home in Sunriver for the weekend. Bridget Brown and I organized the trip and were hoping for more people to come but with Mt. Bachelor being closed due to lack 
of snow there wasn't much inspiration for our other friends to make the 3 hour drive and pay 25$ a person per night (which I personally think is WAYYY CHEAP). It turned out that it was just Bridget, Robyn, her boyfriend Bevin, Brendan, Emily and I, and Kendra and her boyfriend and her boyfriend Adam who stopped by for a night. The house we rented was amazing with two floors, a hot tub, pool table, games, bikes, movies, fireplace, full kitchen and even a beach ball! On the way over
Santiam Pass Emily and I stopped at the Ice Cave to show Brendan and we found a whole new set of passage ways, one which was just as long if not a little longer then the original we had found nearly a year ago. Brendan had never been in lava caves before so he found them pretty cool. We'll have to go back again with better light in the summer to check out the full extent of the cave networks in that area.
The first night at the house was on Thanksgiving day so Robyn and Bridget and
Bevin cooked up an amazing turkey dinner. They made a sausage stuffing that was fantastic, definitely rivaling Kristen Splinters Holiday fried rolls from last year. Emily and I had bought several bottles of liquor as well as a bottle of port so drinking was definitely in order. We spent the night
soaking in the hot tub playing pool and relaxing by the fire. Late in the evening I decided it was time for some midnight long boarding so we all went out and grabbed one of the bikes
that was included with the unit and road around the neighborhood towing each other with a garden hose. Bridget was nervous about getting on the board but eventually did. When it was her turn to pull me she road the bike directly into the woods with me behind because neither of us
had any light to see where we were going. It was hilarious.
The
next day Brendan and I ventured into Bend to check out Best Buy and look at TV's that we were going to possibly purchase for Christmas gifts to each other. It took us forever to find the friggin' store, even with using my Iphone GPS. While we were browsing the store Robyn, Bevin and Bridget went to Mt. Bachelor to climb the cinder cone and ski it despite the resort not being open. They came back with really great pictures and said that the skiing actually wasn't that bad. Later that evening Kendra and Adam showed up just in time for Emily and I to make a great pasta dinner with her mom's sauce along with garlic bread and tomato/mozz appetizer. We had so much great food in the house for the weekend. Once again we drank the night away and had a longboard session, this time using a coiled phone cord as the rope (less heavy). We also had an impromptu beach ball bashing game which Jake
the dog loved. After drinking for several hours the girls also had the great idea of seeing who could fit through the narrow space between the stair boards which resulted in several very funny photos and videos. When I tried my butt got stuck which was a little embarrassing!
On Saturday Kendra, Adam, Emily, Brendan and I decided to hike up Mt. Tumalo while the others returned to ski the cinder cone across the road from us. We never saw them from our climb but new they were there. It was a truly beautiful day and we all ended up hiking in long sleeve shirts to the open summit. Kendra and Adam brought their dog Jake along who seemed to have a
fond affection for Emily's leg if you know what I mean. He couldn't get enough of it. It took us no time to get to
the summit but I was struggling from drinking the night before and having a bloody mary for breakfast which seemed to bubble up into my throat the entire climb. From the summit we had absolutely amazing views of Broken Top and the Sisters volcano complex as well as full view of Mt. Bachelor from where we had come from. At just under 8,000 feet Tumalo isn't a very big mountain but the backside of it had an amazing bowl that would be perfect for skiing. In fact, there was quite a bit of snow at the summit and we met a kid who had brought his skis back up the mountain after having summited in the morning just to ski the bowl. There were volcanic rock outcrops which would be fantastic to jump off of in deep powder below.
When we got back to the house we all took it pretty easy, relaxing in the hot tub and playing a truly epic game of Trivial Pursuit. It was also Brendan's birthday so we all had to take shots. We gave him a shot of Sailor Jerry's rum and put whipped cream on top for him (yuck). I made about 8 full mudslides for myself because I absolutely love them but it turned out to be a big mistake as I felt like a bloated fish for the rest of the evening!
It was a great weekend with my new friends from Geography and I think we all had a great time. Aaron Hartz never showed up and we all had to pay a little more money then we had planned to but it all worked out just fine and was well worth getting out of Corvallis for. Hopefully next year we will have more of an interest or perhaps Emily and I will just leave town ourselves for some grand adventure.
friend Rachel had two extra tickets to the 
game so Emily and I decided to tag along. I had to work at 5:30pm so I only drank a few beers and stopped at half time. It was a beautiful day out and pretty warm for mid November. On the way to the stadium we stopped by my office and dropped off some of our stuff while also having a few drinks. Across the street from the Geo building I also caught up with Doug Degrosse from Watershed Sciences who shared some sliced 
Museum and there were a lot of exhibits for kids to have hands on learning experiences. It would be a fantastic place to bring Ellie when she gets a little older. For dinner we went to PF Changs in downtown Portland for a fantastic meal with cocktails. 
It was a very rough night for me as I stupidly decided it would be appropriate to drink half a nalgene of port. On top of that I decided to drink another half nalgene of jungle juice at half time with some tail-gaiters. Apparently it was an amazing game and we clinched it in the 4th quarter but frankly I don't even remember the 2nd half. When we got back to our apartment Emily decided to cook burgers for us all but I don't recall any of that either. I woke up to find that I had put in Dave Chapelle for our amusement as well. The night was a great time from what I've heard.