Snow! Snow! Snow!

Here's some pictures from the storm we got last week. I think we're supposed to get another storm or 2 this week to help keep the ground covered. Mel and I went skiing today and had a lot of fun. You pretty much get the gondola to yourself for the most part and there are no lines to wait in. Laura's coming out here the first week or so of January, so we'll see if she braves the mountain and goes skiing...I have a feeling we'll probably just be sledding though!

Winter Wonderland.

We don't have any pictures yet, but we'll post some this week sometime. We had a big winter storm come through here over the past 3 days and dumped a bunch of snow on us. The mountains got about 2 to 3 feet and we got about 6 inches down in the valleys. I went skiing down around SLC on Saturday and they had so much snow you couldn't see any cars of the people who lived up there...you could just make out the shape of cars and trucks in the snow. We're getting ready to head to charlotte in about 2 weeks and also make a quick trip to the farm and charleston while we're out there.

Keepin you Posted

Not too much is going on out here lately. Just workin' and trying to do school work. Mel is starting a different position at her work - she's going to be doing a receptionist job along with what she's been doing already. It's been pretty warm for the most part, most of the snow melted, although they are still planning on opening up the ski resorts on Thanksgiving day. We're staying here for thanksgiving, but taking off the East Coast (Charlotte and Charleston) over Christmas. I think we are going to have a Utah Christmas next year based on the price of plane tickets. Roxie has finally got out of her puppy stage and is relaxing a lot more - as you can tell from the picture, she likes to be close to people as much as possible. We haven't had any visitors in a while, but we're ready for you whenever you decide to come out. We'll keep you updated on what's going on...

Let it Snow!

We got a pretty good snow storm here today. So far this year has been more snowy than last year - I think this is about the 5th or 6th storm this month, but the first strong enough to put snow on the ground at our house. We drove up to Snowbasin today also and they were supposed to get about 12" - 16" today. People have already been skiing down at Alta (about an hour from here). Hopefully the snow keeps coming and we have a good ski season for when y'all come out. We'll keep you updated and keep the pictures coming. Other than that, not a whole lot is going on.

Marathon

Here's the only picture they got of me at the marathon in Victoria. This is me in the midst of more pain than I ever felt in my muscles and joints. I'm right on the harbor looking out on the Puget sound...unfortunately as you can tell from the picture it's raining too hard (and it was too cold) to enjoy the view. I think this is about mile 20 or so...I'm not really sure where I was because it was all marked in kilometers instead of miles.

Canada Trip

Well, we finally made it back home. It was a long, but nice trip. We spent 2 nights with Thomas and Angie's Clan. I think it's been about 10 years or something since I saw them, and Melanie had never met them before. We also met their two sons they adopted this year. They got a really nice place that's only a 10 minute walk to the Puget Sound (Birch Harbor). We had pretty good weather for the most part, except for the marathon day. It started out great...sunny skies and perfect temperature. I was on track to run a 4 hour marathon like I had hoped. At mile 12 or so, the temperature plummeted and the rain came down with it. Both the temp and the rain seemed to fall harder and harder the rest of the way. I cramped up really bad once the temperature fell and ended up having to stop each kilometer to stretch out my ham-strings and knees. I finished in 5 hrs. Not what I wanted, but I finished. This is a picture of Mel and I in front of the Legislative building in Victoria, B.C. It's the capitol building of B.C. Canada. It was a nice town right on the harbor (we saw 2 whales) with lots of neat shops and restaurants. Since it was also their Thanksgiving, we took advantage of their holiday sales and got most of our Christmas shopping done. That's about it, we're back home now (Roxie's happy now) and I'm recuperating.

Winter has Begun!

Well, I think winter is officially here in Utah. On Saturday, we had our second snow storm in a week. The first one just put a few inches up on top of the mountains, but on Saturday it snowed down here in the valley for about 6 or 7 hours. Today it's only 29 degrees (with the windchill). Hopefully this means we're gonna have a good winter with lots of snow...I don't think Melanie's as excited about that as I am though. We're headed up to Vancouver on Thursday and I run the marathon on Sunday. It should be interesting - I hurt my knee my first night home - Roxie was whining in the middle of the night and when I got up to take her out I ran my left knee straight into the edge of the door. Hopefully it's not going to be an issue, but we'll see. That's about it for us; I am back from my training in TX and after the marathon trip and visiting Thomas and Angie's clan up in Seattle we're not going anywhere for a while.

Labor Day in Moab

Melanie's Parents came out for Labor Day weekend and we all went down to Moab. Moab is like our "Gettysburg" of Pennsylvania...when anyone cames to visit us in PA we took them to see the Gettysburg battlefields - the same is true with Moab in Utah. We love going down there though; it's such a change from the ordinary and always a good time. We're planning on going back in October (Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival) or the first weekend in November (Folk Festival). We stayed at the Red Cliff's Lodge this time (couple miles down the road from Sorrel River) and rented 4-wheelers and a Jeep. Mel's Dad and I took the 4-wheelers out on some trails on friday evening while Melanie and her Mom shopped and relaxed in the hot tub; then on Saturday we took the Jeep out to Canyonlands on the White Rim Trail (where Dustin, Colter and I went biking 4 yrs ago). It was a pretty rough ride...it took us about 3 hours or so to go 15 miles - I think we were all bruised up by the time we got back to the Lodge. Other than that we didn't do a whole lot other than take a quick drive through Arches, but we didn't hike. I think Mel's Mom was given some advice from someone not to hike up any trails...no matter how easy we said they were! It was a fun trip and nice to have family out for the long weekend. Now that September's here, we're starting to look for the mountains to get a little snow here and there and in a few months start up ski season again.

Test Drop

Here are a couple pictures I took out at the range last week when we dropped the BLU-82 bombs. It may not look like a 15,000lb explosion, but we are 6 miles away at this point. After we saw the explosion, we wouldn't hear anything for about 10 or 15 seconds - then we heard the big explosion and felt the shock-wave hit us!

Big Bomb

I took this picture at work this morning. It's a 15,000 lb. bomb we're going to drop on thursday out on the range (across the salt lake). If you look close, you can see writing all over it...when they send them over to be used in war, everyone who it passes through on the way writes messages to the people receiving them - they get pretty creative too! On this one, I was reading some of the stuff and then right in the middle of it said, "El Cid 01". I thought it was pretty neat to see another Citadel Grad had a part to play with this one somewhere down the line. I'll put up some pictures if I get any good ones from the test drop tomorrow.

Lazy Days!

Mel and Roxie are really stressed out these days! I am pretty sure this is what they do all the time since Mel doesn't go to work until about 1pm each day. The mornings and evenings have started to get pretty chilly lately, so I think Roxie will be our heater blanket from now and through winter.

Trail Race / Hiking

This has a been a busy weekend! Friday night I finished out the X-Terra Trail Series. I didn't finish this race as well as I wanted to, but did hold onto 1st place in my age group for Utah. It was a tough run, but had the same finish as the Ogden Marathon. They had a big Expo at the finish that was a lot of fun...awards, vendors, and all the other stuff that usually goes with it. On Saturday, I took Roxie on a hike with my friend Zach. We hiked to the summit of Mt. Nebo. It's the tallest peak in the Wasatch Range at about 11,968 ft. or something like that...I just know it was pretty much 12k feet. It was about 10 miles overall and a gain of over 2,000 ft of elevation. I bought a dog pack for Roxie - I figured she can carry her own food and water - which she did really well with. We didn't have to keep her on a leash or anything, so she did really good. She loves going on hikes and I think she probably could have made that trip a couple of times in a row - she never looked tired! She is slowly getting into her new schedule at our house and seems to like it so far.

New Addition

Meet Roxie! Her owners moved and couldn't keep her anymore...she is only about 17 months old and is a Chocolate Lab. She still has a lot of her puppy energy and lilkes to run and run and run - really fast. She is going to be a lot of fun for us since she loves to go hiking and also loves the water. Mel is getting used to her, since she never had a dog before, but she likes here a lot. She is pretty small for a lab though, she is only about 50 pounds, kind of built like a wimaraner. We think she is going to be a great dog and a lot of fun to take out and about around the area.

She had a sister, a yellow lab, who was also taken to a new home, so they miss eachother a little bit. Roxie was given to us for free too, they were going to try to sell her, but they just wanted to find her a good home. I think she will like her new home and family. Her first adventure will be this weekend - I am taking her hiking with a friend all day saturday, I think she'll do fine; she is very strong and likes to pull you when she's on a leash so I think we'll be investing in one of those trainer collars to keep her from doing that. We'll keep you updated on what other new things are going on in our family. We'll talk with you soon.

We Moved...

We're finally moved and all settled in! This is our new house on base. It's older than the townhouse we were in, but we both like this a lot more. It has 4 bedrooms and really nice covered porch and patio in the back yard and plenty of trees to keep us shaded in the summer. It doesn't have air conditioning, but we almost froze the first night we were in it...those swamp coolers really keep it cold. All of our neighbors seem really nice and most of them have younger kids, so I guess Mel can make lots of extra money babysitting:) We'll see what she thinks about it first though! I'll give you our new address, but we will be getting a new home phone too (I'll let you know when we get it). Our address is: 4060B Hancock Circle, Hill Air Force Base, UT 84056. We've plenty of rooms and beds now, so come on out whenever you want to...

Fishing and Camping at Echo

Lat weekend we went on a fishing/camping trip with our friends Zach, Dane and Laura. We all went out to echo resovior, which is about half-way between us and park city, on the East side of the mountains. Mel pretty much spent the entire time on her beach chair bundled up and asleep. We didn't know it then, but she had streap throat and was running a 103 temperature! But she is feeling much better now and says she had fun camping on the lake shore...I'm not so sure I believe her. But while Mel slept the night away; Laura, Dane, Zach and I fished and fished. We were mainly catching yellow perch but Zach ended up catching a rainbow trout and I caught this ugly carp in the picture. But otherwise, it was non-stop perch until about 1130 when we went to bed. It was a fun trip, and I think the next one is already in the planning stage - hopefully Mel can enjoy the next one a little more!

About 10 minutes after we cast our lines out, I caught this ugly thing! I just wish it had been something other than a carp...but I guess it's better then nothing.

Trail Race Update

I had my 3rd of 4 trail races last weekend down at the Sundance Ski Resort in Orem. Robert Redford owns the resort and has a pretty nice 'little' house right outside the resort. I was out the night before fishing until about mid-night, then I had to wake up at 4:30am to get down to Sundance for the 7:30 race start time. It was another 10k run; the first mile and a half or so were uphill then it was rolling hills for the most part and a 1 mile downhill finish! I ran this one about 13 minutes faster than I ran the previous race at Snowbird and placed 3rd in my age group. Overall, I am first in my age group for UT, so it looks like I have a pretty good shot at getting an invitation to the National Championship race at Lake Tahoe. We won't go to the chamionship b/c we're headed up to Vancouver about a week later for the Marathon - but it would still be cool to say you got invited! We'll let you know how the last race goes; it's on Friday, Aug 17 (same finish as the Ogden Marathon).

Mel's New Job!

I finally got a new job!! I am so excited about it and I get payed a lot more!! I am working at the Christmas Box House which is a shelter for victims of child abuse and neglect. I will be working in the crisis nursery with the children and give them lots of love! I am really excited but I am also sad to leave my other kids at school!

X-Terra/Snowbird Trail Race

Today, we went to Snowbird for my second of 4 X-terra Trail Races. This one was much harder than the first, we were about 4k feet higher in elevation that I'm used to, so that made it pretty interesting. We did a lot of climbing but it was pretty fun - once we finished anyway! I got first in my age group (16th overall) so I got an X-terra medal to add to my wall of fame at home. After the race we hung out at the resort with our friends (Eric, who ran with me) and his family for the afternoon. It was a beautiful day and not too hot up in the mountains. It was 85 degrees up there and 105 degrees down in the valley where we live...little bit of a change once you get into the Mtns. We have 2 more races to go, and depending on how I place in those I may get invited to go to Lake Tahoe for the X-terra National Trail Race Championship. We'll keep you posted on that.

Trip to Moab

After running the Ogden Marathon in May, we took Mom and Daddy down to Moab, UT to check out the scenery down there. It's like being on a different planet. This is in Arches Nat'l Park where we spent most of our time. There are over 2,000 natural arches similar to this one in the park, some have only been discovered in the past few years. We also went to Canyonlands Nat'l Park on the way back home. Canyonlands is the most unexplored region of the United States, so we didn't get too far off the beaten path. We had great weather (it was actually kind of cool), and I'm sure Mel was glad we didn't have to stay in the Best Western like we did on our first trip to Moab. It was a fun trip, hopefully we can take a few more of these in the next couple years!

Packing up to move

We're packing up our house and getting ready to move on base 9 August. We got the absolute last house available on base and are looking forward to being closer to most of our friends as well as me being closer to work. We'll send you updates and pictures as we get them!

Welcome to our blog!

Hey! Welcome to our Blog. Melanie and I are still out here all by ourselves in Northern Utah. We're missing the Southeast lifestyle, but we are having a lot of fun exploring the new places out west and making new friends. I am still working in the 649th Munitions Squadron at Hill Air Force Base; it's a lot of fun so far, so hopefully it stays that way. We will probably be here for about 2 1/2 to 3 more years before PCSing somewhere else - possibly Boston or down by Ft. Walton Beach in Florida. But, we've got a while before that happens. Melanie is going to be working as a nanny for a family she met out here and she really likes them and their kids, so now she can get out of her job in the daycare. It's definitely a lot different out here than anywhere else we've lived. We live right between the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Mountain Range of the Rockies (about 2 miles from each); but, we are also only about an hour and a half from the desert so there are plenty of places to go tour on the weekends. Our door is always open to friends and family, so let us know if you want to come out to go hiking or skiing, or if you just want to come because you miss us so much:)