HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!  Steve and I had a great New Year's Eve:  during the day we went cross country skiing for the 1st time (1st time ever for me and 2nd time for Steve).  It was so much fun!  I loved it.  Then that night we went to a local honky tonk with 4 friends to hear some live music from the Happy Honkies--a local honky tonk music band.  After bringing in the new year 3 times (there was some confusion about when the new year actually started in Colorado, but the Times Square ball drop on the TV set us all straight!), we went to Waffle House to have one of our friends try that cuisine for the 1st time.  All in all it was a great night.  I 've included some pictures from that day and night and a few miscellaneous other recent pictures.

My first cross country skiing experience included a whole lot of falling when attempting any sort of down hill.  It was great fun though.  My hubbie, the wonderful photographer, was sure to catch me in the moment.  What a gent, eh? 

I--lacking Steve's great photo skills and experience with our new camera--took this awful shot, but it was the only one taken that day of Steve.  It was such a beautiful day at our local state park.

Here's me just happy that I accomplished a down hill without falling.

Here's Steve pulling off a huge ski jump at an exclusive ski resort...well, OK, it was a little snow mound created at a local totally awesome sledding hill near our house! But I'm still way impressed by his skills.  Steve grew up skiing (he's from Texas but they went to New Mexico to ski) and is still able to pull off some cool stuff. 

Ringing in the New Year at the Swing Station honky tonk.

Sampling the greasy grub at the Waffle House.  Steve and I couldn't believe we were still wide awake at 1:00-ish AM after partying hard (just kidding) at the honky tonk.

Meet Freckles the snow person--I guess with that hat it has to be female!  Sage and Steve created freckles--so named, I believe, because of the bird poop dappled snow in front of our house from which she was made--out of our first real snow. 

Then last but not least: this is a picture to save for selling later on Ebay for tons of money....featuring the sure to be famous percussionist Sage.  This is a picture from her first band concert.  She's pictured here with me, Steve, George (her other dad), Grey (one of her brothers), and Rachel (her mom).  Sage played the snare drum beautifully (and very much on-beat) with her middle school band.  Aren't we one big happy family?!

Here's an update for those I haven't spoken with in a while:

I'm living in Fort Collins, CO.  I'm married to a wonderful man named Steve.  He's a Spanish teacher (actually he's the entire foreign language department!) for a charter school at which he's responsible for teaching 7th-12th graders.  Needless to say he's very busy as a first year teacher.  Steve is a rock climber extraordinaire, and sometimes I join him in his climbing adventures.  He also enjoys hanging out at our favorite coffee shop--The Bean Cycle--with a good cup of joe or mate (pronounced mah-teh) planning traveling adventures or being his wonderfully funny, entertaining self.  I am also a second mom to an extradordinary 12 year old named Sage.  She stays with us on the weekends while she's in school.  Sage is an excellent pianist often composing her own other-worldy music; she can also kick your butt with her Taekwando moves or show off her new percussionist skills.  I have been working at a Chinese Medicine Clinic for the past 2 years.  The person I currently work for is moving to Steamboat Springs, so I will start working for another acupuncturist mid-January.  For those that don't know it yet, Chinese Medicine is awesome!  I would recommend it for any ailment or health concern you have.  Following are a few pictures:

Some of our friends here in Fort Collins.

Another shot of some friends.  There's Steve far left in the CO State shirt with orange ball and Sage in the tie-dye with the green ball. 

Sage after a Taekwando testing showing off the boards she broke with her baby toe--just kidding, but she did break those with her feet.

My handsome hubbie in front of the Tetons on our trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons of Wyoming this past summer.

I'll post more pictures next week.

Heather communing with the snow

Sexy girls modeling their snow gear

Sexy Steve (my hubbie!) showing off his rad snow shoeing jumps

The expedition gang enjoying the beautiful Colorado Christmas Day.

Colorado Rocks!

I decided to set up a site for me to post pictures on so my family and friends wouldn't have a difficult time downloading pictures we send.  So family and friends here are some recent pictures of a snowshoeing adventure Steve and I had with our friends Paul and Heather.  We went to a local state park after a huge snowfall, hiked around, had a picnic on a cold boulder, basically skiied down a hill--falling a lot along the way--and generally had a great time on a beautiful Christmas day in Fort Collins, Colorado.