More Snowboarding Adventures

Today we got to enjoy the ski hill for a few hours. This time I took the new GPS watch to track the miles we did and the speed. In hindsight I probably should have given the watch to Jack because he's way faster than me but I guess that will have to wait until next time. We found a fun track down the mountain that we repeated 6 times. Jack never fell after the first time down! WOW! :) I definitely improved each run for which I am thankful. Guess I need to hit up the hill sometime during the week on my own in order to keep up with Jack!




We are so looking forward to visits from friends and family to hang out with us up on the mountain! It sure is a lot of fun!!

Here are a few pictures of us having fun out there.

Jack made it off the ski lift! Check out the name of one of the Black's...Muerte, lovely haha.

 

Looks like a whagonweel! Impressed by how easily those 4 are getting off the lift!

Jack was busy talking with our lift mate, Will, so I snapped a quick pic of myself :)

One day we'll be good enough to maneuver through the aspens!

Pretty view from midway up the ski lift.

Jack at the top of the lift, not the top of the mountain, must get better for that!

Me at the top, this is what you get when there are only 2 of you to take pics!

Sooo pretty!

Driving home! Jack forgot his sunglasses :) Guess these will have to do!

And on a totally random note...yesterday our friends Dave Dixon and Dave Poston came over so that the three guys could work on their cars. Turns out they all needed to replace the thermostat so they decided to do the work in our garage. Poston brought his 8 year old son over to hang out so I ended up getting to entertain him for a while. We played Mario Kart on the Wii, some fun games on Dixon's new XBox Kinect then enjoyed Despicable Me. By then it was past midnight and the poor little guy was pooped and passed out on the couch. Turns out Poston's car took way longer than expected to fix due to some really ornery bolts but the guys finally finished the work by 3:30AM...yes 3:30 after working on it for about 6 hours! SHEW! So after everyone left...this is what Jack was up to at close to 4am:

 

Vacuuming. That's right! I was so thankful he did that because a lot of stuff got tracked in from the garage and we didn't want it settling in. It was a late night but I think we all had a pretty good time. Jack and I got some sleep and then were raring to get out on the hill. Overall, not a bad last 2 days! :)

What's the biggest headache of traveling?

Airports.

Now don't get me wrong. I actually am someone who LOVES airports (as long as one flight being late doesn't cause me to miss the connecting flight, or my baggage isn't lost, or the airplane isn't too loud, etc) because I LOVE people watching. I mean c'mon, where else can you see people from all over the world converging into one "small" area rushing around like ants before winter in order to catch a flight? You hear so many languages, see soo many styles of dress (some ridiculous, some interesting, some casual, some down right fashionable, but don't look at me...I go for comfort), watch people moving like they're on a human highway. I think it's always fun to watch the frantic passenger sprinting through the terminal, against the flow of traffic like a salmon trying to go upstream to lay it's eggs (that is the salmon, right?)...and I always wonder where everyone is headed. Are they on business? Pleasure? Just leaving for a big trip? On their way home? But I digress.

Most people dislike airports. Long lines, pat downs, x-ray machines, expensive food and drink, pushy passengers...it can definitely become a headache fast. Flying internationally? That just throws more fodder to the wolves...immigration, that can be a nightmare. So are you wondering where I'm going with all of this?

If I ever have to get to travel overseas to the far east...I'm definitely booking my flight to have a nice long lay-over in...SINGAPORE!!! We're talking free Blockbuster movies being played in movie theater sized rooms, a 4-story tall slide (takes 30 seconds to get down it) or not so brave a 1 1/2 story tall slide, a butterfly garden, a pool and hot tub for your leisure, free showers, or how about a bus tour of the city while you wait? That's not all! How about a relaxing nap in a sunflower garden, and if you're feeling antsy go workout at the gym with exercise clothes provided! After a nice workout head on over for a pedicure by flesh eating fish...sounds...interesting. Maybe if airports start taking notes from this place everyone would be a bit happier while traveling and will not crowd the ticket counter the next time they fly trying to be the first person on the plane...or...not. :)

On another note...stay tuned for something exciting I'm about to start (hopefully tonight) and will be posting more on it at a later date (possibly tomorrow!)!!

Smile :)

Not only do I LOVE this website. I also LOVE today's post :) I try to check this site every day, if I can, in order to find out the next awesome thing he comes up with and I almost always find myself smiling, laughing, and over all enjoying what he has to say. Today's was no exception. So skip on over to the website and check 'er out. You won't be disappointed :)

And because I've been told by a certain someone (B to the R to the I-A-N) that it's not fun to read a blog with no pictures on it...here's one for your viewing enjoyment :) This was taken after our yummy lunch at Red Robbin on Jack's and my last day in NC over the holiday break. Such fun friends! Loving Ruby's little smile.

L-R: Daniel, Sarah, Brian, Alinna, Jack, Becky and Ruby!

Cool gift!

So my sister and her hubby gave me an early birthday present while we were in NC which was a Garmin Forerunner 110 GPS watch. This thing is cooool! I used it today for my first attempt at exercising in Santa Fe. I decided to try a trail run not too far from the house, on the way to the ski hill. This watch tracked my average pace, my fastest pace, my elevation changes and the route I took! I think it will be fun to see how I improve while living at this high elevation. As for today's exercise...it was a bit disappointing. I had to walk a majority of the route because it was so steep, icy and snowy. Glad I wore my gortex trail running shoes! I've never felt so sick while I was running like I did today, I'm blaming it on altitude sickness :) hehe. Here's to better, faster, longer runs in the future!! :)



(click view details to see more, then hit player to watch the action, hahah, such an awesome watch! Thanks D&B!!)

ps: Here's a view from part of the run. It was pretty nifty up there!

To my fellow blog readers

Hi everyone!! First of all, thanks for reading! I enjoy posting and I enjoy getting to share what Jack and I are up to out here in NM and every where else we are off to. Also, I LOVE hearing feedback so if you ever want to leave a comment feel free!

I've been speaking with one of the readers of this blog and she introduced a problem to me and I wanted to make sure no one else was having this same issue. She signed up to read this blog using a non-gmail email address (at least I believe that's correct). Upon signing up for blog access she found out she would only have access to read the blog for 30 days. Has anyone else been given this time frame?! If you are a blog author and have a private blog have any of your readers been presented with this problem? Any ideas how to fix it?! Please let me know if 1) you have been told you can only have access to the blog for 30 days (and if so, when you no longer have access let me know and I can send you invite again, assuming that will work and allow you access again) and/or 2) you've ever had readers of your blog encounter this and how you may have resolved the issue.

Thanks so much and happy reading! Love you all, miss you all and look forward to the next time our paths may cross again!!

**update** I have also found out that some people haven't been able to login to read the blog after having been given permission...grr blogger. If this ever happens to you, please email me or fb me and I'll send another invite. Sorry for the mess folks!

Holy Guacamole!

Who's up for some caving (Click the link to see what I'm talking about)?!? This would be AWESOME to visit. Ah, takes me back to the good ol' days of Ozark Lakes Summer Project '02 when we went caving and had to crawl through the "birth canal"...memories :) That was an amazing summer project and I got to do a lot of things for the first time, grew a ton in my walk with the Lord and made some great friends along the way. So thankful for Campus Crusade for Christ and their commitment to college students!

Snowball Fight!!

Holiday Re-cap!

Weeeeeeee're baaaaaaaack!!! We finally made it in around 11:30pm MST last night and fell straight into bed for some much needed rest. Jack was up early and off to work and I was...up...haha. We had a fabulous time on the east coast. So here' a little recap of everything that went down, pictures included, but not too many because I don't want to overload anyone probably too many.

1. Flew out to Raleigh, from Albuquerque with a stop over in the ATL on Christmas Eve. Thankfully there wasn't much holiday traffic and they were both nice flights full of free wi-fi internet access and extra pretzels from the flight attendant because Jack has a way of making people really enjoy him because of his antics and smile (seriously, not sure how he does it sometimes, people just like him!). The long flight from ABQ to ATL wasn't full, YAY, so we split a 3 seater and made sure Jack's laptop bag's seat belt was securely fastened with it's seat in the upright position and tray table locked and stowed (or not that last part). Shew.

2. We arrived in Raleigh safe and sound around 9:30pm and headed over to see the Lowthers and pick up some Christmas gifts we had shipped to save room for packing clothes, etc in our bags. Thankfully they had some yummy Christmas Eve dinner left-over that Jack and I were able to enjoy because we all know there wouldn't have been a fast food restaurant open that night. After enjoying some entertaining home videos we headed down to Wilmington and arrived there close to 1am. Took some pre-Christmas festivities pictures of the tree and wreath (there's something special about being up the night before Christmas with the whole house quiet and just the Christmas tree lights being on, it was pretty) and then we crashed into bed.

3. We woke up Christmas morning and I got to hang out for a bit with my bro-in-law, Jon, and enjoyed catching up with him. Everyone else was still asleep so we chatted and hung out with AJ. KyLee began to stir so off he went take her to Mom (Julie) in order to get her morning feeding and I was off to wrap some gifts! We had a nice relaxing morning and then opened some gifts. Julie got the Michael Jackson dance game for Wii so she and I danced our heads off until we were sweating and tired while Jennie cuddled KyLee and the guys went on a forever hunt for an open grocery store! We had a nice big dinner that night together and then headed to bed. We enjoyed a nice church service on Sunday at Jennie and Gary's church and KyLee was oohed and aahed over by many :) She's such a hit! Julie and Jon packed up later that afternoon to head back home but it had started snowing. After making it a little ways out they decided for safety sake to turn around and come back. YAY! We enjoyed some Pinochle and just hanging out. The next morning Gary, Jack, Jon, Julie and I headed out for a run. It was so great to get back out running again (it's been since my last 1/2 marathon in October that I actually went out and ran some) and it was enjoyable getting to run as a family. After that it was showers and then J,J&K packed up to head home and Jack and I packed up to head to Raleigh for the Brewer Christmas fun!

KyLee loved looking at the tree and all the lights. Melt my heart :)

Jack and I obviously missed the memo to get ready before we came downstairs...ahem. :)

That's one adoring Grama! I think K was singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing or something like that.

Sweet fam :)

Hanging out on Grampa's knee!

Uncle Jack's mimicking her face hahah.

Their other love, AJ!!

Hey Dad! This hat's so cool, but it is a bit itchy.

Did I say I loved my niece? Well, I do :)

Hanging out with Grama while she reads her a book!

I love my nephew, he's just the cutest!

So happy. LOVE this smile!

KyLee looks a might bit afraid :)

Loving the way she's cutting her eyes at Uncle Jack :)

Uncle Jack, you're so goofy!

4. We made it to Raleigh by lunch time and enjoyed some yummy homemade soup by Debbie. My niece, Keirsten, was there and was raring to go to open some presents! We all crowded around the tree in the living room and had an enjoyable time opening gifts. Some of us got some board games so we migrated to the kitchen table to give them a try! We had a lot of fun and then decided we needed to walk off some of the snacky foods we'd been munching on all day. Tracy, Rob and K decided it was time to head home so Mom, Dad, Debs, Brian, Jack and I took a fun trip around the neighborhood through the snow and ice. We had numerous games of kick the ice ball while on our trip which was fun and at least one short snowball fight. We decided to do some Pei Wei take-out for dinner (yum!) and settled in to watch Despicable Me. Such a great movie. The next morning we all got up and headed to Chick-fil-a for some breakfast before Debbie and Brian had to head to work. It was fun having the whole family together. Mom and Dad were heading home that afternoon so after D&B left for work the rest of us decided to do a little shopping. Then we said our good-byes and Jack and I headed back to Wilmington.

Keirsten showed off her new gymnastics skills!

Rob's version of smiling for the camera :)

Mawmaw and Pawpaw with their grand baby :)

w00t

If you know my dad....this is so true :)

Rob got the gag gift!!!

Snowball fight!!! Nice follow through Debbie! Look at that leg kick!

Good shot!! Right in the hands!

Brian fires back!

Jack's turn!!

Nice shot!!

Eeeek not at the camera!!

Fun stroll through the neighborhood. :)

Love these two.

Anything can become a soccer ball with a little imagination.

5. We hung out in Wilmington from Tuesday until Friday and enjoyed some really nice dinners out on the town including  Bonefish Grill and The Oceanic. I enjoyed some yummy fish which I hadn't had in quite a while. We made it to the Oceanic in time for some beautiful views of the ocean and that was enjoyable. Also while in Wilmington we went to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader which was awesome (we watched it in 3D but unfortunately were a little late so we missed the beginning of the movie...guess we'll just have to go again, shucks haha :)) and worked on putting a puzzle together (didn't quite get it finished before we had to leave).  One of the mornings the four of us got up and went for a run at the beach. So pretty. It was cold out but definitely a lot of fun. The head wind at times sure made it feel like we were running in one place but the views were spectacular and I always love the sound of the ocean. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me the two times we were at the beach because it was just gorgeous but that's ok.

6. Friday morning (our 5 year anniversary!!!) we woke up really early and headed back up to Raleigh. Once there Brian, Debbie, Jack and I decided we'd go out to the nearby Bond Park and play some disc golf. It doesn't have a course so we made up our holes and we had a blast. We trounced through woods and parking lots and down the path around the lake and enjoyed playing boys vs girls captain's choice. I don't think we really kept track of score but had a lot of fun trying new and tricky things to make the holes harder :) . After that we lazed around trying to figure out lunch plans, dinner plans, NYE plans. We finally decided on Greek Fiesta and it was DELISH! After lunch we shopped a bit at REI and other places (we really shopped Jack out, he was exhausted) and then we grilled some steaks and chicken kabobs and had a wonderful dinner together. Our good friends, the Apples, came over to enjoy the fire pit with us and headed home around 11pm. We went for another walk close to midnight and then rang in the new year watching the Apple drop in Time Square and sipping on some sparkling cider. We were all exhausted and conked! It was an enjoyable new year celebration and anniversary.

Mmmm dinner was so yummy!

Jack did a great job chopping all the veggies.

Rebecca and Debbie fun times with fun friends

Seth enjoying the fire pit!

Our traditional New Year's Eve picture! By traditional I mean we did this last year, too :)

7. Saturday we got up early and all four did Insanity together. Jack had never done it and it had  been a little while for the rest of us. We enjoyed it, pushed ourselves, sweated like crazy, and had a good ol' time! We were all sore by Sunday! Later that night we went to Brixx for dinner and hung out with Stint friends! It was so fun with lots of laughs and it was good just to catch up. While there we also ran into some old high school friends (hadn't seen them since freshman year of college, holy guacamole) and also some great college friends we hadn't seen in a few years. It was so good to catch up with them as well!


8. Sunday was a super enjoyable time at Harvest North Raleigh. SO wonderful to see everyone there and get some much needed hugs! If you live in Raleigh or the surrounding area should definitely check this church out. The message was on Heaven - Something Real to Look Forward To and boy was it a good reminder and encourager to fix our focus on eternal things and to get excited about what is to come! I very much enjoyed it. Sweet Alinna came to church and brought the Rubester with her and then a few of us went out to lunch afterwards to Red Robin (yum burgers!) then it was time for Jack and me to get to packing to head out. We finally got home safely and were SO thankful for such a sweet trip. So happy to have had time to spend with our family and friends and are definitely missing everyone! We've got 2 possibly 3 visit from peeps planned for Feb and March and I'm already looking forward to that! Seriously, our doors are open and we'd love to have you come visit. Just let us know :)

9. So now that we've settled back home I also wanted to post a quick tid-bit about the Bible reading plan a few of us are doing together. I'm hoping that because there are a few of us doing it together that it will help hold me accountable. I also wanted to extend the invitation to you to join us! You're not too late. We're only on the 3rd day so come one, come all and let's get into the Word this year! I give each and every one of you permission (and I really do ask you to do this) to Facebook me, email me, text me, call me, Skype me, etc and ask how I'm doing with it. Ask every day if you'd like. It'll help! Besides, that's one more way of communication I get with you!!! :) Sneaky huh? So let me know if you are doing some sort of reading plan this year, or if you want to join us! Any other resolutions anyone has made? All I know is that I will do at least one half marathon this year, to continue my at least 1 every year tradition! Looking forward to picking out the date and place and then training for it!!