2011 Christmas Card – Merry Christmas Everyone

Photo Card

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You can tell the husky misses the buffalo…

Testing out my ability to blog via my phone. Teddy this might have been the face of the Buffs as Keith Price scored his 4th TD in the first half.

turns out guinea pig is not that good

Peru

For Teduard: Jumping photo, Pisac

Ruins of Machu Picchu. We are actually facing the real Machu Picchu which is a mountain that we climbed. From the top we were able to look down at the mountain behind us in this picture (Wayna Picchu).

The “hike” up Machu Picchu. More like 1 hour of stairmaster.

The desert side of Peru. The least vegetation I’ve ever seen. Completely contrasted the humid Amazon that we’d just left. Better pictures of the Amazon to come. In the meantime, youtube some videos of Amazon sloths. Probably the highlight for me. I can’t stop youtubing sloth videos.

Ahh, the obligatory hostel rooftop sunset/beer combo. Enjoyed it with the hyena on the rooftop next to us.

We are training for the Walla Walla Onion Man Triathlon. I don’t think a two week break in Peru helped with training although we had hopes as we sucked wind at 10,000 feet at Machu Picchu that the altitude would serve as one of those anaerobic tents pro athletes use. Did our first long bike ride Friday and 6.6 mile run Sunday. Spring Dash next weekend! Summer is coming!

Home and Away

Some fotos from our trip to Mexico. We spent about 10 days total in and around Mexico City, 2 in Cuernavaca, 4 in Oaxaca, and another 7 in Manzanillo. I also got a couple of pictures in there from pheasant hunting this december and from Meg and Lisa’s visit from September.

This month, we visited Kirk and Maria on Oahu. We made some incredible culinary discoveries thanks to the guidance of these two locals. This is a picture of Sweet Home Cafe, a taiwanese hot pot restaurant. Everytime we went by there was a long line of people waiting to get in. The bonus at the end is that they give you a giant bowl of shaved ice, gelatinized goodies, and sweetened condensed milk at the end. Here are the three of us enjoying for the second time that week.

We also maximized our time on Oahu by doing 5 hikes in 6 days, 3 of which were monster. We hiked Ka’au Crater and summited a foggy ridge with fleeting views of Kailua. On this hike we invented crab-skiing which is a move that involves sliding downhill in a crab-walking position. Toward the end Kirk was proficient in the slalom crab-ski. Monster hike #2 was Olamana, three peaks accessed only by making your way through wild boar territory and using ropes to ascend and descend narrow ridges for beautiful views. Monster hike #3 was actually a stairclimb to the top of a mountain with, what else, sweet views of the ridges and oceans below. The stairs were so steep they were actually a ladder at spots. Thanks to an early morning conference call to Lisa in Boston and Kirk back in Honolulu, we were able to get ourselves un-lost and back on track to finding the entrance to the stairs.

Conrad giving the Haiku stairs the Aaron Rodgers championship belt (First platform on the way down).

We spent the last three days in the lap of luxury nursing our sore calves by the pool at the Foodland “Give Aloha” fundraising event that Litehouse attended. We also easily gained back all the calories, putting down plenty of shrimp, sushi, and chocolate fountain. Conrad and his dad played in the golf tournament. Weather wasn’t shabby.

Great Super Bowl XLV last night, congratulations Packers, well done.

Our house is now officially available as a vacation rental if anyone knows anyone who is interested. We’re in the process of getting onto VRBO.com and http://ironmancdarentals.com for CDA ironman weekend. Here are some photos though for our non-local friends to check out our house.

Out-of-town friends…please note the downstairs has this bedroom with an extra bed and a second bedroom. Also a fold out couch to sleep 1 in the living area downstairs and a bathroom. Come visit whenever you like!!!

Springtime.

Another Quarterly Update…

…or at least a random smattering of events we happened to take pictures at (in no particular order).

Marlin fishing (If we hooked a marlin, we’d reel it in. Otherwise, we sat in the heated part of the boat playing cards.)

Our “truck” might not be as big as other Idahoans’, but it’s still made many successful trips to the dump.

Ping pong table transported and reassembled. Frank’s pub is back, with a worthy opponent to play against.

UAK’s high school graduation in Billings, MT. Conrad, Jimdad and I “poofed” across Montana, hitting some nice local spots like the Reedpoint Bar in Reedpoint, MT.

Very successful trip to Yellowstone National Park. Spotted big horn sheep, a badger digging a hole, elk, deer, and of course bison.

“Midnight Train” takes 3rd place in 6-foot & Under Co-ed bracket. Many scrapes and bruises to show for it.

Mariners vs. Cubbies

Camping on white sand beaches in the middle of Idaho!

It’s hard to capture the incredible amounts of air that we’ve been getting this summer, so I’ll add a picture with cool colors instead.

Buff, on the other hand, we did manage to capture him in a full belly flop.

Todorovich Wedding in Big Fork, MT

Flathead Lake is really close to “Glacier” National Park. That water we are in is beautifully clear, but probably around 50 degress.

Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier Nat’l Park.

The money dance at Brad’s wedding in McCall.

Check out our updated book club list to see what I might be reading in this picture. We are loving CDA.

Burnin’ stuff…

One week before this day we were in Manhattan cruising the city. The next weekend we were in North Idaho…

When wood is rotten you can pick up the whole tree…

Husqvarna and flame thrower are essential…apparently so is a hose.

Quarterly Update

We apologize to our few loyal readers for not updating for so long. We hope to make more frequent updates in the future, but as we’ve been homeless and the internet is just now making it to secluded North Idaho, we’ve had few opportunities (and little freetime). Since you last heard from us we’ve done more than just consume sausage.

We bought a car…

Got jobs…

We caught up with alumni…

We drank Mac and Jacks in the late winter sunshine…

We shot skeets…

We conquered Schweitzer…

…golfed in a hail storm…

We bought a house…
(many photos to come)

We went to a cock-fight (oh wait, that was the Philippines)…

We went wine tasting in Walla Walla…

Went back to visit NYC…

..and caught up on blogging. More to come soon. We moved in this weekend. It’s official, we’re now CDA residents.

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Family Sausage Festival

Step 1 (not pictured): Shoot and butcher Moose, Elk, and Deer
Step 2: Mix large amounts of very lean wild game meat with even larger amounts of pork and beef fat aka suet

Step 3: Put meat and suet pieces through meat grinder that your dad used to use every Thursday from age 12-17 to make sausage.

Step 4: Prepare and add secret ingredients

Step 5: Add secret ingredients and grind meat again on smaller size
Step 6: Fill the “sausage stuffer” you used to use every Thursday from age 12-17 with a lot of ground meat mixture

Step 7: Clean the gut

Step 8: Fill the gut with meat

Step 9: Wrap sausage (under close supervision only)

Step 10: Label sausage 2010 because who knows what year you’ll get around to eat the 200th pound of sausage in your freezer

Starting the New Year off right…

Shotguns…check.

Skeets…check.

Skeet thrower…check.

FLAME thrower…check.

And of course, beer…check.

…all the ingredients for hours of New Years Day fun.

And for dinner, gigantic bowls of bouillabaise. Jimmy BigTime doesn’t mess around with soup bowls, I ate my dinner out of a mixing bowl full of 10 different seafoods and 20 different seasonings. Delicious!