Thanksgiving, Mount Olympus, and a Christmas Tree!

We have really enjoyed our 5 day weekend for Thanksgiving break! It's been nice to relax, spend more time together, and get ahead on some work (for one of us, at least).
We spent Thanksgiving with friends from Church.  Everyone brought a dish or two to pass and we enjoyed delicious food, football, and talking together.
Yesterday, we decided to hike Mount Olympus. It's a 4000 foot climb. The peak is over 9000 feet high. It ended up being very slow going because the snow towards the top had turned to ice. We were slipping and sliding a lot. We used a lot of trees to pull our selves up. Since we got a late start (we had to see the end of the Michigan vs. Ohio State game---GO BLUE!), we weren't able to make it to the top. We turned around about a 1/2 mile from the top to avoid going down on the ice in the dark. Going down was interesting. I crouched down and slid down on my feet for a lot of the icy parts. Todd  had a few good wipe-outs! The last 40 minutes of the hike were in the dark with headlamps. It was really pretty to watch the sun set over the mountains and see all of the lights in the valley.
Today we got our Christmas tree. We got a small one--about the same height as me! It smells wonderful.

On our way up

Taking a break towards the top

The view of the valley

On the way down--sun is beginning to set

Salt Lake in the distance

DARK!! Using the head lamps.

Our first Christmas tree!

We can't wait until our Christmas travels! We excited to see friends and family!