Stinky moves in!!! (aka my little sister).

Ian and I were trilled when Britt decided to pack up her Subaru and make the drive from Cali up to Seattle to spend the winter with us. Ian and I flew down to San Fran to spend a wounderful Thanksgiving with the Riessen's and my parents in Tiburon. Ian once again out did himself with his holiday pies and homemade eggnog and then the three of us (Britt, Ian and myself) piled into Britt's Subaru and headed north. I have to say it took a little getting use to having Britt here, but once we all figured it out it made for one of the best winter's in Seattle yet. Britt saved Ian from some early morning winter runs by being my training partner (did I mention I had signed up to race a full Ironman for August 2012!) and she acted as Ian's sous-chef, saving me from ever having to enter the kitchen (except to help sample!). It was great for the three of us to spend time together, it really cemented Ian and I's relationship with Britt, and we now know wherever we end up we will always plan on having "an apartment above the garage for Britt to grow old" (Friends reference ;) We had some wonderful adventures together while Britt was here, one of the most notable being Britt's birthday adventure.

All Britt wanted to do for her birthday was go on a hike oh and Dairy Queen ice cream cake, seemed reasonable enough and Ian and I figured we could make that happen. Britt found a hike she wanted to do so we jumped into the Jetta and headed out, little did we know that;
a) we would be driving several miles on a fire road to get to the trail head
b) there would be snow!

Regardless it was a beautiful day and a great hike.

But things changed when we got back to our car and found a trail of oil in the snow leading up to our car. Turns out unbenounced to us we had punctured a hole in our oil can on the drive up to the trail head. The car started just long enough to get out of the parking lot and start down the hill but promptly stopped running and we cruised to a halt when the road started to take an uphill slant.

FYI - AAA will NOT come and rescue you if you are on a unknown fire road!!! SO what else was there for us to do, but PUSH.

For 4 straight hours Ian, Britt and I pushed/pulled our car inches at a time for miles with 1 person at the drivers side w/ the door open so they could leap into the car and pull no the E-break following each effort, Ian in the back using the foot holds we painstakingly created with sticks in the ice that ran down the middle of the road, and one of us in the front of the car with a strap around our shoulders. When we finally realized that we were not making very good progress (we are all pretty suborn, so it took awhile for us to come to this conclusion), we called for help in the form of one Mr. Avery Dahl.

Avery jumped into his car and headed out. We managed to get our car up the final hill and were able to cruise down with the help of the E-break as our only means of breaking and made it off the fire road and onto the county road were Avery arrived with hot coffee, a warm car and an abundance of energy, the very three things we were severely lacking at that moment. We waited for AAA to arrive and take the poor little Jetta back to Seattle. We all made it back to Seattle safe, a little sore and a lot hungry so we went to our favorite Indian restaurant Bangel Tiger ate until we couldn't move and then managed to make our way home to some birthday Dairy Queen cake!!!

Britt stayed with us until mid-May when she headed back to Cali to start another season of being a bad @$$ white water rafting guide for All Outdoors. Ian and I really miss having her around, and for awhile every time our neighbours beat up (sorry Britt) old Subaru would pull up I would jump up and think it was Britt coming home. Her and Ian did manage to pull off a surprise return to Seattle trip, but more about that later.

Seattle misses you Stinky...come back anytime!!!

Much love
xo
I&K