We canoed today. With the dogs! They were very well behaved. I was pretty certain the experiment was going to end with us swimming, but I don’t think we even got close to tipping over. It’s a very stable canoe.
We saw a raptor- we guessed osprey.
We also saw a heron.
Sara arrived for her spring break visit on Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon we took her on her first mountain biking experience.
On Monday she and I went to Sipapu for some free hot weather skiing.
I don’t know that I’d go back to Sipapu and pay full price unless it was on my way home from somewhere. But we had fun.
On Tuesday Sara went running and biking while I was at work with the sunscreen in my car. I didn’t tell her to take my Garmin, so no data. She did get a nice sunburn though.
Wednesday we went mountain biking again, with somewhat less success, since we broke the derailleur hanger off of one bike, then the seat clamp bolt off of another bike. However, fun was still had.
On Thursday afternoon we both decided we would never get enough of the mountain biking, so we went back at it.
Today we rode again after cleaning the house, eating some Bob’s Burgers, and swimming. I’m not sure if it was the swimming or the riding the two days before or the increased steepness (560 ft over 4 miles vs. the previous day’s 945 ft over 9.3 miles), but we were pretty tired today.
We had a great time with Sara, and Ken is forever in her debt for the number of times she did dishes when it was his turn. Also she helped clean the house this morning and shoveled gravel out of the van. What a champ!
We’ll miss you Sara! Come back soon.
My apologies for this post – it’s messed up beause I’m trying to type this on my tablet.
We’re spending the weekend in Taos for a late anniversary ski trip. Yesterday we had a lovely day skiing Taos in somewhere between 6 and 8 inches of new snow. It was great.
Today we usedour free tickets to a cross country ski area. It was very pretty.
Tomorrow we are going to Sipapu, another downhill ski area. It may be exhausting.
We finally finished the dog fence and it holds Klaus! Hence our ability to go to Taos for the weekend
Next week Sara comes to visit during her spring break. Then Mark comes into town. Then we take Sara to the airport and pick up Marie and Ken’s mom. Nothing but partying here.
I think we’re going to go out and pretend to be yuppies and wander through a few art galleries. Oh bother, just looked up yuppie. We sort of fit the definition.
I planted tomatos, tomatillos, and some herbs. Sometime during all that partying we need to build a terrace or two and install some irrigation so there’s a place to plant the baby plants once they’re ready. Life is busy.
I think we’re going to go pretend to be yuppie and wander through a few art galleries.
On Sunday afternoon we were down in the valley admiring our new fence and playing with the dogs, and Ken noticed flames across the arroyo. He went to talk to our neighbor (who is the self-appointed safety guy for our neighborhood) to see if he knew if somebody was having a bonfire or something. From their house they could see that the flames were spewing from a Chevy Blazer… Definitely not a planned fire. Our neighbor called 911 and multiple fire departments showed up. Flames were definitely shooting 20-30 feet into the air. It was very exciting. I don’t think anybody’s sure how the fire started, but it’s a good thing it happened now when everything is soggy from the melted 8 inches of snow rather than last summer when it hadn’t precipitated for over six months.
This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but you can see that the flames are considerably higher than the fire truck. My next toy purchase may be a telephoto lens.
1. We bought a car. Ken is overcome with delight about it. Pictures will be taken and further details brought forth at a later date.
2. Klaus only accidented in the house three times this week. This is improvement. As an exchange he chewed up three toilet paper rolls and a paper towel roll. Sigh.
3. It finally snowed at Taos the past few days! We’re going tomorrow. If we can stay awake it should be awesome.
4. I signed up for a triathlon in April that our pastor is also doing. Should be fun! It’s backwards: run, bike swim.
As you may have noticed, we’re back! Let’s do the vacation summary in a different format than usual.
Best meal eaten: My birthday dinner with both of my families, spaghetti, and a delicious home-made ice cream cake.
Worst gift given: Broken dominoes. Sorry Ronnie, maybe I’ll get them replaced this weekend. Don’t count on it…
Best gift received: Having Christmas and my birthday at the same time makes for lots of awesome gifts in a short amount of time, but I think it’s between the cool butter dish Bekah got me and the shirt my sister-in-law, Marie, got me.
Best day of skiing: Silver Mountain with Bekah, Sara, and Ken. Was supposed to be with Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Justin too, but the others were unfortunately indisposed in various ways.
Worst day of skiing: Red River, NM. They need more snow. And although I used my 10 ticket voucher so I didn’t pay their rate for my ticket, $64 is WAY too much for what they had to offer. For $64 I expect at least one high speed lift.
Best lodging: The Gold Pan Motel in Eagle Nest, NM was perfect. It was about $100 cheaper than anything else I could find, it was adorable, cozy, and just great. Go there.
Longest day: Work at 7AM, flight at 7PM, arrive at 12:35 PM body time, rent car, drive to Kellogg, ID, arrive around 2:30AM body time. Then go skiing the next day. I was sleepy.
Vehicles acquired: Ken’s parents gave us their 12 passenger van, since it’s down here anyway. Anyone interested? We need to sell it so we can get a more 4WD truck-like vehicle.
Most anticipated future event: Kristina is coming to visit in the summer. Now it’s public, so you MUST come.
Best (and only) movie viewed: Sherlock Holmes. Highly enjoyable.
Newest apartment visited: Bethany and Ronnie’s. They have a pantry. I must admit to covetousness.
Most amusing lunch: With my friend from college and her husband. We talked for 2 hours.
1st golfing experience: At the country club after lunch. I was forced to putt for 5 minutes for my lunch. I don’t think that golf is my sport of choice.
Only former foreign exchange student met: Nils, from when I was in high school. Still tall, still funny.
Biggest hole in bottom of ski: My poor ski met with a BIG rock at Red river. We will be needing some P-Tex. A lot of P-Tex. We had just waxed them too.
Amount of extra-box cat poop awaiting us: 5 piles.
Sigh.
But it’s good to be home.
I did end up writing a Christmas letter. Here it is.
I think I speak for both of us when I say that we hope we never have another year quite as eventful as 2011. Not that we’re complaining – we’ve been richly blessed this year beyond our fondest dreams.
Ken Craymer and I got engaged on 1-1-11, prompting a “finally” from Ken’s mom (and probably a few others.) We planned our wedding in the next two days, then flew back to Cleveland where we proceeded to write our theses. Ken defended his Master’s thesis on Feb 11th (on micro-channel heat exchangers), we went on our first winter camping trip that night, and we headed back to WA on the 24th. We were in town for 36 hours, which was just long enough to get married and for Ken to infect nearly everyone in attendance with The Plague.
From there we flew to San Diego for the TMS conference/honeymoon combo. We both succumbed to the Plague and tried to present posters, chair meetings, accept awards, and give presentations while either burning with fever or being unable cease coughing. After the conference we spent a few extra days in southern CA, going to the beach, revising a dissertation, exploring Anza Borrego St Park, and trying to recover from The Plague. A couple of weeks after returning to Cleveland I flew back to the Tri-Cities for my sister Bethany’s wedding. A week after Bethany’s wedding I successfully defended my PhD Thesis (on metallic glass failure mechanisms).
We went on a bike camping trip with some friends at the end of April. In May, my Mom, Dad, and sister Sara came to Cleveland a week before our graduation and we gallivanted about western NY, checking out the Corning glass museum, several of my Mom’s cousins, and a dog on a motorcycle wearing a helmet. Ken’s Dad arrived from CA after we returned to Cleveland, followed in rapid succession by Ken’s Mom from WA and my cousins, the Jacksons, from NC. We then graduated.
My parents took our cats with them in anticipation of our moving back westward. Over Memorial Day weekend we went on a miserable backpacking trip wherein we had a rude introduction to black flies. I got two job offers allowing us to choose between the Seattle area and Albuquerque. Deciding we had soaked up enough rain in Cleveland to last us native desert dwellers for a lifetime (and because it was pretty much my dream job) we picked Albuquerque.
We headed back to the west coast on the 4th of July, where we spent one day moving Ken’s Porsche from his parents house to my parents house, five days camping on the Oregon coast with my family, and one day packing a U-haul box with our belongings. We then drove to ABQ with the cats. I started work and Ken flew back to CLE for a few days to oversee the movers. We couldn’t find a suitable rental, so we bought a house, which turns out to be a unnecessarily painful process. However, we eventually moved in and we love it.
In September, Ken flew back to WA to drive his parents van back down with his parents dog Heidi, his Porsche, a canoe, and a kitchen table. His stepdad Elis drove with him. Ken started work as a process engineer at a precious metal manufacturing facility the next Monday. Since then we have been spending our time working on the house and our surrounding 0.8 acres. We did take a break in November, when my family came to visit, then we went up to Golden CO for Thanksgiving, a day of skiing, and to get my Anna Grandma’s piano.
We’re getting another dog this weekend, going to WA for Christmas next week, and coming back here for a little ski vacation over New Years.
Whew. Quite the year. We hope and pray that you enjoy celebrating the birth of our Savior who: “being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” Philippians 2:8-10
Vinegar and oil. Aren’t I artistic?
Look what I bought at the store.
I am exceedingly proud of how this turned out.
Guess who recalled how to embroider after all these years.
This is not an artistic picture, but it does show how much it snowed today. It was plenty to ski down to the mailbox for the mail. Too bad we have to go to work tomorrow or we’d ski up the trail to the north.
Attempt at taking pictures of the snowy landscape in the dark. I had moderate success. The glow of light on the clouds from the city makes everything orange if I open up the shutter for longer.
Our neighbor who has lived here for 30+ years says it’s more windy than he’s ever seen it. Winds of 35-55 mph with gusts up to 75 mph.
So far we still have power. So far our half dead elm trees haven’t fallen over. So far we don’t have 6-12″ of snow.
We’ll see what things look like in the morning. We’ll see if I make that 8 AM dentist appointment.
Look who came over to our house!
I took the week off of work. We climbed to the top of the ridge behind our house on Sunday afternoon.
Grandpa didn’t climb to the top of the hill, but he made a good face.
We went on a hike. It was pretty cool, and the frost was just melting on the bushes.
Then we went to Colorado, and found my aunt and uncle who took us on a long hike.
Hikers!
Our cousin Peter was there too!
Hikers on a bridge.
After our big hike… The food!
Ken putting up Grandpa’s giant leaf after a day of skiing at Loveland of which I have no record because I didn’t haul my camera along. It was fun though.
We came back with my Grandma’s piano, which we managed to get out of my Grandpa’s house and into our house with minimal destruction of piano or other property.
And now I have to go back to work tomorrow. Yay!
