A great sequence

Here's a great sequence by Miss Vanessa Hohn.............

Good friends, good times.....

More Pictures from Red Rock Canyon

red rock climbing

Check out some more pictures from our climbing trip to Red Rock Canyon west of Las Vegas.

The start of the bachelor party weekend.

Ok so the first picture here has a bit of a backstory... The first day in Vegas for the Bachelor/Bachelorette party, we rode the roller coaster at the New York New York hotel. My dad said "Mat is it better with your eyes closed?" Mat said "Yes!" So he kept them closed the whole time and also exclaimed that he had only taken a total of three breaths the whole ride, we think that the state of calm is a front for shear terror. We almost all died laughing afterwards. Mat is in the process of crapping his pants in this picture. He was screaming as though someone was murdering him the whole time. It was priceless. Needless to say this is probably the last roller coaster that these two will ever go on. So cherish the photo.

Hilary managed to shrink herself to half her normal size for the ride. I guess she figured that it was safer or something that way. Amazing talent none the less. Kevin was just plain having fun.

Lisa was really getting into it and I just wanted to take the whole ride on with a knife! Go faster I screamed, is that all you got? COME ON!!!

The Bachelor Party...

So the party didn't quite go as planned. Some recent events conspired to dismantle the vegas trip that are a bit disturbing, I have included some photos here to help explain why the bachelor party really sucked.

My dad showed up early in Vegas, trying to get a jump on all the activities... He caught the blue man group on his first night in sin city and was aparantly so taken aback by their performance that he threw away everything he had going for him, his job, his family, his sanity... and joined the show. This is the last known photo of him before he went on tour....

Mat decided that he was better than all of us and booked his flight for a month after we were all going to be in vegas, he decided to go to Venice instead and contemplate the meaning of life by the canals. Some best man he turned out to be! He sent me this picture from the shops along the grand canal in italy. The nerve!

Ty just didn't really feel like there was any reason to leave Mardi Gras when all he ever wanted was right there in front of him. He sent me this picture with a note that read.... "This was my reaction to the girl who took this picture right before I gave her every bead necklace I had! Man was that worth it!"

Brian, well, brian was the one guy I thought I could count on to be there for my bachelor party, and I figured Vegas was right up his alley.... come to find out, he hung up the Marmot gear and became a male model.... This is a shot from his latest photo shoot. I still haven't heard from him, but I guess you forget about the little people when you get your big break. Who can blame him though, he is pretty much the best looking male specimen around. Right?

I mean there really isnt any difference between him and the little italian statue right behind him is there?

As for Kevin, well Kevin also arrived in Vegas early, we never saw him though. It was his first time there and I guess it got the better of him. You see, he joined the Elvis impersonaters union right after they picked him up at the airport on a mix up with the name plate that a limo driver was holding. They found a niche for him in the Elvis rock climbing school. This was him last week teaching his first class.

I have to say that even though things may not have gone as planned, aww heck there was never a plan and that is the way that I like it....it was the best bachelor party I could have ever imagined. Thanks guys for all the great memories.

Bad News/Good News

Looks like we're going to be up in the North for a bit longer! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I (Lisa) recently applied to two job openings down in Portland that we were so excited for. Well, I was in the top 4 for both positions, but just found out tonight I didn't get either one. So, unfortunately, it'll be a little be longer until we get back down to the Lower 48. But fortunately, we have more time to explore up here and do more amazing adventures! And, all you people who said you'd love to get up here for a vacation....you still have free room and board and great travel guides for at least another year or two! :)

Thanks for all of those people who were keeping me in your thoughts and prayers and crossing every appendage for me, I appreciate it.

Now come up to Alaska and visit us damnit! :)

A Valentine's Day Snowshoeing Picnic

For Valentine's Day, I surprised Ben with a snowshoe hike near Eklutna Lake and a picnic at the top (complete with hot chocolate with mint schnapps...mmmmm). The hike was called Twin Peaks, very cool hike. It may look like winter in these pictures, but randomly this day was 43 degrees! A breeze kept us from wearing only tank tops!

Eklutna Lake from the hike (we got a late start, sorry for the dark pictures)

One of the peaks

Yeah, its been COLD!

Its been a SUPER cold January/February up here....and being a weather weenie, I thought I should blog about it. :) Here is a statement my work put out on the cold:

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ANCHORAGE AK
105 PM AST TUE FEB 12 2008

...FIRST 20 DEGREE READINGS IN ANCHORAGE IN NEARLY THREE WEEKS...

TUESDAY MORNING THERMOMETERS IN ANCHORAGE REACHED 20 DEGREES. IT HAS
NOT BEEN ABOVE 20 DEGREES HERE SINCE JANUARY 23RD WHEN A COLD SPELL
BEGAN WHICH TOOK TEMPERATURES WELL BELOW NORMAL. ON ONLY THREE OF THE
DAYS SINCE JANUARY 23RD DID THE TEMPERATURE RISE ABOVE 10 DEGREES.
AVERAGE TEMPERATURE DURING THE COLD SPELL WAS 4.7 DEGREES WHILE THE
NORMAL AVERAGE FOR THE SAME PERIOD IS 17 DEGREES.

Now granted, the data is coming from the far west side of town where its warmer during these weather conditions than where we leave, usually subtract anywhere from 3 to 10 degrees off to get the temperature at our house! There were a few days in a row where the house didn't even get ABOVE zero!!! Its been nice to have some warmer temps, not having to wear our huge down jackets everywhere we go! Vegas will be SOOOOOO nice to go to next week! (That's where we're having our bachelor/bachelorette party!!!!)

Happy Birthday Spring!

Our kick-ass friend Spring has her birthday today.....instead of eating cake or a party with family, you'll find her raging at the nearest triathlon or marathon or bike race - she's crazy! But totally hard core and one of the sweetest people you'll have the privilege of knowing. Happy Birthday Spring!!!!!

Just to show you how kick-ass she is, she hiked to Havasupai Falls then to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon BY HERSELF! She's amazing and what I strive to be like!


She lived in Hawaii at the same time we did, us girls (Spring, Vanessa, Hilary and I) had some great times together, especially with her crazy loud hawaiian shirts! :) Love ya Spring!

Love is in the air, or in the carpet

In commemoration of Valentine's Day, I thought I"d share the pictures from the wedding reception we threw for our friends Sergios and Moksha. They had gotten married in the Virgin Islands (surprised ALL of us!) and before they headed to Greece for her to meet his family, we threw a little partay.

Here is one of their wedding pictures

Poppin the bubbly...over the carpet!

We had them do the traditional "Smash the cake in your new spouses face" event...over the carpet. Thank god we own a steam cleaner! :)

Which came from the homemade cake....a key lime cream torte cake, it was SOOOOO good!

The finished cake!

My first Aurora sights in a year!

I got the pleasure of seeing the Northern Lights tonight while I was working....it was BEAUTIFUL! I haven't see the lights in about a year, so it was a joy to see the glowing green curtains flowing above me. Here's what it looked like to the north of us near Fairbanks.......

Happy Birthday Mike!

Our friend and old roommie in Hawaii,

Mike,

is celebrating his birthday today! We wish him the best on this day, and with his talent. Watch the video, and look for him at a live performance near you soon! :)

Love ya man!

Happy Birthday Mr. Brown!

Our good friend Andy had his birthday last week and for a present, we brought him to Alyeska for a day of bluebird sky skiing. It was SUCH a b-e-a-uuuuuuutiful day.

Started in the morning with all the trees covered in gorgeous twinkly frost and a fog bank resting at the feet of the Chugach Range.

The fog was still hanging around, as well as the below zero temperatures, as we swished around on the empty slopes.

The Birthday Boy himself....enjoying a great Alaskan day.

Ben and I gettin ready to ski down into the clouds below.

Looks like Andy is boarding underwater, icy water!

Weekend o fun.

I think that weekends should be 5 days and the work week should be 2. Whoever set it up the way it is should be hung high in the center of town. Alas, we must make the best of what we have... so that is just what I did this weekend. Pictured below are some shots from ice climbing which happened on Sunday, on Saturday I went backcountry snowboarding in Turnagain Pass. I have no pictures from that day because it was sooooo much fun that I never stopped to take a picture, even though it was a great day for pics. too bad :( We went up Tin Cup, the run we tried to do a week ago. Man was it amazing. The powder was super dooper deep and even fluffier than it was deep! It was pretty much like flaoting down a mountain on a cloud, but since there are no pictures of that amazing day which will live forever in my memory, you'll just have to imagine it for yourselves...

As for the ice climbing, it was a blast as well, we hammered into a waterfall south of town. There were some really cool ice formations like this one in a cave half way up.

That's me, chopping away at the waterfall. If you have never ice climbed then get a ticket up to alaska and meet me at my place, trust me, it's worth it.

A shot of Kevin looking back at me as he headed for the top.

Can't wait for next weekend. Damn, 5 days to go.

Paper cup.

Jesse Christy and I went down to turnagain last weekend to try to conquer Tin Can. It's the name of a run in the backcountry that lots of people love to do. We found tin can and headed for what we thought was the way up to the summit. Come to find out after skinning for quite a while that there was a very large gorge blocking our access to said peak. Without the proper ice axes and stuff we opted to do a different hill that was just to the left of Tin Can. After the run we named it paper cup cuz it was slightly smaller and less hard core than it's bigger neighbor. We managed to get some great turns in and Jesse even hucked off a the top of a tree covered in multiple feet of snow! A great day in the backcountry, as is any day spent outside enjoying fresh pow. Can I get an Amen?

paper cup at turnagain

Backcountry Skiing in Turnagain Pass

This Sunday, Ben and Kevin and I ventured out to Turnagain Pass for some free skiing - backcountry that is. The hike up was tough, however halfway through a couple caught up with us and zoomed right on by....they had to be in their 70s! The weather was great going up, but then about 20 seconds after we started skiing down, the snow started falling hard and reduced the visibilitity to about 10 feet but you couldn't see any definition in the snow.....so needless to say, it was a bit rough coming down. Anyway, here's some pics. Ben had the camera this time, so no pics of him this time :(

Trekkin up!

It was about 2 degrees out, as shown by the frost in my hair!

Takin a turn

Kevin on his way down.....in almost a blur - he goes SUPER fast.

Happy New Year!!!!

Hope everyone's new year was more fun than you hoped for...because ours was a little less. Here goes out story......
Our plans included driving up to Talkeetna (about a 2.5 hour drive from Anchorage) with some friend to ring in the new year with some great Alaska bars and fireworks. Ben and I ended up having to stay at a cabin that was a 25 min drive from Talkeetna itself because they were the only place we could find to allow dogs. Come to find out, they allow them, but you can't keep your dogs there when you aren't.....so we had to tote the pups around in the back of the car for the night :(. We brought in EVERYTHING into the cabin so we'd have room to tote around friends and pups in the Jeep, and headed for the town. After a fun time was had by all in Talkeetna, Ben and I and the dogs headed back to our cabin. As we headed on the really wide back roads eagerly awaiting the warm cozy cabin, a moose came out of the trees. So we slowed down a bit and moved over to the right side of the road.....then WHAM! What we thought was road was actually the 5 ft ditch just filled in with lots of snow, the Commander went in and went in hard (and tilted). After attempting to drive it out, it was obvious there was NO way. We gathered ourselves (ok, just me, I kinda freaked!) outside and LUCKILY for some reason we left our cross-country ski boots in the car, and all our skis were on the top of the car. We only had one pair of gloves and NO lights! It was about 12:35am in the Alaskan wilderness....needless to say, it was DARK. So we attached ourselves to the dogs and headed on the faintly lit (from the snow) road. The dogs were a bit freaked out as well and ended up not pulling as much as we hoped. So 3 hours later, we somehow arrived at the cabin, completely worn out. Then come (later in the) morning, we had assistance from the cabin owner and a couple of friends to pull us out of the ditch.....with chains needed on the truck to pull us! Whew! What a memory eh? We're thinking next year to lay low.

Here is a picture of the ditch where we had gone in, you can't really tell but its about a 4-5 foot difference from the road to where Ben is standing. Now just imagine the Commander there at about a 45° tilt!