Good Times With Good Friends

So, Victor and Allie made it out for New Year's Eve. We thought they wouldn't make it out because Victor was sick, but it turns out they are rock stars...very tough rock stars. Originally they were going to leave Whitefish at 8 am to head out here, but Victor had to go to the doctor and all that good stuff. To make a long story short, they started hiking in at 4:30 PM. Jeff and I headed out to meet them at the ranger station. It was completely dark by the time we made it to the ranger station, and it was only 10 degrees. Victor and Allie hadn't made it there yet and the cold was setting in, so Jeff and I ditched our skis and headed toward the dam to make sure everything was ok. We spotted their headlamps, so we ran up the hill to hide and scare them when they passed by. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at hiding, and I started laughing, blowing the hole thing. As it turns out, luck was against Victor and Allie on New Year's Eve. They had rented skis from Sportsman's Ski Haus, but Victor's ski boots didn't fit his skis. Way to go Sportsman's. So, they were on foot, trudging through almost a foot of fresh powder (and more than a foot in several deep spots). Jeff and I left our skis at the ranger station and treked in with our guests.

We made it to the cabin just before 9 pm. Everyone was extremely exhausted. This exhaustion was caused most in part by the contents of Victor and Allie's packs. Remember how I said they were very tough rock stars? Here is a list of the contents: A gallon of vodka, a gallon of orange juice, a bottle of bailey's, three packs of Jello, a bottle of wine, a pound of skittles, five pounds of carrots, a head of cabbage, plus all of our mail which included a chia pet (thanks Heather!), three nips of liquor (Heather again), four Harry Potter books, candy, and cookies (thanks Shayla), Christmas cards from a hundred third graders, clothes and cards (Thanks Uncle Steve and Yingzi), gifts from Pete (thanks for wrapping them so nicely), and miscellaneous personal items. Whoa!

All four of us lounged around recovering for quite a while. We didn't even end up eating dinner until 11 pm (this seems to happen frequently when Victor and Allie come to visit). We managed to amuse ourselves until 4 am playing guesstures.

Most of us had a tough time rallying on New Year's Day. We ate some cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then Jeff and Victor went out to drill another hole in the lake. We all headed over to the hotel for a while via a nice trek across the lake. It was absolutely, ridiculously windy! We sledded a couple of times, but when I rode down the hill I forgot to hold on to the string when I crashed. The sled went flying away up over the hill before I even had time to recover from the crash. I took off running up the hill after the sled, and by sheer luck it got caught up on the other side of the hill, and I was able to recover it. I was done sledding at that point. After we got back to the cabin we played some Hearts, ate dinner, played more Hearts and guesstures, and somehow made it to bed before 2 am. In case you were wondering, Allie and I won the guesstures tournament. It turns out the men couldn't handle their alcohol. Hehe.

Victor and Allie took off this morning about 11 am. We opted not to walk out to the ranger station with them because of the wind. We would have had a hell of a time getting back to the cabin.