Vail, CO, Feb 29-March 4, 2012

FINALLY!!!  It happened!  It finally happened.  The snow gods smiled on us this year, and granted us three epic days of constantly falling powder, and then capped it off with one gorgeous bluebird day before we had to return to Cali.  Soft powdery Colorado snow falling all around us (as opposed to right before we got there, or the worst of all, right after we left in years past).  Fresh tracks all day long...

We did have to sacrifice warmth for it though.  No 30 or even 20 degree days this time.  Think more like 2 and 3 degrees, or into the negatives when we were up early enough.  I perfected my gear to the point where almost no cold air whatsoever touched my face once I was zipped in, but others weren't so lucky and we had our first case of frostbite in our crew.  

 

I like to think the new addition to my helmet kept me safe.

But don't worry, there's no amount of cold than can keep this group out of a rooftop tub :)

 

Hank & The Fam, January 14th, 2012

We took a break from our Mammoth weekends to join the ENTIRE clan in Del Mar for Hank's second birthday this year.  Lately with all the million kids, this is a very rare occurrence, so we took advantage of the day with an updated Kloecker family photo.  The weekend was a blast, with all the kids zooming around all over the place, but we did get them to hold still long enough to get that one perfect shot:

(Ok fine, there MAY have been a little Photoshopping of kids' heads until everyone was actually looking at the camera, but you know you can't tell!)

Mammoth / Yosemite New Years, 2012 (part 2)

I decided to split this post up after trying to pick just a couple pictures from the Yosemite portion of things.  with the snow being as scarce as it was, the pass through to Yosemite was open, thanks in part to the first December on record without ANY precipitation...in something like 103 years.  Oh yeah, big mountain year for this crew.  We drove through the pass, coming in the valley from the back, through the meadows and passed Lake Tenaya.  We took endless shots in the park, which I'd never visited in a non-summer setting.

(falling rocks on the cliff road above / the family at Lake Tenaya and shots in the valley below)

I was astonished at just how low the water flow is in the winter, even with the frozen mist cones.  After how high the water levels had been and how intense we'd seen the rapids two springs ago, I never expected the trickle we found coming down the valley walls.

And then right when we thought we wee heading home, the setting sun broke through the clouds and it was as if someone had lit a match to the whole valley.  The sky, the trees, even the frozen lake - everything was glowing.  Naturally, that put the brakes on our departure and we even backtracked a little trying to capture it all.

If you ever have the opportunity to get into Yosemite in the winter, do not miss it.  The contrast in lack of crowds, rushing water, noise and traffic - just the all encompassing tranquility of it - is something to experience.

 

Mammoth / Yosemite New Years, 2012 (part 1)

January was another skiing and snowboarding month, including the big New Years trip.  With the lack of good deep snow this time around, we not only managed to get in some mountain time, we did a some local hiking around the actual lakes Mammoth Lakes area is named for, and got to take a day trip into Yosemite too.

We rang in the New Year at one of our favorite local places, Z Ranch.  (Walking distance to the house - New Years bonus!)  it's pretty low key there, but they jazzed things up a bit with a band and cleared the tables out to make room for dancing.  And of course, we couldn't miss the disco ball installed for the occasion!  After celebrating, we needed to get the booze out so we decided to hike around one of the main Mammoth Lakes just outside the village.  We had the "Brilliant" idea to hike ALL the way around the lake, after scaling the initial boulder field that starts to the trip 

 (Herc was not amused when he realized I wouldn't be carrying him :)

It was upon reaching the shady side of the lake the we realized the hike might be a bit more than we'd planned on.  And Hercules didn't really appreciate that his reward for making it through the boulder field was a continued trek through fields of ice and snow over freezing streams and through super low underbrush.  Everyone loves low clearance!  Especially giants like Ryan....  

 

(frozen waterfall above / low underbrush to deal with, below)

 

In spite of it, I will admit it was absolutely beautiful and well worth it.  Until...Herc fell in the lake through the ice.  It was a very appropriate close to the day, and he was handsomely rewarded for his struggles once we got home by the fire!

 

Christmas in the Capitol, December 2011

 

It actually happened - my first non-Kloecker Christmas.  A little weird at first, getting used to new Holiday traditions and all, but the change was good and I have to admit, it was nice to get back to some actual cold for Christmas!  None of this palm trees and sunshine stuff.  Ever since leaving Pennsylvania Christmas has never quite felt the same. We do get up to Mammoth a ton so I'm not exactly deprived of snow, but I wasn't angry at a little Holiday chill.  And speaking of Mammoth, I think this is my first post since October maybe?  Most of the time sine then has been spent trading between USC home games and Ski weekends, though the snow isn't exactly keeping up with last year's legendary pack.  But Back to Christmas!

I hadn't been back to D.C. since I was a little kid so I wanted to see the sights just as much as I wanted to relax and chill.  We checkout out the fields where the Battle of Bull Run took place, where you can see the old man watching over things, above.  And we got into the actual capital as well.

The New Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was very beautiful and quite impressive in it's scale, plus that night was so incredibly clear and calm we got some great shots of the Jefferson Memorial across the water.

As is our style, we also made sure to get in some hiking to see the woods in the Winter.  But for all his enjoyment of the great outdoors, Hercules is more a homebody and preferred his lap time, spending some QT with the folks... :)

Mammoth Opening Weekend! November 19-20, 2011

Well, it may not have been Mammoth's opening weekend, but it was ours!  Though the mountain had been open for a couple weeks, our winter lease didn't start until mid-November.  In the years past, we'd rented condos and then started staying at the ski crew house once they began the lease, but this year we joined.

And boy did it ever snow that first weekend.  Just came down dumping, piling up in the yard and on the railings.  Promising a long deep winter that we'd soon learn just wasn't going to happen...

But that certainly didn't stop us from enjoying what snow there was!

Sister's Weekend in Palm Desert, November 4-6, 2011

I literally have zero pictures from this weekend - that's how completely relaxing sisters' weekend was this year.  I don't think I've written about our annual Kloecker gals get-togethers before.  But they happen, and they're THE best.  It's so nice to hang with the girls in a non-familystravaganzahulabaloo for a change and to just relax with cocktails and b.s.  Here's a shot I took at a sister's weekend a few years back, just to give a little sister love:

Also, totally unrelated but I just realized that I somehow neglected to post anything about the greatest birthday gift ever to master the realm of birthday gifts: Hercules!  For my birthday last summer (another weekend that passed, un-posted in the summer's blitz of injury do nothing-ness) Ryan surprised my by adopting one of our foster dogs, earning him about 30 years worth of brownie points.  

Like I said, best gift ever!  I think I was so busy sharing photos of our new guy elsewhere, that I forgot to give him his own write-up.  This one's for Herc!

I mean, who wouldn't want to come home from work every night to this little guy?

Erie! October 20-23, 2011

Made it back to Erie, as predicted!  Our trip in May went by way too fast, and I got home wishing I'd had a TON more time.  I caught a break when my office sent me to supervise a Women's Leadership class session for a projects I'd been working on - this session just happened to be in Solon, Ohio, about an hour and a half outside of Erie.  I was so happy to be back East in the Fall, which was always my favorite time of year growing up.  Trees, cider, fires, cooler temperatures and that Thanksgiving time anticipation of the Christmas season around the corner.

My folks had a bit of a surprise for me too because even though it was the end of October, the boast wasn't put away!  I didn't actually get in, but we did cruise around the bay taking in the shoreline and all the colors.

Only the mayor of Lake Erie was crazy enough to actually get in...

And he does make it look good!

We also went Northeast into wine country, something I've never done in all my years living at home.  Wine country isn't very far out of town at all, but somehow we just never went there.  It's definitely different from the wineries in Southern and Northern California, most noticeably in price!  $2 for  full tasting?  haha YES!

And of course, no Erie trip can come to a close without an amazing sunset.  I got a beautiful sunset every single night I was there, but this one was my favorite.

Joshua Tree, October 15, 2011

for our Fall trip to Joshua tree took we a different route than usual - through the backdoor; the Berdoo Canyon Backcountry Road.  Because there's no cell phone reception, and because it's easy to get stuck out there in the middle of the desert, we had a rendezvous time set up with the group.  Lucky for us, we made it in time so no rangers were sent out to drag us back home.

(Berdoo Road into the park, above / Hercules as my navigator, below)

Anther difference was we had Hecules with us.  And as it turns out, he's not just an excellent mountain dog, he navigates the deserts and rocks quite well too!  He wasn't a fan of the cool breezes, but I think he may have enjoyed the sunset just as much as we did.