Snow Snow Snow

Wow! So much snow. We have about a foot of snow in here at home. Yesterday neither of us even went outside. We woke up this morning and we have another 5 inches. Luckily Ryan sealed up the drafty gaps in our remodeling area. The sad part of being stuck in the house is that we don't have enough supplies to keep the house project going. I can't even get to work! I am working from home and it doesn't look promising for getting out any time soon.

I wish our neighbor would bust out his kabota tractor and we could make some sweet snowboard jumps! As long as the power doesn't go out, we should stay busy at home. Yesterday, I didn't even get out of my pajamas. We both did take a showers finally this morning.

We did get some presents wrapped yesterday. I think we spent 6 hours off and on wrapping our gifts. Hopefully we can make it to Roseburg for Christmas. It isn't looking like we have a break in the snow till Friday. We just have to wait out the storm.

The funny thing is that we didn't get a Christmas tree because we ran out of time and we don't stay here for Christmas. Well, this year, we may not have a choice. Would have been a good year to have picked out a tree. Oh, well. We have a mantle at least.

Another funny fact is that we are not done with Christmas shopping. We can walk to a couple stores, Best Buy, Washington Square, and Target. If only there was a New Season's grocery store close by. We are out of veggies! Can't go much longer without fresh veggies.

Chantrelles

Ryan is a born again hunter. Mushroom hunter that is. He creeps quietly through the northern facing slopes of the Tillamook forest, searching for chantrelles. Luckily, the season is very short and he, with the help of Eric Larson, gathered 40-50 lbs this year! While we were in Astoria for a bike race this fall, Ryan and Eric planned to stop along HWY 26 on the way home. Heidi and I sat in the car for about a half hour withe the stinky dogs while they were "hunting." Who know what next year will bring us during the mushroom hunting season. They are very difficult to clean...with a toothbrush.

Playing with Photoshop

I was a little on the bored side tonight. Thought I would "create" some old photos/posters.

Snow is falling

Snow is falling, remodeling is underway, and we are sipping on some yummy apple cider! What more do you need? Likely even a snow day tomorrow and I can't make it into work. Cross your fingers.

Lilo loves the warm kitty heated bed. Forget going outside!

Super Hott!

Sunday night we went to the Cross Crusade awards ceremony and theme was prom...or whatever you believe in. Ryan, Brian and I dressed up. None of our other friends went with us. We looked awesome! Oh, if you can't tell, Ryan and Brian have mustaches. Yuck!

Heidi's Baby Shower

Heidi's Baby Shower was so much fun. Heidi made her own cake and we had 26 ladies show up. Check out the pictures below.

Rome - Day 1 of 4

It's only 4PM and my feet are done! I have to take a break. We hopped out of bed before 7am and headed to the Colosseum to be the crowds. Fantastic tip from some folks we met earlier in Cinque Terre (oh, and Rick Steves). We then stopped by the Palatino and then spent another 3+ hours in there. OMG. I am pooped. Here are some pictures from today. Our goal is to stay out as late at 10pm. That will be the first for us. We sadly go to bed early since we are so worn out. Enjoy the pictures.

Orvieto -- A must see, stay and taste for anyone in Italy

We spent two nights at a fabulous Bed and Breakfast in the cutest town up on the top of a plateau. Just as we showed up, the Taste of Orvieto (a slow food movement festivity) began. If we ate meat, the tasting would have been amazing. For 27 euros you could eat at various restaurants, taste all kinds of wines from the Umbria region and listen to slow food movement presentations. Orvieto was amazing. Rather than explain in words, here are some pictures. We recommend anyone that plans a trip to Italy to spend some time here. However, don't plan on anyone speaking English. This seemed to be the town where many Italians took their holiday. We only found out about this hidden treasure by one of the Italians Ryan worked with last week, Simon. He gave us some great hints. Ciao!

Florence

Today was really great. We saw the David statue (pictures of the real statue not allowed), walked up over 460 steps to view the city from the top of the Duomo, walked through a German city market sampling delicious foods, hiked up to a park over looking the city, stopped by some art studios and had a fantastic meal to top off the night. Oh, and yesterday we stopped by the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We seem to pack it all in! Wow, my feet hurt! Here are some pictures to share our experience.

Hiking in Cinque Terre

I know that we are in Italy and crepes are not a standard breakfast, however, we had some amazing crepes to start the day. Delicious! Crepes laced with lemon juice and sugar, stuffed with strawberries and bananas. Oh, and I also want to let you all know that Ryan is drinking an espresso every morning while I drink the best cappuccino each morning. I pretty much drink cappuccino twice a day since they are so gooooood and cheap.

With a full belly we headed out on the 7 mile hike through the five towns. Basically paved, it was going to be a cake walk. They recommended 5 hours and we were not going to let that stand. We were making really good progress, passing folks with large and small backpacks, hiking boots, tennis shoes, leather dressy shoes, trekking poles, zip off pants...basically every kind of serious hiker gear you can find. Ryan and I on the other hand threw on some chaco and hit the trail. We had one German guy (in ascent boots) look at our feet and become very disgusted and tell his wife how ridiculous it was that we were wearing sandles.

Every corner was a fantastic view of the cities. It was hard not to stop, until you saw the super slow grandmas catching you and you didn't want to get behind them once again. Corniglia (3 of 5) brought some challenges. Kind of slippery, steep ascent and decent, and narrow rocky trails. The next town, Vernazza (4 of 5) we were famished, grabbed some food, met a restaurant owner that first guessed we were from California and when we told him Oregon, he said we have the best Salmon and took 1 euro off our purchase. After Vernazza Ryan and I noticed that our Chaco's were starting to rub a little on our toes. We then had to climb and climb AND CLIMB. The decent was super technical. I was shocked to see so many older folk out there. Lots of German's out hiking. At many points in the trail, we had to shuffle past one another and it was a little bit of a fall if you missed a step. We finally made it to the 5th town, Monterosso al Mare. Beautiful! And yummy gelato. Earlier on the hike, Ryan said he was feeling up for heading back on the trail. He changed his mind later and I was super happy about that. I was pooped.

We finished the day by heading by train back to our town, grabbing some food at a market, meeting Scott and Terri (celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary) from Texas and watching the sun set on a cliff edge. What a day! We are turning in early.

Tomorrow, we head to Florence. Now that we have enjoyed the ocean side, we head inland for a taste of Tuscany. We aren't fond of the wine in the Liguria region. They are not big on red wine, but their white is okay. Different for sure.