happy second utahniversary

Yesterday marked our second year in Utah (we were travelling home from a weekend wedding in Minnesota) and we just cannot believe that we've been here for two years.  It goes so quickly!  Here are some of the last year's highlights:

October.  We did some hiking; I tried cooking with tomatillos for the first time; we watched the U crush Colorado State 59-6 in the rain; we tried a couple of new places to eat; H had a birthday and rode his bike up Little Cottonwood Canyon.

November.  We went out to breakfast and raked a lot of leaves; we checked out the Park City ski swap; we picked up our Alta season passes; opening day was 11/20 with a "settled snow depth" of around 40 inches and on 11/21, we skied in another 12" of brand new powder, an auspicious start to the season; I ran the Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot in 12F temperatures and then we went out for 10:00 a.m. beers, as we do.

December.  We mostly skied, although I hurt my back and had to take a couple weekends off, and by 12/18 we had a base depth of over 6 feet; it took me three hours to drive home from work one day in a snowstorm because Utah drivers are terrible; and we skied some more.

January.  Skiing, skiing, skiing, including H taking up telemark and me going by myself for the first time ever; we ate at a Lebanese restaurant (good) and a BBQ place (mediocre); I had a birthday.

February.  We went to a neighborhood preparedness meeting; we watched World Cup speed skating at the Oval in Kearns, Utah; it didn't snow that much early in the month but we still had some amazing days at Alta.

March.  We tried another BBQ place (no good) and also a downtown dive bar (former dive bar); we had Eastern ski guests and ridiculous amounts of snow in the mountains.

April.  I finally got powder skis; we tried yet another new BBQ place (okay), a pizza place (okay) and an Indian restaurant (good); Alta was looking at a 206" base and 724" snowfall season-to-date and we skied and skied and skied.

May.  Alta closed (snif!); we tried new BBQ (mediocre) and Thai (quite good); we fixed up the backyard, smothering the weeds with two tons of crushed rock, carried by hand; H's parents came to visit and we all went to St. George to explore for a weekend; we bought mountain bikes.

June.  We mountain-biked and started hiking, despite the wet spring; we saw Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in concert; we found a BBQ festival and also went to a Vietnamese noodle house in SLC; we had a friend visit from back East and did some hiking and moose-viewing; I ran 8K all downhill (ouch).

July.  We did a bunch more MTBing and hiking; a California friend came to visit us; H did the Porcupine Hill Climb on his road bike; I discovered a fantastic Asian supermarket.

August.  My two girlfriends came to visit for a weekend; our California friend came back and he and H went camping; we had a blast watching the Tour of Utah (yay, Levi!); we hiked a lot and MTBed; we went back to Log Haven for our tenth wedding anniversary and then went pseudo-camping in a Forest Service cabin in Ashley National Forest.

September.  We filled our MTB tires full of thorns at Antelope Island; we made thirty bottles of homemade white wine; we checked out the big SLC farmer's market; we had a wonderful long weekend of MTBing, hiking and road-riding down in Moab; we saw the XTERRA National Championships, and Lance Armstrong, up at Snowbasin; we hiked, of course; and we saw a terrible Real Salt Lake game.

And now we're starting our third year.  The weather this week isn't supposed to be that good - after over a month of gorgeous weather, it's finally cloudy and raining ... but it's also supposed to snow up in the mountains and that means ski season is just around the corner.  We're still loving it here, and enjoying exploring Utah.  Stay tuned for more adventures!