Cross Country Skiing at Mt. Spokane State Park

Back before Christmas, Chase and I had planned to meet our friends Jenn and Houston up in Spokane to do some XC skiing. We ended up not being able to make it because the weather between here and Spokane got too bad. It really doesn't snow that much between here and Spokane (until you get half way up the mountain), but because of that there aren't a lot of plows or salt trucks treating the roads. To make it worse, the temperature is typically right around freezing and the roads end up being really icy. Needless to say, it was a good thing we didn't go because there were a lot of wrecks on the road we needed to take.

We had already had a hotel reservation, but we were able to reschedule it for a weekend in January. It actually worked out better because we just work up early and drove up early Saturday morning and then we were able to stay the night after our rigorous day of skiing.

I was really nervous for the trip. Last time I went XC skiing with Chase in Minnesota, I didn't do very well. I had a lot of trouble keeping up with Chase even though he was slowing down for me. I couldn't quite get the motion down. I am happy to report this trip was SO much better. I caught on pretty quickly. The trails helped me out a lot because they were pretty slick and propelling yourself forward was easier. It was such a fun trip. I almost even bought skis after so we could go easier (Chase has skis but I don't), but they aren't cheap. I'm going to keep my eye out for an after season sale. Here are some of the pictures of our trip!

In spokane it was really really foggy. You could barely see 20 feet in front of you. As we drove up the mountain side we escaped the fog into the sunshine! In the pictures above if you look closely out into the horizon you can see the cloud of fog on the valley below. This was our first time XC skiing in the mountains. Pretty cool!

I was actually smiling! 

Above is the summit of Mt Spokane. The downhill ski area is over there.

This is about half way through our trip. I was in good spirits, but I was having a lot of pain in my feet. Specifically around my big toes....I was trying to adjust my shoes so they wouldn't hurt as bad. I found out later that it was because my shoes were a little too big. I had to rent equipment and it was old and clunky...I really want to buy some!

The photo credit for the photo above goes to Chase. It is one of my favorites too!

The pictures of Chase skiing didn't turn out quite as well. At this point we had finished our 12 mile loop. Yes....we skied around 12 MILES. Not too shabby for only my second time skiing. But after the loop we stopped by the lodge and my toes were killing me. I could barely walk. We had a snack and then Chase decided to take one last quick loop without me before we left. I was in too much pain to go back up to the start of the trails so I took the pictures above from the parking lot. I think they turned out pretty good, but I feel bad I didn't get some better pictures of Chase actually skiing. Next time.

Once we finished up, we drove back down to Spokane and got cleaned up at our hotel. Chase and I love to explore new breweries when we go to new cities. This trip we checked out No-Li Brewery. We really enjoyed the brewery! The food was just ok. I was craving fish and chips....I really have to learn it is never as good as I want it to be. The beer was great though. We bought a few 22 oz bottles to take to a football watch party the next day! Delicious!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Chase and I didn't travel home for Christmas this year. We were very sad about not getting to take part in all of the fun Christmas get togethers that our families had. However, we did have a very nice and relaxing Christmas here in Richland. 

Our Christmas celebrations started off with a lovely party thrown by a coworker on Saturday night. We had some great homebrew and good food! I made these SkinnyTaste Red Velvet Rudolph Cupcakes. I'm sure most of you are aware, but I am OBSESSED with this website. Almost everything I cook is off of her website. Thank you to Karen Stephens for introducing me! 

We also had a nice Christmas dinner with Kit and Kelsey on Sunday night! Kit and Kelsey cooked an awesome ham as well as some roasted veggies; and Chase and I brought some stuffing (also skinnytaste), bread and roasted butternut squash! Here is the spread! It was a fun evening of food, friends and games! They also got us the coolest Christmas present! A picture of the Royals stadium and some napkins Kelsey had sewn. So nice of them. Thanks guys!

The weather was beautiful on Christmas Eve. I didn't have to work that day and Chase got off work at 12 PM. He called me on his way home and was so excited about how clear it was out and wanted to go up to Badger Mtn. I frantically started coloring the Flat Stanley that we have for my second cousin Daniel so that we could take him along on the adventure as well! 

Chase also had me open one of my Christmas presents early as well. It was a Gorillapod for the camera! It is a flexible tripod for the camera. We can take it hiking and wrap it around tree branches or rocks or whatever to get the pictures we want! I'm very excited to take it out!

The clarity of the sno-capped Blue Mountains in the distance was the main reason we wanted to head up to Badger. It is very rare to be able to see the Blue Mountains from the Tri-Cities. We get a lot of fog here in the winter and a lot of smoke in the summer/fall from all the wildfires. It is very hazy on a regular basis here which I was not anticipating! I have a feeling that the spring time is the most clear season so I'm excited for that.

Once we got to the top of Badger we headed over to the other side to look towards the west. We had been told that you can see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier on a clear day. Sure enough we could see Mt. Hood (I didn't get a good picture) and either Mt. Adams or Mt. Rainier. We think its Rainier, but we really aren't sure...

The picture quality isn't so good since you can still barely see the mountain! It is much more clear in person, but the pictures aren't too bad considering that huge mountain is about 200 miles away.

We had to get a few pictures with Flat Stanley too! It took me over an hour to color Flat Stanley. We were supposed to make him look like someone from our region. We associate the Northwest with lots of beautiful hiking, so I dressed him up as a hiker complete with a backpack. It took awhile because of course we had no crayons and it took me awhile to find some markers...also, I'm not very artsy. I'm working on it though...I've been going to a pottery class and sewing a lot as well (more to come later)!

Chase manned the camera on the way down and he got these awesome pictures of the White Bluffs. They are across the river from our house. You can ALMOST see our house in the photo. It is just to the bottom right of the photo. I started to try and actually zoom in on our house, but as you can see it wasn't super warm. The sun was setting at this point and it was super windy up there! Glad I had my buff to cover my ears!

 We cooked some delicious homemade creamy tomato basil soup for dinner and ate the remainder of the bread I had made earlier! We also enjoyed the spiced wine that I had purchased in Leavenworth a few weeks ago. I took some pictures of the bottle by the tree because it was so cool! I also had a little photo shoot with our cats by the tree. They loved the Christmas tree. I can't believe it didn't get knocked down this year!

*warning: I'm about to post a lot of pictures of our cats. I apologize, but at least I don't do it often

Christmas morning we got up and had chorizo breakfast burritos! Chase's favorite. With the help of Kelsey, I made us all some new stockings. I think they turned out pretty good if I say so myself! I'll throw a phone picture in there so you can see them close up! I'm pretty proud of them!

We were SO excited for the kitties to open their stockings. As you may have noticed in the picture above, they had already tried to get into their stockings the night before. We actually had to take them down. What were were thinking putting cat nip in their stockings while hanging. Oh well. It was fun. We found a Catnip Stoogie at the store and Chase just HAD to get it for the cats. We only got one and also got a light up ball for them. In retrospect, we should have gotten two of the catnip stoogies. I've never seen them react so fast to catnip like this. Enjoy:

Apparently Bo is harder to photograph than Miles because not as many of the ones of her turned out. Probably because she was hiding under the tree the whole time. She did obviously enjoy her catnip stoogie though. :)

Chase and I got each other surprise presents this year. Mine were much more of a surprise than Chase's were because he had already told me a few things he wanted and they already reached our limit! Chase got a new pair of hiking pants, a Sporting KC jersey and a Sporting KC soccer ball AND a new K-State sweatshirt! I was able to find some awesome deals! Chase got me the tripod for the camera, a phone attachment for it, a waterproof phone case for hiking and a gift card to a local winery. I'm excited to go use that! It was a great Christmas! Our first one as a married couple and our first one on our own. It was relaxing, but we are VERY excited to see our families in Jan and Feb. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!