Merry Christmas 2008. We have been blessed with a white Christmas and we were able to go cross country skiing a couple of hundred yards from our home. We had a wonderful day lounging with the family.

Iceskating/rollerskating rink at Squaw

Squaw Valley Trip

Golf at Squaw August 2008

big news!!!!!!!!!!

i recently had the opportunity to visit scott and shellie in gilbert, az and found out about the new addition to their family!!! congrats guys!



okay, just kidding. we were just reviewing some of monte's pictures from his digital camera and i was trying to teach shellie how to upload pics on the blog.

Rollin on the River

Hi family! i thought i'd post some photos from work since i haven't been able to talk to you all much. Life is good down here. I live in a trailer with 15 other girls. there is a boys trailer about 30 feet from our's, which makes for some classic summer-camp/dorm style living. As a first year guide, most of what we do is the "daily"- a 13 mile day long trip that starts around 9 am and ends around 3 pm. It's about a 30 minute drive from town and we use the small red paddle boats you see in the pictures. I've been lucky enough to do some multi-day trips, which are usually on the row boats.






this is on an overnight trip we do near Moab. In the background are Fisher towers.














typical pretty night on the riv

Happy (very) belated birthdays Alaina & Ryan!!

I never got around to sending anything for Laney and Ryan's b-days (or Christmas for that matter- haha, Tristan and Matt I promise you'll get your gifts some day!), but here's some cute pics of them you can look at!




they really love each other


this is a few years old of Laney.

this is actually a really funny story... Ryan kept trying to attack the cat

classico.

Vero Beach

As you probably know, Dad loves the three of us more than any of the rest of you, and therefore, he took Scott, Andrew, and myself down to Florida last weekend for an awesome trip. We got to visit Holman Stadium, and the entire Dodgers spring training complex. We got up close and personal with many of the star players; Dad even got to work one on one with Brad Penny to help perfect his curve ball. We stayed in Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, and Satellite Beach. Along with seeing the Dodgers play, we also got to visit the beach, watch an Astros-Nats game, eat fried frog legs, and see an alligator! We really had a good time, thanks again Dad!! We owe you big time.

up close with the Boys in Blue

sorry Shellie, I tried to deter them...


Dad's new pet pelican

supporting the cause

well, since no one else in my immediate family seems to have caught on to blogging, i guess i'll continue to carry the weight of our nielson family blog by publishing most of the posts. some people had asked about blogs of extended family members, i don't know how to permanently put a link on the side bar, but here they are if you're interested:


http://brianandcalliehill.blogspot.com/
http://sethillama.blogspot.com/ (cousin Seth's-- one of my personal favs)
http://brohill.blogspot.com/ (Brad & Lupe)
http://adamandkarentracy.blogspot.com/ (cousin Karen & her husband)
http://lafamiliahill.blogspot.com/ (cousin Scott & his family)
http://scottandsasha.blogspot.com/
http://daveanddana.blogspot.com/
http://danielandrobin.blogspot.com/ (okay they're not family, but Robin (formerly Salas) just had her baby, if you wanna see some photos of the little guy)

Most of the David and Brad Hills are represented here. Not sure if Uncle Al & Aunt Kate, or Aunt Dianne are into the blogging thing, but let me know if they have pages! I don't want to leave anyone out due to ignorance. maybe seeing how good some of our family blogs are, you'll be inspired to post something! in the mean time, i put some old random photos up, beware some of them are a few years old! some of the grandkids look a lot younger in these, and some of the uncles (not mentioning any names- Andrew) look a few lbs lighter. haha. love, b





i absolutely love this pic of Christian at Lake Tahoe, this is from a couple summers ago, i went to visit them when i was living in Elko

Kathleen, Aunt Dianne, and me just this past Thanksgiving '07


Classic shot of Grant at the Imperial Beach Reunion, i believe July of '05


cute shot of Scott and Monte at a Dodgers Game, summer '05

the seldom seen Danny, Thanksgiving '06

B @ work

hey fam, i thought i'd post a bunch of photos from ski patrol up so you could all see and know what i do all day. i love my job!

this first shot was taken on a super pretty day a couple weeks ago. there was a crazy inversion going on (when the valleys are really gross and overcast and the mountains are above it all, so it's gorgeous and sunny)

this is a bomb that we use in avalanche control work. it's a 2- pound hand charge. (it doesn't have any cap or fuse attached to it in this photo, it's not yet assembled)

this is one of my favorite dogs. they are super fun to work with and we do drills all the time to keep their searching skills sharp


i broke a ski last week and i was super bummed. hopefully i can get it replaced for free or cheap. i was going too fast in a bumpy, deep section and took a pretty bad tumble. i'm glad it was my ski and not my leg!




this is when AirMed (one of the emergency care helicopters in Utah) came to do some training. if an injury is severe enough, we will actually call AirMed or Life Flight to land on the resort and fly the patient to a trauma center hospital

another pretty day




all 3 of our avalanche rescue dogs: Mick, Oakley, & Chloe


this vid shows me igniting a 4-lbs air blast. it was my first time doing a double (we usually only do 2-pounders) and also my first time throwing the tomahawk. usually they are not attached to sticks like this.

this video shows the results of the bomb i threw; a pretty decent sized avalanche, you can't see much with the picture quality but it ran probably a good 1/2 mile down the chute