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)

Steph + Riverboarding = Fun? You sure?

Who would have thought Steph would be a natural at riverboarding? Simon and I took the girls out today for their first time on the river and they both did great! Steph was really worried about the cold water, then she was worried about drowning, then her neck hurt, then she was worried about the cold water again. We basically gave her no choice in the matter since she had committed to go about a week ago since nobody had to work today. Plus, the weather was absolutely perfect for it.

Steph and Alison ready to go

We made a day of it - drove out ourselves, had a little picnic lunch, while Simon and I alternated between scaring them with horror stories ("whatever you do, don't go there!") and then calming their fears. It worked out pretty good that there was a small group of clients so we all tagged along with them, so on top of the paid professionals leading them, Steph and Alison had their own personal guides in Simon and I. For the most part, we took it pretty easy on them - kept them away from the trouble spots and generally resisted the temptation to get them worked over by some of the bigger rapids (notice I said generally resisted). Steph really enjoyed it and didn't complain once about being cold or her hurt neck or drowning. Here are some more pics.

Steph's first plunge into the cold water - and still smiling!

Steph and Ali training up

okay, so I just wanted to show off a little

Plus some more just to make everyone jealous of where we live.

to be fair, this doesn't happen every night