JK and I stumbled across these prints in a gallery in Winthrop last month, and I decided to buy them as a birthday present for myself. They took me right back to one of my favorite hikes.

We were saddened to hear that the artist, local climber and art teacher Sean McCabe, passed away in 2009, leaving behind his wife and two daughters.

His gallery is full of beautiful artwork from the Cascades, so take a peek if you’re a local mountain lover.

I’m going to hang these canvas prints in our living room, a reminder of our past and future adventures when the weather is dark and dreary, and a nudge to live life fully while we can.

I’m taking a break between trip reports to acknowledge the incredible amazingness that was Seattle Spring o’2012. After the preposterous excuse for a spring and early summer we had last year, I think I just forgot how fantastic this area is when it’s, well, not raining non-stop for months on end.

Not only was it not raining, but it was so hot that even Wellie couldn’t be outside in the middle of the day (and he’s Italian!) – every day I would find him melted on the floor or over various pieces of furniture like a Dalí clock.

Hot days led to warm afternoons spent walking on the Powerline Trail or biking to the Redmond Watershed Preserve…

…rock climbing in North Bend or sailing on Lake Washington.

Thank you, Washington, for providing us with the best playground we could ever ask for. You have more than made up for the nightmarish spring of 2011, and with this blog post I hope I have made up for all the smack I talked about you back then.

Just to show that we do in fact participate in non-hiking activities once in a while (although I do tend to stay attached to the couch for most of the day, cough cough), here are some photos from Tuesday afternoon.

We’re lucky enough to have a great friend who just happens to be a member of a sailing club so he can whisk melting Norwegians out on the lake during heatwaves. Thank you, Cap’n Andreas!

Yeah, that’s right – another heatwave. Luckily this one is not as hot and not as short as the absolutely brutal, suffocating scorcher we had in July, but I say it’s still a good excuse to get out on the water. Sailing is fantastic, especially when my only jobs on the boat are to relax and to duck when big beams come flying directly at me (that’s what she said).

Back pain update – I’m feeling so much better after taking some codeine (left over from the wisdom tooth extraction), stretching and going for a swim. I think the painkillers let my back muscles relax enough to loosen up whatever it was that was hurting so much. I went to the doctor today and he gave me permission to go backpacking (huzzah!) as long as I bring drugs (huzzah!) and don’t carry too much weight (huzzah huzzah huzzah!) – he thinks the back pain will subside within a couple of days, so I hope that’s true.

I really need to start doing some sort of core-strengthening program so this won’t happen again. Maybe it’s time to get back on the yoga mat.

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?!