The last month...

Well I have a lot to catch up on. Christmas break happened, final grading happened, a trip to Tahoe happened and a new semester started.

Christmas break was three whole weeks of wonderful, minus one horrible night of stomach flu. It was great to have Brandon back, to see family and friends, to see snow, to ski, and to not have to cook for myself. We spent most of the first half of the break with my family and the second half with Brandon's. We ate at two of the best restaurants in Salt Lake (Red Iguana and Cafe something I can't remember), saw the lights at Temple Square and Thanksgiving Point, saw The Hobbit and Les Mis, watched John dominate a basketball game, snowmobiled at Daniel's Summit with the Nakkens, made divinity with Grandma, Christmas parties, skiing five times with fun friends, Antelope Island .......I think that covers most of it. Too bad I forgot my camera charger back in SF. It was hard  to come back to San Francisco. Oh yeah, and we took Moos on two 12 hour car rides. Fun.

Surprisingly, once we got back to San Francisco I wasn't so sad. I was excited to ride my bikes, try out my new paint set, and explore places I have wanted to go to but haven't gone yet. Last weekend Brandon and I took a little ski trip to Squaw Valley at Tahoe to see what California skiing is all about. They had some new snow and it has been unseasonably cold, so conditions were great. Squaw is beautiful and has some fun terrain. We hiked to the top of Granite Peak to ski some steeps and chutes.

 View from the top of Granite Peak

 View from the bottom. The red arrow is pointing at the tiny black dot that is me about to jump off a big avalanche break off and the green arrow is where we dropped in.

 I have also explored a couple of new bike trails since coming back. The first is the second highest peak in Marin right behind George Lucas' house. The hills in NorCal right now are a fresh spring green, which is way weird. But it made for a beautiful ride.
The second was up Steeley Ridge in Pacifica to see the point where San Francisco Bay was discovered in 1769. It's so crazy that it took so long to find it....probably because it's always SO foggy.
The winter three week intersession also started and I was surprised at how excited I was to get back to work. This session is still online. I don't start teaching in the classroom until February 1st but I am really excited about that too.

Last and least, I have attempted to paint with oils. Much harder than acrylic. Mostly because I am impatient and just like to get the paintings done quickly. But that doesn't happen with oils. Here is a thank you card I made and a painting of Timpanogos. I got pretty frustrated on this last one and don't think it's done yet. But I am going to take a break.

                                                         

Not much happened this week. I had to submit my final progress grades for all 75 students before they turn in their final project and take the final exam. That was fun. I had to tell each and every one of them everything they were missing and how to make it up. And for some of them, a lot of stuff is missing. I have had students not turn in a single assignment all semester come to me and ask if they can pass the class. So frustrating. And I am too nice. I also learned that I will be teaching six classes next semester; half online and half on site....and one of them is math! It's going to be the blind leading the blind here....

In other news, for the past four days San Francisco has been soaked by the biggest storm I have ever seen. In some areas it is estimated that 12 inches of water fell. Winds approached 75 mph. Crazy. Oh and we got a Christmas bush. Trees out here are crazy expensive and I found a rosemary bush that looks kind of like a Christmas tree. We will only be in San Fran for less than two more weeks plus we use rosemary all of the time so it's a win-win-win situation.

Also I painted a scene from a picture I took of Swan Lake from Yellowstone in June. The photo didn't catch the colors well since I can't figure out how the heck to use my camera correctly. I blame the touch screen and my fat fingers. I really want to take an art class next semester so I can learn better techniques and have some actual instruction. For now I will keep practicing. Also Moos knocked over my paint set five times.

Thanksgiving forest feast!

For the past month I have had a weird idea stuck in my head. Possibly because The Hobbit is coming out in 19 days (but who is counting?). My weird idea was a forest feast.

In The Hobbit, a starving Bilbo and his band of merry dwarves are passing through the dark forest of Mirkwood when they come upon a group of Wood-elves in the forest. The elves are gathered around a large feast and a warm fire. I picture a long wooden table, decorated with berries and pine cones, and full of meats and squashes and honey. A perfect Thanksgiving feast right?

Well maybe it's because I have secretly always wanted to be an elf, or maybe because I love the forest, or maybe because I love feasting, but for this Thanksgiving I decided to force a rather unenthusiastic Brandon into my idea of a forest feast. And it turned out great! For two days I baked and strung cranberries and planned it all out. So on Thanksgiving we had a stuffed turkey, red potatoes, butternut squash, green beans, and homemade pumpkin sugar donuts around a fire in the redwood forest at Samuel P. Taylor State Park.

The drive out there:                                                        

A scary picture of me cutting the turkey:

He really did enjoy it. Just not in this picture.

It's the beginning of the wet season, so that means....mushrooms! Everywhere.

See the little tiny one growing out of the post?

Also a cute one of Moos just because she is so cute.

We have so so much to be Thankful for right now, and it was great to spend some time together and count our many blessings.

Ketchup

It's been an eventful couple of weeks. First, Brandon's grandma Irons passed away, so we went back to Utah for the funeral. She was an amazing lady and probably the grandparent that Brandon was closest to. He gave a beautiful tribute to her at the funeral. I will miss stopping to see her on our way to and from Zion.

That weekend, I got a nasty allergic reaction to something, and came down with a fever and severe hives. They were so bad that Brandon's dad thought they looked like measles. That was fun, being at a big family gathering looking like a smallpox victim. I went to the doctor who gave me a high dose of steroids to alleviate the hives. I'm not sure what was worse, the hives or the stomach pains from the steroid.

Last weekend I flew out to Idaho Falls to meet my family for our semiannual Yellowstone trip. I took a bus, a train, a plane, and a car to get there. But I made it. And it was worth it.

Wolf tracks!!

 John with a trout at Trout Lake:

Mom at Trout Lake:

 Parkour Laura:

Sunday night, everyone else drove home, but my flight didn't leave until Monday. So my parents insisted on renting me a car so I could do some more exploring instead of hanging out at the hotel for 24 hours. So I vacationed by my lonesome in Teton National Park. Someday I am going to live in Jackson.

What have we done?

We got a cat. Her name is Moose and she is crazy. She sure fooled us at the shelter into thinking she was nice and calm. But she is crazy. She is gnawing on my elbow as we speak and she purrs non stop. It sounds like we have a lawnmower in the house 24/7. Am I ready for this? Good thing she's cute.

We drove down to Half Moon Bay last weekend to see all of the famous pumpkin patches. Turns out everything closed at sunset which is like six o clock now so we didn't get to see much. We did have the best burgers in the whole world though; California avocados and tomatoes, fresh ground beef and bacon. I guess it was worth it.

Weekend of man things

This weekend I was a pretty good woman. I did all of the man things Brandon wanted to do, and even had fun doing them. Next weekend I will make Brandon go to the Pumpkin Festival and our ward pie party to make up for it. 

Friday we got takeout pizza and watched the BYU game. For some reason I get excited for BYU games more now than I did in Utah. Maybe because I feel like it's a connection to home.

On Saturday night, Brandon finally convinced me to go on a motorcycle ride with him. The reason it has taken me so long is because when we were dating, Brandon would take me out on his dad's dirtbike and go crazy. He did wheelies with me down University Avenue, we chased deer through the park at 45 mph, went off jumps and down dark bumpy mountain trails in the middle of the night. As fun as that was four years ago.....I have been a little more...hesitant this time. However, I ended up having a blast. We rode through the Marin Headlands. The air was fresh and cool, and we saw tons of wildlife with our headlights: deer, skunks, coyotes, and a gray fox. 

Today after conference, we went to go see the Navy Airshow and the Blue Angels. They were so cool! The jets would get together in really tight formation, then go straight up and dive, barrel roll, and come back to formation. We saw WWII planes and my favorite, the stealth bomber which looks exactly like a UFO.

After that we hiked around Land's End and the ruins of the Sutro Baths. Pretty good weekend! 

 And here is the little project I made listening to conference. Wishing for winter!

Today I am mourning my return to the crowded city of San Francisco. My feelings right now can be summed up by two quotes from Edward Abbey, author of one of my favorite books, Desert Solitaire.

1. "Wilderness. The word itself is music."

I took this picture last weekend on a hike in Cedar Breaks.


2. "There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California."