Does the fact that I spent my weekend scrapbooking and listening to West Side Story make me cool? Well it certainly should. No amount of Sudafed could chase the flu away fast enough for me to spend Saturday with the mountaineering class learning knots in the snow, so while JK was gone I spent some time with my somewhat neglected hobby of scrapbooking.

Since I was sick I had to make it as easy as possible, so I put these layouts together in Photoshop, printed the photos on photo paper and the journaling and titles on cardstock, and then just glued stuff down. I added the paper that was closest to me (from the same slab of paper as this one) and that just happened to look kind of like the Snuggle Sax in the photos.

For this one I just recycled a template I had made for one of my layouts in Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking 3 - this time making it 8×8. Since my scrapbooking stuff is in an inexcusable state of chaos, the easiest thing to do was just use some leftover paper from the Wellington layout…

…and this was the easiest one - once I decided there was no way I was going to choose just one or two photos from this trip. Seriously, too many photos I loved from this trip. So I enlarged my favorite, copied this setup from last year, and filled both sides of the divided page protector with 4×6 prints.

Since I am stuck at home with some sort of ill-timed plague while JK and the pups are out hiking, I figured I might as well mention some of the trips we’ve been doing lately. My hope is that I will at some point in the not-to-distant be less lazy and actually blog about stuff when it happens. Sure..

Mount Catherine:

Ok, this one was fun. After some trip planning confusion, JK and I headed to Snoqualmie Pass to test our cross-country skis, but on the way we were invited along to Mt Catherine with Tom and Carol (scary people from The Internet). While proficient skiers might make it up there on skinny little cross-country planks, we were glad to have brought our snowshoes as backup. Unfortunately we only had our ski boots, so I got some interesting blisters that day.

After hiking through a magical forest (and a less magical, downright boring forest), we gained the summit of Catherine. It is not a high mountain by any means, but the summit ridge is narrow enough to make you feel cool. For more details (and cute photos of Jasper dog), you can read Tom’s trip report.

Cross-country skiing:

Eventually we did get out to try our skis - first for a quick, flat, boring five miles by Snoqualmie Pass…

…and then for a midweek not-boring-at-all trip up to High Hut for an amazing view of Mount Rainier:

There’s a whole little hut-to-hut system (almost like in Norway!) down there, and I hope we’ll get a chance to visit all of them.

We hung around by the hut for a couple hours and went inside to warm our cold cheeks, but we were both bummed that we couldn’t spend the night. Imagine seeing the sunset and sunrise from up there…

I wrote a trip report here if you want more info on the hut. The 2,400 feet of elevation we gained on the way up to the hut proved interesting on the way back down again. I really have no business on cross-country skis at all…

Training hikes:

Aah, yes, training hikes. A necessary evil to get in shape for the alpine climbing class we’re taking this spring. We’ve been tromping aroung on local trails like Mount Si, Rattlesnake Ledge and Tiger Mountain with 35-45 lb packs. Fun fun.

Last week we joined the Thursday Night Afterburners for their first hike of the season, to Poo Poo Point. I didn’t add any extra weight to my pack for that one since they are certifiably insane and pretty much just run up the trail. JK is at the second hike as we speak, while I am stuck here all congested and feverish. Whine whine whine.

Less whining, more cute hiking photos of puppy Wellington:

I really hope I get better before Saturday as it will be our first field trip with the class. I’ll keep eating Sudafed like it’s candy and hope for the best.

Even though I am coping remarkably well with this winter compared to last year’s, I really do wish we could have gone on our annual southwest trip. I do love the snow mountains, but a sunny canyon would feel pretty good right about now…sigh. Hopefully this year we’ll learn some skillzz that will make our winter outdoor season more exciting.

These photos are from our first view of the Grand Canyon North Rim in 2007 (we’re orange because of the sunset, not some freak tanning accident):

And this is from our beautiful hike into Havasu Canyon in 2008:

This is pretty much the reason why I scrapbook - to have an excuse to stare at these photos long after they were taken and practically feeling the sun and the sweat and the exitement and the happiness all over again.

Now please excuse me while I turn on my happy lamp and look for more old photos to lose myself in.

Doggie update: Wellie is fitting in perfectly with our family - apart from a couple of little snafus (all involving feces, hooray!) the first weeks, he is doing so well. He’s even bringing Bobby out of his shell! We keep catching them snuggling on the couch…

…and, *shock* playing!! Bobby never plays with other dogs, so this is a big breakthrough.

Unfortunately Bobby broke a bone in his paw two weeks ago, so he’s been wearing a humongous cast and has been unable to play or run around. We’re going back to the vet today to hopefully get the cast off so he can go back to doing all his happy dog things.

Luckily for Wellie, he has another new playmate while Bobby is off-limits - we’re dogsitting little Rocco! There is officially too much cuteness in our house!

On Saturday we decided to forgo skiing so we could stop by the Iggy Ambassadors meetup in the dog park. We didn’t know at the time that this was to be one of the better decisions we’ve made in our life…because there was a 7 month old foster puppy who was looking for a forever home!

Even though JK and I have been talking about getting a second Italian Greyhound, we had pretty much given up on the idea since we go hiking and backpacking so much now. Still, we saw him, looked at each other, commented on how big and muscular he was (he’s already bigger than Bobby!), looked at each other some more, and then we just couldn’t resist those puppy dog eyes anymore. Huzzah!!

His name is Max, and so far we’ve been calling him Maxie, Maxi Pad (just once before I realized what I was saying), Maxwell, Max Wellington and Wellie. AND WE ALREADY LOVE HIM SO MUCH. Yesterday we took him for a short hike up to Rattlesnake Ledge to slowly get him used to trails:

Both pups got rather muddy on the way down, so the poor little guys had to endure the tub - I love how proud JK looks of his new furry son:

Max is doing so well in the house, with us, and with Bobby. Luckily he seemed comfortable with us right from the start, and he’s ridiculously snuggly. The only problems so far have been some indoor poopage and a bit of humping (but Bobby schooled him on that pretty quickly). I am very happy so far in my brand new role as puppy mom! How could anyone not be happy when they get to play with someone this soft?!