Right, I should update this more frequently even when I don’t have any scrap-type things to talk about (going through a bit of a dry spell there at the moment).

Last week a weather inversion left the lowlands shrouded in gloomy, freezing, absolutely depressing fog, but the mountains were clearer than I have ever seen them before. We felt the weather permitted longer drives than we usually do, so first we went to Skyline Peak by the Stevens Pass ski area. We were planning on getting to the top of the rocky area and possibly traversing the ridge to the true summit, but there was just not enough snow (and too much ice!) to get up there. We’ll have to come back so we can finish what we started, it’s a beautiful area!

We ended up having lunch in the little saddle next to the “summit”, enjoying the sun, soup, Kvikk Lunsj, and excellent views of Glacier Peak, the Stuarts, Mounts Daniel and Hinman, and of backcountry skiers dressing up as vikings and praying to Ullr for more snow.

The next day we headed up to Mount Baker with Carlos. It’s a three hour drive, but man alive was it worth it – it was crystal clear as we hiked up to Huntoon Point and so warm that people were walking around in shorts and tank tops.

This weekend we attempted to follow the fair weather again, but we failed miserably. We went to Paradise and ended up tromping around in a total whiteout. Oh well, Paradise is still Paradise even if you can’t see the Mountain.

I’m completely silent for a month and a half and then WHAM! two posts in a day. Since this is supposed to be a scrapbook themed blog, I thought I should share some layouts – this one is of Amy, rock climber extraordinaire (photos by Tom):

Still plodding away at my Southwest Road Trip album – I’m probably jinxing it by saying this, but there’s a certain chance I might actually finish this one. It would be my first completed theme album ever. I’ve never even finished a measly mini album. Anyway, here’s an easy one from the hike we did in Zion:

…and this one is from one of my favorite hikes this year, a trip up to Diptop Gap where we could drool over Mount Daniel and Pea Soup Lake:

Last but not least, here’s Bobby pimping the new special issue from Creating Keepsakes, 101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking. It features pages by the 2008 Hall of Famers, the Scrapbooker of the Year, and the Dream Team. Bobby’s verdict? Four paws up!

Aargh, I hate it when I haven’t blogged since the dawn of time and I have to catch up like this. This time all I have to say to get caught up is “snow”. That’s right, even down here in Redmond we got so much of the heavenly white stuff that the world pretty much just stopped turning (well, at least the Pacific Northwest world). JK had to work from home for a week because we couldn’t even get our car out on the main road. We SKIED to the grocery store.

On the first snow day we skied across town to gawk at all the cars stuck on the highway, and a camera crew interviewed JK for King 5 news - hilarious. It aired live and several people recognized JK from the clip as we made our way back to the house (you never forget those yellow pants).

So yes, we had a beautiful white Christmas – and even though this was our first Christmas without a visit from our families in Norway, we had a really good time with our little family of three.

…and now that all the snow is gone down here, we can still go up to the mountains for skiing and snowshoeing.

Washington really ain’t a bad place to live.