Fun times on Mt. Hood!

So... Dr. Martens had a company-wide meeting on 1/12 which brought the whole DM crew into P-town for the week, and someone had the brilliant idea of heading up to the mountain for the weekend!! We got hooked up with an awesome room with 5 sets of bunk beds, our own private bathroom, and although we were robbed of a view b/c of the snow level, it provided a built-in fridge, which worked out nicely!


We headed up on Friday and decided to give snowshoeing a try that evening! There were no specific trails to follow, but we wandered our way along the lit trails used for night skiing. Going down was a blast, and quite comical at times... going up was a workout, yet still enjoyable. Definitely something I'd like to do again!!


After snowshoeing, we headed to the bar to hook up with Verne & Mark and grab some food! We had no idea how entertaining the night would turn out to be! To our surprise, Mark is not only a salesman & great joke teller... he sings and plays guitar quite fabulously, too! When the guy who was actually hired to sing took a break, we asked to borrow his guitar and Mark ended up serenading the crowd for atleast 30 minutes!! Who knew!?!


After we closed the first bar down, we moved over to the lodge and yet another bar, bribing the guy with the guitar to come with us, so Mark could entertain us some more!

After we closed both bars down, it was back to the room for an evening of cards. Kelly taught us the game Nertz, which proved to be quite entertaining. Or maybe it was just the company! Sara and I were on a killer roll, but Kelly & Marty came back to beat us on the last hand, even with Marty as a handicap. From the look on Matt's face down below, you can probably guess that Lil & Matt were struggling a bit... but they were able to shout a victory "Nertz!" at least once before the end of the night!

And then the morning came!! We started the morning off with a nice dip in the heated pool and hot tub, while the snow continued to fall!! It was beautiful!! It snowed all day long, providing a nice powder for those in the more advanced category and a nice, soft cushion for those of us in the beginners category!! Kelly, Matt, Sara and I all took a nice 2-hr. lesson and then spent the remainder of the day tackling BRUNO the manly bunny slope! Matt was actually a whiz and ended up hitting the mountain with Lily and accidentally venturing down Black Diamonds like a pro! Me on the other hand, fell on my butt numerous times but never gave up! I had no problem staying up on my board and going down the mountain... my problem was that I couldn't figure out the trick to stopping!!! I would go down at full speed and then freak out and just fall on purpose to stop from plowing into someone, which generally resulted in cartwheels down the mountain!! But after 6 hrs. of trying and friendly advice from everyone in the group... Sara's help and encouragement finally caused a breakthrough! It finally clicked for me and my head and body started cooperating!! I was so excited!!! Unfortunately, Lily and Matt were off on the mountain somewhere and weren't there to witness it! Sara and I headed in to the bar to warm up and grab some food and Lily and Matt eventually joined us there. We convinced them to head out for a few more runs, so I could show them my skills... well, maybe I should stick with the word "improvement"!! Hehe!! Can't say I have skills quite yet!!! :-) But they will be perfected someday... and who knows, maybe you'll see me in the Olympics in 2010!!