More Misawa Snow

I thought we got a lot of snow last winter, but apparently that was just an average winter for Misawa. This year has been above average... the snow just keeps coming!

It turns out that Chris is an excellent snow shoveler. I was skeptical at first, because he always managed to be deployed or TDY during our heavy snowfalls. :) It also turns out that I'm an incredibly ineffective snow shoveler while pregnant. Thank goodness Chris didn't deploy this winter!

I'll leave the snow shoveling to Chris... I'll take care of exercising the dog. The golf course near our house turns into a snowshoe paradise during the winter. Huck and Lowen (Alison's dog) can barely contain their excitement when we take them to the golf course.

It was an amazing morning... sunny, warm, and clear with about 6 inches of fresh snow.

The golf course is getting pretty deep for Huck.

But clearly he doesn't mind.

Have I mentioned that I love Misawa winters?!

38 weeks pregnant, and it turns out that snowshoeing for over an hour is not enough to kick-start labor :). 

...But it's more than enough to tire out a couple of dogs! Lowen didn't leave my snowshoe tracks for the entire walk back to the house. She was pretty wiped out. That was Sunday... it's Tuesday now and my maternity leave just started... I hope she's up for another morning at the golf course! :)

Nursery

Remember the guest room? Well I finally got my act together and turned it into a nursery.

Sorry, baby girl, but I'm not repainting the blue walls pink. I will, however, spend a lazy Saturday afternoon with dry erase markers and leftover paint pretending I'm some sort of artist.

Viola! A nursery!

Misawa Snow

We get the best snow in Misawa. I was impressed last year by the amount of snow we got... but this year has been even snowier. I am just really glad that Chris is here to shovel!

This was from a couple weeks ago. We woke up on a Thursday morning to 19 inches of new snow. These pictures were taken after most of the shoveling was done. 

We're running out of places to put the snow... every thing you shovel tends to roll back down to the sidewalk.

Midway through shoveling out all around our cars, the snowplow came blocked us in again... grr.

This is the monster icicle in our back yard that's threatening to slowly wall us in. That low shelf you see by the base of the icicle is actually the table attached to our grill... Yes, we probably should have put it into the storage shed for the winter.

Huck has one path he takes between the back door and the trees. He tries to keep it packed down, but unfortunately the snow keeps filling it. 

He's a pretty good swimmer though.

Hakkoda Snow

Chris and I were getting a touch of cabin fever over Christmas break. We would have loved to go skiing together but I've been told by multiple doctors (multiple because I kept hoping one of them would give me permission to ski:)) that skiing and pregnancy don't go together. Our back up was snow shoeing, so one fine winter morning we set out for the Hakkodas.

We've never seen so much snow in our lives..

... and this was only December! There will be three more months of snow accumulation on the Hakkodas before winter is over!

Most of the way up the mountain the snow walls on either side of the road were taller than our vehicle. 

At the base of the Hakkodas, there's a ski resort and ropeway. Our plan was to take the ropeway to the top and snowshoe around some of the peaks. 

It was a complete white out at the top; and the snow was so deep that even in snowshoes we were sinking to our knees. Without snowshoes, people were sinking to their waists.

Hakkoda is famous for juhyo (snow monsters) at the top. These are trees that have become completely buried and covered by snow. They were hard to see in the white oblivion that we were in.... 

...But on a clear day this is what you would see (Thanks, Google image search).

 It wasn't completely impossible to snowshoe in that kind of snow... but we couldn't see for more than about 10 feet in front of us, and the wind was quick to wipe away our tracks, so we decided not to venture too far from the ropeway. 

This was the ropeway at the top, as we were getting ready to go back down the mountain.  Everything was completely coated in snow on all surfaces.

We still had a little time before they closed the road down for the night, so we spent a little time at Sukayu Onsen warming up in the natural hot spring baths. 

We assumed when we went in the onsen that these cars were from overnight guests... but when we came out about an hour later, there was 4+ inches of fresh powder covering our car as well. 

All things baby...

We're expecting! I'm 6 months pregnant! And it's a girl! (I know, I know... this is old news for most of you... but I haven't had access to my blog for the last few months!)

8 Week Ultrasound. I'm told that spot in the middle is a baby...

21 Week Ultrasound. Even I can tell now that there's a baby there:). I'm told it's a girl... 

17 Weeks. A few brave souls have already asked me if I'm expecting.

20 Weeks.

21 Weeks (right after my ultrasound). Alison decorated the inside of my door, excited about the baby girl.

22 Weeks.

25 Weeks. Definitely pregnant now... 

The house has undergone some changes as well. This was our spacious living room before... 

before... 

And after. Now we have a much cozier (read smaller) living room, and an attached office.

"Office" 

Nursery before...  

And after... Okay... we still have a lot of work to do here. I'm still undecided about whether or not I'll repaint.  I do plan on at least moving the ironing board though:)

Fall Hakkoda Hike

I FINALLY have access to blogger again!!! (I don't know what happened, but I've been unable to log on for the last few months.) Fortunately, I haven't done much, so there's not much to update:)

Chris left for a couple months in September to go to Red Flag in Alaska and then another training course in Vegas, so he (once again) missed fall in Misawa. Luckily, I'm blessed with great friends who will go hiking with me. The fall leaves in the Hakkoda mountains peaked in early October this year, and made for a pretty spectacular cool weather hike. 

We first set out on Saturday to see whether or not the fall leaves had indeed changed. It was just a fact finding mission...

As we began to climb into the mountains, it seemed like everything was very green until we turned a corner and found ourselves in the midst of fall.

This area is so popular for viewing fall leaves that there were parked cars and pedestrians all over the main road, just enjoying and photographing the fall colors.

We joined the parked cars and pedestrians... 

After driving around for a bit we decided we would have to come back later that weekend prepared to hike. 

Colombus Day, 2011. I love federal holidays. Laura, Danielle and I took advantage of a day off work to hike the Hakkodas. 

This has got to be my favorite fall hike so far.  The leaves were pretty spectacular.

The clouds were threatening rain the last part of our hike, but the weather held off just for us.  We had a successful hike... until about 10 meters from the parking lot.

At the very end of the hike (literally just a few feet from the parking lot), Laura misstepped and a giant mud pit claimed her shoe. Danielle tried to come to her rescue... and I took pictures. I must be a terrible friend.

They fished around for a few moments...

Then they decided maybe it would be easier to feel around with her feet...

Okay... that mud was way deeper than we realized.  I finally started trying to be useful and grabbed a stick to help poke around.

It wasn't until a helpful Japanese man came to our rescue that we were actually able to find the shoe. Eww... Maybe it should have stayed in the pit. But of course the nice man didn't just hand over the mud caked shoe, he first walked it over to a small stream and rinsed it out. 

And in the end, it was Laura's shoes (in the middle) that came out the cleanest.