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In February! I mowed the lawn and Kim worked on plants. We both slept in a lot and I got play video games! It was a wonderful weekend.

My friend Brendan came up from California to visit Laura and me. I met Brendan in Spain and we both traveled to Morocco for about a week. I met Brendan through Laura who was traveling through Europe at the time and met Brendan in Italy. Brendan just happened to live in Granada where I was living.

So Brendan flew in Friday and Laura came down from Mt Vernon. We went to the Zoo bar and played darts. We saw the troll. We talked by the fire in our house. Saturday we walked around Seattle, Pike’s place, Volunteer park. We went to bed early though since we were going hiking the next day. Originally we wanted to go skiing at Whistler, but there’s just not enough snow anywhere to go skiing. Especially to drive more than four hours and pay close to $70 for a lift ticket.

So we went hiking at Mt Pilchuck. The trail was a little slick, but it was gorgeous out. We could see in every direction forever at the top. We could see Seattle. We had lunch at the top.

Then I ran down the mountain! At first everyone wanted to go slowly, but then Brendan and Laura realized how fun it was to go as fast as you can regardless of whether or not you fell. So we started running through the snow and ice down the mountain. Kim and Bridgid were a little more cautious, but somehow they ended up off the main trail and headed straight down to the parking lot instead of taking all the switch backs. I was a little worried about them, but they actually made it back to the car a little before us.

Brendan and Laura both had the day off on Monday, but Kim and I didn’t, so Brendan went back to Mount Vernon with Laura. Kim and I went to work but we drove up to Mount Vernon Monday night have dinner with them and see Laura’s place. I got to see pictures of when Laura visited in Spain that I hadn’t seen yet.

Jake is getting engaged! To a girl named Kim! Weird, huh? So I invited Jake and the rest of the Terry gang over for dinner. It was a lot fun seeing everyone together. Jacob, Betsy, Wes, Travis, and Steph were all there. Anna couldn’t make it since her grandpa passed away, Thien-An just doesn’t check his e-mail or return phone calls, and Cody, well…

Anyway, Jake’s getting married this summer. He told how he proposed and then I told how I proposed to Kim. Both stories ended up being way longer than needed since everyone turned them into comedy routines. Jake’s known the girl for years from his hometown, so she didn’t come since she lives in Oregon. Everyone brought food, we ate, and then people went home.

Kim and I have been taking a course in avalanche safety. We haven’t really been anywhere that we would have to worry about avalanches, but we figure we might in the future and wanted to be prepared. There’s been about 9 hours of class lecture, which is useful stuff, but pretty dull except for the really cool slide show. The field day was totally worth it though.

We had to get up and meet at 6 in the morning, so that was rough. We caught a ride with someone other people who were also going to the class. Most people we went with were back country skiers. I didn’t realize how popular this was. This isn’t cross country skiing like I used to do. These people have much more versatile skis and like to ski to the tops of mountains and then ski down, hence the avalanche danger. One guy even had a split snowboard. It worked like skis on the way up, then it went back together at the top like a snowboard.

We practiced a lot finding snow beacons. We’d bury them in plastic bags in the snow and then try to find them. The guide forgot to turn his beacon to send one time and it took a long time to find. We spent the rest of the time analyzing snow pack, digging rousche blocks, and discussing avalanche factors.

By the end we were tired, so it was really nice not to have to drive back.