Snow Shoeing at Taft

We had an off weekend from ski patrol a couple weeks ago. It was nice to just stay home for a few days. We decided to borrow some of the snow shoes from work and go for hike in the forest around campus.

We started out down by the river delta and followed one of the trails about a mile up the gully to South Field.

This is a picture of Jonathan making his own fresh tracks in South Field.

While we were out, we came across a lot of animal tracks out in the forest. This is picture of my foot next to a set of deer tracks. It was fun to follow the tracks and see where they led.

17 feet of Home Sweet Home

We found a camper on Ebay to use as our home away from home while we are patrolling at Chestnut Mountain. Let's just say that sleeping separately in the guys and girls dorms with a bunch of rowdy college kids every weekend was getting really old really fast.

It is a gently used 1995 Salem by Cobra. Jonathan drove down to Arkansas to pick it up after we won the Ebay auction. I uploaded a bunch of the photos from the ad on Ebay below. Probably more than you want to look at, but here it goes.....

We especially like the "mountain graphics" on the front window cover.

It came with 2 propane tanks and lots of storage room.

It also has a working air conditioner and a hitch on the back for pulling a second trailer (I'm not sure that we will ever attempt this, but if we want to try it the hitch is there)

A nice view of the dinette and furnace just inside the front door.

The trailer will sleep 6 (4 adults and 2 children). The storage cupboards over the dinette fold down to make a bunk for one. The dinette also folds down to make a full sized bed for two. It will make a nice "guest bed" for any visitors who want stay with us.

There is a nice hanging closet with plenty of room for ski jackets, etc.

A radio, with built in speakers all over the camper, that tunes in some pretty good radio stations.

The storage cupboard above the couch also folds down into a bunk for one. We fold the couch down into a full sized bed that is just perfect for us and our double sleeping bag.

A pantry and big refrigerator.

A shot looking towards the front of the trailer from the couch in the back.

Several pictures of the kitchen and gas range and oven.

It also has a full bath with toilet, sink, shower, and 1/2 tub. For now we are just "dry camping" which means that we aren't hooked up to water or electricity while we are out at Chestnut. We use the propane heater for warmth and the battery for lights. We can still shower, etc. in the dorms or pool area at the resort. We have stayed in it 2 weekends already and it is great!

I did some decorating with outdoor sports posters and ski trail maps. I also made a custom sign/key rack to make it feel more like home. So "Welcome to the Ski Hut." We have decided that is a good name for it.

We have already enjoyed having a place to invite people to come and hangout after the hill closes. Matt (a fellow ski patrol candidate) is pictured with Jonathan above.

Jonathan sleeping soundly. I had to get him back for the puffy coat picture in an earlier post :-)

Record Cold in Illinois

Below are some pictures taken on some of the coldest days yet this winter. It was a high of -2 with a windchill of -30. Schools in the area were closed for 3 days (that almost never happens). We however, had students that were already here and continued teaching classes. We just had to limit our time outdoors with the students to 10-15 minute intervals.

It really isn't too bad when my commute to the office involves a 2 minute walk across campus. The icicles hanging from the roof of my office building are quite impressive as you can see in the photo above.

We stayed warm and cozy in our house. I'm not sure if you can see in the picture or not, but I shoveled through almost 10 inches of snow in the front yard to cut a path to the front door.


I donned Jonathan's puffy coat to stay nice and cozy while watching a movie that night. I got so comfortable that I fell asleep and Jonathan snapped this photo. It is kind of hard to imagine that about a year ago I was wearing a bikini, snorkeling, and using this same camera to shoot underwater shots in the balmy 80 degree waters of South Florida.

Bum Thumb Update

A couple of pictures and an update on my "bum thumb" as Jonathan likes to call it.

These photos were taken on January 15th, two months after the incident with the hatchet.

The healing process is going amazingly well and I am hoping that it will continue to grow back as it has been doing thus far. I'll post more pictures later this month on the 15th. I kind of wish that I had taken more pictures....it would have been a neat time lapse of my thumb regenerating itself.

Our Honeymoon in Keystone, CO

One of our best Christmas surprises this year was the arrival of our new Jetta Sportwagon at the dealership just in time for our honeymoon road trip. We traded in Jonathan's old Jetta and my Jeep. We are down to two vehicles with the truck and the sportwagon.

Jonathan in the driver's seat above. We are all loaded and ready to embark on our Christmas/Honeymoon adventure. We spent two days in Iowa celebrating Christmas with family. Then continued on to Colorado.

We stopped at the Continental Divide for a photo opp.

We skied 3 days at Keystone and 1 day at Copper.


It was sunny and beautiful the whole week.


We also got in some night skiing at Keystone and tried out some "helmet cam" video with the camera on New Year's Eve in the clip below.....

We saw the sunset from the top of the mountains on several nights.

It was a great trip and time together.