Snowshoe Running

I hate running. I have no endurance and I have bad knees....and I don't like the look of tennis shoes* worn with shorts. I have long given up the dream that I will ever run for exercise and it's really a shame considering my legs are at tall as redwood trees, but yesterday I tried snowshoe running in the park. As far as the endurance part went, it was so much harder than normal running. As far as my knees went, it felt great! I ran all over the park for almost an hour. I ran around the bases of the baseball diamond, I ran laps between trees, I ran through big drifts, I ran in circles, I ran wherever I wanted to! Then I gobble up icicles off the trees and felt like puking, but my knees felt great! I think I'll do more of this snow shoe running this winter. (I thought I was going strait but whenever I turned around I'd made a weavy trail over the snow...no wonder people wander around in circles in the woods and get lost. I can't even go strait across an empty field.) It totally beat going to the gym that day although I think I could have justified not going after shovelling all the snow out of my driveway.

I should get the stray cat some snowshoes, instead of making the usual tracks to my door he had to plow tunnels to get his food. It appears he has as much trouble going in a strait as I do.

*I spelled tennis shoes "tennishoes" originally and my spell checker suggested I change it to tennis hoes. really.

Thanksgiving

It seems that Thanksgiving is good no matter what. Now that I think of it I have a lot of really funny memories surrounding Thanksgiving dinners including me throwing a golf club, and another of watching my dad hose down a flaming turkey on the grill with the garden hose. This year wasn't that eventful but it wasn't perfect either, Jailynn's family got stuck in snowy Idaho and I think only 1 of my 3 pies was really edible, but that was it. We had it at Andy's new house and he smoked some really good turkeys, mom sent chocolates to eat with our dinner, and Sarah made some awesome place cards for those of us that could make it. All that really mattered was that we had that grapejuice-7up drink. As soon as I tasted it, it was Thanksgiving to me. (and there was a puzzle, can't be Thanksgiving without a puzzle)

A walk on the Jordan River Parkway

This was a nice way to spend my Sunday evening and I was surprised to see that I was the only one who thought so all day since mine were the only footprints in the snow except for something roughly the size of a raccoon.

Snow Trees

The last big snowstorm was perfectly timed to hit in the middle of the night. I got to do my favorite winter activity of shoveling in my clogs in the middle of the night. It was snowing so hard in fact I had to re-shovel the driveway a few times before I finally gave up. I swapped my clogs for my taller fluffy boots and trudged around the neighborhood looking at the heavy snow on all the various kinds of trees and taking pictures of them imagining I was some kind of nature photographer. They are really bad pictures since I didn't bother with any kind of night exposer, tripod, or lighting. I was just trying not to get snowflakes on the lens.

This is "snow coat hair" very similar to sleeping bag hair and a close cousin of "bed head" and "helmet hair". Sometimes I wonder if having such long hair is worth stuff like this.

Raking Leaves!!!!

The Gunters came over to help me rake the leaves in the backyard...and then everyone played in them. I know I had a lot of leaves but I've never actually attempted to rake them up all at once before. I couldn't believe how much there was! Just in time too since it snowed almost a foot that night. Who'd have guessed I'd be raking leaves and shoveling snow in the same night.

Thanks Alicia and James!!!!

My Awesome Self-Timer Skills

I must say, I have pretty good self timer skills with my camera. I'd been meaning to take a picture up at this spot for a long time and I was finally able to get these shots on my last hike before it snowed. It was super windy and I had to run over to the other summit in 30 seconds before my camera took 3 shots. It got me getting to the summit, almost getting blown off by a huge gust of wind, and then finally just sitting there.

The day before I saw these guys up there with tripods and fancy lenses trying to take the same picture. True it'd have looked a little cooler if I could have gotten it from a little bit higher or had their nice camera but they were kind of jerks and for a little camera I can fit in my pocket I think I do ok. Of course this is still the coolest self-timer picture ever.