...and many more

We made it 6 months. We can no longer qualify for an annulment, it would be a legit divorce now. Not that the thought of that ever crosses my mind, but Grant's mom did make a mention of that soon after we got married, that we only have 6 months if we don't want it to get expensive to split up. Grant and I never speak of divorce, the word never leaves our mouths. Before our wedding, we read "The Love Dare" which opened our eyes to the weakness of relationships and how to make your marriage "fire proof." I would strongly recommend this book to any couple.
Anyway, enough with my tangent. Being married is amazing, I can't believe its been 6 months already. It feels like it was last weekend.

Photo by LPA

I thank God everyday for allowing us to have such an amazing life.

Shredding '09-'10

So it begins. Today was the first day of snowboard season 2009-2010. We woke up bright and early, packed our lunches, loaded up all of our gear and headed to Red Lodge Mountain. This will be my eighth season on the slopes and Grant's second. I've some what slowed down on my board. After bruised ribs, concussions, and bruised spleen, I realized the trophies and glory weren't worth my health especially at such a young age. Now I just strictly cruise down the hill, no more rails, jumps, or tricks. Now that Grant is getting more confident on his board, he's wanting to jump and doing some daring things. I just give him advice I learned the hard way, sit back, and watch (or cringe when he falls). Thankfully he's not above wearing a helmet to protect his brain.

Grant did very well today, only a few tumbles but he got right back up.

I'm so excited about this season, its going to be so much fun! While looking at my lift tickets from last year on my coat, I found the latest one, April 5th, so if the weather cooperates we'll be hitting the slopes for a solid 5 months again this year!

Thanksgiving.

Well this is it... Our first holiday with out any family, only the two of us.
Last Thanksgiving my dad flew out and spent a few days with us and Grant flew to Michigan to be with me and my family on Christmas. We even drove back to Michigan for Easter this past spring. So its just me and him. For Her, this is the norm, but for us, its a first. Sure we will miss our families but its nice to be on our own, as husband and wife. Oh, but no fears, we were asked weeks ago to attend the Mickelson Thanksgiving, so we will not be missing the meal! We were asked to bring some food, it makes us feel so grown up!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Home?

I wrote this first part about 4 months ago:
Moving to Wyoming was the best decision I've ever made. I graduated college, met my husband, and started my life over. Since moving here a year ago, I've lived in the dorms at NWC, with Grant in Powell, and finally in our rented house in Lovell. Recently we've been really debating on buying a house in Lovell or not. We love it here, its home to us now, but we're not sure if we want to be tied down here. When in Lovell and I say "home" I'm referring to Mattawan, Michigan, and to Grant its Enoree, South Carolina. When either of us are at "the place our parents live" we refer to our Lovell as "home." We've both came to the conclusion that home doesn't mean that much to either of us. To some people home is everything, but for us, if we're together that's all that matters. Even if we decided to move "home" from our current residence, one of us would be away from our family. Moving to Michigan would be unfair to Grant, moving to South Carolina would not be home to me. Recently we've been house hunting pretty hard, trying to find a place that doesn't cost a fortune but is still nice. A part of me hopes we find one but in the back of my head there is Grant's voice, reminding me of how wonderful South Carolina truly is.

Update:
Now we've found a house we love and are waiting on the bank to get back with us about our loan. We dug ourselves out of a mountain of paper work and are excited about this whole process. The thoughts of staying or moving away are no longer present. We both love it here and want to start our family here. We would miss the mountains and the open land.

"Home is where the heart is"

Winter Wonderland

Last winter, I taught Grant how to snowboard and it was love at first (or maybe second) run. He became addicted. His birthday present this year was a new snowboard since his $5 board he bought off Ebay wouldn't suffice any more!

This past four days that Grant had off work, we decided to head up to the mountain and stretch our snow legs. I called my mom on the way to tell her where we were going and when she should expect another call, just in case something happened. We drove for about an hour before reaching the perfect spot, on the road up to The Medicine Wheel. We suited up and headed down the hill. We rode down the hill for about 2 minutes, which is a long time in snowboard time. We sat at the bottom for a while and enjoyed the beauty and the wonderful weather. We decided to start the hike back up the mountain (notice the hill just turned into the mountain). Neither of us realized how far we had gone down. It took us 2 solid hours to hike up, stopping many times to rest since the snow was knee deep. Upon reaching the truck we sucked down some Gatorade and decided to explore.

We had heard of a ski resort in the Big Horns but neither of us had seen it before. We drove farther down 14-A and at Burgess Junction we choose the less traveled route. After a few miles and moose later, we knew we had found the allusive "Antelope Butte."

The abandoned building gave a spooky feel, the giant moose and coyote tracks made us feel a little uneasy as well. (For a measly $225,000 you can buy the rights to this gem for a full year! You must however provide all road clearing and maintenance). After exploring for a little bit we decided we should leave when we heard snow mobiles coming, the "Property of The United States" signs posted all over the building made us feel less-than-welcome. We'll be back next year, the resort is scheduled to open!