BELLS CANYON

My reaction to the big frozen waterfall...

~Special thanks to Shelly for her snowshoes!

SNOWSHOEING FOOLS!

One of the many wonderful things Clint has exposed me to is snowshoeing. Yes, that's right...there is still joy to be found in the outdoors during winter. And thankfully, snowshoeing also helps you generate your own heat. This is Clint's formula for an IDEAL activity: mountains + exercise + me = FUN! He he. This is on the trail to Red Pine. We didn't go all the way up. Clint's too much of a wuss. Because everyone knows that if it was up to me, we would've been at Red Pine in under an hour!

WINTER SEMESTER 08

I have a confession...
I am lazy.
Or I must be. Because when my French teacher said, "Now, I'm doing something a little bit different this semester. And if you hate it, I'm sorry, you can register for another class & I won't be offended. But otherwise, just live with it and be happy. I will not have any office hours this semester and instead I will end class early every time we meet and you can speak to me after class," I nearly jumped for joy. And don't get me wrong, this French class is the most lax French class I have ever taken. But it was like icing on the cake. Extra cheese on the pizza. Marshmallows in my hot cocoa. Dark in my chocolate. You get the idea. Among the other confectionary traits of the course: We only have to buy 1 $13 book. There is NO final exam. All exams are in class. There are are only three 2-3 pg papers. And I only have to go to Provo twice a week instead of five times. So...thankyou, BYU, for giving me at least one sympathetic professor in my 5 years as a student here. This is a good way to be on my way out. Et, mon Français est superbe! Est-ce que vous espèrez de parler le Français aussi bien que moi? J'ai pensé ainsi.

1st Christmas!!!

Sorry these pictures are kind of dark! The Christmas tree is the most important anyway...
Our cutesy little tree. Decorating was so fun for me--I felt kinda like a little kid inventing my own magical Christmas Winterland! Hmmm....next year I need to find out where to get some shimmering fairy dust.
Hot huz.

Oh ug. First thing Christmas morning. Just what you wanted to see.

Clint and I had our first Christmas as a married couple. Fun, yes. Stressful, yes. Ask Clint. I had a few panicky moments while trying to plan all our holiday events. I'll spare you the complex details of how the 3 days prior to Christmas were claimed by one side of the family and I had a miniature breakdown/anxiety attack over trying to figure out how to balance time between the 2 families. Whew! But lest anyone should take offense, don't worry! Things worked out well and we spent a perfectly happy amount of time with each side of the family and we were quite content. P.S. Thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts we received! We are now expertise gamers due to our board game collection which increased by 5 games this Christmas! Wow. And plenty of DVDs. Oh yeah, and: don't worry--if you see me on the mountain trails this summer, I will look as pro as they come thanks to a new camelback and backpack. Thanks, Jeff; I'm sure you had more to do with that than anyone else! (Pictures of our Christmas morning soon to come...)