I'm Alive!

So I thought you might like to know that I'm not dead. I often think about what I should write on my blog and just never get around to doing so. SOOOO much has happened since February and I can't wait to tell you all about it. We have gone to New York to visit my wonderful brother Matthew, I worked 5 months at a horse ranch, we have become part of the UTV owner family, etc. You get the point. Anyway, I'm really going to try to give you all some detail soon. Hope everyone is doing well!

Jennifer

February Already??!!!

Hello all! Time is flying by! I can't believe we're already over half way through February. Things have been a little crazy with activity. We have had girls' nights, Superbowl parties, and lots of work.

Several weeks ago we took the ole' car and traded it in on a vehicle I have been drooling over for 2 years. The new Jeep Liberty. I love the new body style and anyone who knows me knows that I'm more of a truck and bigger vehicle kind of person. Anyway, I LOVE it!




I have also found a little time to work on some of my projects. I am currently, FINALLY, working on our honeymoon scrapbook.

I have an oddly diverse list of hobbies. I love to be outdoors, fishing, hiking and hunting type things but a little known fact is that I also love to craft. I scrapbook, carve wood, sew, crochet, and dabble in oil painting. By anyone's standards a strange combination of likes and hobbies. The last several Christmases I have made carved/woodburned gifts for a few people. 3 or 4 years ago I made a snowman (He was just for decoration for us)...



2 Christmases ago I made a frame for my cousin Janelle...



And this last Christmas I made a wall plaque for Mom (I need a better workspace :))...



Last Father's Day I gave Dad a rather "interesting" oil painting (Don't stare too long the colors may blind you)...



I do love my crafts!! Later!

Jennifer

Been a Long Time!

My goodness! It has been an extremely long time since I have had a new post! Things have been mad around here with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 2 deer seasons. I'll slowly be trying to get everyone back up to speed.

We went back to Kansas for our three Thanksgivings. All of my family was there except Matt who stayed and had his own Thanksgiving in New York (he came back for Christmas). It was a very nice, quiet Thanksgiving, not much going on. As we do every year we went and got Christmas trees, five to be exact. My parents, Grandma H., JD and Soni, Jerry and Shelby, and ours.


This was our first year to have the room for a real Christmas tree, and I didn't want just a little Christmas tree (since we have vaulted ceilings). So, we ended up hauling back to Colorado a "9+" ft Christmas tree. It was gorgeous and I truly enjoyed having a real tree again!


Shortly after we got back from Thanksgiving Joel and Jerry left once more for Kansas' deer season. They camped out in Jerry's new spike tent and used Joel's new cylinder stove for heating and cooking. Both of them have birthdays in December so Shelby and I cordinated their gifts so that eventually we can each buy the other piece and have our own tent sets. Sounds goofy I know but it's worked out nicely.



Joel got a nice ten-point buck. I'm so glad my husband has a sense of humor. Yes those are deer on his pants.


I had a wide variety of things to do while Joel was gone, including some work, but I wanted to take some time to do something I wanted to do so I took a road trip. I headed off back to Kansas. I'll save that trip for the next update. Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!

Jennifer

Getting Settled

Well, we feel like we are really getting settled in here. We actually started decorating a few weeks ago! It always takes me forever to get our houses decorated. I don't know why I'm so slow at it, but it has been started. I think that secretly I hope that if I put it off long enough one of those freaky decorators from tv will appear in my living room to do it for me. As you can see Joel's deer finally has a nice home (I think that is Joel's favorite part of the whole house).



This last Saturday Joel and I went to another Air Force Academy football game. It was a blast and we had great seats. They played BYU and unfortunately they lost. The two games we went to this year were definitely their toughest games and even though they lost it was a really fun game.

This time we sat next to the entire section of cadets. It was beyond loud for entire game! They start the game by having the cadets march onto the field with the flags. I think that it's only the underclassmen but I'm not totally sure. After the national anthem they storm off the field and run into the section that is reserved for them.




The fly over included three very low F-15 and then there were seven people who parachuted onto the field with different flags and banners.





This is one of my favorite parts of the games. When they want the crowd to get loud they show parts of the big battle scene from "Brave Heart". The crowd really goes wild!



Oh, and guess what! We've had three more snows since my last post.

Snow!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay everybody, I know it has been a really long time since I have updated my blog but I'm finally getting around to it. Work has been really busy and it is starting to settle into a steady pace.

The weather has been fanstastic here! It changes a lot! It starts out cold, and then usually warms up to cool to fairly warm. We have definitely had our cold snaps though! As a matter of fact we have actually had two snows already. The first snow was on October 13th and was just a dusting a couple of times but the ground was too warm for it to stick around.

The second time was on October 21st. We got 5 inches over night and then we got more snow on and off throughout the next day. When the sun came out it started to melt but it stuck around in the shadows for about 3 days. Our lowest tempurature since we've lived here was about 10 degrees.

As you can see that we defintely still had fall colors when the snow came:






In our front room we have three very large windows, this was our view while it was snowing more later that day:


I love the weather here and I'm pretty excited to see some of the real mountain snows here! I'm sure by the time Spring actually comes I'll be ready for a warm up.

Football!

I love Fall for many reasons! I love the cool crisp weather, the changing leaves, and football - especially college football. I don't care for professional football for many reasons that I won't get into. Anyway, a couple weeks ago Joel, Jerry, Shelby, and I went to the Air Force vs Navy game at the Air Force Academy. It was a blast even though Air Force lost. There are two trophies that they compete for. One is the Commander in Chief trophy for the winner of the football game and the other one is for the 7 intramural sports they play before the game. Air Force swept all 7 of those and so they at least got one of the trophies.


We had some very interesting and entertaining people around us. About 5 rows down from us was a gang of middle aged people. They had one leader (note the picture)who would jump up during all breaks in the game and lead them in a very heart-felt cheer. They were awesome!

Sitting in the row in front of us were 4 guys who played football for Air Force. I don't think I have tell you that they took the loss to their rival quite hard. One of the guys had even came all the way from Washington for the game.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the game was the fly over before the game started. Of course since it was an Air Force game the fly over simply has to be great. They were going to have some people parachute onto the football field but it was too windy. However, they did have a Stealth bomber (B-2) and two of our brand-new fighters (the F-22). These are some impressive machines! I didn't get great pictures because I was busy watching. Later!

The Great Accomplishment!

Alright everyone work has just been crazy busy so I haven't updated in forever, but I'm going to try to catch up! Before I got started on all the somewhat interesting things we've been doing I wanted to let you know about our Great Accomplishment of the year...Last weekend Joel and I drove back to El Dorado for the weekend. It takes 8 hrs and 6 minutes and is 537 miles from our house and we drove it without stopping, not even once!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!