Snowshoeing!

I finally got to use my new snowshoes!  I'm super excited.  Jeff, Dani, JP, Richard and I went what felt like straight up the mountain (we went about 3 miles in and gained about 1300 ft in elevation).  The first little bit we didn't need the snowshoes, it's been warm enough and the trail was traveled enough that it was walkable.  It slowly became less and less walkable and a few feet (and legs) ended up in the snow.  Dani and I stopped and put on our shoes before the guys, I figured it was better to have a good base and not be slipping and sliding.  I have enough issues with my hips being out of place that I probably don't really need to be sliding around.  It was a great day to be out in the mountains, not too cold, not too bright, a little more overcast then I would have liked but beautiful none the less.  There were snowball fights, running off up hills (and accidentally sliding down them from time to time), lots of laughs and I think I can say everyone had a great time.  I may not have been able to move the next day but it was certainly worth it!  Next time I'm hoping for a little less elevation gain however, I'm not quite up to that big of a gain quite yet.

It's broken... how sad!

My computer is broken, not working, it went caput (Richard thinks it's either the power supply or motherboard are no longer doing their job)!  So my 11 blogs that are currently in the works and just waiting for me to add the pictures are just going to have to wait.  HOPEFULLY, I'll have that fixed soon and I can have my blog all caught up by the end of the month, that was the plan to start with so hopefully I'll be able to make it work!  I still have computer access, but just no access to my computer.  I hope everyone is having a fabulous start to the New Year, mine has been going pretty well, even with a broken computer!  Cheers!

A pink pug visit...

We watched Dani's pugs this last weekend, they came to us pink and green.  The green had to be washed off right away (don't use food dye on your pets unless you want it everywhere they go), but the pink was permanent marker and had been there awhile.  Apparently Cassandra thought her dogs needed to be pink.  Dani said I could add a little festivity to it and do whatever I wanted to the pugglies, so Otto went home with a blue tail.  Fun fun.  The pugs are crazy, noisy, soft, silly little snoring machines.  Richard and I like to have them visit but certainly don't need any pugglies of our own.

Flowers... for me!

I have been a bit flustered or down or just something for the last few weeks.  I'm guessing it's probably due to being sick with a sinus infection.  I don't know if Richard was just picking up on that vibe or what the deal was but he bought me flowers just to say he loves me and they are beautiful!  He had them sent to work so it was a wonderful surprise when I got to work.  He's pretty special that husband of mine, I wouldn't trade him for the world!

 One of favorite flowers in the bunch, the picture doesn't really do it justice.

  The lilies opened up a few days later, aren't they beautiful!~

The Hopper's come for a visit!

We try to see Adam, Valerie and Dereck as often as we can.  Unfortunately that isn't as often as we would like.  It's hard to make the 3+ hour drive to Vancouver and back in just a weekend and feel like we got any visit time in.  So any time we are able to have a nice long visit we really enjoy it.

They drove up on the 31st and were able to stay all the way to the morning of the 3rd!  How awesome is that.  Valerie and I put together a couple puzzles.  We all played some Magic the Gathering.  And Dereck ran around being cute and destructive.  Someday our house will need to be childproofed I suppose, but until then everything just gets moved to a higher surface.

Having just gone through Christmas I wasn't nearly as camera happy as normal.  But we did take a few pictures and we went and visited Santa (Dereck didn't much like Santa it was his first time meeting him) so here are a few pictures from their visit.  

The Tale of Three Christmas's

I love Christmas!  I love the merry feeling that it brings out in people.  I love that Jesus was born so we can be saved!  I love giving gifts!  I just love it!  That being said, three Christmas in a very short time is rather exhausting!

To start off my Christmas gatherings this year I went to the Christmas Eve service at my church with Mom, Dad and Pamela.  Mom tripped and fell while we were going in to take our seats, thankfully she didn't hurt herself to badly and we were all able to stay and watch the service.  My church is loud, I forget how loud and silly it can be.  So as Santa, Rudolf, a Christmas Tree and a Snowman danced around on the stage I couldn't help but laugh and wonder what in the world my family must think of the church I go to.  I love Gold Creek, it's a great "little" church.  It's kind of funny how large it is and yet I don't really feel like it is all that big at all.

Christmas morning Richard and I woke up, exchanged gifts and headed over to my parents house for our family gathering.  It's always a chaotic mess over there, so many people in a small place and a gazillion presents.  Or at least enough presents that we literally have to take a break in the middle of opening them.  We had the traditional breakfast of sausage fondue and sticky buns, this is probably one of my absolutely favorite meals ever.  I often wonder why we don't make this from time to time throughout the year.  Then I worry if I did that I may not enjoy it quite as much when Christmas rolls around and decide to just stick with it being a Christmas tradition.  With all the presents and breakfast and such we don't do a big dinner or anything, this year it was a spaghetti dinner for Christmas.  I love my family, even with all the craziness I always have a good time.  That being said, I always enjoy getting to spend some time with Richard and having a relaxing evening at home together when we finally head home.

The day after Christmas we headed over to Richards parents house for homemade pizza and a wonderful visit!  Christmas with Richards family is always so much more relaxing then with mine.  While I love my family dearly there is just no way to put that many people in a fairly small room and not have me feel a bit overwhelmed and exhausted.  We stayed and visited and opened a few presents.  It was nice having Christmas on the weekend this year, I will certainly miss having the extra days around it to relax a bit from all the gatherings.


On the third day of Christmas gatherings, also known as the Christmas get together at Dad (Gene's) house on New Years day.  We all got together for some very yummy Italian food.  He made his squash dots, homemade noodles, a creamy white alfredo type sauce and it was all very delicious indeed!  Adam and Valerie were visiting so they got to come along as well.  I played a few games of Skip-bo with Dani, JP and various other people.  A good time was had by all! 

Now for the pictures!  I'm not putting in all that many as I have FAR to many pictures and I don't want to make them all smaller for my blog.  So I'll pick out some of my favorite Christmas pictures for all to enjoy!  I hope everyone else had a very Merry Christmas!  We were very blessed this year, here is to another wonderful year~

Christmas #1

 Homemade Almond Roca!  Yummy!

 Christmas #1.5

 

Chad is always the gift Santa, apparently he showed up early so he would get the job again this year even though he doesn't live there anymore.

It's a tiny little glass dragon I got for her at the science center... she screamed, it amused me. 

And here are the pictures Richard took:

 Cassandra found a dollar that had Dollar written on it, as you can see it amused her.

 Dad got lots of Toy Story stuff, it's a miracle there were no duplicates.  Here is the cute little car I got for him.

My wall decoration from Pamela, so pretty. :D

Christmas #2

There are no pictures. :(  I'm not sure why but we very rarely take pictures at Richards parents house.  I think we'll need to work on that.

 Christmas #3

 

(Richard really likes cheese)