Hardware Ranch Jan 19th

Hi Everyone,

Hope all are doing well. It's snowing here again today. Hey, I'm not gonna knock anybody's snow. I'm glad you guys in NC got some. Our friends in Georgia even got some (a skiff, but it shut the whole state down :) ).

This weekend we went up the next canyon over to a place called Hardware Ranch. They do sleigh rides in the winter where they feed the elk that live in that valley. It was real interesting, not to mention COLD! (about 25 degrees). We were all bundled up, as you will see. The sleighs are pulled by Clydsdales. They were amazing. The guide told us that between the two horses they weighed about 4200 pd. Wow! The elk herd in that valley is about 1400 head or so. The group that they were feeding that day was about 550. An interesting fact was they woudl scatter if you get off the sleigh. So no one was allowed off. We actually got to see a pair of bulls sparing.

We had brought along a thermos of Hot choc for afterwards. It was great!

"Reflections" District Winner

Hi-everyone.

Every year our school system has a contest with such categories as Dance/music, 3-D/Visual arts, Photography, and literature called "The Reflections Progam." This year Rhiannon entered a 3-D Visual art project. She worked many days/afternoons under the guiadance of John's Mom (who does a lot of crafty things-anything from oil painting to stained glass to pottery among others). Here is a picture of her project. None of these pictures really shows the amount of effort that went into this project. Rhiannon used collage from magazines for the mountains. She used real sand to glue to the path. The grass was painted using watercolor and the "trash" on the ground is actual bits of paper and straws and things that she glued on. She even made the clothes for her "person" herself.

In November, she won an "award of excellence" (first place in her grade) for her school and the project went on to the district level. Last night, we went to the awards ceremony, where she got an "honorable mention." She was exicited to be chosen for this award.

She got a certificate, a $1 gold coin, and a choc/raspberry candybar called, "A one dollar bar." Afterwards, we went to Kirt's ( a local drive-in) for a tasty treate of ice cream. It was only about 20-degrees outside, but that is what the girls wanted.

Of course, Morgan couldn't resist getting into some of the pictures, too.

Our love to everyone.

2:30PM 01/09/08 snow!!!!

The snow is still coming down. I just can't believe it. Check these pictures out.

It is now up above the swings on the girls swingset. Here's the latest depth. All that is visible of the Honda passport....part of a mirror.

Don't know if it will ever end..... I kind a like it myself :), but that's just because I don't have to drive anywhere to go to work.

Love to everyone. Amy

More january snow

Here's the Honda, again. Better test of the depth

Here's our snow depth.... This is looking down from the front porch after John had made one swipe with the snowblower.

John is out snowblowing... trying to clear a pathway to get to work. Don't know when the snowplow will make it down our road, probably not until tomrrow. That is usually the case. The girls decided to use the table as a snow-fort. I think it's as close as they are going to get to building one this year... who knows. It could do this some more though.

I'll try to add these other photos now. Much love to everyone.

January Snow

Hi everyone.
Well, we have had a snow like none seen (at least in the last couple of years... since 2003 when Morgan was born). There are parts of Ogden, especially over in Eden (the next valley) that had over 18" of snow last night. (not counting what was already there.) I'm going to try to add some pictures of the snow now. Hope everyone is doing good.

Love.. The Fritschles.

January 2008

Hello to all our friends and family. We hope that you had a merry X-mas and a happy New Year's. We are all doing well and trying to get back into some sort of a schedule. We have had a lot of snow since the beginning of December. Just yesterday we got about 6-8". It was sure pretty coming down. I'll try to get some pictures on soon.

We would love to hear from you.