cloudy and snowy and by the time we returned to the house the sun was setting and I did not even take my Nikon out of the bag.

Then, on the last morning as we were packing for home, the sun rose over the mountains and I was presented with this fabulous view looking over Deer Valley. Despite my husband's rush to hit the road so as not to miss our flight, I grabbed my gear and captured the stunning scene. And as any photographer knows, it's not how many shots you take, it's the quality of the ones you get and I was able to come home happy with these. (of course the snapshots of my kids skiing are my absolute favorites!!)

For more information on Deer Valley, go to www.deervalley.com. We hope to go back again!