This year has been busy. We took one short trip to Los Angeles at the end of May to see REM in concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was as awesome as the trip we took there last year.
The morning after the concert we decided to drive along Mullholland Drive on the top of the mountain range just north of Hollywood. It is super narrow and windy with all kinds of expensive houses in all the canyons down the sides. It was kind of like driving up to Jerome but with a lot more houses. After a while on the windy road we went down Coldwater Canyon into Beverly Hills. Most of the cars were more expensive than our house. We worked our way west and ended up at Will Rogers State Park Beach. It was nice quiet beach for a Friday morning.
In August we went on a camping trip with a couple of my co-workers and their families. We went to the Chiricahua Mountains in SE Arizona. The campground we stayed at was at about 8500 feet so it was nice and cool and we didn't get any rain. When Kelly and I first got there we went for a short hike. Here I am being goofy!
Actually we were greeted by a rattlesnake as we first set out for the hike, only about 50 feet from our campsite. He let us know he was there and we went the other way, letting him go his. Later in the afternoon we had a deer walk past near the edge of the campsite, browsing for food. She was cute and quiet and not too fazed by us. 
The next day we went on a hike with my co-worker and her boys. The littler one kept picking up rocks and soon was ready to head back. He was only 5 so his short legs had trouble keeping up. The older boy is 9 and kept up with Kelly and I the rest of the way. He was fascinated that we could find raspberries growing along the road in some of the older burned out areas. We found just enough so that everybody got 1 berry.
My big present last year was a spinning wheel from Kelly. It is an Ashford Traveler. I like it quite a bit although I haven't used it as much as I would like. Margi has recently gotten more interested in it when I spin. She also found that she can pull yarn off the bobbins as they sit on the bottom pegs before I ply them together.
This fall I participated in a Mystery Spin-Along. We received a big bag of fiber and then 12 clues to spin up. It was a food-themed spin-along so each clue was a recipe. Pictured below is Salmon Capricio.
I've only finished 2 of the 12 recipes so I have plenty more spinning to do!
This year I knit my first adult sweater and Kelly was the lucky recipient. It is a tweedy green and took me about 8 months to knit. Of course in that time I knit plenty of other projects. You can always check out what I'm up to at the other blog. I try to write a couple of times a month.
Work has been much the same. Kelly is thinking about going to school next semester and maybe next year we'll have some news along that line.
Hope you have a Happy Holiday and a Healthy New Year!
Alene
