Jackson Hole

Mel and I made a quick trip up to Jackson, Wyoming, on Monday; it's only about a 4 hour drive from SLC. The weather was perfect. It was about 70 degrees each day and there were no clouds in the sky to it was good for taking pictures of the Grand Teton's (behind us in this picture). The tallest peak is 13,770 ft high. In April of '05 Dustin and I came here for spring break but never got to see the Teton's w/out any cloud cover, so this was nice to finally see.

On the way back from the Teton's Nat'l Park, Mel said she was sad that she still had never seen a Moose...we literally looked up immediately after she said this and saw this young Moose on the side of the road. They aren't scared of people at all. Later that day we went to a local steak and game house for dinner and Melanie had another first for her and probable the entire Smith family...she tried some of my elk chops that were cooked medium-rare; I know here family would be shocked to have seen that - but, she said it was better than her steak.

Joe's Baptism and Roxie's new Friend, Polly!

Today was an exciting day in the Allen household! This morning Joe was baptized. He is a new man! He has never been baptized and he wanted to before he left for Iraq. Since our church is new we don't have a place to baptize yet. So the church got an inflatable pool to baptize in. Joe said it was FREEZING. There were about 20 people who got baptized today. It was really amazing! Yeah for Joe!!

Also, today we were blessed with a new family member. Her name is Polly! She is a two pounder that is full of energy. Our neighbor's weren't able to take care of her anymore and offered her to us. And of course I took her in a heartbeat, it was Joe I had to convince. After he thought about it and told me everything I had to do with her while he was gone; he said, "yes and Happy Anniversary!" I am glad now Joe has his big dog and I have my little bitty dog. Her and Roxie chase each other around the house. Roxie tries to pounce on her, so I am a little afraid for her life. A 2 pound Polly against 60 pound Roxie. For now they seem to really like each other, we will see what happens down the road.

Our Weekend in Arkansas

This past weekend Melanie and I went back to Arkansas to visit our family. We had a great time and can't wait to see everyone again soon. Jen and Drew were also able to fly out and see us. Mel was able to see a few of her high school friends...I just kept telling her that I didn't have any friends to see because I only had 3 friends in high school, including her, and the other 2 don't live in Arkansas anymore - it makes these trips that much easier for me I guess! But it was nice to see my Parent's and Jen and Drew who couldn't make it out to Utah for the ski trip this year; Liz, Justin and Jonah (who's gotten a lot bigger since the last time we saw him). I know Melanie was also pretty happy to see all of her family as well. Not too much happened for most of the weekend though. We flew in Thursday afternoon after flying through a snow storm in Denver and pretty much just relaxed the majority of the weekend...at least I did; I don't think Mel relaxed as much as I did.
My Dad and I got to get out and hit some golf balls at the driving range...I think the strong winds may have played a factor in our hitting...at least that's what we're blaming it on. Then on Saturday, we were all able to come over to the Smith's house for a b-b-q. As much fun as we had, I think we were both happy to get back home and back into our routine...plus the weather has been sunny and in the 70's, so o'course we're glad to be back. Hopefully, next time we can stay longer and see everyone we missed this trip.

Moab Adventures

We went to Moab this weekend with our friend Zach. It was nice to get away from the cold and snowy weather that we've had up here for the past 4 months or so. The first day we we're there,

we went hiking up Negro Bill Canyon. It's about a 2 mile trail that goes back up a canyon to the 6th longest natural bridge in the United States. It was a pretty nice hike alongside a creek, so Roxie got to play in the water for the majority of the day; she was surprised by how deep some of the water holes were - you can see she looks pretty surprised in the bottom picture. The second day I went Mtn Biking on the Slickrock trail and had a blast...and I will have a few scars to show that too. It was definitely a lot hotter than we expected it to be - we all came home on sunday with sunburns. Our next trip is to Arkansas this thursday, we're excited to see everyone for the quick trip out this week.

Wolf Creek Resort

Well it's been a while since we last updated our blog (thanks for the reminder Dustin and Gina), we've been busy at work and all the other stuff we've been doing that I can't remember, but we just got back from our AEF Retreat up at Wolf Creek Resort. It was a pretty good deal...we paid $50 and they put a bunch of us who are deploying in their lodges/condos/and homes for the weekend; we had breakfast, lunch and dinner each day and we were able to go snowmobiling, snowshoeing and skiing at no extra cost...

Melanie and I had never snowmobiled before, so that was what we were really looking forward too and it was a lot of fun. We drove out about 30 minutes further into the mountains where it opens up into rolling hills with hardly any trees around, so you can pretty much just take off in any direction...you just need to watch out for the barbed-wire fencing that was starting to show now that the snow is melting a little bit.

On Saturday, I took melanie snowshoeing...this was the first time she has ever been. I took her up to a place I've taken roxie a couple times (up Wheeler Creek trail in Ogden Canyon) and I think she had fun eventhough it wasn't as relaxing as the rest of the weekend had been. It was really nice weather though...a little snowy, but pretty warm and no wind so we had a good time. We only snowshoed for about an hour or so...I took here on a trail that's pretty much up-hill the whole way, so I think she got wore out a little faster than we planned on. But, we still had a great time and she say's that she likes snowshoeing.

I think next weekend, we may try to go down to Moab and do some hiking and I need to get my mountain bike out on the trails since it's finally built up...plus, as much as we've enjoyed the winter this year we are defintitely ready for the warm weather and hot sun. Other than that, we're just getting ready for our trip back to Arkansas in about a week and an half (April 10th) and are looking forward to seeing everyone there...especially Drew.

Melanie's Birthday Party

Here's a picture of Mel's wild and crazy birthday party. We did have a little get-together with some of our friends this past weekend but nothing on the 19th since she had to work a 12 hour day, but atleast Roxy showed up to wish her a happy birthday.

It Won't Stop!

Some pictures I took today after shoveling the driveway...again! You can see that the snow we've got piled up on the driveway and on the street is getting up to about 5 feet now. This is definitely a little different than last years winter. We'll probably still be able to ski into June and maybe even July this year if it keeps coming down the same. I think the storm today is number 4 or 5 in a line up of 6 storms. We're looking forward to having the fam come out in March - see you soon.

Snowshoeing with Roxie

On Saturday, I took Roxie snowshoeing up in Ogden Canyon. I think she likes this better than hiking. She spent about 2 hours running up and down the trail in front of me and ocassionally making her own trails in snow up to her back in some areas. We went about 3.5 miles on this trip and I think Mel wants to start going too, so we'll have to see if she likes it as much as I. About half-way into the trail we came around a corner and had a pretty good view of Mt. Ogden (in the bottom picture) which is the predominant Mountain at Snowbasin, were we go skiing. I had no idea we were that close to it until we came up on the view. In the picture, the tallest peak (in the center of the picture) is Mt. Ogden. If you follow the ridge to the right, there is another peak; this is Mt. Allen, there is a tiny shack that sits up there and that was the start of the Men's Downhill course in the '02 Winter Olympics. I think the mid-mountain snowpack up there is 90 inches right now (250" so far this year), the skiing and snowshoeing have been great this year. We'll keep you posted on what else is going on!

Busy in Utah.

Last week, I started my new job. I'm in the same Squadron but I am responsible for the accountability and storage sides of our mission now. This is a job I requested because it is exactly what I'll be doing in Iraq this summer and I don't know much about it right now. It's a bigger flight, so I will be managing a few more people and learning a completely different job. I'm excited about it b/c I was ready for a change in what I've been doing the past year or so.

Mel is still working at the Family Support Center of Ogden whenever she can make it out of our driveway and up the hill (the ice doesn't make it too easy for her driving). She still loves her job and the people she's working with also. She's a pretty good skier this year and it's much more fun for both of us now that I'm not trying to teach her.

I'm trying out a new sport this winter...snoeshoeing! I got some snoeshoe's for christmas and have been going out on the weekends whenever possible. It's a blast but a pretty tough workout...especially when you're up to your knees in powder! This is a picture of me last weekend on the green pond trail right outside of Snowbasin (looking east behind me). We had about 7 feet or so of snow at this point. I really like being able to go out and make my own trail and go literally wherever I want to...I'm gonna take Roxie out next weekend and see how she likes it. Laura came and stayed with us this past week also. It was great to have her again and we had fun showing her what life in Utah is like in the Winter. She went skiing for the first time ever and did pretty good. She feel on her first or second run (I can't remember which one it was) then didn't fall at all...until her last run or two. We learned from Daddy and decided to keep her on the bunny slopes though. We went up to the top (needles lodge) for lunch, but couldn't see anything because of clouds/snow, but it was still a great day to go skiing. Laura made a pretty good friend while she was out here too - I think Roxie is going into depression now that she doesn't have Laura to cuddle up to on the couch.

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!