Long Distance Relapse

Tonight I'm having a big pity party because Drew is leaving tomorrow. He's going to the Cascades for a Wilderness EMT course that lasts 4 weeks. Coincidentally, the location where the training takes place (Lake Diabl0, about 3 hours from Seattle) is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen- check out Google images. Even though I'm bummed about him being gone I'm really excited about this experience he's going to have. He's been studying for the past few weeks in preparation and asking me lots of medical questions. It's really cool that we'll be able to relate to each other in a new way after this training. And it will be nice to have someone around who knows how to handle emergency situations in the wilderness. When he gets home he'll be looking for a job in search and rescue, firefighting, or ski patrol. With him leaving I feel like I did back in college when we were long distance and I had to say bye to him at the end of the weekend. My only consolation is that I'll get to keep the house really clean while he's gone and be in charge of the remote.

Last weekend my parents came for a quick ski trip. When they got here on Friday afternoon we greeted them with a full growler from Left Hand Brewery and gave them a walking tour of our neighborhood. That evening we walked to Main St for dinner and spent the rest of the night watching Warren Miller movies to get pumped up for skiing. We rode at Keystone Saturday, spent the afternoon in the hot tub at our hotel, and then skied again Sunday. We came home Sunday evening and crashed. Monday we took them to Rabbit Mountain open space up near Lyons where there are nice hiking trails and great views of the Flat Irons and Boulder Valley, then took them to the airport. The trip was short but sweet and we were so glad to get to spend time with my parents.

Drew's fun fact: The ant, when intoxicated, will always fall over to its right side.

Hidden Valley

Happy New Year! We ended 2010 by going on a backcountry adventure in Rocky Mountain National Park. Our friends Shane and Christine took us to do a little backcountry riding at this area called Hidden Valley. According to Shane, back in the day it was all the rage for National Parks to have ski resorts. Hidden Valley opened in RMNP in 1955. Then, years later, ski resorts in the National Parks fell out of favor and Hidden Valley closed in 1991. Now the area is used for backcountry skiing. The road that takes you to the top of the runs is closed in the winter because of all the snow. Christine drove us up as far as the road was open and dropped us off where it closed. When we got out of the car it was -1 degrees outside with a windchill down to -20. This was the first time I've ever been in negative degrees. We had to hike about a mile and a half to get to the area where you can drop in. It was a pretty flat hike, but still very tiring due to the elevation (10,000-11,000 ft), the cold, the wind, the knee deep snow (in some places), and the snowboard I was carrying. Even though it was tiring I was glad to be hiking because it kept us warm. At one point, Drew turned around and looked at me and said "your snot is frozen to your face." All I could picture is that scene in Dumb and Dumber when they're on that little motorcycle trying to make it to Aspen. After what seemed like forever, we finally got to an area where we could drop in and ride. The trees were pretty tight, but there was more powder than I could've dreamed of. Almost too much powder. The problem with riding powder is that you have to go fast to be able to make your turns. This is tough to do in the midst of trees. I spent a lot of time on my butt buried in snow, but it was well worth the adventure. It seemed like the ride down was harder than the hike up. We finally made it back to the car safe and sound. Our hair was frozen and our faces were red, but we felt great. My numb toes proceeded to regain feeling, which was the most painful part of the whole day. Now, hours later, they still ache. I'm sure this excursion sounds like no fun to most people, but the work and discomfort were well worth being present in the beauty of winter in the mountains. Cheesy, but true, and a great way to end the year.

This is the only picture we took today. It was taken with my cell phone where we were dropped off at the road closure. We didn't have our camera with us because the battery was dead, but even if we did we wouldn't have been able to take any pictures because it was too cold to take our mittens off. Also to report, we got about 6 inches of snow in Longmont over the past 2 days. I drove in the snow for the first time and got to shovel snow for the first time. I was so excited I shoveled our sidewalk, kept going and shoveled our neighbors sidewalk, and ended up shoveling the rest of the block. This morning, someone in the neighborhood with a big snow blowing machine came and did the whole street. I guess random acts of kindness really do get payed forward.

Drew's fun fact: The largest snowflake recorded was fifteen inches in diameter.

Powder

Today I had a supernatural experience... powder. And I'm not talking about the movie about the creepy super-pale little boy with telepathic powers. I'm talking about freshies, as the locals call it. For the first time today I was able to truly experience the wonder of riding on powder. It's like floating on butter, or clouds, or magic. The only problem is that you have to ski some pretty tough runs full of moguls and trees in order to find the few spots of powder. But I'm told it only gets better since the good snow doesn't really come until February or March. This Christmas, instead of dreaming of dancing sugar plums I will be dreaming of powder, powder, and more powder.

Drew's fun fact: The movie "Powder", made in 1995, was directed by Victor Salva who was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old child actor in 1988.

AC/DC Thanksgiving

Drew and I had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year, which really doesn't mean much because Drew's mom did all the cooking. It was so much fun having it at our house, especially because we not only had Drew's parents here but also my brother-in-law Devon and our friends Sean and Lori. The day was filled with the usual AC/DC antics including Devon and Sean getting "iced", me trying to sit on a chair that wasn't there and falling on the floor, Bogey puking from eating too much table scraps, and me stepping in doggy "unpleasants" and tracking it all through the house. We also didn't buy enough oil to cover the turkey in the fryer, but luckily our friend Lori randomly had some cooking oil in her car and saved the day. What are friends for? When we finally sat down to eat we all got the giggles. All I remember of our dinner conversation is that Devon said his bald spot was sweating. Post-dinner activities included Drew and Devon playing music, Sean sleeping on the couch in my apron, and a walk in our neighborhood that ended with Christmas caroling... all in all a great Thanksgiving.

Drew's fun fact: Turkeys have heart attacks. The United States Air Force was doing test runs and breaking the sound barrier. Nearby turkeys dropped dead with heart attacks.

Crash

I did a bad thing. This Saturday we went snowboarding at Keystone and I crashed into a skier. Actually, a skier crashed into me, but it was my fault. The skier was going kinda slow through this narrow run and I didn't want to slow down for him. I tried to pass him, a little too close, and he turned into me. I got slammed into the snow and now I have whiplash. It was just like on Pointbreak (my favorite movie) when the local surfer gets mad at Keanu Reeves for crashing into him on the wave (except we didn't get into a fist fight). So all day I've been whining to Drew and laying in bed with a heating pad. The injury was totally worth it though because we had so much fun on the mountain. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on who's reading this) we didn't get any pictures of my crash, but we did get some nice pictures of Drew and Hunter modeling their new snowboards.

Drew's fun fact: Keanu means 'cool breeze over the mountains.'

Winter Wonderland

We had our first snow this week! The only time I've ever seen snow was on vacation so this whole week has felt like vacation, especially since we get to go snowboarding again tomorrow! It's so strange to be able to hop in the car and drive to the ski resorts- Drew's done it about 4 or 5 times since the mountains opened. We woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground yesterday, and, of course, we were unprepared (we went through 2 hurricane seasons in Fort Lauderdale without owning a flashlight, why should we start being prepared now?). We had no snow shovel or windshield scraper. Drew went out in his underwear to sweep the snow off my windshield with a broom- now that's love.

My job is still going really well. Last week a 93 year old man pointed to the stethoscope around my neck and said "that makes you look important." Another 91 year old man said "what's up doc" then asked me to give him something to "put him down". And today an 80-something year old lady did "the itsy bitsy spider" up and down my arm. Old people are so cute.

The only other thing to report is that the city of Longmont built an ice-skating rink in the park down the street from our house- how awesome is that!?! And Drew's parents and my brother-in-law Devon are coming for Thanksgiving, can't wait to see some family...

Drew's fun fact: A single snowstorm can drop 40 million tons of snow, carrying the energy equivalent to 120 atom bombs.

Slacking Off

Today I got home from work 2 hours early (love my job!) so Drew and I went to the park in our neighborhood to play frisbee, slack-line, and enjoy the beautiful fall day. It quickly became apparent that Drew has had some free time lately because all of a sudden he's really good at slack-lining. He can walk across the whole line without falling, while I can't even get up without almost choking Drew to death while he helps me up. After watching this I'm pretty sure he'll never have a problem passing a field sobriety test (not that he would ever have a problem anyway).

After that we let Bogey embrace his wild side. We let him off the leash to chase some squirrels, but he just ended up playing hard to get with Drew.

Drew's fun fact: In Fruita, CO, the town folk celebrate 'Mike the Headless Chicken Day'. Seems that a farmer named L.A. Olsen cut off Mike's head on September 10, 1945 in anticipation of a chicken dinner - and Mike lived for another 4 years without a head.