Auction night for me and snowboarding for the others

We needed to have some one on one time with Masaru and so Nat took the youngest two kids, which was really nice of her and Yuki went with Fiona since they were going to basketball anyway.
Nat took the kids to see Frozen 2 and they had a blast.

We ended up spending some much needed alone time with Masaru and having a good one on one date and seeing how things were for him and having a heart to heart about his life right now and how things are going and what changes need to be made.
We set some goals and had a great time together figuring out some life lessons and goals and how to move forward in a positive way.

Emiko is loving being with her friends at her church bi-weekly meetings. Here they are getting pampered. Super cute. So grateful to her leaders for all their preparation.

I worked hard with the teachers for the Liberty Love Auction night.
It was a success and I'm happy that I went. But I really don't like stuff like this.
I spend $20 to have an eighth of this cake. Worth it for the kids.

My girlfriend took Emiko for the night while I was gone at the auction. Here's Emiko with her friend Gunner. Funny face.

Jobecka went with me, which I was super grateful for. I had a good night with her. Katie, Emiko's teacher, hung out with us for part of the night as well.
Fun night. We raised more money than we'd hoped and I'm grateful for that.
The art auction pieces got more than 6000 dollars. Almost 7000. So that was great news.

Dru took the rest of the kids up snowboarding. He captured this picture of them sitting and watching the sunset. Isn't it beautiful?
I'm glad he got it. Dru doesn't like taking pictures and video's. I'm the one that does it. So I'm grateful for all he takes, which isn't many.

I get daily scriptures sent to my inbox with a message underneath. I really liked this one on this day from Elder Uchtdorf.

Here's Emiko's and my art piece we did in her class the other week. Super cute.

Here's an old picture of Masaru with his Mambas coach.
Masaru couldn't get together a Timberline boys rugby team. We just couldn't scrape together the numbers. So he went and joined the Capital High team and got to be with his old coach here Greg. Masaru has been having the best time with this team and is enjoying every minute of it.
I'll got mtb at the Eagle Bike Park while he practices and Dru will do the same when he takes him out. It's a long way and it sucks on the family, but I'm glad he's having a great time. He's playing lock at the moment and is enjoying that.
He's on the second 15 but plays for the firsts when they need him as a lock.
He's learning a lot and loves it. So that's wonderful.

Here's an art piece I did in Takeshi's class. This is Takeshi's one.

I really enjoyed reading this the day that I saw it.
I feel as if I'm sometimes going backwards to move forwards. I feel like I'm a much better person but in seeing that it also opens up more ways that I need to improve.
Slow process indeed.

Here's the kids church youth combined activity for the night. They did a cooking challenge where they were given certain foods and had to make something from it as they were broken up into teams.
They came back saying they loved it.









I'm grateful to their leaders for organizing this and them having fun.

The boys weekend by Dru

Due to a breakdown in communication and the fact that Amy Draper was coming to Boise (mostly b/c Amy was in town) we split forces for President's day weekend. We gave the kids the choice to venture down to the cabin or stay in Boise. The girls opted to stay and the boys opted to go play in the snow.

Mista Puggs extended an invitation to Ryan for a three family weekend. Turned out that Les bailed on the weekend, so it was a bit of a sausage party--poor Stacey.

We left Boise after Takeshi's field trip, arriving at the gate just in time to hitch a ride into the cabin in Rogue 2. Two families, food, gear, and two dogs jammed into Rogue 2 for a rather smooth drive into the cabin...

Here we are, all nine of us along with Dolly and Little Jerry.

This is where things got interesting. the cabin driveway proved a little too challenging under the current weather conditions. The snow was like sand, it wouldn't compact, so when we turned up the drive, Rogue 2 immediately sank up to her belly...stuck. First we tried winching. That moved us about a car length, but still stuck, the tracks just spun. Lockers may have helped.

So, we sent Stacey and kids up to the cabin on foot. Me and the boys worked on digging Rogue 2 out. Puggs tried to get the Kubota going (armed with a 48" snowblower attachment), but quickly got it stuck. So, by the time Puggs got back, we were ready for round two of winching. we moved a half car length at time, but we couldn't seem to get the 'ol girl to float up on top of the snow, rather we kept plowing in deeper and deeper.

We finally decided that clearing the driveway was going to be the best course of action. At nearly 200 yards (meters for you metric folks), it was going to take a wee while to clear it. Plus, we had to first get the Kubota unstuck.

Ryan was coming in with the twins and Kate on sleds later that night, so we had some time kill. All the food was in Rogue 2, so we decided we better pack it up to the cabin and get dinner going, it was pushing 7:00 and Rogue 2 was now where in the clear.

Stacey already had some ramen cooked, so that was a nice appetizer while we whipped up some grilled cheese. Once dinner was done and dusted, we headed back out to begin snow removal. Using the back hoe, we were able to claw our way backwards and get the Kubota unstuck and in a position to start clearing snow.

We made it about half way down the driveway by the time and Ryan et al. showed up on the scene. With at least another hour of snow blowing to reach Rogue 2, we decided we better start shuttling our gear from Rogue 2 to the cabin via sleds. It took us about 20-30 minutes of trip after trip to get all the food and gear up to the cabin--only so many bags you can secure on a snowmobile. 

The next morning, we finished clearing the driveway and got Rogue 2 free and clear, but not without some effort and more winching. The cabin had over a meter of snow, so the driveway was now cut way down. This was the first trip into the cabin since November, and about 3 feet of snow had accumulated between trips, making the driveway problematic for Rogue 2. Regularly scheduled trips would have kept the driveway packed down.

A good part of Saturday, which was a blue bird day, was spend clearing the drive, freeing Rogue 2 and trying to figure out how to ride Ryan's Timbersled.

I was hanging out with Gus on the couch one morning with my shades on cause it was frig'n bright as. He said to me, 'Can you see rainbows?' haha. I love Gus.

The weather was stormy on Sunday. I waited and waited, but it didn't appear to be getting any better, so I decided I better just get out there. I purchased a split decision snowboard last season, but have yet to get on it. I've never done any touring, so the cabin was a perfect opportunity for me to get my feet wet and figure out my new setup. Puggs has a backcountry ski setup, so came out with me. This is us embarking on my maiden voyage up the mountain.

Happy Face...

Surprise face...

Shocked face...

One with a knife...

Rickie Baker...

For those wondering what a split decision snowboard is, this is it. It's a snowboard that splits in half. Why would you want to split it in half, Dru? I'm glad you asked. By splitting the board into two, you can put skins on it and cross country ski up the mountain. What are skins? It's a thin material that's like a cat's tongue. One direction is smooth, and the other direction is scaley. This allows the ski to move forward, but it won't slide backwards because of the 'scales'. Essentially you can ski up the mountain easier than snowshoeing and at a much quicker pace. The bindings are mounted to plates that detach from the board with the removal of a single pin and repositioned, as seen above, to allow for the skinning part. the toe is locked in, but the heal floats up so you can walk forward similar to a cross country ski set up.

The Split decision gives you the best of both worlds--skins up and when you get to the top, you can put it back together into a single snowboard to enjoy the untracked powder. I'm totally hooked. The skin'n part was much more enjoyable that I anticipated. Something about just being outside in the mountain air. Unlike mtn biking where you suffer on the up to enjoy the down, skin'n is almost as enjoyable as the DH. Okay, the DH is way more fun, but the up is enjoyable.

Here's one of the twins on the Timbersled. What's a Timbersled? It's a nifty conversion of a dirt bike into a snow machine. The front wheel is replaced with a wide ski, and the rear arm and wheel is removed and replaced with a track. It's super nimble and easy to sidehill, but it does not like to go slow, so negotiating tight terrain is challenging until you get the hang of it. Can't tell you how many times I tipped over.

Here's Masaru improving his skills.

I missed Melissa and the girls, but otherwise enjoyed the trip. The dynamic was different without Melissa and having four teenagers there. We only played one game of Catan, so that was a bit sad. 

Food was good as always. Ryan made fish sauce wings that were out of this world good. They look somewhat involved, but I may have to get him to teach me how to make them because they are super yummy. Garbage Hash was the best it's been IMO. Puggs and Stacey made tacos Saturday night which were as good as tacos in Baja.

I love the cabin--always wish we had more time up there.