Winter celebrations and hibernations

Nearly three months later, I promise I'm still here! Still taking photos, still adventuring. 2016 has been off to a rockin' and rollin' start here in Denver. I was promoted to a new position at work, so I've been keeping quite busy in that regard. This year is going to be full of international travel and learning lots of new skills and facets of higher education and the language industry. I can't wait!

On the personal side, I've signed up for another half marathon (mid-May), another year of the BolderBoulder 10k (end of May), and might still sign up for a 10-miler (end of April) and yet another half marathon (mid-June)!! Here's to a busy spring and summer of about 300 total running miles. I'm stoked. After taking two and a half months off from running for the worst of winter, I'm very happy to be getting back into a normal running schedule and training again. Something about Denver's clean, high-elevation air and having a few races coming down the pike is extra motivating this Spring. 

Besides all that, my social calendar has kept quite full, too. I was able to go home for the weekend of Christmas to visit my family, I celebrated the New Year in Denver for the first time (to much success), and I was also able to get out into Colorado's mountains for a couple of snowshoe treks in January. 

It was so nice to be home for Christmas! My sister, mom, and I made and decorated some delicious sugar cookies, and I got in lots of snuggles with my sister's dachshund, Elsa. We're all looking forward to my sister's little girl joining the family in about a month!! 

Nothing like Peppermint Schnapps + hot chocolate + whipped cream for a delicious holiday treat.

New Year celebrations in Denver with friends were a blast, and I got to get all gussied up the week after for work's annual holiday party. Here's to a great 2016!

Snowshoe treks to Brainard Lake and through the Caribou Ranch Wilderness: 

I wish I could say that was my awesome, fat-tire winter bike, but alas, it is not... Just looked cool in the scene.

BRAINSSS! I mean, Brainard lake... ;)

Hello, winter beauty!

Let's all live here, okay?

Whiskey flask selfie, mid-trek.

Frozen (and dyed?) waterfall in Idaho Springs, CO.

I got to see the Reverend Horton Heat perform in January!
Great show, enjoyed with a good friend from grad school. 

The other major news so far in 2016 is that I finally fulfilled a two-year dream to buy a new camera body! Behold, Amelia, a Nikon D7100 and the newest member of my Nikon family. She's a beauty, and such an improvement over my Nikon D60 from 2008: 

I took her on her a preliminary mini-adventure in downtown Denver, near the convention center and at Larimer Square. Check out some of her first photos. I'm thrilled to think of the amazing photos I'll take with Amelia in the future!!

Up next: a re-cap of my very recent work trip to Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea for a conference. I had a little bit of time to explore each place (with Amelia close at hand, of course), and really enjoyed my brief peek at these two incredible cities. Keep an eye out for those photos and stories, coming soon!