The time has come...

...to do a blog post!  Wow, we have been letting this responsibility slide lately.  With many apologies, we are now easing into a new year of blogging.  It's hard to believe that we're in our fourth year of maintaining this blog, but we hope that it can again (in 2014) help to lessen the distance between us and all of you!

So, we'll begin this year by sharing a few photos of "Happy Jack," where we've spent a lot of time skiing lately.  Happy Jack is located in National Forest land, about 10 minutes from our apartment, and a bit higher (between 8,000'-9,000').  As a result, even though it's so close by, it's always snowier.  In fact, since I'm a dope and have consistently neglected to bring our camera, all today's photos were taken last November, when there was hardly any snow in Laramie at all!

Since then, there's been a ton of snow, and the conditions are way better than these photos show.  Thanks to a local nonprofit (and our National Forest fees), all that fresh powder is groomed almost daily (with tracks set), and there are handy trail markers and maps to keep folks from getting lost!

Having these great trails so close by has helped wonders with my abilities.  I've come a long way from November, when Charlotte was basically propping me up (see below) to this week, when I attempted (and survived!) my first "black diamond" trail.  For your eternally cautious blogger, that's quite an improvement!

Best of all, our resident Nordic expert, Charlotte, loves it up there, too!  Her nonchalant expertise (and ridiculous patience) may have more than a little to do with that improvement I described above!

Anyway, like I've said, we love it up at Happy Jack, and more current photos are definitely in order!  In the meantime, here are 2 more cool features of our favorite local ski locale.  First, check out this convenience!  Below, Charlotte is showing the grueling, lengthy walk from the end of the trail to our car.  However, even this was before we got more snow.  Nowadays, we can ski right up to our trunk!  

Second, a lot of our ski excursions end around sundown.  This gives us the chance to see some pretty cool high-altitude sunsets (those purple and blue colors are unreal in person)!

Anyway, we hope 2014 is a year filled with health, happiness, and adventure for all of you.  We know we have a lot to be excited and grateful for ourselves, so we'll do our best to start sharing with you again on here!