Oh Beautiful Day!

Fabulous skiing (& snowboarding) this weekend! Down low conditions weren't that great, but the upper chair broke through the cloud ceiling and we spent the rest of the day under clear, sunny skies.

Riding the chairlift with my dad - Dave was riding up with Derek a couple chairs behind. I love Dave because he can tackle a double black run, but still hasn't found a way to get off the chairlift gracefully :)

Dave has come along way with snowboarding since we first met and it's been so fun having this hobby to share.

 

I only wish I had gotten a picture of Dave after his spectacular face plant/head-first tumble... unfortunately he didn't want to sit on the hill with snow in every crevice while I dug the camera out of my pocket, Maybe next time!

As I write this, it's almost 60 degrees outside...

Dave and I would like to file a complaint. The weather this winter has been too nice. As a native of the Pacific Northwest, I am not sure how to cope with these warm sunny days... Where is the cold? Where is the moisture? Apparently Tim and Cindy stole it when they moved down to Texas :)

As season pass holders, Dave and I are anxiously waiting for temperatures to drop and the clouds to roll in. The mountains are a little too bare for our liking. Nightly blizzards would be awesome. Snow just once a week would be good too, especially on Friday nights, but we won't be picky...

In the mean time, you'll find us on the mountain each weekend (cause we've already paid for it!) sun, rain or snow. Hopefully next week will be the latter.

Happiness is being in Seattle on a sunny day...

Ahhh... such nice weather we've been having! Just 10 degrees warmer would and it would feel like July instead of February.

This is where I ate lunch this afternoon. If I hadn't been wearing a skirt, I would lie on the table like that man - soak up some vitamin D!

Good Morning Mt. Rainier!

Coming into work early in the morning isn't as bad when it looks like this outside - gosh I love it here!

Solving Life's Mysteries...

Have you ever wondered why a grapefruit is called a "grapefruit" when it looks or tastes nothing like grapes?

Thanks to the back of Dave's instant oatmeal pacakge, now I know it's because they grow in clusters like... grapes!

Still to figure out: Why does the logo for Brown Bear Car Wash have a yellow bear? Whe doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle? And why do the bottoms of Dave's shirts always roll up in the washer, making them a PAIN to iron?

Kneaders

On Saturday morning we went out to breakfast at Kneaders with my sisters Amy and Natalie. We all ordered the cinnamon french toast - delicious!

While this is not a flattering picture of either of us, there is a good story connected to this moment:

Earlier a piece of french toast fell off my fork onto the ground. I grabbed a napkin, swiped it up and left it on the table. When we were cleaning up to leave, I noticed the napkin with the floor-bite was empty. It was then I realized that Dave, having eaten all of his french toast, decided to use the floor-bite for the picture. Too bad no one told me. Does the 5 second rule apply to restaurant floors and food covered in syrup?

Quick trip down to Utah

This weekend we returned to Provo for a couple days. While there I was able to see my sisters, Amy and Natalie, and Amy's new baby Anne.

Anne and I were both having trouble with sticking-out hairs that day :)

She was such a good baby while we were visiting. We hardly ever heard her cry, and she is starting to stay awake for longer periods of time. I'm glad we got a chance to visit and see her before she starts getting big!

On our trip Dave and I also learned that we can fit on a twin bed. I had my doubts, but we actually slept pretty good and no one fell off the edge in the night. Thanks for putting us up for a couple nights Amy & Jeremy!

Welcome to Washington Stanley!

Last week Flat Stanley was here visiting from my niece in Texas.

The day Stanley arrived it was pouring rain. The first thing I did was had him laminated so he wouldn't disintegrate the moment we stepped outside. Once he was waterproof, we set off to visit the Space Needle. With his lack of suntan and North Face fleece, Stanley practically looked like a local.

Later in the week the weather cleared up so I took Stanley down to the waterfront. We watched cars unload from an arriving ferry, chased some seagulls, and strolled in and out of shops. While we were exploring, I found a bunch of picnic tables at the end of pier 56. I am really looking forward to warmer weather so I can enjoy my lunch hour down on the water with a good book!

On our way home we stopped at Pike Place Market to look at the vendor booths, and we bought some kumquats (I love to say that word) and honey straws.

Over the weekend, we brought Stanley with us to the cabin for a ski trip. Most of the time he was squished upside-down in my pocket, but he was able to get out for a couple pictures by the chairlift and in front of the lodge.

I had a lot of fun seeing the sights and getting reacquainted with my own city - thanks for sending Flat Stanley to us Ally (& HAPPY BIRTHDAY)!!

Looking for a date idea?

Today the weather in Seattle is absolutely beautiful. During my lunch I went down to the waterfront to take a walk. At the pier by the aquarium I saw this sign:

I didn't even know there was such a thing! If only Dave and I had known it was happening this past weekend... Actually, you couldn't pay me a million dollars to do this. I like diving, but I would never want see what lives at the bottom of the Puget Sound.

In case you're wondering (like I was) what an"octopus census" entails, here's what get's recorded on the official Giant Pacific Octopus Census Data Sheets:

• Location of the dive site
• Depth of the dive
• Den type
• General size of the octopus
• How many octopi were seen
• Was the octopus sitting on eggs (I am wondering how on earth you check this - poke it with a stick??)

Good stuff!

Do you see what I see?

Looking at this photo you might be thinking, "What is that supposed to be a picture of? The only thing I see are some dark blobs, relatively humanoid in shape."

That's all we could see too. This weekend we went skiing in the thickest fog EVER. At 10 feet, people, trees, etc were visable as dark shadows; Beyond that, you couldn't see anything at all. Everything just disappeared into the mist...

The only way I managed to stay with Dave that afternoon was to listen for the sounds of a scraping snowboard whenever he hit a patch of ice. Luckily there were plenty of ice patches for him to hit so we never got separated for long.