December Summary and End of 2012 Wrap-Up!

Whoa! Hey the year is almost over and I didn't post anything all month! What happened? Well...

Our baby boy turned 13 on the 1st and now we have a house full of teenagers (like stepping back in time about 20 years for this house...)

Technically the party we had was on the 30th of last month, but here's our Benny blowing out the candles in advance for his birthday.

Back on the 2nd we went on a hike at Hurricane Creek with some of our favorite people and played on the climbing wall for about an hour afterwards.

Pictures of that hike here and the tracklog is right here.

On the 14th Esther, Ben, Chan and I took a hike at the Wheeler Refuge on the Airport and Dinsmore Slough roads and saw more sandhill cranes. We ate raw dandelion leaves and flowers and found a turtle shell.

Pictures from that are here and the tracklog is here.

The next day, on the 15th Esther and I drove around Cullman County, found a few geocache or two, found the second highest point in the county, and wandered around the banks of Smith Lake.

Pictures from that day are here.

On the 22nd we attended a Solstice Sunrise atop Monte Sano to watch the dawn of the new baktun and to celebrate the world not ending (even though we were very sure it wasn't going to anyway.)

A few more pictures of that event are here.

On the 30th Esther and I took Gina hiking on the Wheeler Refuge again, but this time on Bean Road. It was a well needed, almost seven mile hike on the edge of the refuge. We saw fake ducks, blooming daffodils and a sun dog. 

Pictures from that are here and the tracklog proof of our efforts is right over here.

And finally, today the five of us hiked six miles at Cane Creek Canyon including making it up to "The Fin" that we had yet to visit. Cane Creek continues to be full of new things to see for us. I saved a drowning turtle, came home with a new blister and a giant bag full of turnips and greens thanks to Faye, one of the landowners. I've got the pot of green cooking down as I type this. Overall, not a terrible way to spend the last day of the year.

Pictures from our last hike of the year are here and yes, believe it or not, the tracklog is right here.

So, that's 2012. I leave you with a link to author Neil Gaiman's New Year wish from his blog.