Gingerbread Houses

I'm not going to pretend my gingerbread house skills are anything to write home about.  This stuff definitely requires the patience of a saint.  But throw together a group of girls, some wine and bowls of candy and it actually becomes quite a laugh fest as the houses come crumbling down.  At least a few times each. 

My friend Ash threw together a festive girls night of gingerbread house building and we had quite the time trying to create houses that withstood the multiple "earthquake" tests.

Who are these gingerbread house building geniuses we see in magazines and on TV?  Four attempts at graham cracker building finally resulted in a structure that didn't crumble...but oh the frosting mess.  I covered mine in pretzels because I had to. 

The church steeple that kept growing and growing. 

  This Christmas project is courtesy of Pinterest.  Leftover Christmas ball ornaments, strung on a ribbon makes a hanging ornament decoration in 5 minutes flat.  Who knew?  

Is anyone else sad to think that Christmas will be over in a week and the tree and decorations will have to come down after that?  I swear I could just sit and read by the light of the fire and tree (and okay--backlit screen of my nook) forever and ever.  And ever. 

Hanging Lake

If your friends happen to say "Hey let's go hiking up in Glenwood Canyon this weekend--there's a relatively easy trail we've been wanting to hike" well, just be warned because they might be lying.

Spending a day in Glenwood Canyon may sound like a beautiful way to spend the afternoon,
but when you get to the trailhead, you may just find that your friends have a bad case of liar, liar, pants on fire.

When the trail starts off immediately with rocks, I'm believing the sign and not my friends.

But as it turns out, it's only a little over a mile up to Hanging Lake from the trailhead. One mile hikes I can get on board with. Truth be told, I'd rather ascend quickly and steeply rather than ramble on for hours.

And I can say without hesitation that Hanging Lake is worth the hike . Though it says it's a difficult trail, there were people of all ages making the trip. If a woman can carry her 6 year old on a sling on this trail, I'm thinking anyone can do it. It's a super short trip up, and there are even some railings to keep you from tumbling right over the steep ledge at the top. when you reach the top, you are rewarded with amazing waterfalls and a crystal clear lake.

Water cascading at 1/400 shutter speed

And slowing it down to 1/10.

What's not especially well marked is a little rock trail that takes you up to the most spectacular waterfall of them all.

With a little cavern where you can walk behind the waterfall...

Hiking down is just as beautiful as the hike up.

Mt. Antero

My favorite part of camping is by far the ATVs; it's the wind on the face thing again along with the thrill of the bumps and the curves. And making it to the top of a fourteener is a prestigious and monumental event. The air is thin, the trail is long and it's pretty frickin cold. Well, monumental for those bad ass hikers that is. Those of us on ATVs can make it to the top in just an hour or two, depending upon our starting point.

I'll share a little secret here...the view is none the less breathtaking if you make the ascent on ATV rather than by foot. I've only made a couple attempts at hiking a fourteener and as it turns out, I'm not really a walking uphill kind of girl. I think I have a genetic predisposition requiring oxygen in my lungs. So while I may not get the bragging rights of having hiked up Mt. Antero, I did get to enjoy the spectacular view. I'll take it.

The Wind Blowing Through Your Helmet...

I'm a sucker for speed and the wind blowing on my face--roller coasters, boats, motorcycles, convertibles...yes please. Having only been a passenger on motorcycles, I've always been a bit curious about the process. Your clutch is in your hand?

I heard a rumor that if you can drive a stick shift, you can ride a bike. Well this girl has only driven an automatic for 3 years out of all of her driving years. I can't explain my love affair with driving sticks--it's not a popular stance I know. In fact, when I purchased my last car, I merely walked into the dealership and said "It just needs to be a stick shift--I don't care about the other options." See, I'm easy like Sunday morning. That unpopular request of mine resulted in Honda saying "Umm, we only have two of those on the entire lot. Are you sure?" I chose one of them.

So being a lover of the clutch obviously translates well to the bike.

Or not.

Here's the thing. While the "clutch up, accelerator down" isn't so hard to get on a bike, the concept of a hand brake that stops the front of the bike is awfully hard to remember. Grab that hand brake and the bike stops, while you on the other hand, keep going. Two different brakes? That's just all kinds of confusing.

While I made it around the field a couple of times,I didn't quite master it over the weekend. But I am told that I can do a pretty graceful dive off of a moving(or suddenly stopping) dirt bike. Perhaps I should have been a stunt woman.

Camping in the Rockies

I was a bit hesitant to take my DSLR camping because we've been getting outrageous amounts of rain recently--but in the end, the opportunity to capture photos of the friends and the beauty of the Rockies won out. As luck would have it, it only rained at night, when we were toasty, oasty in our sleeping bags. Or as toasty oasty as is possible at 10,500 feet. I'm not going to lie to you though, this girl is all camped out. We live in houses for a reason.