Happy 2012!

It's been a long while since I have posted anything to our blog, sorry everyone:(  December was filled with many firsts for Marty and I... our first Christmas tree together, our first Christmas we hosted for our families in our new house, and our first New Year's Eve party we hosted.

The first weekend in December we hiked up into the woods to find the perfect tree and we did.  It had finally snowed the night before and as we were hiking around in the woods, big fat charlie brown snowflakes were falling from the sky.  It was so much fun!

A few weeks later the families began arriving.  My sister Meg came out first so she could get some skiing in with Marty and I, a few days later Marty's parents got here and then mid week my parents arrived.  We had a house full, but it was exactly what we wanted... we couldn't wait to share our home with our families for the holidays.  The winter break consisted of some skiing (we had no new snow the entire month of December, in fact today it has finally snowed a bit), baking, cooking, lots of eating consuming really yummy foods, hanging out, watching Christmas movies, games, shootin guns, and ice skating.  Christmas morning was filled with lots of fun and wonderful presents for all. 

New Years Eve we threw a party for our friends and had a shrimp boil.  We threw potatoes, corn, seafood, lemons, and lots of great seasonings into a big pot on the patio and then brought it in and dumped it onto paper on the counter.  It was so good and lots of fun!  The evening ended with a big dance party in our living room filled with lots of confetti and about a half hour session of people blowing the stupid noise makers I bought:)


Here are lots of pictures (my dad loves to take pictures) of the fun we had...

early presents for me and marty

good thing we got this we used it 4 times with everyone

mom and dad had these delivered to the house for us. when they held their very 1st christmas, nana delivered flowers to them. needless to say i was balling my eyes out while reading the card my parents wrote us.  this was a very special surprise!

my christmas kermit made his appearance in a few photos:)

 

fourteener time!

this past weekend marty, myself, and our friends jarrid and liz headed over to minturn, colorado to backpack and summit mount of the holy cross.  after a couple hours in the truck we pulled onto the dirt road to see a huge gate blocking our drive and prohibiting us to continue.  road closed due to logging is what the sign read.  we sat there for a while in confusion and then decided where we should detour.  we drove about 30 minutes more to leadville to conquer mt. massive.  we found a great campsite right by the creek, had a good hike in and fun first night, and a good night's sleep in order to rise early and hike to the summit.  we left camp at about 7:15 and reached the summit at 11:45.  the hike was absolutely beautiful and we could not have asked for more perfect weather.  accomplishing our first fourteener felt pretty sweet and we can't wait to do another one!

the crew

mount massive 14,421 feet

 

 Mt. Massive is the second highest peak in Colorado and the third highest in the 48 states, exceeded only by California's Mt. Whitney and its near neighbor, Mt. Elbert

pretty moss and flowers as we hiked up

family of mountain goats just relaxing near the top

views from the summit... and what was even cooler about the views is that they were of our valley where we live!

we made it!

we made it and so did the puppies poco and clancy!

fourteen thousand some feet can make one a bit silly:)