A look back

Geez.  It's been a long time since last posting--longer than I'd realized by about four months.  A new year seems like a good time for an update, though, especially since there's a good bit to say.  The short and incomplete list of fun stuff since May involves these events:

1. After picking up Walter the Wonder Dog in May, we took off for a week-long trip to southern Utah.  We stayed a night in Glenwood Springs on the way down, then hung out in a yert south of Moab.  Arches, Canyonlands, Mesa Verde, Canyon of the Ancients: check, check, check, and check.
2. The biggest summer project was a new fence, to keep in the beast.  I put up cedar pickets along the west and north sides of the back yard.  So far, they're straight.  We'll see what a season of frozen ground and frost does to my work.
3. A relatively successful effort to make something grow in the front yard, despite a crazy hailstorm that flooded out a bunch of my planting and seeding work.  Ended up with mostly grass on the south side and mostly wildflowers on the north side.  I'll take it.  We also had a decent showing in the backyard raised beds: plenty of arugula, at least. And some tiny radishes.
4. Two weddings this summer, in Leadville and Granby.  Friends who know how to do it right: ceremonies involving hammers and bicycles, receptions involving flash mobs, contra dancing, and a live bluegrass performance of "gin and juice," and outdoor settings that just can't be beat.  Mountains!  And love!
5. A quick trip to Denver in July, mainly to sample some pretty great places to eat and drink.  The Denver Beer Co., Rioja, Peaks Lounge, amazing amazing dinner at Fruition, and equally amazing breakfast at Sassafras.
6. A quick trip to Newcastle.  Dad's garden is impressive, and so is Susie's canning.  We came home with 28 taters from one plant!
7. Snowy Range Music Festival and Medicine Bow Peak, in the same weekend.  Dad and Susie, Uncle Rich and Aunt Gail, and Sarah, Joel, and Kendall and Kaelen all came to town for a fun Memorial Day weekend.  Dad, Rich, Maggie, Maggie's colleague Steve, and I took the short route to the summit.
8. Homecoming football with Craig and Shannon again this year.
9. Pandemic.  This is a board game that our friends Julia and Nevin introduced us to, and it's badass.  It's also improved my geography pretty substantially.  Jakarta, Indonesia, is one of the top two or three most populated urban areas in the world, with about 28 million inhabitants.  This is not something I knew before Pandemic happened.  Pandemic.
10. This year, a quiet Thanksgiving.  After two years of hosting both Maggie's people and my people here in Laramie, this year it was just Maggie and me.  We took Walter for a hike around Turtle Rock, watched some Packers football, and made small-scale Thanksgiving for ourselves centered around a roast chicken.
11. Holiday journeys to Wisconsin and to Newcastle.  Our trip to Wisconsin included catching up with Maggie's great and hilarious friends, an overnight with Maggie's parents and sister in Two Rivers (Frank Lloyd Wright house and the Hamilton Wood Type Museum) and a snowshoe at the county park near Waukesha.  Newcastle Christmas with Dad and Susie and Sarah, Joel, Kendall, and Kaelen mostly involved enjoying my niece and nephew, who were eager for Santa's visit.  We also caught up with Ross and Jess in Newcastle, despite missing them on our drive through Iowa.
12. Overall, a good bit of ongoing hiking and biking and enjoying this place we live in.  Walter has shifted the excursions a bit, but mostly for the better: it's meant more biking for me in the summer, and more exploration of beautiful trails out of the Blair Picnic Grounds.