nursery progress

I was lucky enough to have a 4 day weekend and made a lot of progress on the nursery. The office/nursery is a TINY room next to our bedroom that has evolved into a place where we throw crap when we have visitors...then shut the door. We would clean it out occasionally but haven't really touched it much since we found out we were pregnant knowing that we would have to move everything out of there. That day was today. I'm embarrassed to share this first photo because it looks SO bad but you have to see how much work I did this weekend.

I should mention that Lisa's mom organized a lot when she visited last month. She also cleaned out the closet. So the first task was to move everything downstairs and then take apart the desk.

The desk is a huge corner unit that came apart in 3 sections. I had warned a couple friends that I may need some help getting the desk downstairs but somehow managed to carry each piece down with minimal damage to myself, the desk, and the walls.

The room was empty by yesterday afternoon so we made a quick trip to Lowe's to pick out the paint. That's right, I said WE. Lisa took the trip too and managed pretty well. We decided on green and yellow to go with our pattern that we selected from Babies R Us.

Here is the empty room yesterday afternoon and the room right now after 10 hours of painting today.



Why 10 hours? Well I had to do a primer on the one big wall and on the window frame AND door frame before I could put on the final green coat. What a pain!! Who paints a door frame??

What's left? The green is done. All I have left are two walls to do the yellow. I am hoping to finish both tomorrow (Monday) night. I will of course post the pics when it's completed.

One more quick story. Early this morning Lisa woke up to go to the bathroom and as she always does, looked down to our backyard to see if there's a moose down there. Well this time there was. There was an adult all curled up in a ball sleeping in our backyard. Lisa woke me up to show me and then I quickly fell back asleep. When Lisa got back in bed, Madison jumped up on the bed (which she never does) and circled between me and Lisa until we gave her some room and she curled up right between our legs. It was all pretty cute.

Lisa snapped this picture before she got back into bed.

Tuesday evening update

We're at the end of another very long day...another good day. We had our weekly appointment with the perinatologist, actually the technician. It was only about 20 minutes long but long enough to get all the measurements and know that we didn't have to go to Seattle for the surgery. With each passing day, it looks less and less likely that we will need the surgery.

Although the technician said the numbers are "irrelevant", they were 9.12 and 5.61 centimeters. As a refresher, the donor was 2.3 -> 7.4 -> 5.6 cm. The recipient was 9.6 -> 9.1 -> 9.1 cm. He kind of stressed this last week that the maximum vertical pocket that's being measured was an indicator that the problem could be serious but was not the "tell all" that they are looking for. The majority of the visit was spent measuring the blood flow through the heart and in their brain. I tried to ask more specific questions about how that is looking or if there's a range we should be looking for or anything else and he said that is all looks good. They are looking at the shape of the return that he gets from measuring the flow and that will be compared to the previous week to look for trends.

The doctor didn't stick his head in like he did last time to reassure us that everything looked good but the technician said that he didn't see anything that would warrant any immediate response and that the doctor would call if needed after he takes a closer look at the results.

It's all good news. 2 weeks ago we left the room in tears because we were so scared. Last week we were in tears because we were so relieved and happy. Today we just left. We were, of course, happy to not be on a plane but after last week weren't really expecting any dramatic changes. This felt like a check-up and not a diagnosis for the first time in a while...which is good.

Both babies were active. Lisa had a few moments this week where she had not felt them kick in a while and became concerned...concerned enough to tell me and then have me come over and feel her stomach until I felt them both move. So it was a relief to see that they are moving in there NON STOP!! It was good for Lisa to watch them kick and swirl and stretch and still not feel a thing. We got some more pictures but ran out of time this evening and didn't scan them in.

For those of you who have asked, we have registered. We registered with Babies R Us. Be careful though, we found another couple with the same names registered in another state.

We've had a lot of input from our friends who had the twins last year. We are also receiving some hand-me-downs from those twins since they are now a year old and outgrowing some things so we didn't register for some things like a bath tub or bottles.

Nursery update....there is none. :( The goal is to have it emptied out and painted by Sunday!! I've taken the before pictures so now all I have to do is....well everything.

And the names. Sorry just another teaser. We are still debating the spelling. I thought we were in agreement but apparently there is more than one way to spell Chrysanthemum and Aloevera....that's weird.

Keep the prayers coming and thank you for checking in on us and thinking of us.

23 weeks and 1 day

I don't know if anyone caught it but there was a show on the Discovery Health Channel the other night about twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. I was at work but Lisa saw it while channel surfing. She recorded it for me to watch because she wasn't sure if she wanted to watch it alone. That ended up being an good idea. I watched when I got home from work yesterday and it left me a little speechless.

It followed 4 families as they went through the diagnosis to delivery. Of the 4 families, I think 3 of them ended up having the surgery. One twin did not survive out of the 4 families and it was one that had the surgery. The one family that didn't qualify for the surgery made it to 33 weeks and delivered 2 healthy girls with no problem.

I took several things away from the show. One is that the emotions that we are having are normal. It was reassuring to see the strangers going the exact same challenges we're facing and vocalizing our exact thoughts. It also showed me that we may really not be able to relax the rest of the pregnancy. I had hoped somehow things would continue to improve and we could just sail through 37 weeks or so...not gonna happen. Every couple stressed until the minute they were born. That means we could have 2+ months of worrying ahead of us.

Yesterday was a good example of that, though. Lisa kept saying during the day that she didn't feel right. The babies were constantly moving around and nothing seemed abnormal but she couldn't get comfortable and couldn't get it out of her head that something might be wrong. In the evening, she had what we think was another Braxton Hicks contraction. This was one a little stronger and more uncomfortable for her. It was only one though and she settled down after that.

During the show I was also able to see exactly how the surgery is performed. Again, I don't know if that's what Lisa would want to see. It might be enough for her to know how it's done without actually seeing it happen.

One more thing...I wanted to point out something that might be hard to visualize. This picture that I posted before is the donor baby. She has a name but you have to wait until the rest of the family knows. The donor is the one who is losing fluid in her sac. This picture was taken last week when the maximum vertical pocket of fluid was down to 2.3 cm.


Why I'm bringing it up is to show you how little room she really had. If you look on her face, you can see the membrane actually come off her forehead and then across her nose. You can see it again as it comes off her chin and goes down to her chest and then finally it comes off her belly on the right side of the picture. When there's that little fluid in there, it sucks up against her body and pins her down. On Tuesday when we looked, we didn't get to see the profile like this but the membrane was well off her and flapping around to the side every time she moved. That's why it was easy for us to see the difference right away and not have to wait for the technician to tell us there was improvement. It was obvious there was a lot more fluid in there with her.

I know there are some people that are checking the blog now that have more experience with TTTS so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but that was how I understood it.

Again, thank you everybody for the emails, phone calls, and comments. We try to email everybody back but know we're missing some.

I am off for the rest of the weekend and plan on working on the nursery!!!! We also will be registering (finally) and pass on that info when we finish that up.

good news

The appointment went great today. It was mainly an appointment with the ultrasound technician with the doctor just dropping in for a few minutes to look over the results. The technician answered all of our questions and seemed very positive that we would not need the surgery today.

I immediately noticed a difference on the amount of fluid around the donor. It seemed better to me. Later when he looked for the maximum vertical pocket he showed us 7.38 cm!!!! It was 2.3 cm last week! The recipient is at 9.1 cm...she was at 9.6 cm last week.

We were ecstatic about those numbers but the technician warned us that although the numbers are great, that is only part of the equation. He is more concerned about the blood flow. He spent the majority of the time looking at the blood flow through the arteries in the heart and in the head. He said it will be the blood flow that will dictate whether surgery is required or not...and he and the doctor said it all looked good.

Bottom line, no surgery today and we'll look again next Tuesday. We were in tears we were so relieved but realize we have a long way to go. This was a big victory and hopefully a sign of things to come.

Keep the prayers coming. We know the real reason we've seen improvement. Thank you so much everyone. We love every one of you.

BIG day today

The appointment with our OBGyn went very well yesterday. She was very reassuring and optimistic about our situation which is exactly what we needed. I told her about the relatively pessimistic numbers I had come across regarding the surgery and she seemed to think that those were too low and had a much more optimistic idea of the success rate. Many of the questions we asked she deferred to the perinatologist but she was very patient and answered almost everything we threw at her.

One concern of hers is the possibility of delivering the babies early. The goal is to make it to 28 weeks (we're at 22 weeks, 6 days today). With our next appointment with her in two weeks, she is going to begin shots to help the babies lungs develop quicker so they'll be ready for an early exit if necessary. We'll find out more today of course but one concern is this window between the surgery and earliest delivery time. I believe the latest we can have the surgery is at 25 weeks but the earliest we can deliver is 28. So if the surgery happens it will be tomorrow or next week. With the surgery, it should buy us enough time to make it to 28 weeks...and beyond hopefully.

After our appointment, one of my concerns is regarding our babies "maximum vertical pocket" of amniotic fluid. What I've learned is that surgery will be more seriously considered once the MVP is over 10cm or under 2cm. I asked and as of last Wednesday they were at 9.6cm and 2.3cm. To me, that seems to indicate that surgery is inevitable. Certainly there is a chance that with bedrest these last couple of days, the levels could have remained the same or maybe improved but it really doesn't leave much room to maneuver.

With that news, we are preparing ourselves to head to Seattle today. I may have said Portland in a previous post but it's really Seattle. I'm working night shifts this week so the boss has put someone on call for tonight. Our neighbors said they would be happy to watch after Madison (our dog for those of you who don't know). So we'll be going to the hospital at 2pm and will probably know within the first couple of minutes of the appointment.

Now for the good news. The response that we continue to get from our family, friends, and strangers has been so uplifting. We are amazed every day at the response we get in emails and phone calls. Thank you so much! It is really helping. I actually printed out a lot of the emails yesterday and took them with us to the hospital so we could read through them again to remind us of all the people praying for us. We are NOT alone! Thank you!

One response I got yesterday was from a woman who under similar circumstances, had the surgery done in Seattle with great results. That was the most comforting news we've received throughout this process...someone who had the surgery in Seattle, made it to 34 weeks, and delivered two very healthy babies. It is very uplifting to hear that kind of story right now, I can't explain how much that helped. I think Lisa's response was, "THAT'S what I'm talking about!!!!"

I have also emailed Dr. Julian DeLia who is a pioneer with this procedure. From what I've read, he continues to be involved with MANY cases and would most likely be able to consult on our case. Unfortunately, we may be running out of time but hopefully I'll hear back from him today before we are forced with any decisions.

One more thing, I came across this article that is a very good summary of TTTS and what we're up against. article

I'm sorry this is kinda wordy but I wanted to update everything just in case we're in Seattle tonight and can't post.

I will certainly post, email, and call the minute we know what's going on. Please continue to pray for us today.

A & L & the girls

coping with the news

So as you may have been able to tell from the last post, we were pretty emotional about the news. During the pregnancy, it never crossed our mind (and why should it?) that there would be the potential that we could lose our babies. So we took that initial shock pretty hard but have been doing much better since the first 36 hours or so.

Lisa did better than me. I think the motherly instincts kicked in and she realized that worrying wasn't going to help the babies but resting and thinking positive would. She finished up work on Thursday and has spent Friday and yesterday glued to our favorite recliner in front of the tv.

I, on the other hand stayed home from work Thursday and spent the day pretty depressed. I slept most of the day and when I was awake, I just sat there and stared at the wall thinking. Not very productive considering we have a nursery to finish....err I mean, start.

Since Lisa got home Thursday evening and we were able to talk some more about our feelings, I discovered how well she was doing and her spirits lifted me up. She told me that although it was tough sharing what was going on and she cried a lot during the day, she also had some wonderful moments like when a principal of a school that had been tough on her all year sat down and prayed with Lisa in her office!!! WOW!

Then the phone started ringing...and ringing...and ringing. You guys have been the best! Just knowing that our family and friends are all over the place praying for us is SO uplifting. We really do feel better and know that is translating to the babies too.

So what's next? Tomorrow we go in for a routine appointment with the OB. I'm sure there will be lots of Q&A tomorrow but we probably won't learn anything new about the babies condition. On Tuesday, we will go to see the specialist who will take a look at the babies and see how the fluid is. I'm guessing there may not be much of a difference from last week. This will be just to make sure it isn't getting worse I think. If it is worse, we will be on the first plane to Portland, OR. The appointment is at 2pm and I'm sure we'll know within the first 10 minutes if we're going or not. I'll be sure to post the results as soon as we know them. It may be safe to say, if you don't see a new post by Wednesday then we could very well be in Portland having surgery.

The other news I want to share is the names of the babies. Since they are easily distinguishable now and we had pretty much secured which names we wanted, we went ahead and named them Wednesday night. I'll okay it with Lisa and probably tell the grandparents first but hopefully share that tidbit with the world in another day or two.

Keep us in your prayers.

In the mean time, here's Lisa at 21 weeks and what we were doing Friday night to entertain ourselves while Lisa's on bedrest. If you can't tell, Lisa's rocking on Guitar Hero. I believe she was playing Sweet Child O Mine.

visit with the specialist

Well......

I don't know where to start.........

We had our appointment with the specialist today to go over how our babies are doing. Ugggg I'm having a hard time putting this into words. It did not go terrible but the news certainly was not good.

Our babies have been diagnosed with TTTS (twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome). I'll copy an explanation from a website so I don't mess anything up.

"Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) is the consequence of unbalanced blood flow from one twin (the donor) to the other (the recipient) across transplacental vascular communications and results in the polyhydramnios/ oligo- hydramnios sequence and can include growth discordance."

In other words, the blood flow from baby to baby is connected via the placenta. One baby is working harder and forcing the fluid to the other baby's amniotic sac. If untreated, the fluid is drained from the donor's sac and will die of dehydration. The recipient may also die because she can't cope with the extra blood flow so her heart will fail.

What can we do? Well not much right now. Lisa is going on bedrest. Our doctor said that although there are no studies that prove bedrest can reverse the effects, he believes that may play a significant role in balancing out the blood flow between the two babies.

If that doesn't work, there is a procedure that will help regulate the flow by "closing the blood vessels on the surface of the placenta so that the babies' blood is no longer shared." It's called fetoscopic laser ablation of chorioangiopus vessels or FLOC if you want to look it up. The hospital would fly us down to Portland, Oregon for the procedure. I read that is performed/available in only a handful of hospitals in the world. We will be going once a week so the doc can keep a close eye on donor's amniotic sac to see if we need to intervene.

Now....here's the downer and why I was having such a hard time writing this. Against my better judgement, I looked up TTTS and FLOC to see what I could find about the success rate. The specialist told us that the success rate is "very good". "Very good", I'm learning, is a relative term.

I found two case studies where severe TTTS were treated by FLOC. In both studies, both twins survived in 50 to 55% of the cases. One baby survived in 70%. That means that in 30% of the cases, neither baby survived.

I've been staring at those numbers for the past hour. I don't know what else to say.

We're having a hard time with this news. We were cautiously optimistic after the doctor's visit but now after finding some numbers to go along with the diagnosis, we are pretty devestated. We've both had a hard cry tonight.

...right now I can hear Lisa in bed reading a Dr. Seuss book to the babies and it's breaking my heart.

We need your prayers. We love these babies so much. 4 months ago, I couldn't imagine life with a baby....now I can't imagine my life without both of them.

Please pray for us.

Andy, Lisa, and our two angels

Baby news

We got the call we've been hoping we wouldn't receive. Our doctor called us to let us know there is a concern in the difference in the babies weights. They are an estimated 10 and 12 ounces which is 20% and enough to send us to a specialist. We have an appointment next Wednesday to see the twin specialist. Honestly, we don't know what to expect and are trying our best not to worry and have faith that things are and will continue to be perfect.

A bit of good news...Lisa felt one of the babies moving around today for the first time. On Sunday, she called me to tell me there is a lump in her stomach. I told her to push on it...so she says while she's gently pushing on her belly "baby? is that you?" Well the bump responded and simply disappeared.

Today was a different story. One of the little ones decided she was bored during a mid-morning meeting and thought it would be fun to stick a butt or leg out. I still don't know how Lisa kept from interrupting the meeting and telling everyone what just happened. The baby continued to move around for a couple minutes and then fell back asleep or wandered off to the other side of the playground.

Later this evening, Lisa felt another movement but by the time I came over and put my hand on the spot, it had stopped. So I'm going to go to bed now, say a prayer, and fall asleep with my hand on her belly...waiting patiently for that next kick.

Keep us in your prayers and we'll update as we find out more.

Here are some more pictures from our last visit.

This was the only one with both babies in the same picture. See all the fingers?

Jan 19th baby checkup

Sorry all you faithful readers, it's been a while....

Lisa had her last checkup on Friday and it was a good one. This is the appointment that most pregnant women look forward to because it's the first time they get to see their baby for 45 minutes while they do all their measurements. We are spoiled because twins require one of the apppointments every month so this is the third time we've seen the 3d pictures and we get 45 minutes PER BABY...but this was the "scheduled" 20 week checkup. We are so spoiled with these twins.

Lisa's mom was also in town so she was able to accompany us and see her grandbabies in action for the first time. They put on a great show. Both were very active to the point where we thought they were fighting. There was a lot of squirming, punching, kicking, and dancing. These are going to be fun babies.

The doc printed out 14 pictures for us.....14!!!!! Here are a few.

Neuschwanstein Castle

On December 30th, we took a road trip to see the most famous castle in Germany, Neuschwanstein. While we were flying back to Anchorage, Lisa and I talked about our favorite parts of the trip and we both agreed that day was #1 for both of us. For me, the castle was amazing but I most enjoyed driving through the countryside and seeing all the picturesque villages along the way. One of the highlights was when we stopped for lunch on the way back off the beaten path. I'm still not sure what the name of the village was but it was not a place many American tourist probably stop. Anyway, here are a few pictures from that day.

One of said picturesque villages enroute to the castle. This one was in Austria, I believe. We actually drove through Austria for about 30 minutes.


Carriage ride up to the castle.



...view of Schwan (Swan) Lake from inside the castle


Lisa outside of Neuschwanstein


Ludwig built his castle so he could keep a close eye on his Mommy and Daddy down the road who lived in this little castle.

Ski Jumping

Dec 31, 2006 qualifying jump in Garmisch, Germany.

Ski Jumping on New Year's Eve

Some pictures from our New Years festivities. The way I understand it is that Garmisch is 1 of 4 ski jump hills on a circuit in Europe. It is a huge anual event and one of the main reasons why we wanted to be in Garmisch during this time of year. We went on New Year's Eve for the practice and qualifying rounds. Finals were the next day and it RAINED...hard. We watched the finals live on tv in a lodge down the street and were amazed to see how many people braved the rain. Here are a couple of shots from that day and then that evening during the party....and a "Andy and Lisa's Adventures" first, a video from our digital camera.

We're HOME!!!

We finally made it home early Friday morning after 3 days of travelling. We left Garmisch on Tuesday and took the train to Munich. After an overnight stay at a nice hotel near the airport, we left around noon for a 9.5 hour flight to Philadelphia. We couldn't get a connecting flight out of Philly that same evening so we stayed overnight in Philly and left Thursday afternoon for the last 2 flights back to Anchorage. They were each 5 hours long and proved to be more exhausting the than the initial pond crosser. Luckily we were able to use miles to upgrade to first class on the last two legs but even so, we were both VERY anxious to get off the plane.

This first picture is the sunrise on our last day travelling from our hotel room in Philly. Obviously, our clocks were a little messed up so we were up a little early.

Before we got on the plane, we found an AWESOME Philly cheesesteak place down the street from the hotel. It was perfect. Here is Lisa washing down her cheesesteak with some water (I haven't seen her eat that much since we found out she was pregnant) with some of the decor in the background. The article on the wall behind her was about how President Bush and his entourage ordered 80 cheesesteaks a couple years ago while there were visiting the city. There was a signed picture on the wall from the crew of Air Force One.

Home...we knew it had snowed while we were gone but wow were we surprised to see just how much. Our next door neighbor kept our driveway shoveled but left the snow on top of the Bronco to show us how much it had snowed. I'm still in shock. The road back to our house is one lane because the snow is stacked up so high on each side. Our deck had more than 2 feet of snow stacked up so I got a little worried about the weight and shoveled some off. Madison ventured out into it but didn't like it too much.

Happy New Year from Deutschland

Lisa and I are still in Germany and having a blast. Our vacation is coming to an end and will be begin our long journey back to Anchorage tomorrow. I can't wait to share photos and stories with everyone. For now, I thought I would give a little teaser of some of our adventures.

A reason to celebrate

Today, Lisa and I celebrate our 7th anniversary!

GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We found out yesterday...we're having girls! :) What can I say? I didn't have a gut feeling either way but am now finding out that everybody "knew it". That's the most common response so far, even at work.

The appointment went great. It took over an hour for the doc to see everything he wanted to see. The babies, I mean the girls, looked fantastic. They were both squirming around and one always seem to move right when the doc was trying to get a picture of something. We think it was the same baby that was dancing around so much last time too. We were able to see cross sections from head to toe.

Toward the end, he showed us the "girl parts" and told us the good news. He then switched to the 3-d ultrasound and saw some amazing pictures. I took the video camera and recorded some and hope to share that on here after I figure out how to transfer it. In the mean time, here are some still shots.

Looks like to me the one on the right is smiling.

The ladies chilling. Looks like the one on the left is waving with her right hand and saying gig'em with the other. Good little ags!

...and the money shot.

She's starting to pop

We have our next appointment on Friday but I'd thought now would be a good time to update the expanding belly. Lisa's had some growing pains and is getting over her cold slowly...but overall things are going okay. We're really looking forward to Friday.

Lisa had me laughing out loud tonight. She had a terrible day at work, came home and cried, and then spent 3 hours at the computer writing up reports. But we were just getting ready for bed and she let out a little scream in the other room. I perked up and asked if everything was okay and she walks over to me with her shirt up pointing out her belly button. She says, "I just sneezed and my belly button popped out!!! Feel it! FEEL IT!!!" She was freaking out. She has an outie now.

December 5 Checkup

We needed a pick-me-up today and we go it. We were able to ease our worrisome minds with some reassurance from our doctor that we're doing everything right and the babies are perfectly healthy. The doctor determined that Lisa's cold is a viral infection and antibiotics aren't necessary. The best course of action is to drink plenty of fluids and keep taking Sudafed. All the cramping, throwing up, sniffs, and gagging is a natural part of being pregnant and will eventually pass.

So after that settling news and getting a nice pep talk, we headed over to get a quick ultrasound. Unfortunately, it was not the 3-d ultrasound like the last one but we did make an appointment for next Friday to have that done. That will be VERY exciting because we will most likely find out the sex of the two little ones during that next visit. This ultrasound was to just do a quick check to make sure they're alive and kicking.

And now for the best part of the day...the second the doc put the wand on Lisa's belly, this perfect image of baby number 1 popped up on the screen. He/she was wiggling around and showing off for us again. Baby number 2 wasn't as easy to see. He/she was situated in a way that we could really only see the top of his/her head and the upper torso. Afterwards, I was brought to tears. I was SO excited to see those little ones doing so good. It has been challenging for us, especially Lisa, and it was so rewarding and comforting to see our happy babies alive and well...and GROWING!! They are really starting to look like little babies.

So here are the pics of the two little ones. In the second picture, if you are having a hard time seeing it, the top of the head is on the right and the spine and upper torso goes off to the left.

We're at an all-time low over here

What a weekend! After a fun snow day on Friday, things went downhill fast. Friday night we spent with Lisa and Ben and probably stayed out a little bit too late. Saturday was house party night. We went to 3 different parties eventhough Lisa was feeling a little under the weather.

Sunday...the floor fell out from us. Lisa is as sick as she's been since we found out. She has a nasty cold and nothing seems to be helping. That in combination with the morning sickness is bringing the morale way down.

So we're feeling bad, right? I decided while Lisa was in bed to do some cleaning Sunday. I get out the vacuum and when I start it up, smoke starts pouring out of the side! This is 3 year old $200+ vacuum we bought to deal with all the dog hair...guess that didn't pan out too well.

So today, I decide to get some laundry done. I start the washer up and laid down. I hear an awful sound and run to the laundry room only to smell AND SEE smoke coming from behind the washer!!!! What are the freaking chances!?!?!? 2 appliances in 2 days practically catch fire.

So what's the good news? It can't all be bad, right? Well we have an appointment with the doc tomorrow morning. Certainly the doc will be able to give Lisa some relief from her symptoms. Both of our fantasy football teams won. We're leaving for Germany in 17 days. All signs are that the babies are doing well. Hopefully that'll be comfirmed tomorrow at the appointment.

Say a little prayer for us.

I leave you with a picture from Friday night at Lisa and Bens. We played Monopoly by the fire until...well until Lisa B won.

Big Snow = Big Fun

Friday, December 1, was a good day. We got 5 to 7 inches of the white stuff across town. It was my first day off so Lisa, Ben, Lisa R, Venessa, and I made the most of our afternoon. After I bought my snowboard!!!!!! we went up to Russian Jack Park to go snowboarding/sledding. It was a blast. The snow was untouched so we were able to make our own trails and I was able to experience snowboarding down some fresh powder. I've heard it compared to floating on a cloud, that is accurate. It was like nothing I'd ever done before. It was very forgiving and lot of fun. Here are some pics from this evening's festivities.


My first attempt


Lisa R giving the snowboard a try and doing pretty good.

I thought this one looked like an album cover or something. It'd be better if it was in focus but you get the point. It was funny because it was so spontaneous, too. I just said, hey let me get your picture as they were walking up the hill and this is how they stopped and posed.