Partying!

This year I got to celebrate the Fourth of July twice. On the evening of the 3rd I headed to Lake Tapps to see by friend Jen and her hubby Todd. They hosted a great get together of friends and family minus young children (this was the adults acting like children party). There were many loud booms during the evening and tasty margaritas made by Don. I got a treat which was seeing my cousin Dani and Chandler which is always a fun. Thanks Jen for a great night!

On the 4th, I headed to Ames lake for another party at Kelly and Jill's place. Again a great time. We swam, drank, talked, ate, and watch some incredible fireworks. This was a group new and old Powderpigs and other friends. There was alot going on but was very comfortable and made for a good time. Kelly roasted a whole pig and it was tasty! Thanks Kelly and Jill for a great time.

More pictures here! http://picasaweb.google.com/AKdogtown/FourthOfJuly

Aaron's Gone, Keegan's Playing

Well Aaron is out fishing once again and I miss him very much. The weekend he left I headed to Portland to see my sister and the kids. We had a good time. We went out in the boat, started building Alex and Peter's new fort, and then did a great bike ride. I took picture on our bike ride. We went 14 miles. Peter was in the trail-a-bike behind Kirstan, Alex rode her bike, and I had Tippi in the trailer behind my bike. I am pretty sure was fun was had by all.

More photos here! http://picasaweb.google.com/AKdogtown/FunInPDX

And I get paid for this!!!

On May 30th, Ken and I skied into one of our GPS sites on the south side of Mt. St. Helens. It was not communicating anymore so we wanted to see what was wrong. In a normal year we would have been able to drive to the site but not this year. It was a 3 mile ski one-way to the site. It was a beautiful day, not to hot but not to cold. Ken was on his cross country skis and I was on my BC skis. This was Ken's first time skiing downhill ever and he rocked it. I think he will master it with a little more practice. Below are some pictures from that day.

My favorite skis (Jerry Garcia Memorial skis) with the GPS antenna and the mountain.

Ken working on the site which looks like the snowmobiles ran over a few times.

Ken skiing out just before we got back to the truck.

I love spring skiing in June!

Aaron and I headed out June 1st to meet with some friends to ski Mt. Stuart. Lisa and Victor skied to Long Pass the day before and camped out. We got up at 3AM to ski in and meet them the next morning. The snow was pretty thin at the trail head and we had to hike a little ways before we could put on our skis. We got up to Lisa and Victor around 6:45AM and they were still hunkered down in their tent. As they were packing up we finally got a glimpse of the mountain and a lot of the low elevation snow had melted. This means that if we decided to ski it we were going to be walking in our ski boots before we got to the snow. We finally decided to go adventure in an area that we knew still had snow. It ended up being a great day with incredible corn snow skiing. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if the cloud layer would have been a little higher so that we could have seen Lake Ann from our high point but beggars can't be chooser. Here are some photos taken by Victor of our fun.

Me dropping in from Longs Pass

Super Dog-Tippi


Lisa, Aaron, and Me skinning up!

Victor, Lisa, and Aaron on top but who would have known with all that fog!

Aaron ripping up the corn.

Hog Loppet 2008

Saturday was the Hog Loppet! For those not familiar with this event it is 19.9 miles of cross country skiing at it best. We skied from the top of Mission Ridge Ski Area to Blewett Pass. The first 2.4 miles we call the "rodeo" since you are off groomed road and there are a couple good downhill sections, lots of crashes, and many people to negotiate. Then there is a few miles of good ups and downs but near the end there is a long (and on my skis fast) downhill to the finish.

This year our group consisted of Chris, Katie, Bram, Sherry, Hilary, Aaron and Me. For most of us this was our second year and the weather was gorgeous, thank you weather gods. I think we all agree that to do this event you need good boots, a little beer, and a health sense of humor.

After the ski we all headed to Chris and Katie for a great dinner and then we were all ready for a sleep. Thanks to everyone in the group it was a blast and I can not wait until next year.

To see pictures of the fun click here!

Alaska Fishing Pictures!

One of Aaron's crewmen was a professional photographer this year and he took some great pictures. On the link below there are few of the ones I liked the best.

Bristol Bay Pictures

Aaron is a popular guy!

As many of you know it has been snowing very hard here in the PNW and Aaron has been hard at work. He has also had some time on the TV news because of this. He never says anything but you can see him hard at work in the background or driving the snowcat. Kind of fun to get to see him working. I may have seen him more on TV lately then in real life. Take care!

Q13 Video from Feb. 5, 2008

King 5 video Feb. 3, 2008
King 5 Exclusive video Feb. 4, 2008

KOMO Aaron and Tippi video Jan. 30, 2008