Starting the new year right… on the mountain
New Year's Eve snowstorm over I-90
I have to say, it was a KICK ASS new years. For New Year’s Eve, Nate and I packed up the truck with plenty of food, ski gear and the dog, and headed to the Kaiser family cabin. We made the somewhat treacherous drive over the I-90 Pass, going 35 MPH for much of it, but made it all the way to Eastern Washington without incident. In fact, it was a gorgeous trip, surrounded by winter white! And Nate and I were thrilled that it was snowing, since that meant fresh powder for us once we hit the slopes!
We chilled by ourselves that evening, enjoying a delicious home-cooked meal and watching Uncle Buck on VHS (remember those?!?!) I hadn’t seen the movie in years, and I’m reminded how much I love John Candy and the young Macaulay Caulkin. Our evening was spotted by the occasional cat-nap on the way to midnight, but we somehow managed to be up for the ball drop. Ten years ago, Nate was in Times Square, watching the millennium change over. This year, he was in his jammies laying on the couch. How times have changed…
The next morning, Nate ignored my pleas to sleep in a bit more, and we packed up to hit the slopes. I’m glad he insisted on getting up when we did cuz by the time we got to Mission Ridge, put on all our gear, picked up our ski passes and made it to the lifts, the fresh stuff was just about all scraped off. Bummer. That’s what I get for a lazy morning. We were still on the mountain by 10:15, and we love the terrain at Mission Ridge no matter what the conditions but an hour earlier would have been better. Nonetheless, we ripped through the day, taking in as many turns as possible. We skied HARD and by 2 p.m. both of us were done. On our last run of the day, Nate fell three times in about five turns, and I figured it was definitely time to head back to the cabin. Besides, our puppy was waiting for us!
New Year's Day
That night, making New Year’s Day even BETTER, Ailey and Ritchie joined us. Time with family, especially family that you consider friends, is so special. We hit Mission Ridge again the next day, and Ritchie experienced his 2nd day ever on skis. He ROCKED! Half way through the day, we took him up Liberator (the high-elevation quad chair) and he made it down a whole series of blue runs… mostly upright 
The whole day was awesome, and it marked one hell of a way to kick off 2010. If the rest of the year keeps up like this, it’s gonna be a great year!
Mars and Ritchie - tearin' it up!
The Kaisers - Nate, Mars and Ailey
Views from the top
Mission Ridge
After-ski hair = awesome!