Snowy Saturday Night

Last Saturday morning we had some snow on the ground. The sun was shining. The mountain was out. And the forecast was calling for LOTS of snow. In fact, we had a blizzard warning and the plan was to frolic in the snow in town on Saturday night and hit the hill in the morning for first chair and fresh pow.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny. My car barely had a dusting.

Even with this amount of snow, Cooper wasn't sure what to do. We had to tell him how good he was to coax him into the yard for a pee.

Cooper testing the water. Get ready for a swim, little buddy!

Since I'm a new crock pot chef, I tried my hand at some chili. We ended up with Smaltzie Waltzie Meaty Crock Pot Chili. It was a HIT with the locals. ;)

Doot-Doot

The party eventually moved from inside and warm to outside and numb. It was like drinking beer in a refrigerator.

Chad, Nicole, Sme

Snow Tom post snow kayaking

Snow Abe post snowboard tows behind Tom's truck—with a lawn mower handle

Snow Karl post snow surfing

Jim & Sam snow snuzzlin'

After a night of funnin' around, we managed to get up at 6:30am and headed for Meadows by 7. Nice work, Team Jackass Snow Sports.

The Donomann residence after our first big snow dump

The main drag of Hood River, Oak Street, all lit up and pretty in the wee hours

Unfortunately, the better day to hit the slopes would have been Saturday, rather than Sunday morning. Poops. We made the best of the freezing rain and snowment and rolled home after our legs were wiped.

Highway 35 is a beautiful drive in the sun and in the snow :)

All tuckered out. Our tree is smilin'!

Home Alone

Just me and the fuzz:

Christmas Eve Snowshoe Expedition

After putting in an eventless half-day at Summit, we were happy to get out the door into the snowed over streets of Hood River. We kicked off the quintessential white Christmas with good friends and Smaltzie's Crock Pot Chicken Stew for C-Eve dinner.

Since we got so much snow in town, the ladies decided to burn off the comfort food and cocktails with a snowshoe expedition around the Hood. We gathered the snowbooted troops and were off to enjoy the icicles, fresh icy air, knee-deep pow, falling snow, twinkling lights and beers in our pockets.

All the wonderment came to a screeching halt when we arrived on the corner of Old Man McCready's house—some SCUMBAG had littered a McDonald's bag that stuck out like a sore thumb against the pristine untouched fluffy stuff. I got mad and gave the litter the finger.

F. You. Litter.

After carousing around town, we headed home in hopes of an early-ish night—time to rest up for first chair at Meadows—Christmas Day shooshin'!

Gettin' jiggy wit it.

Steph, Andrea, Reggie, Vicki & Smaltz

The Best View in Oregon

Since mid-September, I've been saying the same thing every weekend—"Welp! This is probably our last hurrah before the snow covers all the trails and closes the forest service roads!" This made perfect sense, since Tom and I got snowed on down on South Sister (near Bend) on September 28, 2007.

We were still waiting for the snow to arrive this year until mid-December. So, we decided to take advantage of a sunny warm weekend in October by exploring a place that we haven't spent much time so far—the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.

This hike to Jefferson Park follows the Pacific Crest Trail and gains about 1500' of elevation. You can see Jeff peeking out of the trees. Coop sniffs around.

Most trail descriptions said the view from Jefferson Park Ridge was the best in Oregon and called the hike "possibly the most worthwhile hike in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area". Now there's motivation!

Cooper had a fun time running around. We weren't on the trail long when we started hitting patches of old snow.

As we reached timberline, we passed a few little frozen ponds. The terrain here was amazing and felt like the moon.

Cooper tries his luck on the little pond. Cool cairn!

The hike was challenging, but very worthwhile. We earned our lunch—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches—and then wore our tin foil as a sun visor.

My invention in use.

Bah-BAM!!!

The view from Jefferson Park Ridge is truly epic. From here, you can see Bays, Scout and Russell Lake at the foot of Mt. Jefferson. We decided that we need to backpack in here for a long weekend next summer. :)

After the hike in, Cooper was pooped and needed a little rest in the sun.

Cooper and Dad enjoying the quiet of our outstanding perch.

Red, red wine for dessert.

There's always time to play with a stick. It's a ding bat!!!

Dad and Cooper lookin' cute.

"You comin', mom?"

On our way out, we took a few minutes to climb a snowy hill so we could run down it. Cooper ran around like a bat out of hell. He gets extra crazy on snow, sand or gravel.

Rocket dog!

Up!

Cooper gets a lot of air.

Very awesome hike. We'll be back in 2009!

Welcoming Snow & Winter Birds

This weekend, we welcomed the first big snowfall of the season—on the mountains and in town. On Sunday morning, we woke up to 6 inches of white stuff outside our house, the gorge socked in with a white-gray glaze and a family of happy, hungry birds hopping around on our back porch.

This Junco settled into a spot on the snow-covered grill.

Our winter guests include mostly Dark-eyed Juncos and Scrub Jays. We have a nice bird feeder that we fill with Black Oil Sunflower Seeds. Ours is a popular snack spot in snow. It looks like a lot of fun.

Snow bird

Cooper stands guard. He wants to kiss the Juncos.

We took Coop down to the spit to run around in his first snowfall. He had a great time until he realized how numb he was. We had a beer at the pub to warm up. :) Hurray for winter!!! HURRRRAYYYYY!!!!!

Mountain Goat

Cooper just turned 8 months this week. He just started mountain goating up our stairs. CUTE!

Me & My Buddy

Last week was a toughy. Work is pretty stressful right now for a hundred reasons. I worked from home for a few hours last week during some stove repair and my little buddy was the perfect fuzzy funny little pick-me-up.


Cooper has some funny hairs squirting out on the sides of and all the way down his neck that make him look like a raptor.

He is also sprouting mountain goat hairs out of his back.


Awwww!!! Baby Cooper!

Falling for PA

Remembering the terribly HOT and HUMID weather I experienced when visiting home in August '07 (100 degrees, 100% humidity and NOT raining), I decided to plan a pleasant-weather visit home in October. It was a perfect week—the sun was shining, it was a warm 75 degrees and the fall leaves were reaching their peak. It was awesome!

My mom and Jackie (Tom's sister) picked me up from the airport on opening day for Flyers' Hockey. We went right to Geno's for cheese steaks. YES! Go Flyers!

Red-tailed Hawk

I had a fun adventure to Hawk Mountain with my sister and little buddies. We saw a ranger program that included an up-close and personal meeting with a Red-tailed Hawk and a Great Horned Owl. The kids enjoyed the scrambly hike on the Escarpment Trail. I got a cool pair of hawk earrings that Tom told me are actually seagulls. Poops.

Great Horned Owl

Binoc-ing for birds of prey

Sierra ponders what makes the leaves change color

Melis learns about lily pads

Fall color in the Lehigh Gorge

My mom and I did a few little day trips, one of which was a day out in Jim Thorpe. We took a scenic ride on the Lehigh Gorge Railroad, had lunch at "Through the Looking Glass" and toured the Packer Mansion. Highlights were the yummy brownie and the Packer Mansion. I learned a lot about the Packer family, specifically Mary Packer. She was a woman quiet ahead of her time—she married to keep control of her family estate (since women by law, were not allow to own property) and also filed the first pre-nuptual agreement in Carbon county. SMART.

Me and the train teddy

Mom on the Packer Mansion grounds

Mom enjoying the Lehigh River & fall foliage

My mom, Aunt Nikki and I took a day trip to Longwood Gardens in Kennette Square. There were some gigantic carved pumpkins, lots of flowers in bloom and cool tree houses. I even got to spend some time catching up with my friend Kelly and her little buddies.

Lotsa lilly pads livin' large

Kate, Camille, Patti, Heather, Anne, Betsy and me

I enjoyed spending a sunny day in Philadelphia. Kevin and Kim met me for lunch at the Bishop's Collar and then I got together for wine and dinner with the good old gym girls. :)

Winos

Locust Lake is crunchy

Me and mom got out for lots of walk whilst I was visiting. One of my favorites was the hike we did over at Locust Lake. We trudged through leaves, shot the sh*t and posed for pictures.

Me and Grammam

Shexy, shexy ;)

Me, Sierra, Mom, Damian, Jim, Aunt Mary, Nanny, Ray

We ended the week with a pizza party at my Aunt Mary's new house! See you in '09, PA!