Saturday, January 30, 2010

Cold finger climbing on 9th Street

We decided we couldn't wait for summer...we couldn't even wait for spring. We were tired of climbing in the gym and wanted to get outside. Jennilyn, Mark, and I headed up to 9th street in Ogden for some winter climbing. Mark stuck some hot hands packs in our chalk bags and were good to go. Jennilyn and Mark are way better climbers than I am. They warmed up on this 5.9 route and then each climbed a couple more difficult ones. I on the other hand, warmed up and burnt out on the same first climb. They coached me through a few moves on the harder climbs but then I had to settled for taking pictures. They're awesome teachers and I'm slowly gaining on them, but it'll be awhile before I'm as good as they are...if that ever happens.
Then it was Jennilyn's turn to give up. I think this was the only time I've ever seen Mark top rope something and the only reason he did was because neither of us could make it to the top of the route to get the gear off and he had to do it himself. The view behind him was awesome. Maybe someday I'll see it from the top.
I can't wait for summer!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Coldwater Canyon Overlook

A few weeks ago Andy and I got together for our Monday's off work and snowshoed up to Coldwater Canyon Overlook in Weber Canyon.
We found a few winter friendly geocaches along the way...
We followed some ski trails, some snow mobile trails, the powerline trail, then eventually we found someone's one way snowshoe trail to the top. Hoping he wasn't the avalanche victim from the day before we followed it to the overlook. Almost there, the top was just past these trees. Andy's making the final accent below. There were perfect views in every direction. It was worth the effort to get there and we made it just in time for lunch. I started to walk out on the cornice but wasn't feeling too confident about the snow or my lack of avalanche skills so I came back.The end. (Thanks Emily for watching the kids while we went)

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Noodles!!!!

Alicia and I decided we wanted to form a cooking club...except there's just the two of us. Her husband, James, said we can't really be much of a club with just two people...thus was born, the Cooking Duo. We make some pretty delicious stuff between the two of us, but I think the night we made homemade noodles was the most fun so far. Her boys were super excited to help and thankfully no one got their fingers stuck in the pasta roller. When we draped it over the chairs before cutting it into noodles they had fun running under the noodle tunnels.
It was just as tasty to eat as it was fun to make and the boys thought so too. If you want to try some ambitious cooking with kids, I recommend homemade noodles.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Summer or Winter?

I don't think I'm quite done with winter yet, I'm enjoying the snow a lot more this year than I have in the past but looking at these two pictures I think I like summer more. That thick fog we had last Thursday covered everything with the neatest frost but I miss the smell of lavender in my backyard. I'm almost ready for spring.

Friday, January 15, 2010

New Years

The year is ending and it's a sad goodbye, it was a really great year, but I'm eager for 2010 and all it's possibilities: My goals for last year didn't all get met but about 8 and 1/2 of them did. I had my main ones which I'd posted here and another private list at home. I did better with my public ones... though I think #4 sort of took over and consumed my life for awhile. For next year I've decided on these. As usual I've made a baker's dozen of them:

1. Read the Bible

2. Go to bed before midnight (weekdays only)

3. Be able to do 3 overhand pullups

4. Lead a 5.11 climb in the gym and a 5.9 climb outside the gym

5. Learn to bake bread (good bread)

6. Hike to the top Mt. Olympus (or climb I guess...either one)

7. Cook one recipe from every cookbook I own

8. Drive Slower (within 5 miles of the speed limit)

9. Live off the food in my pantry for 1 month

10. Finish my name change back to Rockwood

11. Get a computer

12. Green up my commute to work

13. Visit a beach/state/country/or National Park I've never been to before

What do you think the hardest one will be for me?

Thursday, January 14, 2010

How I spent my Christmas Vacation

I got lots of time off work for Christmas and could be happy if I never had to go back to work again… as long as no one else had to go back to work either.
So here's what I did with all that time besides shovel my driveway 9 times a day...
I went to Alicia's house for Christmas Eve and enjoyed Mexican food, cheese, and stories read by James.
Afterwards I spent the night at Nate's house and ate chocolate fondue before going to bed so Santa could come...which he did.
In the morning we opened presents and sat around in pajamas till it was time to eat our Christmas steaks. (Simon didn't sit around, he played with all his hotwheels) Their presents were around the tree all wrapped up nice, mine were around the lamp in cardboard boxes. The next day we went sledding in the canyon. It was Simon's first time. After an hour he was done. I went sledding again with Alicia and her boys. In the canyon and then at Liberty Park and then in their backyard. We weren't done till the sun went down. (I think I took a thousand pictures of us sledding that day)
(Alicia is the funnest pregnant lady ever...see evidence below)
I went out to breakfast with Carrie and Simon at the Blue Plate Diner (We went back again with Nate and I tried Eggs Benedict for the first time. I don't think I care for runny yolked eggs or Hollandaise Sauce) Alicia had a New Years Eve party with way too many treats and a few fireworks.
Then there was even more sledding, this time at Stew's house. After sledding Stew made everyone a big dinner and that night Hayden and Jake and I went night sledding...no pictures of us at night but it was crazy fun. On my last day of vacation Jake and I went snowshoeing in American Fork Canyon. It was such a beautiful day. That afternoon I watched Jake and Scott go long boarding and got to ride Scott's board back to the house. (A lot more fun than it probably sounds) Then I watched the alpenglow fade off the top of Mt. Timpanogos and… ...vacation was over, everyone went back to work, Alicia's kids went back to school, Jake went back to Oklahoma, the cardboard boxes when into the recycling bin, and the smog came back to the valley.