First Season Tour

Zach and I decided to take advantage of the new snowfall and headed North past Galena Summit. It was slightly overcast and very cold but once you start hiking on your skis it's amazing how quickly you warm up. Despite my slow progress Zach was a great leader. Of course we dug our avalanche pit and inspected the snow layering weakness levels. We felt good to move forward and had a nice decent through the new powder. I'll spare you the down hill photos (mostly because my form is not worth sharing) and just post of few of the hiking crew.

Snow Chicken

There is an annual competition at the architecture firm I work at in Idaho., "The Snow Chicken". Every year people pick a date when they think it will snow above the chickens head. The chicken is a 12" heigh flat iron silhouette of a rooster (chicken in our office). The competition is fierce as the guy's try to use previous years winners as guides for the upcoming snow fall. A meticulous record book is kept at one of the architects desk's along with the official rules. The chicken is placed in the neighbors yard to detour from any natural tampering that may occur, i.e. dogs peeing, snow falling from a tree, or somebody inadvertedly shoveling snow on it's head.

Today, the chicken is within an inch of being covered and you'll never guess who picked today...me! A little too soon to say for sure as the snow has subsided at the moment but it could be a good day to cover that chicken!

*You can see the chicken's head just peaking out of the snow in front of the truck....

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving seemed like yesterday and what a great time we had when Erin and Gabe came to visit us! Gabe was such a trooper and enjoyed hunting for ducks with Zach, his dad, and Kat in below freezing temperatures. He offered to throw bread out for the ducks but I think Nick and Zach has some other ideas in mind. Erin and I had fun being girls and going to look at rings and wedding dresses. A fabulous turkey dinner at Nick and Jeans on Thanksgiving. Friday night we went up to Galena Lodge and toured the site. Another great moonlight dinner! Can't wait for Erin and Gabe to visit us again!