Vancouver 2010

She's got the whole world..in her hands!

One truck, 4 friends, lots of skis and Olympic fever! Here's a little update of our Vancouver trip last week. I'll try to write more later...

Kevin, Mel, Neal & Me - Vancouver Skyline

WHISTLER/BLACKCOMB

eVERYONE HAS THE rIGHT TO:

sEND iT, sQUIB iT, jIB iT, lIVE iT!

(yes Mel and I both got gold medals for being being awesome ;)

We started the trip in Seattle for a day and a half, took a ferry to Bainbridge and explored what part of Seattle we could in our short time. Monday we were off to Vancouver where we got to ski Whistler, see a USA-Norway hockey game, a few medal cermonies and concerts which included Matisyahu and Feist (would not recommend the later..SO boring!) The streets were filled with Olympic fever. I've never been to Mardi Gras, but I imagine it was similar except for all over the city. Canadians are so friendly and we found such great people up there! The only down part to the trip was getting to any on-hill events. They closed the canyons from 6 a.m. - 6p.m. daily, so our whistler treck started at 4:00 a.m.! I haven't paid for skiing in years, but it was 110% worth every penny! Whistler is such an amazing resort and we just happened to get up there after a storm which dropped about 10 inches of fresh snow. The trip ended with another ski day at Mt. Baker 2 hr.s south of the Canadian border in Washington...State. 30 + hr's of driving, 4 states, 2 countries, 2 ski resorts and a whole lotta foreigners= a great trip! (More pics to come...)

Tree Trimmery 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79QvG7CG0fw

Holiday Cheer!

Addison was born this year and is now 6 months old! The holidays were a blast this year!!

Me and Addy!

Grandma and AddyIn case you didn't catch the previous video (you should go back and watch it...Jentry is pretty savvy with videoing) Jentry's and I drove up to Idaho with some friends and skinned up to a place with permits to where we could cut some trees down. We also got a few fun turns in but I was wasted...first timer backcountry skiing! Woo woo, we found some great Christmas trees and skied them out. Tree lots are for losers! ;)

J-Hole & Y-stone

Jackson Hole

Mel, Jules and I headed up to Jackson Hole & Yellowstone a few weeks ago for the Teton Gravity Research Ski Premier and had a blast! We met up with on of my Sales Reps for Rossignol, Scott Harmon and his sweet wife who treated us to Sunday brunch and showed us around Jackson a bit. The premier and after party were fun, but to be quite honest, the highlight of the trip was Yellowstone! The pictures don't even do justice.. I'll have to expound later...














YELLOWSTONE

Uintas Bday Trip

People use the word great to difine many things... sometimes it is overused and sometimes it's over emphasized. In this case, I genuinely mean to say that I have great friends and a great family. This weekend trip was so relaxing and so perfect, I haven't been this happy in a long time. Something about being in the cool, fresh mountain air surrounded by good company and indulging in some incredible dutch oven food put me in a place I wish I could always be, so content and so at ease with life. I could almost say I wouldn't change a thing about my life... well maybe one or two things, but those can come later. We rock climbed Saturday up at one of our favorite places to climb, Ruth's Lake, and I soon found out that I really do have a fear of heights...something I've never admited because impulse and pride always seem to override it. Jules and I cleaned two climbs that couldn't be more than a 5.8 and I let fear take over and I almost didn't follow through. 25 mins later, I cleaned it and felt quite accomplished if I don't say (completely silly I know) but hey, I'm 25...no time to woose out now! My family joined us Sat. night and we played some hilarious games around the campfire following dirty boy chicken.. mmmm! I love the Uintas, I love summer and I love my friends and family. Thanks again everyone!!

Music is my escape

I've had a mix of several different emotions today and I found myself changing my playlist to fit my mood. While doing this, I realized that music is my escape... (Nice picture eh? None of this music makes me hate anyone.. I just thought it was creative.) Last week was Fleetwood Mac and this week I'm on a big kick with the Killers (particularily their album Day & Age.) The song 'This is your life' has some interesting lyrics and I found myself relating to them as I drove the canyon this morning to work. "The sky is full of dreams...but you don't know how to fly." Lately I've been feeling short on chasing my dreams and can feel something about to give, but I don't know when where or how. I wish I had the creative mind of song writers, sometimes I find they can say it better than I can put into words. However, sometimes I'm disappointed by lyrics. Take for example "Arizona" by Kings of Leon... one of my favorites, the rhythm, the guitar solo and the drums just do something to me., but the lyrics are about a whore house in Arizona... Gotta love those kinds of lyrics. Anyway, enjoy the selection I've created...maybe you too can find your escape ;)

Havasupai

An Oasis in the middle of the Grand Canyon

Ahhh yeah!! Talk about one heck of a hike!

Nate, Me, Mowgli and Nicco in front of Havasu Falls

What a sight for sore eyes! After a 10 hour drive, 3 1/2 hours of sleep in the parking lot beneath an array of endless stars and an 11 mile hike in with packs on our backs, this was our destination!Havasu Falls up close and personal...

The Crew in front of Mooney Falls

Thanks to Mowgli for putting this all together, it ended up being such a fun weekend! We camped down river from Havasu falls between two small rivers. There were tons of people down there and we found out after 9 miles in, that you can helicopter into the village just 2 miles from the campground for $85.. talk about a cop-out! Good thing we took it HC (hard core for those of you not on the trip) and packed in like mules! There was plenty of fun to be had away from people and we wore ourselves out the entire time. I don't have room to post all my pictures here, but I will create a slideshow of the rest. Our journey to Beaver falls on Saturday was probably the most fun I've ha d all year. We hiked down river about 3 miles wading in and out of the river and pretty much the whole day was spent cliff jumping, rope swinging, sliding down waterfalls, crazy stallions and cheating death with my lousy back flip attempt. I'd say that day topped my charts!
Anyone interested in doing this trip, I give it two thumbs up!! Word of warning: get in shape, it's not an easy one! I figured throughout the whole 4 days, we hiked about 32 miles if not more and I thought I was in pretty good shape... Not so! You can bet we crashed the second we got out of that canyon. We drove straight to Kingman for In and Out burgers. Ahh, food never tasted so good...yeah I pounded two, not one, but two fully loaded burgers...mmm. I miss the trip already!