How Did You Start Your Week?

A few weeks back, late one Sunday night, we got a phone call from a new friend of ours, Matt. He owns a white water raft and asked us if we might like to join him Monday morning for some light rafting up in Washington. We both had to work on Monday, but not until that afternoon. So early Monday morning we were on our way.

Since it would only be the three of us and not the traditional five paddlers, Matt put a rowing frame on the raft so he could control our travel with some long oars. You'd be amazed at how effective those oars are. They make it so that you could travel solo and still have no trouble maneuvering the craft. Pretty cool!

Being the middle of January, we were extremely grateful for the dry suits Matt let us borrow (even though Michael's was an extra large and he was fairly swimming in it).

We drove out to rural WA somewhere and stopped at Matt's aunt's house. We quickly found out that Matt had a host of relatives that live all along the river we'd be running. He kept pointing out different homes and being like "and So and So lives there, and So and So lives there..." It was kind of funny.

The rafting was surprisingly gentle and the sun rode the rapids with us, keeping us in the best of moods. We followed the winding river to Matt's parent's house, stopping once along the way at Matt's Grandma's house. There we enjoyed some cookies and hot tea before slogging back down the river bank to our faithful craft and setting off for the remainder of our voyage.

Before we ended our trip, Matt gave Michael and me a chance at working the oars. That was pretty fun. Those babies have a LOT of leverage!

I went to work that evening feeling most satisfied with my day. I wish every day could start like that!

Cinderella In The Snow

Her glass slipper flew off her foot as she dashed through the thick winter snow. In her hurry she didn't even realize the precious slipper was missing. All she knew was that quite suddenly her balance had become dramatically thrown off, and before she could stop herself she had done an undignified face plant into the cold, white world below. There she lay, not caring to get up, realizing that there was no way she could have bested her prince. She hated defeat. And though the same outcome greeted her every time she dared challenge her athletic prince, somehow she couldn't help but to insist on racing. In the joy of the adventure Cinderella had to run!

The End

Cast

Cinderella? Me
The Prince? Michael
The glass slipper? My right snowshoe

For months now Michael and I have been wanting to go snowshoeing. We finally got the invitation that pushed us out the door and onto the mountain. If any of you have been to Mount Hood you will have heard of Timberline, a fun-filled ski destination and resort. But we were not there to ski, we had gone to "shoe".

It was late Saturday afternoon by the time we pulled into our slippery parking spot at Timberline and piled out for our little hike. We knew we wouldn't be out long, but none of us really seemed to care. It was a very overcast day, and as the temperature fluctuated we were the constant
victims of light rain and snow.

We crossed to the sloped side of a small ravine and trudged happily upward. We stopped when we reached what looked like the end of the world. We stood atop the cliff, looking out over the steep walls that tumbled down, down, down to the little valley below.

Michael instantly wanted to leap off the edge and land in the thick powder below, a fun game he learned in our days in Canada. And since we were waiting for our friends April and Jeff to meet us there we had a little bit of time on our hands. So, before we knew it Michael had jumped.
Next thing I saw was his smiling face, beaming ear to ear from about half way down the long embankment.

Apparently it had been worth the tedious climb back up the sharp incline, for after a short break to snowball fight with the others, he did it again. This time he took Ed and Kirk with him, all three sledded down the mountain on their rumps. I was kind of surprised that they would try sledding since the hillside was very steep and it was fairly difficult to stop yourself from plummeting to the very bottom. But they seemed to enjoy the fast ride and before you could say "Bob's your uncle" the rest of us were trying it too.

We careened down that mountain at break neck speeds, snow flying every which way as we tried to stop ourselves about half way down the long slope. It was marvelous fun, even with the long climb back up. The way we did it was to start out in a sitting position as we pushed off from the safety of the ledge. Once we were on our plummeting journey there was no turning back. When we were ready to start slowing down we had to quickly flip over in mid fall and drive our knees and elbows into the snow as hard as we could to act as breaks. It took several seconds to slow down this way at the rapid clip we were traveling at, but it did the trick. And everyone was all smiles at the bottom.

The afternoon was quickly melting into dusk as we trekked back to the parking lot. We took a little more time to play before we said goodbye to the mountain for the day. It was such a nice little time that I wouldn't be surprised if we do it again some time.

Cold, Colder, Coldest

Even though Oregon is the next door neighbor to sunny California it really gets quite chilly in the winter. Of course coldness is totally relative. My Canadian friends would probably be frolicking around in T-shirts in the weather we've been having here in Portland lately. However, having lived the majority of my life in warmth weather climates, I get cold!

Of course most of the time it's not too cold, temperatures roving around the 40's. We can do that! All I have to do is pile on my winter clothes and I am quite comfortable in my little apartment. That's what people do when it's cold, right? Wear snow pants and a down jacket in their house? Makes perfect sense to me!

This past Tuesday we were enjoying a quiet afternoon at home. As I was meandering around the house, doing who knows what, my jaw quite literally dropped as I happened to glance out my kitchen window. Our typical rainy winter day had started snowing profusely all of a sudden. WOW! SNOW! I felt like it was my first time seeing snow fall, such was my surprise. I couldn't believe it!

Along with many of our neighbors, Michael and I jubilantly bundled up and ran outside to enjoy the short lived event. It was fun! The snow fell for a few hours before letting up. And by morning, most of it had melted. But we had had our fun. And now we know that it really does snow in Portland, not just rain all the time.