My First Post

As you can see Ryan (the family blogger) has been slacking and I've been getting complaints from a lot of people, so I am now going to attempt to Blog. Anyways, we have been living the life of being done with school and just working, so we have been going out of town every month. It's a great life, I get sick to my stomach of the thought of going back to school but for some odd reason I'm still thinking about it. Anyways we spent a week in Hawaii last month on Waikiki Beach and I'm still depressed that I'm home. I've never been any good at taking pictures (Amber will vouch for that) but due to the popular demand here they are!



This is our hotel right on the beach and the best part was that there was a Cold Stone Creamery in the hotel!! For those of you who don't know me well, this is my addiction. Hmmm that must be why I booked this hotel.



PUKA DOG!!!!! If you've never had a Puka Dog I suggest you go to Hawaii just to have one. We ate there twice, we couldn't resist. And about that hot orange bandana, my hairline and forehead was fried!!!



This was the prettiest beach of all and hardly any one was there. We were laying out and next thing I know it someone is getting married literally right next to us, I had to cover my face with my book so I didn't end up in their wedding album. So we pretty much were just beach bums for the week and ate a lot of good food, that's my kind of vacation!!



So we had another weekend to take off, so we loaded up the camping gear and the dog and went to the San Rafael Swell. It was so beautiful and warm. Maddy loves to go camping, her favorite part is sleeping in the tent with us and of course the hiking, I think she ate a few lizzards!! Seriously our sleeping bags went straight to the laundromat full of dog hair.



Me and my baby girl hiking!!!

Quote of the Week

Mind you, this took place in Waikiki, HI

"We're looking for a good place to eat. Is there a Kentucky Fried Chicken close by?"
- Older woman to hotel employee

"Godless Tax Raisers"

This is not a political statement from me.
Sit back and enjoy a short video about global warming.

TELLURIDE TR

(For those who don't know, TR means trip report)
Amy and I had a few days off, so instead of sitting around the house, we decided to go somewhere. She originally wanted to go to Disney Land, but I'm not quite in the mood for that yet, "Maybe another time dear." We put our heads together and came up with Telluride, CO. We spent a week camping in that area a few years ago, but we'd never been there in the winter, so we packed our bags and headed south.

Dropping into Moab- Red rock and no snow


Going into Paradox Valley


A storm greets us in Telluride


Our Digs
We stayed at the New Sheridan Hotel on Main Street in Telluride. The hotel was built in the 1890s and then renovated to it's current state in 1994. Our floor was hostel style which means there were shared male and female bathrooms on our floor. It had a great continental breakfast, and we were provided with ski lockers and boot dryers.



Our comfy room


The lobby


The Town
Telluride is an old mining town situated in a box canyon. There are no chains or franchises in the town. All of the houses are old mining style. You can walk to everywhere in the town, the ski resort even has chair lifts and runs that go right in to town.





This gondola house was 2 blocks from our hotel


Ski Day
The night we arrived, it was snowing pretty hard, so when we woke up the next day, we were quite pleased to see bluebird skies. It is a little weird skiing somewhere you've never been, but it was fun to explore. My two lasting impressions of Telluride: Lots of moguls, and STEEP

It was a bright day


The hike to nowhere


Moguls: Conquered


On top of the world


So it was a great trip, and we will be back.
We'll finish this extra long post with some random pics from the trip

Violators will be towed


This place has some good mexican food


Road block

Random Pics

I was thinking of calling this "The Week In Pictures", but I realized I didn't take enough pictures this week.


Few and far between: A clear December day at Targhee

Maddy has a ragin' ear infection and the Vet had to sedate her so that he could clean and take a look in her ears (This should be your new desktop wallpaper)


This has been a great snow year, and I've been very grateful for my season pass. This is a shot from Snowbird 2/1 (Yes it was deep and you should be jealous)

Movie Recommendation

Do yourself a favor and see this movie... You will laugh

Livin' The Dream

The next time someone asks me why I went into nursing, I think I'll tell them that I did it because I like to ski. It's a job where you only have to work 3 days a week, and you can work a night shift and then ski the next day. Thanks to my schedule, I've been up to the hill 6 times in the last 2 weeks.

We all heard about the storm that was coming in yesterday, and as the flakes were falling at the hospital, I was keeping my eye on Snowbird's snow report. Around 1:00 AM, with 9" new and no signs of stopping, I decided that it was going to be a day that I could not miss.

The alarm clock went off after 4 hours of sleep, and a quick check of Snowbird's web page showed 16 new inches. It was on.

Today was one of those days where the snow was no nice, you could ski anything. It didn't matter how steep the slope was. It didn't matter how tight the trees were. It didn't matter how many people had been on that particular run. The snow was just great.

I didn't take any pictures today because there's no time for pictures on a powder day, but here is a shot from Snowbird's webpage to give you an idea of the kind of day it was:



Think Snow!