You know what is the best? Friends whose house you can invite not only yourself to, but also two other friends over for Thanksgiving (and then you volunteer to bring the turkey, and realize far too late that it takes more like 3-4 days to thaw a 14 lbs turkey and not 1-2 days, and then you have to be one of those people who googles “how to cook a turkey from frozen” on Thanksgiving Day, and then you over cook the turkey, because you had to go mountain biking while it was in the oven, because what else were you going to do, sit around and watch the turkey bake?).
So, the fore-mentioned friend, is kind of why I started this blog. You see, she’s from Michigan but has learned to love the mountains and the oceans out west. She loves going on adventures, skiing in fresh powder, and exploring new places. So you could say we have some thing in common.
When she told me her and her family would be moving back to Michigan, I knew it was going to be good for them, but it kinda felt like I was going to loosing my Pacific North West family. Crystal was my RA in college, I’ve known her for about 12 years. When I first moved to town and asked if she knew anyone who needed a roommate, her and her husband, Joseph, openly offered a space at their house. Even though I have moved twice since living with them, we always made it a point to stay connected. I became an adopted aunt to their kids. You could also say there was a bit of a mutual loss. So I asked myself, “how will Crystal be able to vicariously live through my adventures?” Then I realized I lived in the twentieth century and I could start a blog.
Here are a few short stories about some adventure she did not have to vicariously live through:
Skiing While Pregnant
As you may guess, I do not know much about being pregnant. I have also strategically avoided learning about it, as to not scare myself off the idea too much. Crystal and I were able to make it out skiing twice while she was pregnant. The last time, she was far enough along to just barely be able to fit into her jacket… so like 3 months… it think. It was during that time, that we may have found ourselves skiing down a double black diamond trail through trees and over some cliffs. For all you worriers out there, Gilbert was born in November in perfect health.
Trying to go into Labor
One Sunday afternoon (around 38 weeks), Joseph took me aside right before Crystal and I were about to leave and told me I needed to make sure to get her into labor. So I tried my hardest- we went out to the bay and walked the beach, climbed down cliffs and ran up sand dunes. To Joseph’s dismay, I was not able to help Crystal go into labor.
Skiing after a Baby
I think in the same breath that she told me they were moving back to Michigan, so also asked me to make sure she went skiing one more time before they moved…. which meant, a maximum of one month after she was to have Gilbert. Knowing as much as I do about having babies, I thought this would be a great idea. So there we were approximately 4 weeks after Gilbert had been born, trying to teach her 4 and a half year old how to ski… which quickly developed into a thing I like to call “snow wrestling”. We were able to get out for a half day thanks to Megan Lawrence, and laughed as the chair lift took us over the double black diamond cliffs and trees we had some how managed to find ourselves at the previous season.
Crystal, you are a champ and I’m going to miss you and your family.
for my friends who are moms 