Christmas Day Ski Trip!

Hello to all!

Shannon and I went skiing on Christmas day, and we had a blast! Thanks to all our family who helped us take the trip with gifts, it really was a blessing. I certainly have never seen conditions this nice with all the fresh powder. We went with our friends Ricardo and Jessica from church. I'm glad Jessica drove because the road there was pretty icy, and it really scares me to drive on snow and ice.

The views from the slopes were just breathtaking. I could see snowdrift on the mountains in the background, and the views were so majestic. I would say it took my breath away, but I think the cold did that when the wind came to Copper Mountain early afternoon :). Anyway, we're attaching some pictures of the day for yall to look at. Our friend Ricardo took some of them, and I also took some. Because he took pictures of us, you all get to actually see US in our pictures. I'm sure that will make the family happy. I hope the views inspire thoughts of God's power and intricate beauty. I know it did for me. I only wish we could have stayed longer!

You know, the difficulty wasn't that much more than the East cost for the intermediate and expert slopes, but they were just SO much longer than what I'm used to. I had to take breaks on the way down to rest my legs. It was quite the treat.

Christmas Skiing '08 - Copper Mountain

Love you all, take care, God bless, merry Christmas, and happy new year! We look forward to seeing those of you in Greenville in just over two weeks :).

-Matt and Shannon

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well everyone,

Happy Thanksgiving! It'll be very sad and strange not to be around family for the first time ever. But we do have some church family to spend a Thanksgiving meal with, and we're very happy about that. We bought a nice big turkey before we realized a family was inviting people over, so we're going to have our Thanksgiving meal Saturday!

But that's not all, as we were getting into the holiday mood, I decided it fitting to hike down the mesa trail and chop down a big old Christmas tree.



Well, that's not a terribly big tree, I admit. Plus, I think that carries about a $10,000 fine. So, on a second thought, we decided to go to King Soopers (that's Kroger in West-ese) and pick one up :)! It's about 3 feet tall, and we were quite excited. Evidently these trees sell out quickly because of so many apartments around the area. THEN, we went to Dollar Tree and Target for the decorations. The topper is an angel ornament my (Matt's) granny gave to Shannon last Christmas. Here are a few pictures of its radiance.

From Christmas Tree '08

Anyway, we miss everyone, and pray you all have a great Thanksgiving!

-Matt & Shannon

More snow pictures from Nov. 14

Here are some snow pictures from the Mesa Trail out back of National Center for Atmospheric Research where I work. The Flatirons look really cool with their outlining of snow along the edges. It's funny, about three of four hours after the snow, it had pretty much completely melted. Anyway, click the picture below to see all the pictures. Enjoy!

From Mesa Trail Snow Nov. 4, 2008

Shannon and I are doing well still. We're really enjoying the church we're going to up here, Flatirons Baptist. And tonight we're having dinner with friends :). We love yall, take care and God bless,

-Matt + Shannon

First Snow of the Year!

We walked outside this morning, and we saw this!








Well, we have to go to work, but just wanted to share with everyone :). We'll have more pictures of the snow later. I'm taking the camera to the Mesa lab today which is higher in elevation and should have more snow :). Take care, love yall,

-Matt & Shannon

Various Escapades

Oh, the million things that we could talk about. Its been an eventful few weeks. We have some pictures here of The Denver Aquarium, and our trip down Old Falls River Rd. which is in the Rocky Mountain National Park. While driving down the road we actually had some thick wet snow hit our car. It was really weird and really cool at the same time, considering it was in like August/September.



The aquarium was really nice as well. It had a huge restaurant downstairs (a pretty expensive one) and lots of very large tanks with fish I've never seen before. Other than this, we've been going about the daily routines of work...and work...and then some church. Its been nice. We miss home, but we are enjoying this time here. We would still love to hear from everyone back home...e-mails, phone calls, anything. We appreciate the thoughts and prayers, we are praying for y'all too.



-Matt & Shannon

Denver Aquarium

Old Falls River Road

Anniversary

Hello to all!



We know it has been a while since we've updated the blog. We celebrated our first anniversary (woohoo!) a month and a half ago in Colorado Springs. We went to the Cave of the Winds, Garden of the Gods, and the zoo! By the way, there's more to come soon!

Anniversary Photos

Hope you all enjoy the pictures here. Next post soon! Take care,

-Matt & Shannon

Trail Ridge Road

This time, ladies and gentlemen, Shannon gets to make a post.

Well, it seems to us that every time we go on another "adventure", it just gets better and more beautiful. This past weekend we took a drive through the Rocky Mountain National Park on Trail Ridge Road. We had no idea what we were going to be able to see. Here are a few pictures from the adventure.

trail_ridge_2008_06_29

So yes, Wendy, we got to play in the snow..and boy were we happy. It was surreal. On average, Boulder will get 70-80 inches of snow each year. Boulder, by the way, is about 6,000 feet below where these pictures were taken, so they get a lot more snow. I'm loving the summer, but without the beach, I cant wait to go skiing.

The tree-line that you see in some pictures is the level where trees can no longer grow. It happens at about 11,000 feet. It means that the average temperature in the warmest month is about 49 degrees. (I learned a lot reading the Park pamphlet.)

Other than that fun stuff, we have been going on as usual. Matt working, me doing school lessons and looking for a good job. (keep praying about that, I have replied to at least one promising nanny job).

We did buy a couple of bicycles. (randomly went out near midnight and bought some). We don't have pictures yet, but its been nice with Matt riding his bike to the shuttle for work, and me riding around town to find coffee shops and bookstores to work in. This is a very bike-friendly place. Most major roads have bike lanes and pretty much every road has sidewalks.

Thats all for us for now. We would love to get some e-mail or letters from you. We both miss our families and church family very much. If anyone gets a chance to come out here, we have plenty to show you! I just want to send a special "hello, and I love you!!" to grandma and granddaddy Lynch. You taught me to love the mountains.

Well, God Bless everyone, and have a great week!

Shannon....and Matt