Faith, Family, & Friendships: February 2010

A Visit with Camille

My sweet friend, Camille came to Houston for a visit in January. She is a friend from the AFC (whoop!) who moved to Singapore over a year ago for her husband's job. We certainly miss seeing her sweet, smiling face here in Houston....she is such a joy to be around. Camille & I had the opportunity to meet for lunch while she was here for her visit...it was great to have a chance to catch up.
Love you Camille!

Ski Trip to Taos, NM

At the beginning of February I went skiing in New Mexico with friends. I realized that it was the first time I had been skiing in SEVEN years! Growing up we had always gone skiing at least once a year, but in the midst of having kids, I had let 7 years past without going. We went for a week and I skiied most of the time, until the last day I decided to try snowboarding for the first time and I LOVED it! I really surprised myself at how much I enjoyed it....I thought because I was so much more comfortable on skis that I wouldn't enjoy boarding as much because it would be much more difficult....but it really wasn't bad....certain aspects of it even seemed a bit easier than skiing.

Next trip...I plan to board the entire time and see how that goes....

I brought my new snowshoes with me on the trip in case we decided to do some climbing....took one afternoon to take them out for a test-hike. However, I think my snowshoes were too small for me....even with them on I was often sinking up to my knees in them. I can't imagine how far I would have sunk if I had been wearing a pack too.

The weather while we were in Taos was unbelievable. I think it snowed most of our trip. When we looked out of our window on the first day there were a few inches on the deck....by the time we headed home.....there was easily another 18 inches piled on. All the snow made for spectacular skiing weather....it was great.

Trip to San Diego with Mary Kay

Mid-January I went to San Diego for Mary Kay's Leadership Conference. I had never spent time in California and REALLY enjoyed touring the city in between our conference. The weather was picture-perfect, the food was way-too good and the scenery was amazing. I loved every minute of my trip...so much fun!

Joelle & I took a trolley tour one day to hit the high points of San Diego. This was a tree inside of one of the parks...it was so magnificent I had to take a picture of it. I REALLY wanted to hop off the trolley and go climb it but I thought the driver would frown on my jumping out of a moving vehicle...so I didn't.

Joelle & I at the beach

A view down at the pool from our hotel window...

Having dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant...one of many favorite meals.

Me, Lisa, & Tanya just outside of the conference center.

Another view from our hotel...

This year at leadership I earned the Boardwalk Party for being on-target for the Queen's Court of Sales. The party this year was by far my favorite of any that I have ever attended with Mary Kay....probably because they had a pick-up volleyball game going on right smack-dab in the middle of everything...PERFECT! MK even hired local male beach volleyball pros to play with us....even more fun! :) There were also BMX bikers doing stunts, sand artists sculpting, and all kinds of boardwalk games and entertainment....it was a super-fun night. I loved it! Of course I was on the volleyball court for most of the evening :)

MK legend & my volleyball buddy for the night, Andrea Shields.

And, last, but certainly not least.....a picture of me with my friend Kathrin Petty. Joelle & I ended up having a long layover in Las Vegas on the way home. I was able to call Kathrin who in turn gave me the worlds fastest Las Vegas tour in the 2 hours that we had together. I saw the strip, we had dinner and then we raced back to the airport in time for me to catch my plane. THANKS Kathrin for coming to see me....it was a lot of fun! :)

Christmas 2009 - Wild Oaks Ranch in San Antonio

This year, for Christmas the Wims/Hanna/Bosse families met at the Wild Oaks Ranch in San Antonio to celebrate. The facilities were fantastic and the kids really enjoyed using the indoor heated pool...complete with water slide! There were even outdoor pre-lit fire pits to roast marshmallows for smores. The location ended up being perfect for our group ...we really had a great time.

K loved present opening. She would open up a gift and add it to her collection which she would carry around in her arms until she opened up another to add to her pile. Each time she opened a gift, she excitedly exclaimed, "wow...this is JUST what I wanted!" It was so fun to watch her excitement!

We had lots and lots and lots of pool fun! The kids even convinced me to go to the outdoor water slide TWICE....now I must add that the outdoor temp at that time was in the low 40's. It was FREEZING as I RAN top speed to the top of to water slide....what a rush! Lots of fun! I screamed the whole way.

Decorating Christmas cookies....a yearly tradition.

Two cuties!

I took this picture of everyone who happened to be wearing white on Christmas morning....I missed the memo :)

December High-Pointing Trip

In December I went on a high-pointing trip to Mississippi (wasn't much to look at), Alabama, Georgia & South Carolina. My favorite stop was definately the climb up to Georgia's high point. The weather was really cold and snowy...it made for some great picture taking opportunities. The Tennessee high point was also on the agenda but the area had received so much snow just before the trip that we couldn't drive up to the pass to make the 13 mile snow hike. If we had attempted the climb from the base of the mountain it would have been 24 miles round trip and over a 6000 foot ascent....in the snow. That really didn't sound fun to me so I skipped that one. :)

Brasstown Bald, the Georgia climb was the best and most of these pictures are from that state.....

The views were so spectacular on this climb....everything looked like something out of a picture book to me. This was the closed ranger station towards the top of the mountain.