Every couple of years or so, our usually temperate home of Western Washington is hit with a doozy* of a snowstorm, and the world stops turning. This time it was a charming snow/ice/wind event that started last Saturday and has now morphed into Slushmageddon. We’re extremely lucky that a) JK can work from home, b) we can walk to the grocery store, c) we didn’t lose power and d) our house wasn’t obliterated by ice-laden trees. So for us, this week was pure heaven. Even Wellie, our furless, fatless friend, had fun exploring his favorite parks and trails in a totally new way.

I love not having to drive to the mountains for a wildernessish experience. What’s the point of fighting traffic on slick roads when good old Nike Park has transformed into a winter wonderland?

Ironically our Wednesday evening ski class was cancelled due to the snow, so we satisfied our adrenaline cravings by sledding in Meadow Park with Carlos and Deborah and our respective offspring.

The highlight of the week was our Cross-Country Ski Tour de Redmonde. We’ve skied in our little town before, but that was before we knew about the wonderful Powerline Trail about a mile from our house. I’ve been wanting to ski that sucker for YEARS, and it did not disappoint. I only fell once!

All in all we’ve covered about 30 miles of walking and skiing so far this week, which I’m hoping will make up for the elevated levels of baking brought on by the snow. Damn you, snickerdoodles!!

Maybe Wellie will be able to find his ball before the next Snowpocalypse hits.

*a doozy for a region that owns something like five snowplows total.

After spending much of this spring (officially the worst spring of all time, I might add) on the couch due to illness and/or weather-related malaise, I returned from Norway all pumped up and ready to get back in mountain shape and strengthen my clearly inadequate immune system.

Wellie had other plans. The morning after we returned, we had to take him to the vet for surgery to treat an anal gland abscess. I’ll spare you the details, but I can assure you that it’s just as pleasant as it sounds. We had to stay close to home the first five days post-surgery, foiling my Teanaway camping plans. Dumb dog!!

Sensing an impending meltdown, JK volunteered to take over all nursing duties on Saturday so that I could bask in the sunshine with Amy on a short hike to Talapus Lake. It was like chicken soup for the soul. Or phở for the soul, since I don’t eat chicken (but am somewhat obsessed with phở).

On Sunday JK and I went for a trail run (well, a walk/fast shuffle for me) in the Redmond Watershed Preserve. By the time we came back, Wellie had managed to wriggle out of his cone and pull the drainage tube out of his butt. Dumb dog!!

Luckily there was no lasting damage, so the tube remnants were removed on Monday. Wellie has to keep wearing the Cone of Shame for a week and a half, but now it’s tightened and we can at least leave him alone and get out of the house. That’s exactly what we did, hurrying up to Poo Poo Point to catch the last rays of sunshine before the rain returned.

Unfortunately, all I could think about on the trail was how much more fun it is to hike when you’re with your dumb dog.

Get well soon, Conehead!

I kinda sorta left the world of scrapbooking behind when I got hooked on the cocaine that is hiking. The spare bedroom we call our office is overgrown with old scrap crap and has become a sort of dumping ground for all sorts of stuff we can’t be bothered to find storage space for elsewhere.

I thought my crafty days were over, but once in a while I’ll get hit with the urge to make something. It’s good to have a rainy day hobby when you live in Washington, right?

This morning, inspired by some old videos I found of Bobby, I dug a tunnel into the Room o’ Paper (and Assorted Homeless Items) and put together this simple page about our farewell hike to Noble Knob last summer. It’s pretty much just a paper version of the blog post I wrote back then, but it’s nice to have a real, tactile version of our favorite memories.

I also found (among the Hoarders-style stacks of junk) this old dog-themed album and decided it’s time to make the pups their very own album. This is exactly the kind of mental thing that only the very bored and childless would do.

I’m sure Wellie will love having his very own scrapbook he can cherish forever and, as Tom said, “show his grandkids photos of the fat white and black dog he used to hike with.”

Wellie seems like a perfectly normal dog*…until you see him swim. Watch his heroic efforts to rescue me from the menacing waters of Sheep Lake in this Oscar shoo-in from Tofupup Productions:

*or at least a perfectly normal rat.

From the first moment we set foot on the trail to Noble Knob, it was clear that this was Bobby’s place. Aside from the obvious (peeing on something means you own it, right?), he just seemed incredibly happy there, smelling the flowers in the meadows, looking for critters and snoozing in the sun. We’ve always thought of it as Bobby’s hike.

This week, we went back to Noble Knob to spread Bobby’s ashes and say our farewells on his favorite mountain.

It was such a bittersweet trip; the weather was perfect and the hike was as beautiful as ever (…and Wellie was running around like crazy, tongue flapping every which way – apparently this is one of his favorite trails too!) but saying goodbye to Bobby felt so sad and so final.

I’m not going to write much since I’m tearing up just thinking about all of this, but it was a beautiful last hike for Bobby and I am so glad we did it. Now we’ll always have a place to go to visit our little Scabbers.

A friend sent me this quote today that made my eyes well up all over again:

Who are these characters who come and go from our lives, leaving behind hair on the sofa and more than a few footnotes in our personal history? Who sends them to us, and who takes them away? Does it matter? They are gifts. We can only embrace, enjoy and let go when we must. Even if it always seems way too soon.

I’m also going to try to keep this one in mind (thank you Dr. Seuss):

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

To all of you out there who are lucky enough to have animal companions, give your little (or not so little) friends an extra hug today. You will never regret it.