These Boots Were Made For Walking...

And that is just what we'll do. I have recently committed myself (Ha! Yeah, maybe I should be committed!) to join my friend on her hikes. The goal is to hike the Wellsville Cone in Sept. We are starting out slow and easy. Today we "walked" up Green Canyon. It was only about 25 degrees in the sun! It was so fun. I loved having a captive audience to chat with. It was just the three of us and three very busy dogs. I wore my big ol' heavy snow boots hoping not only for warm/happy feet but all that extra weight to lug around should help tone something! Not only was the canyon sparkley and beautiful, but we were up out of the inversion in the clean air. On the way back down the trail we could see the Wellsvilles. It was an awesome symbol of our ulitmate goal to be active and healthy. I came home famished and the dogs are exhausted. Both are still napping in the sunshine on the front porch!

Our New Year's Challenge to You

What do a bunch of monkey's do when they've been out of school for 2 weeks and its too cold to go outside? They attempt the impossible. We decided to pass along the challenge to you. 1. Can you touch your elbow with your tongue? 2. Can you grab both ankles and lift your feet off the floor? 3. Say this as fast as you can: What kind of noise annoys an oyster? A noisy noise annoys an oyster.

We're not claiming this as our own, we're not shellfish.

New Year's Eve

It has become one of our favorite traditions to see the new year in with a special group of friends. We did it for the first time 3 years ago, which turned out to be one of the craziest adventures ever! Despite our first experience we continue to brave the elements and hang out on New Year's eve with this bunch. It is a blast! We eat, play crazy games, eat, laugh until it hurts, get really tired, let off fireworks, eat and wish it came around more often. I hope this is one tradition that will just keep going and going and going.......

Bird Watching

We bundled up an set off to find the resident bald eagle that makes his winter home in a large tree near our home. We were really lucky not only to find the bald eagle, but our renegade goose too. She abandoned our flock and made herself at home in the neighbor's creek. We are slightly offended that she would leave our most excellent fowl accomodations, but the neighbor says she is fine there until spring when we can reunite her with the flock. We also got to see numerous hawks and some tiny little chickadees that fill a small tree. They are all magnificent, beautiful creatures.

Winter Wonderland

I was fortunate to photograph a beautiful family today at the park. We waded through knee-deep snow and got some great images. When the family left, I couldn't resist hanging around for a while in this awesome wonderland and take some more pictures. It was exquisite and serene with the white blanketing everything in sight. There had been no one at the park and I was the first to break trail. The late afternoon light was a pastel amber. Despite absolutely frozen fingers I captured some beautiful images that only barely begin to depict how amazing it really was.

A-Man

Here's my favorite 4 year-old boy! He has been such a delight to have through the holidays. It made our season so special and one that we will remember always. A-Man lives in Portland, so he isn't familiar with snow and very much dislikes being cold. We finally convinced him to come out and play. He loved it...for about 3 minutes! That's OK, it was just enough time for me to capture some great shots.

A Marshmallow World

Late Christmas day we got blasted with an amazing snowstorm. It blew and blew and dumped about 5 inches in just over an hour. The result was magnificent. The next morning we started digging out at 8 a.m. under glorious blue skies. Hubby plowed and shoveled until after 3:00 in the afternoon.