Stevens Pass Ski Trip

Mark and his friends, Brian, Al, and Chris, went skiing up at Stevens Pass. This ski area is about 2 hours from our home in Seattle. The guys had a full day of skiing and Mark is a little sore today.

I knew I could sleep through a tornado, but...

Apparently this morning I slept through an earthquake. It happened around 5:45 AM this morning and I never felt a thing. I didn't even know it happened until I logged on to our local news website and saw the article.

Mark is skiing today for the first time this season. He and 3 of his friends went to Stevens Pass to hit the slopes. I've been left at home to paint. Actually, I didn't really want to go hang out in the cold all day. Hopefully Mark will have stories of skiing we can post.

Showshoeing at Gold Creek

Mark and I capitalized on the nice weekend (remember, "nice" means no rain) and went showshoeing this weekend. A short drive from Seattle into the Cascade mountains led us to Gold Creek near Snoqualmie pass. Mark researched this showshoe opportunity and figured I could do it as it was named "#1 easy snowshoe". I didn't have a problem and actually enjoyed it. We stopped halfway through the hike and had hot chocolate with a little mint Bailey's. Hey, it kept us warm! Enjoy the pictures of our adventure!


We look like we're skiing





Angela's action shot

Mark's action shot

Snow covered the bridge

Scenery shots

Gold creek

So much for 2009 being a calm one

My hope for the new year was that it would be calmer than past years. In 2007 Mark and I experienced the whirlwind joy of planning a wedding and getting married. In 2008 we picked up our lives and moved 2,000 miles away to Seattle, WA.

All I wanted was for a little peace in 2009.

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be happening. On January 5th I lost my job due to the economic slow down. Not fun, but I can keep my chin up and get back to the job search. Last night, January 12 or it could have been January 13, my car was broken in to and our GPS unit was stolen. I know a part of it is my fault because I had put the TomTom in the center console. Now I'm trying to file a police report, claim this on insurance, and find a new job all at the same time. This certainly hasn't been a calm year so far.

Whale Watching

It was whale season in Hawaii when we visited for Christmas. Each year humpback whales return to Hawaii to give birth and mate. We were able to take a whale watching cruise and had several whale sightings. Here are two short videos of our sightings.

This video is of a competition pod of male whales. They compete to be the nearest to the female whale. There were about 5 males in this pod that we saw on the surface

This video is of the first whale we saw

As Promised - Pictures of our Hawaiian Christmas

Christmas in Hawaii


The church we attended on Christmas day



A statue of the Virgin Mary outside of the church

We saw so many rainbows

Enjoying happy hour - rough, I know!

Sunset picture from the beach at our hotel

All Mark wanted to do was drink out of a pineapple. He got his wish!

I had to get a pineapple drink too

View of the West Maui Mountains from our dinner cruise

Us on the dinner cruise

Mark and the sunset from our dinner cruise

This view made me happy every day

The grounds at the Sheraton Maui

A White Christmas

Our white Christmas was not like most others....we enjoyed the white sand of Maui, Hawaii. It was quite a surprise, but we had a blast. We soaked up our vitamin D for the Seattle winter. Pictures to come.

Happy new year everyone!!!!