Our First Ski Trip

My Christmas present to Keith was an Arctic Adventure - a trip full of skiing, waterparking, and general bumming around. We drove up to Kellogg, Idaho to stay at the Morning Star Lodge at Silver Mountain. It had been years since Keith went skiing or snowboarding, and I had never gone before. (Well, that's not entirely true. I went once in high school and had a miserable time. Why? Because I was so hot the entire time, since I was bundled head-to-toe. And my nemesis the rope-tow did not help either. But that is for another time.)

Once we arrived to the lodge, we checked in and then explored. There was an indoor water park associated with the lodge, to which we had weekend passes. We hadn't packed any swimsuits (it is freezing winter of the Palouse!), so we had to purchase some at the water park. It was such a blast to splash around, floating on intertubes, and going down crazy waterslides. One of the slides actually curved outside of the building, but I didn't notice since I had my eyes closed the entire time!

After splashing around and relaxing in the hot tub, we found a cute restaurant and had dinner. Then it was off to sleep, so we could attack the mountain in the morning!

In the morning we purchased our lift tickets and away we went...up the mountain via the World's Longest Gondola! It was pretty impressive and the views were fantastic. When Keith and I finally made it to the top, we rented our boots, poles, and skis. And then the terror began. Even though I had promised to be willing partner in this adventure, I was so scared! The packed snow made everything feel like it was moving fast.

We made our way to the bunny slope, where I promptly fell just trying to ski a little bit down the hill. The kids on the hill looked like naturals compared to my stiff-legged and stiff-armed approach! Keith skied down the hill, just to refresh himself on the technique and to show me that it wasn't going to be bad. Besides, how bad could it be since there was no rope-tow...only a carpet-tow!?! On his way down, Keith fell once and was so cute showing me that it wasn't bad at all! But on his way down, he ended up tweaking his knee turning.

So we headed inside to get some cocoa and to collect ourselves. But the longer we waited, the more Keith's knee continued to swell!! In the end we abandoned the remainder of our day and headed back down to the lodge. We haven't given up though, we plan to return...and this time I am planning on ski lessons! Thankfully the outdoor hot tub was running when we got back, and we took a quick dip to help ease our bodies. We left that night, as a snowstorm was headed our way...and it was already snowing heavily in Pullman (a 2.5 hour drive away in good weather). That evening we went to one of our favorite restaurants in Moscow, The Red Door. As always the food was excellent! The bonus of returning home early...we got to sleep in our own bed!

All in all it was a fun adventure and I got to share it with my best friend. (note: Keith's knee got better - after a few days of rest)

Our First Christmas Alone

This winter has been an interesting one. We are continuing to mourn the loss of our cat, Echo, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly (see previous post). Another interesting time has been spending our very first Christmas with just the two of us! Keith and I have always been blessed to spend it with our family, either mine or his, for Christmas. We actually had already celebrated Christmas with my dad the week before, when we was out visiting. And thankfully he was able to fit all of our gifts into his Prius to drive back over to Western Washington!

A wall of gifts to send westward, they didn't fit under our tree!

Even when we moved down to Tucson, there was traveling done. However, this year with my senior vet school schedule, it was not possible to go back to Port Orchard to see our family. So it was just us two and our kittens celebrating in Pullman.

Tavia examines the presents to find any for her (her's were in cats' stocking!).

Bun is ready to have some Pocky, like a good kitten!

So what did we do? Well, we waited up until midnight on Christmas Eve and opened a single present each. Then we went to bed and slept until 9am on Christmas morning. This was a rare Christmas treat, as we knew our nieces would have the rest of Keith's family up no later than 6am. I made breakfast and we started opening our presents. We definitely missed the traditional sausage fondue that Keith's mom makes for special holidays! Presents were fun to open, as always, but we definitely missed watching our family's reaction to the gifts we picked out for them.

Keith loves Oriental things! Yea anime!

At around 10am, we Skyped Keith's family and got to see his parents, his sisters, and our two nieces. It was so wonderful to see them, even though it made our hearts ache to not be able to be there in person. Even still, it was so good to see them and talk to them for a little bit.

One of my presents from Keith - it's what I've always wanted. Too bad he beat me in the first game, but I came back and won the second one.

After cleaning up around the house, I took a nap while Keith played with his new toys (a GPS and a new PS3 soccer game). We are very thankful for the GPS, which should be very helpful in our anticipated move to undisclosed location. We haven't tried it out yet, but have already figured out how to work it (for the most part!)

Keith learning to use the GPS.

Then I called my dad and got to talk to him for a while, which is always great. It was so much fun and I did so much baking! I got some fantastic new baking toys, for which I was super excited. (I also got some super cute herb markers, but Pullman weather doesn't really allow for winter gardening)

Cute pocket pie molds from Williams-Sonoma...now I just gotta figure out how to not burn them! At least they looked good going into the oven.

Even though it was sad to not spend Christmas with our families, it was still nice to have time together and celebrate Christmas in our home. Keith and I especially like to take advantage of the time we get together, as our disparate schedules keep us busy! Although my dad's Christmas present will definitely help keep us connected - new Blackberry phones. Texting has never been easier!

We love you Echo

This morning our sweet kitty Echo (aka. Big Guy, Little Man, Nekko Wafer, Spectrospkitty, and many others) passed away.  It was definitely unexpected.  



We love and miss him, every moment.  We thank God for all the time we got with him and being blessed to have him as a part of our family.  He will always be our little boy.