Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you!

We have returned from another wonderful celebration of the end of one year and the beginning of another at Jenny Lake. We feel fortunate that Bob, Sally and Liz continue to want to join us for this winter adventure. It is not for the feint of heart!

We left for the mountains on Tuesday morning, driving through the usual snowy conditions around Syracuse. But we arrive at camp to find about a foot of old, crusty snow on the ground and the lake frozen solid and mostly snow-free-in other words, ideal skating conditions.


So Corey got a fire started in the wood stove to warm up the 20 degree camp, some of us shoveled the essential paths around the camp (namely the one from the camp door to the outhouse) and we hauled 4 days of supplies down from where we have to park to camp.

Then it was time skate! From one end of the lake to the other, from the beach to Turtle Cove, check out Flat Rock and the bubbler at the Digg's camp, we skated until our legs grew heavy and our spirits soared!


If you are the type of person who keeps a "Bucket" List, ice-skating on a frozen lake on a cold, crisp day should be added to that list.

So our New Year's adventure was off to a good start. Corey took his new tent with the intention of sleeping in it one night. Bob like this idea and ended up sleeping all three nights in the tent, even when the temps dipped below zero! Corey did his one night but decided he preferred his bed in camp with an electric blanket. Or maybe the mentor/mentee relationship got a little too close!

We awoke on New Years Eve day to 5 new inches of snow and more on the way. So we spent the day skating and shoveling. 



In the late afternoon, most of us drove to Saratoga Springs to either run or cheer for the runners in the Saratoga First Night 5 K Race. Sally stayed back at camp because she had a nasty cold and needed to rest. Jim, Corey, Bob and Liz's friend, Kim, ran while Tucker, Liz and I cheered. Some group of us has participated in this race for the last 5 years and it is a fun way to kick off New Year's Eve celebration. In year's past, there has been a fireworks display going on during the race, which helps to distract the runners from the pain they are feeling. This year the fireworks were moved to the campus of Skidmore College, where the race starts and finishes, and they started shooting off the fireworks over the heads of the lead runners! I think the first 10 or 15 runners thought they were being shot at!
Jim and Corey ran together. Jim won his age-group and Corey was pleased with how he felt while running since he is coming off an injury.
The running conditions were tough because it was quite cold (single digits) and some of the roads were snow-covered. 

After we all took showers in the college locker rooms, we headed back to check up on Sally and to get some dinner. We went for a walk on the lake just before midnight, marveling at the display of stars. We also played some Rock Band.
After the ball dropped in Times Square, we called it a day.

New Year's Day dawned cold and clear, a perfect Jenny Lake winter day. Once again the shoveling crew got to work to clear a hockey rink. We really need a Zamboni!

We had a great hockey game, working up a sweat, with the young team beating the old team! I had some hockey game action photos to include but they are on our laptop which decided to act up. So I will have to include those at a later date. Our game continued until I got injured when Corey and I were both trying to dig the puck out of the snow bank and he accidently rammed the butt end of this hockey stick into the bridge of my nose, hitting my sunglasses! I have a small cut on my nose and a sore face, but no black eyes which was my fear! Oh, well, no pain, no gain. It was a fun game!

So all in all, a great few days. We cross-country skied, ice-skated, did a bit of snow-tubing, and some hiking. The weather was great and we all made it home safely. 

So I will leave you with one more pretty picture, with the promise of more to come because I have some beautiful frost pictures to share.

Hope all is well. 

Off We Go!

As 2008 winds down and we pack up the Christmas decorations, we look forward to bringing in the new year at Jenny Lake.

The four of us have been making some screamin' music on our Wii Rock Band! It is quite addictive as we try to improve our skills and earn new songs to try to play. The four of us rotate through playing lead guitar, the bass, the drums and vocals. The vocals assignment is the least favorite, but we each have songs that we do pretty well. 

I have enjoyed the WiiFit and WiiSport. Again, the more we use it the more games and levels we unlock. 

In order to enjoy our Wii system even more we convinced Jim that we really needed a new TV. Some of you may know that when our house was robbed almost 3 years ago, we never replaced the TV that was stolen from our living room. We moved the small TV from our bedroom downstairs and have been making due with the small screen. That worked OK unless we were trying to watch a TV program that involved a ball (golf, tennis, baseball, football) or were trying to read any of the small print that streams across the lower edge of the screen (think weather warnings), then the viewing was not so good. So here is a photo of Corey playing one of the WiiFit games on our new TV. It is a wonderful upgrade and my Rock Band skills improved immensely once I could actually see the notes coming at me!

Corey helped me decorate the tree and Tucker helped me take it down and put away most of the Christmas. I don't like to go away for New Year's and then come home to undecorate the house, so we are good to go now.

We're not sure about what conditions we will find at Jenny Lake, snow, no snow, ice, no ice, but we are prepared for most outdoor activities. 

My amaryllis plants are getting ready to bloom! Check out this photo.

I don't know whether or not I will be able to blog about our activities at camp because the internet access is sketchy. If not, I thank you for reading and commenting on my blog. I wish you joy and peace in 2009

Hope all is well.