Weekend Update . . .

Change of plans... We were planning on doing a short day of skiing on Saturday, followed by a trip to Big Sky where we had a nice room reserved at the Huntley Lodge at Big Sky and a day of at Big Sky Resort on Sunday.

We left Saturday morning at 7:30 to ski with Will and Levia and their dog Hazel in a new area (for Peter and I) up Tom Miner Basin, particularly, South Rock Creek. It was going to be a 8-10 mile snowmobile ride in and then the skiing was pretty endless.

The trail had not been groomed and it gets ALOT of recreation snowmobilers on it, so it was BUMPY! Huge bumps! Because the ride in was so long, we carried the dogs on our laps on the snowmobiles the entire 8 miles. It was a great experience for us because the ride in was pretty technical with all sorts of new maneuvers that we (actually I- Brooke) needed to do to fully understand the power and trickiness of my new toy.

We had a few stops for buried sleds, I flew off of mine (while holding tight to the dog) a couple of times and there were a few tight and deep corners that could have been interesting ... However, It ended up (even with the bumps that probably herniated a few disks) being a really fun ride in. I think we might officially be "slednecks" now.

Once we got to our stopping point we headed up to the ridge of the Gallatins where we were able to see Paradise Valley and the Yellowstone River to our East and Big Sky Resort and Gallatin Canyon to our West.

It was a breathtaking place and the weather couldn't have been lovelier. The snow was REALLY good and we had no problem finding some great turns. Most of all, we had GREAT company with Will and Levia and Hazel and by the time we got out and back to the trucks at 5:00, it was really hard to motivate ourselves to drive another 3 plus hours to Big Sky for a "romantic evening." So, we postponed our Big Sky Getaway for another time, went to Chico Hot Springs and had beers and nachos with the Shoutis'.

Sunday we had the MOST fun... We replaced our WATER HEATER. Now, when you think of things around the house you want to spend your money and time on... I bet water heater is at the top of your list.

Thankfully we have really nice friends who are very generous with their time (and recently replaced water heaters in their homes) to help us. Mike and 4 year old Caid came right over ready to "get it done." And they did. One afternoon, a couple trips to the hardware store and some supervision by Caid, and we have a non-leaking 50 gallon hot water heater! The showers were great this morning!

Sunday night we had a great evening with Madeleine, Mike and Logan Rogers. It has been a long time since we have had a quiet evening with them and it was really nice. Logan is almost 2 and he is absolutely hilarious. In to everything, very active, and heartbreakingly cute and charming. We watched him play with light switches, vacuum cleaners, legos, books, and his food all night.

All in all, a great weekend. Oh, Oliver took off for over an hour on Sunday and has been sulking ever since. He knows he was very bad!

Today is President's Day... I have the day off. I will be going with Peter to the Ranch to work and while we are there we are going to ski a bit, and more importantly -- BUILD the long awaited closets that I have designed for our rooms! Soon, you will see updates on the fully functional fung shui closet system a la Howell.

Tomorrow... Expect BIG things on this website... we have some exciting news! (no, not pregnant) :)









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Peter and his beautiful, functioning, non-leaky water heater!

Peter and Brooke ... a really nice sunset in the front yard.