Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas was fantastic! Of course we missed all of our family and friends back home and hope you all had a great Christmas as well. We truly feel fortunate for all the blessings we have and our great friends and wonderful family. Always, Chritmas seems to make us think about that more and feel grateful. Our day started out early, around 7:00 with good coffee, Christmas music and the lights on the tree. Santa Rich passed out presents and it seems we were both very good this year as Santa (the many Santas in our lives) were awfully generous this year! Opening presents brought new skis for Karen so she can carve in that Utah Powder even better, a leather jacket and opera tickets for Rich , as well as an assortment of awesome clothing for outdoor adventure and indoor style, awesome cookware, comfy flannel sheets, homemade artisan pieces, some neat toys for the Vanagon, and much more. Rich, always happy with his Dunkin' Donuts coffee and pure Connecticut maple syrup! Thanks to everyone for all the perfect and wonderful gifts! After opening presents, we had a quick, but yummy breakfast and headed out for the slopes - see the blog entry after this one for details on that! After skiing we had a fantastic dinner with our good friends, who we call family here, and celebrated the day. Jeff and Amy, Tammy and Ian (also from MI), and Andy (also from MI!) came over to share the evening with us. Rich cooked up an amazing rib roast (think prime rib) and we had potatoes - sweet and mashed, spinach salad, green bean caserole, brought by Tammy, a staple for all holiday dinners! Yummy cornbread and apple stuffing made by Andy, and delicious cheesecake brought by Amy and Jeff. Awesome!! Before eating, we all cracked open our "crackers" - these are an English holiday tradition that Rich's family has always partaken in. The crackers (sitting on the plates in the table picture) contain fun little toys and crowns, to be worn during dinner! After we all ate, everyone at the table got a little gift from Santa, and we all went home and went to bed feeling fat and happy. What a great day!

Christmas Ski Day

What would Christmas Day in Utah be without skiing? Our new tradition, started by Rich when I went home for the holiday. :-) His tales of endless powder and no crowds on Christmas day prove true year after year and this year was no exception. Perhaps one of the most fun days on the slopes ever. A foot of fresh powder, the company of good friends and a blue sky day, doesnt get any better. IF there are any of you out there who have never skiied Utah powder, you cant imagine what you are missing. The snow here is so light and fluffy and soft it's just so much fun, I cant ski very well in it, but I'm learning, and it's a blast because it doesnt hurt to fall! :-) We met up with Jeff and Amy for the morning and then at 12:30 met up with Ian and Tammy and Andy, took a break together, our usuall Snickers and a coke, and hit the slopes again. We skied until about 3:00 at which time, exhausted, we came home for a soak in the hot tub, and dinner preparations. Today, another snow storm bringing about two more feet of snow in the mountains and Thursday - another blue bird day to ski. C'mon out and ski with us! We're waiting!! PS, check out the video of Rich skiing!

It's Been Awhile!

No posts since Thanksgiving, I guess that is just par for the course during a busy holiday season. A lot has been going on since then. First of all, we spent some days finishing our foyer area in the house. We had an awful border around the ceiling which I totally hated - it made it dark and seemingly low in there, plus, it was just ugly. So... I decided one day, it just had to go, now. :-) Of course, it's never just that easy. We got the border off, with much struggle, I think they put it up with superglue, and then knew we had to repaint. We absolutely needed a new light fixture as well, and a new curtain rod and drapes, too. Then, after we put up the new light we realized it was giving off a lot of light so we would need reinforcement in the shape of a table lamp, which, naturally would need a new table to put it on! WHew! Well, it's done and it looks great! A lot brighter and prettier. All that while planning for our annual wine and dessert party. We ordered a new sideboard for the dining room - we've had the space for one but have not found one we liked until now. It's BEAUTIFUL. So, back to the party. It was great, although a wicked snowstorm kept many away. We invited about 50 people and had probably 30 or so stop by. It was lots of fun. Other than that, many holiday parties between work and friends. Finally got to ski a day last weekend, and am going again today. Not much snow, until Thursday when they got over 3 feet over night. Just in time for the holidays. Rich and I will be staying here for the holidays, relaxing and playing. Kathy has a friend visiting and she will be vacationing down south for a few days with her. Kathy and I will road trip, probably to CA after New Year's when Rich is working. Hope the holiday season is treating you all well!!

Giving thanks... and warmth

Here we are another turkey-day gone and another successful adventure. After deciding to not go to New Mexico because of a southern storm, we ended up in the Needles district of Canyonlands NP just below Moab. As you can see, maybe we still went too far south!! Yup, woke up on friday am with 3" of fresh snow and snowing, 20 deg. After sitting in the Van all morning we ventured out at 1p when the snow slowed. Walked for about 3 hours in the fresh snow and solitude of the Park!! Beautiful!! Got a nice sunset in the now clear (and COLD) sky. Off to bed and a low of 10 deg overnight. EVERYTHING in the van froze (except us!!). Nice sunny day to look around, then drive the van home...after 30 minutes to defrost the INSIDE of the windows! Ah well, overall we were VERY comfortable in all the down we brought, plus the nice plush setting of the van, got lots of reading done!! Till the next trip!!!

A Not So Perfect Perfect Day

Do we do anything besides hike around here? As the pictures might suggest it was not a perfect day, but still, it was. We girls (Kris, Amy, Elizabeth and I) decided not to let a little inclimate weather stop us from hiking a new trail. Packing up our rain gear we headed out to do Thaynes Canyon looped to Salt Lake Overlook. A total of 6 miles, with 2000 feet of climbing in 1.8 miles and a long descent. It was a really cool trail, in Mill Creek Canyon. Much different from the more rocky high altitiude hikes of Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, it is more woody and with a different feel. We had a new hiker/friend with us, Elizabeth, whom Amy met at a local fun raiser, she is super cool and I look forward to more outdoor adventures with her. Rich took care of some business at home while we played. He and I had a great bike ride up Emigration Canyon yesterday in perfect 70 degree sunshiney weather. I havent ridden in a long time and the long ride up was definately speaking to me on our hike today! This afternoon we started our NEXT project: the entryway. We took down that aweful border and now have to paint and put in a new light fixture. Looks so much better already! Hope ya'all had a great weekend too!

A Perfect Day

Ever have one of those days that leaves a completely contented feeling in your soul? Well, today was like that. Getting up early and relaxing with our Sunday morning ritual of good coffee and the Sunday paper, then a great breakfast at our favorite local diner. Home by 9:00 a.m with time to get some work around the house done before it's time to "play". A little yard work, a little house work, just enough to give one the feeling of satisfaction that something was accomplished. Afterward, Rich went off on his training day - a long ride and a run, and I went off on my hiking day, a perfect day to hike with friends. The sky was magnificently blue and the sun shining at a very warm and pleasant temp of around 50 (I'm guessing), just perfect for hiking. Amy, Gloria and I headed out for a hike, we were extremely excited because it was one that we hadnt done before, well, at least not all of it. Amy, Rich and I snowshoed some of this trail last winter but strayed from the actual trail so it was a new experience for us this time. We did about 8 miles from Butler Fork to Dog Lake, then backtracked a little to branch out on Mill A toward Gobbler's Knob and looped back to the beginning. We began going up very steep, as is typical for the Wasatch, then entered a gully that took us toward Dog Lake, through beautiful pine forest. On the way back from the lake, we veered off and Mill A took us around a huge bowl, through Aspen forests, it was really, really cool. We then ended up on the other side of the bowl, back in the pines and snow and made our way back to the junction with Butler Fork and out. It was an incredibly fun hike to do, lots of different scenery and trail. A truly awesome day.

Cant Run, Cant Drive...

Bummer weekend. BUT, Coulda Been Worse. Rich and I were all prepared to run the Moab Other Half Marathon http://www.moabhalfmarathon.org/other/other_half.html - trained hard and were ready. Until, we got struck by the bug. The cold wet camping trip did me in as I had begun that with a cold already and Rich caught a bit of the flu. We headed down to Moab, anyway, hopeful that a couple of good night's sleep and we would be good enough to go. Nope. A short trial run convinced me to hang it up and Rich tried an easy bike ride but soon discovered that he couldnt breathe and had no energy. Oh, well. I got in a very nice hike with Jen and Patti on Saturday anyway (see pics) and Rich got to try out his new single speed a little. But then, on Sunday, we were ready to get home and be home and hop in the hot tub and warm up and be comfy... alas, the van died. The alternator decided to quit and leave us stranded. Fortunately, Jen and Patti could get us back to SLC, however, we had to wait about 4 hours for them to finish the race and be ready to go! Now we have to travel back down to Moab next weekend to get the van. One the good side: the mountains got a couple of feet of snow! And, yes, that ski picture was taken this month!

Rain, Snow, Sleet and Hail

And a good time was had by all! Camping for 4 days with our 7th grade students on the first of their 3 adventure experiences. The kids were amazing - such great attitudes in the face of some really hard weather. They were soaking wet and cold and didnt have all the best gear, for sure. The focus of this adventure was backpacking as a skill, and WWII as curriculum as that is what they are studying in their expedition classes. The camping trip was designed to give them an empathic idea of what it would be like to be a soldier. They spent the first day in "basic training" where they learned map and compass skills, basic first aid, teambuilding and physical training. They also learned backpacking skills. The weather didnt permit us to do our overnight backpack, but we made the best of it. The students went out anyway, for day trips to fulfill their "missions". They had to use their compass skills to find the food that was "dropped" in the wilderness, and to find the "enemy camp". They ate real MRE's for dinner and journaled from a soldier's perspective. It was a great learning experience and even though it was difficult they had a great time!

Cyclocross!!

Saturday, the 6th, started cyclocross season. Rich went out and played in the snow and rain and mud. Cyclocross, for those of you who dont know, is one hour of all out riding without stopping, with mud pits and barriers thrown in the way. Rich loves this stuff! Me, I am the dutiful pit crew, standing around handing my stallion a water bottle as he passes. hahahahaha. Anyway, cross races are super fun. Rich did well, although, his bike didnt cooperate, chain jumping off at unexpected times and causing him delays. This week he is opting out of racing in lieu of a long ride to get some miles in before his half Ironman in November.

It's SNOWING!!

SEPTEMBER 29! 4-6 inches in the mountains, who knows how much here. Low of 30 tonight. These pics were taken about an hour ago, and it's still coming down hard! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Hopefully this is a sign of a good winter!! Alta, here we come!

Jackson, WY

A trip to Jackson is always so incredible. We decided to take the vanagon and go to Jackson for the weekend to get away before fall got away. With the dry temps and drought this year all the leaves are well on the way to turning color. With rain and ? snow predicted at the end of the weekend we figured this would be a great time to go. We spent friday night driving their, arriving at about 11:30 and parking in a road turn off to sleep. Then got up early on saturday to eat and start touring. As you can see we timed the color changing pretty well and saturday was perfect temperature wise. After making a loop of the park we decided to head back toward town and camp out Gros Ventre road. We got settled in and rested then went off to run. I started about 2 min after Karen when I met her coming back to the car after 0.1 miles and she was breathless telling me to get the cameras because a monster moose was at the entrance in a small strand of trees. As you can see this was the largest moose that I have ever seen. The antlers on his head must have weighed 200lbs. When he stood his back was easily taller than me. Impressive. They stayed for the rest of the weekend in the trees, mostly lying down, much to the flock of photographers standing in the field dismay. After a windy drive home we hurried to edit pictures and see what we got. For the weekend, lots of great colors, mtns, 3 moose, tons of antelope, deer and fun!!

Fall Colors and 11,749 Ft.

The beautiful fall colors were evident as we hiked up to the summit of Mt. Timpanogos, the second highest peak in the Wasatch Range at 11,749 feet. Three friends from work and I headed out at 8:00 am on a beautiful, but chilly Saturday morning. Four hours later we were sitting on top of the mountain looking at amazing views in all directions. To our west we really got a peek at some fall color as the reds were remarkable. The temps at the top were near freezing, (yes, 32 degrees) with the wind chill, as the wind was blowing about 30 miles per hour with gusts to 40. Fortunately, the wind was blowing into the mountain, instead of blowing us off of it! We ate lunch at the saddle prior to the final push to the summit and then, after a brief, very cold, few minutes at the top, headed back down. Total time on the mountain: 8 hrs. 15 min. About 7:45 of hiking time. Afterward a couple of beers and some food at the Porcupine - a great day!