Fight for your Right... to... uh...

I've got a new adventure approaching. I went to the doctor today and we talked about the birth control pills that I'm on ... GASP... Yes, I said it. I'm on birth control pills! I do not wish to have a kid right now and am taking preventative measures in order to not populate the world with one more unwanted child. So, I talked to the doctor and she said that under the Affordable Care Act passed in August 2012 that oral contraceptives would be covered 100% as preventable care such as a yearly exam or a kids 6 month appointment. I am a freak and have been through the whole selection of pills and FINALLY found one that did not make me into a complete irritable BI-ATCH! Plus there are other things that happen when you are on the pill other than moodiness that the current pill is not causing so I've been really happy. I have been on it for 2 years and it does not have a generic. I talked to my HR rep and she said that I have to call the insurance company to find out if they will cover the pill 100% because she said that they will only cover generics... but as I said, my pill doesn't have a generic... so... Yup, I'm going to fight for my right to free birth control!

Any advice?

First day in the backcountry for this winter!

With the new fresh layer of snow, we decided it was time to head up north. Our friend and trusty real estate agent, Sam, and his brother, Matt, decided to come along too. I actually believe they prompted the adventure so I'll give them credit for that. All I know was that Nate said, "We are going up north tonight and we are going to do the Cog side with Sam and Matt". Sweet, let's go!!!

For some reason on the way to Mount Washington that morning, I was more nervous than ever. I believe it was the first time for the year that had my tummy in knots. Lately, I have been playing the what-if game in my head with the worst case scenarios that I can imagine. With all the snow we had gotten from the snow storm, there was a considerable avalanche danger BUT one thing that I didn't know yet was that there wasn't enough snow on top of Mount Washington so that yes, there was avalanche danger, but the snow was soooooooo localized to very small sections that the chances that the slide would be big enough to do any damage at all was extremely unlikely... But whatever, I didn't know that going into the day (I did read the avalanche report but they didn't say, "the snow has been blown off the top of the mountain on the west side so everything will be scratchy."). So, I was nervous driving to the mountain and asked Nate 101 what-if questions. I'm sure he was probably thinking, "when did my lady turn loco?" But back to the adventure....

It started off with Sam wearing his helmet and eating poptarts...

Poptarts are extremely dangerous, you know! 

I don't remember it being really frigid that day at all. I don't know the actual temperature while we were hiking. I do remember it being windy, it was snowing and I remember lots of wardrobe changes. I started off with a short sleeve, long sleeve, vest and shell. Then I took off the vest and left the shell on. Then I took off the shell and put the vest back on. I thought that with the winds, I would be better off with the shell but I was sweating so much from the warmish temperatures that I eventually had to take off the shell. 

This cheesy picture was taken at the water tower by the railroad. See it's snowing and my hair is frozen with snow! :) I was sweating so bad that my hair was wet with sweat. Always having fun though!!! 

We got up past Jacob's ladder and I desperately wanted to go into the bowl to see if there was some snow fun to get into. Unfortunately, you couldn't see very far and what we could see was trees and rocks. So, it was not likely that there were pockets of snow to be found. Also, with the lack of visibility, it's really easy to get lost in places that you have been to 100 times so it was best that we just stuck to the main trail... so we did! 

Nate wasn't his happiest self that day so this was my third attempt at getting him to smile for a picture... Notice the complete lack of smile... :( 

Oakley with the Jacob's ladder sign behind her. 

Jacob's ladder looking back down the mountain... Somewhere in that fog was Nate and Sam... 

Scout and his snowbeard!! 

I'm sure this picture is going to stir up controversy and at this point, I don't care, obviously! We do muzzle our dogs on the downhill for two reasons... they are constantly trying to wrangle us and bark endlessly and in the attempt to herd me, they bite my hands and my legs and when you are going fast and moving around and not knowing that something is attempting to bite you, those bites can be pretty painful and distracting. So it's safer for me and probably those around me that they are muzzled. I can focus on what is in front of me instead of worrying about where my dogs are. They can breath with the muzzles on and they still run right with us the whole time. Yes, they hate them and when we stop to rest for a bit, they are squirming around trying to get the dreaded things off. I hate making them wear them just as much as you hate seeing them wearing them, but again, it's the safest thing that can be done other than leaving them at home... and I don't leave my dogs at home because what's the point of having a dog then...  I did try and use tennis balls that they could carry down the hill but again, trying to chase after tennis balls as they roll down the hill with one dog barking at you and the other dog biting your hands, is not the safest thing either. So... back to the picture, Oakley was being all sheepish about jumping over the railroad because when she has a muzzle on, she becomes a meek princess, so this is her with her front paws on the railroad looking at us oh so cute like!! :) 

So,we begin heading down the hill. Love the fluff all around Nate's sexy telemark turn! 

Nate and the dogs and my board, everything I love about backcountry!!! 

Nate passing me again. Love the fluff!!! 

Nate approaching me!!! 

Nate and the puppies again and all the snow!!! Makes me such a happy girl!!! 

After we got down the hill, Sam decided that he wanted to make a jump so Nate and Sam got to work... 

Oakley watching on from her little snow hole... 

I honestly hope that this is the only digging my avalanche shovel will ever have to do... 

Nate's look of concentration as he prepares his jump... 

and just his legs.... :) 

Sam's sick crane-style explosion... 

Nate on jump #2

Sam's rail slide... 

Nate over the railing... 

I believe Sam was trying to twist this jump although, I don't think that's what ended up happening... 

Once my bum was frozen from being wet and sitting in the snow, I told the boys I was done taking their pictures. We all headed back to the car. It was a super fun day with nice fluffy white-ness. I forgot to turn my watch on at the car, but we descended 2,136ft so I'll take that. We did 2,879 in December hiking North Moat so that puts us at 5,015ft. 

Now, if I can get rid of this cough so I can get back out there, things would be good!! 

First Snow Storm!!!

So finally, New Hampshire got a real honest to goodness snow storm. It happened overnight between 12/26 and 12/27. It was amazing!! We still have most of the snow since it has decided to be winter and mostly stayed below 30 degrees so it's been pretty awesome. I made Nate go play in the snow with me and I tried to take the dogs skijoring. It was pretty fun and the dogs did do pretty well with it. In Rollinsford, we have some public land that you people use for mountain biking, ATV-riding, snowmobiling, hiking, fishing, etc. Nate and I decided that we would cross country ski out of our house to the public land and play around out there. Here are the few pics that I took from that day:

Look at the snow coming down!! It was AWESOME!!! Nate was working on his cross country skis and I thought he was literally going to ski out of our house, but he didn't. 

This is the attempt of skijoring with the dogs. This is our street... seriously!! The plow trucks had been out sometime in the middle of the night but they hadn't come back in the morning so there was tons of snow on the road. It was pretty awesome.

Nate skijoring with the dogs on one of the more main roads in rollinsford. Scout has a tendency to dictate which side of the road you are on so while I had them, he kept going to the outside and pulling me out into the road. Nate seems to have a little better control of them and was able to keep Scout from pulling him into the road. 

This is just Nate skiing. 

It was so awesome to have that much snow... Did I say that yet? :) I'm so happy that it has stuck around too. I LOVE SNOW!!!!