Winter Wonderland

With lovely springtime fast approaching, I decided I would like to honor the wonderful aspects of winter that oftentimes get overshadowed by my intolerance of the cold. Coming from Las Vegas, winter to me meant cold nights, biting winds, and an occasional snow every few years which usually wouldn't even stick to the ground. But that was about as extreme as it ever got! Then I came to Utah. Most people don't think that Utah winters are even that extreme, but suddenly I was being forced to walk through cold, wet, dirty snow to and on campus every day with not the best gear for it. My greatest enemy was the freezing cold wetness which would seep up my jeans after walking just about anywhere which would never seem to dry, keeping me cold and uncomfortable whether outside OR inside! This last winter, however, I came to enjoy the snowy season more than I ever had before. There are a few things I will attribute this to. First of all, I was no longer a student, and no longer forced to be outside constantly traipsing through the snow between classes. I no longer had to walk far enough to allow that wetness to start seeping up my jeans. Secondly, I now have better snow gear, including good snow boots, an incredibly warm coat, snow pants, and gloves! And thirdly, I picked up a new hobby which actually get me excited when a storm came in dropping loads of new snow... especially when that was right before the weekend! That hobby, which both Danny and I really picked up for the first time, was snowshoeing! We rented snow shoes right before Christmas, and after renting them twice in one week and going three separate times during that week, we decided to invest with our Christmas money and get our own so we could go whenever we wanted! Here are some pictures of our snowshoeing outings.

So serene!

This picture is of me crawling back out of a gigantic igloo/snowcave we found while snowshoeing. It was so tall that I could fully stand up if I was right in the middle! Not Danny though... his head would have burst through the top if he had tried. :) Props to whoever built this though!

Inside the snowcave

Danny with our friends Jeff and Joel who came along one trip

Danny, me, Elise, and Joel on our snowshoeing adventure

Oh how I love this picture! We all jumped down from the top of this snowy bank into the ravine, some more gracefully than others. Jeff's result was definitely my favorite: as you can see, he ended up face down practically buried in snow with snow even filling up the space behind his glasses!

Danny and I, and the dog that I wish were mine (I wish practically any dog was mine these days though... poor allergic Danny, and poor Jessica to be married to someone with pet allergies!)