Settled In

Sorry we haven't posted anything in a while. Quite frankly, we don't have that much going on. We've kind of settled into the day to day here (if you can call it that). Steph works, I don't. Pretty much the same as usual. That's right, I'm STILL not working on the river yet. It's getting ridiculous. All I have to do at this point is pass 5 assessments where I basically pretend I'm a guide for the whole trip while someone follows me and critiques me. I've only been able to do one to this point because there are about 5 other people fighting for a very limited number of slots. If I am guiding by January 1st I'll be happy. I think I said the same thing about December 1st though...

Otherwise we've just been enjoying our new place, especially when the weather is nice. We just got a grill so we're looking forward to many barbeques on the deck over the summer. The weather has been up and down. It's still not really all that warm - I don't think we've cracked 80 yet, but when the sun is out even 65 can feel quite hot. Steph says the ozone layer is thinner here, so the sun is more intense. It is supposed to be a high of about 52 tomorrow, so hopefully January will bring more consistently warm weather.

Steph has been enjoying getting ready for the holidays, even though it doesn't seem like Christmas time here. All the traditional things are the same - Santa and his reindeer in the snow, all the songs (why would anyone here sing 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas'?), and even the Starbucks christmas coffee flavors - except instead of bundling up by the fire people are out wakeboarding on the lake and having barbeques. Our plan is to experience the best of both worlds - grill out on Christmas Eve and a traditional dinner on Christmas day. We're doing a "white elephant" type gift exchange at work and we're in a secret santa exchange with all our friends from Thanksgiving. Should be fun, but we miss everyone back home and maybe even miss the cold weather a little bit (just because it makes it feel like Christmas).

Well we're off to our typical Saturday activities - farmer's market, arts and crafts market, and frisbee golf. Hopefull we'll get around to another post before then, but if not Merry Christmas to everyone back home! Also congrats to my sister Taylor for getting engaged recently! Now we have 3 weddings to go to next summer! (Steph cheers)