meaningless blog post

I've been enjoying my homemade lattes recently. they take me about 5 minutes total to make, including the warm up of my machine and clean up afterwards. and so i get out of the routine of taking the 5 minutes to make them. but recently i've taken the time and i think the quality of my mornings has improved. my little 8 oz mug only holds one shot of espresso and 7 oz of milk. i like my lattes plain- no flavoring, no sugar. just skim milk and a shot of espresso. so i don't actually get addicted. i just enjoy the taste. Eric and i bought this Starbucks home espresso maker over a year ago, and it's well worth the money!

Hope you enjoy this pretty meaningless blog post. it's 1 am and i'm on a night shift. i can blog about what i want to.



the 8 oz line marked so i get the correct amount of milk. you can see the steamer straw in the picture too.


my sweet mug

Avalanche Safety Course

a snow saw!!!!


After travelling in the backcountry around the Wasatch and tempting my fate with avalanches, i decided to get myself educated. i took an Avalanche 1 safety course this weekend (there are 3 levels of saviness). we spent 2 days and one evening in lectures, field work, and a tour into the mountains. we had a "lovely" weekend here- with 30 inches of new snow predicted to fall in the mountains over the 2 days, and not a bit of sunshine, and wet snow falling every second we were outdoors. i came home sopping wet each night. boo. i hate being wet and cold. however, the class was invaluable. priceless. and i feel like a totally different back country skier now. i am so glad i took the class, as now i feel i can travel more safely through avalanche terrain, and do my best and make sure my partners do their best to avoid avalanches. i think this class is MANDATORY for those wanting to backcountry tour. i took it through Utah Mountain Adventures. I'd highly recommend them- the guides were fantastic and the curriculum well planned. okay, enough of my new soap box of avalanche safety. but seriously, consider it.

Hooray for Ouray

This should be a picture of me ice climbing in Ouray, colorado but.... eric's camera promptly died upon arrival so we have no recorded pictures. boo!

Ouray, colorado might be one of my new favorite places. it is a very quaint mountain village(not even a town) nesteled in one of the tightest canyons i've ever seen a village in! at the end of the canyon there is an 'ice farm'. people have rigged a system up to drip water down the very narrow canyon walls to create large waterfalls of ice. then, ice climbers from all over the world make the journey to climb up the sheets of ice. it's fascinating! there is an ice fest there every year with serious competitions and serious ice climbers. i am not a serious ice climber. what is nice about the ouray ice park is you can top rope everything. meaning you can drop a rope down from an anchor on top of the canyon and rappell down into the canyon. then you can climb back out, all the while being kept safe by the rope. as opposed to leading things where you have big fall potential, top roping is extremely safe. well safe if you consider that you are holding two ice tools and strapped to your feet are crampons with 12 pointy things. ice climbing is pretty different from rock climbing, although the gear knowledge and anchoring systems translate quite nicely. still, i was scared of the climbing, scared of the equipment, scared of the ice.... just like it was to first rock climb i guess. it's been a while since i've felt that way about rock climbing, so it was interesting to be back in that 'total novice' category with climbing again.

eric and i stayed at a bed and breakfast and let me just tell you they are fantastic!!! i've decided when we retire i'd like to move to ouray and run a bed and breakfast. ouray is mostly a summer tourism town, so we got a killer deal for the winter rates. we were the only guests there on friday night. they opened a bottle of wine for us each evening, and we had the outdoors jacuzzi to ourselves the first night. and the breakfast each morning was amazing- so much food that we skipped lunch each day.

i would highly recommend a vacation to ouray. in the winter you can snow shoe, cross country ski, back country ski, ice climb, or ice skate. in the summer you can hike, mountain bike, road bike, and camp. the winter rates are much more reasonable though it is cold. but it is beautiful!! and you should stay at the Black Bear Lodge. :)

holidays!

hurray for the break in snowy weather that allowed us to make it to boise for my family's christmas get together! Eric and I braved the closed highway, swirling snow storms, and blowing snow to make it to Boise to see my sister, brother in law, mom, dad and the kiddos. the weather actually wasn't so frightful. my brother chose to avoid the travel hustle and stay in california (where he got engaged on christmas day!) it was a great time of eating, eating, and more eating. some sledding. and gifts. advent. reading. playing with toy cars, more cars....and cars. some leggos too. it was a great time and i'm so happy to have spent the time with my family! for once i was off of work and the weather permitted travel. this is the first christmas we have actually spent with family on christmas day. all is as it should be! :)





sweet baby esther



elliot peeking in his stocking



darin and adrian sledding



Elliot and I



Eric and Elliot walking to the sled hill



Miranda, Esther, and I



Mom and Esther staying warm by the sledding hill



The Fam on Christmas