New Year!

its january 4th and i haven't posted since december 1st! this time has flewn by so very fast. where did i leave off? i think after my last post i got terribly sick, with a sore throat. so very wierd too, it felt at times like i had a knife in my throat, and almost like i had a cut in a very specific spot. wasn't fun, and i'm sure it made me very cranky :) to make matters worse my sickness came just before my exam week, but i made it through very well, with many prayers and lots of salt water! exams went very well. i just wanted them to be over so that we could go "home" for the holidays. in a way it seemed like i flew through them, and i had second thoughts for a while until i found out my final grades. as of this point i've got a 4.00 gpa. not sure how that is possible, but i got an a+ in ever one of my classes. i blame it on easy classes, and my prior knowledge, so we'll see how my second semester goes here. we made it through our exams, and then packed up and went "home" for the past couple weeks here. its been great, i've been able to work, and Kirstin has been able to do homework and see quite a few friends. we both had a list of things and people we wanted to see, but as the past two weeks have gone by our lists remain. we had so many things planned, but got to lacombe and just needed to relax i think. we feel so blessed by our parents on both sides of our new family. they just love us and care for us, its been an awsome visit. but by the end here things seem to be dragging and we're ready to head back to school! gasp, never thought, two weeks ago, that i would be saying that, but its true. monday we took two brothers and headed out to nordegg to do a day hiking trip on coliseum mountain. it was great, the weather was awesome, and with little snow it wasn't so hard to climb the mountain. me and kirstin had attempted an ascent last december, but only made it part way up cause of a blizzard coming in through the mountains. it was so much easier this time around, for the first time brought a foot and a half of snow, but now with only a few inches, most wind packed, we made it up in great time. the youngest brother had a harder time than the rest, but he made with it some encouragement, and was glad he did when we made it. the hike is quite easy. we barely were out of the tree line on the top of the mountain. here are a few pics from the day: view from part way up the mountain the men looking out over the mountain (the summit can be seen behind us) four of us on top of the mountain silly brothers running off the edge me doing a little bit of boot skiing heading back down the trail my lovely wife!