We had originally planned to spend President's Day weekend out of town, but we couldn't find anywhere that was warm AND sunny enough. Having lived in Oregon for seven years now, we should know better. It is winter, after all. Once we gave up on going anywhere, we resolved to spend the weekend together anyway. When you both work, work out on a daily basis, and one of you is in class two nights a week, quality time together is few and far between. We were determined to make it valuable.
I can't remember why we didn't ski on Saturday. Maybe we were tired. Maybe it was super windy on the hill. Maybe we just wanted to be together in a relaxing atmosphere. Regardless, we decided that Hazel needed some hiking training. We plan to hike as much as possible in the coming summer (summer? what's that??) and she's just too big and squirrelly in the backpack. Time for her to work too.
We had our practice out at Powell Butte because it lacks trees and there are views, Barkernews' and I criteria for a really good hike. Forest Park is nice and convenient but it's wet and you don't see anything. Therefore, not our favorite place to spend a Saturday.
It was beautiful. And fun. And relaxed. And lovely. Also, Haze hiked (almost) all of it. Score one for the toddler.
The next day, we did ski. Clark Canyon opened up and we headed straight for it. We love it out there. It's a bit wild, a bit hard to get to and a bit of an adventure. Adventure skiing together? We live for this.
We did manage to break Hazel out of daycare, where she showed us up on the bunny hill, skiing through the "door" and around the cones and generally making the 4-year-olds look weak. We are so proud.
To complete the weekend of togetherness, Barkernews and I did something we have not done in THREE YEARS: we ski patrolled together. Weird, I know. But also weird awesome. We joined Ski Patrol with every intention of always patrolling together. Then the kid came along and patrolling together got more complicated and difficult. It was nice to come back full circle to why and how we joined. My favorite ski patroller will always be Barkernews!
