Weston Family: Motorcycle 2 MiniVan: December 2013

It has been a blur of a year and it appears that 2014 is almost here.

Things have been rolling along smoothly here in Casper. Our jobs are good and the kids are having a great time in Kindergarten. We have explored the area a bit and found a couple of interesting places within 20 minutes of our doorstep. The 1st one is a place called Crimson Dawn http://www.crimsondawnpark.org/ . It is a piece of land homesteaded by the Forsling family. The mother apparently entertained the kids with tales of fairies and other mystical creatures that lived among them on the mountain. She donated the land posthumously to the state to be used as a park. There are trails that take you along to the shrine of different creatures and the plaques tell the tale of each one. There was one shrine called the Dog Graveyard that is supposedly the resting place for numerous pets. The sign says that "the most famous being Sherpa, a Japanese war dog from Korea", and includes a "Tribute to the Dog" by former Senator George Graham Vest which is quite moving. The girls had a blast looking for the Topaz Witch or the Woodsman, and other creatures.

The next spot we hit later on is the Braille Trail http://www.casperwyoming.info/specmerchant.php?id=10771 . It is maintained by the Lion's Club and is a easy hike and quite fascinating. There is a fence that runs along the trail which has a rope rung to hold on to. You can grab a pair of "blackout" wraparound sunglasses at the trail head to mimic walking the trail blind. Each stop along the trail has a plaque that describes (in braille and in written word) the scenery and what the landscape is made up of. Excuse the pun, but it was an eye opening hike.

Ahhhhhhh, what a nice summer. Symphony in the park, riding our bikes, bbq... then there's fall. October 4th we hit a high of 31 degrees (record coldest high) and received 16.2 inches of snow (record daily snowfall) http://www.crh.noaa.gov/riw/?n=cpr_snow_record . We spent most of the rest of October cleaning up all the broken limbs from our yard.

The girls went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with Krista and they made off with quite the haul. This Thanksgiving was the first one for us to be away from family. We threw together a good feast and made the most of it in our new place. Now Christmas is upon us and we are mostly prepared... mostly. The house is decorated and yes, even the stockings have been hung by the chimney with care.