Whistler, BC

{March 2012}

Along with our friends the Newgards, we took a week long trip to Whistler. We had to learn to ride in powder up to our knees!! A few pictures from the trip. Thank you for a wonderful time! Hope to make something happen in 2013!

 

In the Peak to Peak Gondola

The boys sharing their sushi

February

February came and went! What a month! Valentine's Day and my birthday...I am one loved gal!

A hike to the summit of Tiger Mountain overlooking Lake Sammamish with Brandon!

Brandon and I got to celebrate Valentine's Day. I barely got the night off work....but gratefully I did and it did not disappoint! At El Gaucho before viewing a movie at Big Picture!

 Valentine's Day at Woodinville Wineries...chocolate and wine = a perfect combination!

Celebrated at Cactus with friends! Thanks Sarah, Colleen, Annie Rose, Meagan, Cly'ta and Brooke for coming out!

 ...then continued the night at La Luna. 

Annie Rose, Brooke, me and Meagan at La Luna

Friendship Roses

Christine & Tom drove up from Portland to help celebrate Saturday! My sister made one of our favorite dishes, short ribs over pasta with chocolate shavings on top! Thanks for helping make my birthday special!

Great food, great wine, great people! Thanks Gramma, Grampa, Tom and Linda for helping celebrate!

My new birthday wine glasses..we couldn't help do a taste test between the 'old' glasses and my new fine crystal Cabernet Sauvignon glasses. Wow what a difference a glass made specifally for each grape varietal makes! I love wine even more!!!!! Thanks Mom, Dad and Christine!!!

iPhone family photo...is there any other way? 

The boys!

                          Mom got in on the bowling!                     Thanks to the soon-to-be bride!!!

Brandon and I skirted down to Portland for a night on the town with Christine!!! We also went to watch our niece perform with the Action Athletics!!

My coworkers delighted me in another birthday celebration at Big Whisky in Tacoma! It was a great night complete with tons of country dancing! Thank you to everyone who came out! Jaime, Keja, Meghan, Jo, Cindy, Jen, Jessica, Tiffany, and Bethany... I had way too much fun pretending I could dance country!

Jaime made Jessica and me these cute maskes. Happy Birthday co-birthday Jessica!

Tiffany knows how to get down on the dance floor. She kept me company all night long!

 Thanks Beth for the pretty boquet of roses!

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THIS YEARS BRINGS!!! Up next, Whistler!!!

A Week of Snow!

Sunday's snowfall around the Puget Sound meant 1 thing: SNOW dumping in the mountains! With all the new snow we decided to jump on the opportunity to shred some powder! Monday at Crystal did not disappoint!

 

Our friends, Tiffany and Kory, joined us for an amazing day. Although you can not tell in this picture, the sun was trying to peek through the clouds the entire day, making visibiltiy good!

  

Many of our runs included finding untouched powder through the gorgeous snow capped trees!!! One word: AWESOME

  

End of the day: resting tired legs while sipping your beverage of choice in the warm lodge!

 Thanks Brandon for making our trip to Crystal super fun and enjoyable. A full 9-6 day, for sure!

      After snowboarding, I had to work 3 shifts in the NICU. Unfortunately, I had to drive in one of the worst ice storms ever. We cannot handle snow!!!! Once the pretty snow falls, it quickly melts, but then the night time temperature freezes the melting snow. I have figured that in my 5 1/2 years working at TG, I have had to work almost every snow day!!!!! But, it's not all complaints over here! We did get to have a little snow fun! After my last night working, I took a quick nap Thursday and went for a walk. What a scary walk! Every 3 seconds frozen branches were falling around us; I think we saw 2 trees fall. Downed trees and bushes are everywhere. The pictures from my prior post and this post are night & day! 2 things I am thankful for: I made it safely to and from work, and we did not lose power during this crazy snow ~ ice storm.

Our winter walk to Lake Wildnerness. Such destruction from the ice!



Such beautiful, but destructive icicles!

 Brandon demonstrating; he is an angel!

Here's to hoping and praying, no more ice storms this year!!!



{ First Snowfall of the Year }

Usually, I pray for the snow gods to go away because it seems that EVERY time it snows, I have to drive the treacherous roads to Tacoma!! Well, 'if you can beat them, join them' right? It just so happened, I didn't have to work tonight....so we embraced the snow with open arms!!!! A walk along the snowcovered trail....which always happens to lead to Starbucks!

My excitement might also be because snow here means snow in the mountains...which means more boarding for us!!!! Here's to hoping we get to shred some awesome {pow} this winter! ;)

{ Lower Gold Creek Basin Snowshoeing Adventure }

As my last post indicated, I discovered snowshoeing is awesome! So I made sure I did it again right away! I invited my friend Tiffany to come along; she also loves all things adventurous, sporty and fun! After a thorough online hike search and checking the avalanche danger report...we strapped on our snowshoes and headed out onto the easy 4 mile round trip Lower Gold Creek Basin trail, elevation gain 400 feet. Piece of cake, right?. Well, we followed the WTA.org website's instructions, making sure to head on down around Mardee Lake for some fun. Make a longer story shorter...well we didn't realize the WTA.org website wasn't actually guiding us to the Lower Gold Creek Trail...so we ended up hiking around the basin (Mardee Lake) and enjoying the beautiful snow capped mountains (Kendall Peak and Rampart Ridge) of the Cascades! In our search to find the actual trail, we hiked the basin road twice, making our hike 8 miles long! Oh well, its the exercise I wanted! Plus, it was a beautiful, clear day! Thanks for a fabulous time.

Mardee Lake in the foreground; Kendall Peak in background and Rampart Ridge to the east!
Our initial hike was supposed to head to the base of Kendall Peak way back in the background of this picture.