Moose Alley

You may recall that last year Elvis ripped up Sugarloaf. This year we met up with her again along with some friends for a weekend filled with sunshine, warm weather, puppies and skiing.

After the morning drop off we took a short hike down the Golden Road before dropping deep into Brackett Basin. 

Elvis hit up Mountain Magic for the day to work on her skiing and have fun with friends before showing off her skills by visiting her friend Amos's house on Moose Alley off off Whiffletree.

It was a beautiful day to hit up the mountain and I'm pretty sure that a good time was had by all. 

I even managed to get a bit of knitting done in the warm sunshine. This doesn't happen often- knitting outside in the warm sunshine on Timberline. First off, it's the east coast- a sunny warm ski day is to be treasured. It means getting out of bed early to walk the pups so you can still get on the hill at a decent hour and not lingering over the Bag Burger at lunch time... even if it is so much better now that they offer gluten free buns that really just makes the Gucci burger. 

We were able to squeeze a lot of good times in and were pretty exhausted by the end of the weekend. We missed our cousins by one weekend but thankfully they had sent along photos of the crew regrouping at the Bag over lunch so we got to live vicariously through text messages. 

Of course Elvis went home with new knitwear from Aunt K8 Knits... 

for more photos from the weekend click here

winter waves and a bit of snow

We found Nemo

A little mayhem...

This past spring Mayhem had a seizure. It is just as awful as it sounds and we were in a rocky place. It was a rainy, cold day and he had been acting funny. He was restless and whined as if he needed something. This went on for a while and eventually he just hung out. He was by my side and started to jerk. I held him as we entered into the next five minutes that seemed endless. I barked orders at Dave and Sara. They called a local vet (not helpful) and Home Safe. The local vet wasn't our vet and brushed Sara off the phone. Home Safe gave solid advise and helped talk us through a scary day. There isn't much that we could do and the little dog was fully normal the next day. 
This weekend Mayhem gave us another scare and had his second seizure. Again- terrible and time moved slowly- Dave and I both went to Mayhem's side as the pup jerked around unable to control his little golden body. His after shocks seemed to go on for longer and once again I called Home Safe. They took my information and kept me on the line while they consulted their vet. We ended up going to the emergency clinic in Portsmouth and saw a great crew who checked the little dog out and ran his blood work.
The results came back all within the normal ranges and we're back to the waiting game. We're hoping for a nice long wait...

campchaos welcomes 2013

Happy New Year from the beach... 

A visit to Plymouth Rock with Sparky*

Plymouth Rock isn't my favorite landmark that Camp Chaos has hit but a day with Sparky* makes it more then memorable and bumps the day way up on the list of favorites. We've been friends since the last century and have endured ups, downs and a lot of turns.

These days a visit with Sparky is filled with great conversations, a bit of history, silliness and a bit of yarn in some form.

LL Bean back in 2004

Sparky* bought me my first set of knitting needles and my first yarn (I still have both) and she attempted to teach me how to knit on her visit to Maine in 2004 but I wasn't quite ready. I eeked out 3" of a swiss cheese scarf and tucked it away. When I unearthed it in 2010 I was ready to learn, by that time I was in Colorado and she was in the Pacific Northwest so I resorted to youtube videos. She's always been my knitting mentor and I love being able to have that be a part of our friendship story. 

The original needles and yarn on my deck in Colorado in 2010. 

 A lot of knitter's have stashes of yarn- some of this is for yarn that's "next in the queue" but some of it's sentimental  I have small balls of yarn from my early projects, the first yarn I got from Sparky and now some yarn my uncle found from my grandmother's collection.

Canadian wool- it was the preferred yarn requested by her kids. I can see why- there's some balls of acrylic in there which are very scratchy! There was also a set of metal dps (double pointed needles) tucked away in the stash.

It was great to be able to add this to my stash of memories...

my uncle, Dave and Kendra all dressed up for a walk in the Maine woods 

Cider Mash 5k

About a month ago Dave learned of a 5k that was happening at the local apple orchard. Gary had been looking for a race and Dave jumped on board. They were joined by Marc and Dave began training. He picked out some new kicks at the running store which is no small feat as to find high performance trainers for his small feet.

Dave found the best Coach and motivator in Mayhem. The three year old golden spins circles whenever Dave touches his running shoes and the light up collar with the green light that keeps the pair safe on their nocturnal training runs. They started slowly and ran a few times that first week and built up stamina.

This wasn't your standard 5k road race... this Cider Mash was a cross country tour of the orchard including some deccent hills and terrain. Thankfully there were no apples for ankle rolling. The three started out together along with 300 of their closest friends as they ran along the road and turned into the apple trees.

There were no dogs allowed at the race so Coach stayed home with Chaos eating treats and napping anxiously awaiting to hear how Dave's run went.

Dave and Marc stuck together and Gary wasn't far behind as the runners came back into view.

Ok... so they weren't in the font of the pack but that's not the point. Dave didn't get into this to bring home medals or anything. It's more about finding an outlet for Mayhem's energy and a great way to stay in shape for when he's able to get back on the rock again.

Colby kept watch for his Dad's orange hat bobing through the trees as he hung out with his Dzia Dzia, plus he sported his 'loaf hat that he earned from his first turns at Sugarloaf last winter.

 As a post race bonus there were gluten filled apple cider donuts...

but mostly Dave was just happy to have a good day in the chilly sunshine with his brother and Gary.

Beaches

I'm back to playing with the good camera and have been using the pups to hone my skills behind the lens. They don't seem to mind and have been enjoying our trips to the beach where I work on learning about light and the many settings that need to be tuned in the right pitch to get a beautiful shot.

The first session went well but there was a lot of editing that went into the photos... yesterday I shot in bright midday sun and had a lot of washed out shots in the beginning a few tweaks and many test shots and I was in my grove.