Slopes again

It's finally that time of year again when things start warming up a little bit and it rains instead of snows.  Perfect time to plan a ski trip...  Couple of friends and I decided to head up to Cascade again this past weekend to hit the slopes, and despite the fact that the weather was warmer than some would have liked, we had a great time.  A friend of ours graciously allowed us to crash at his place the night before, and also treated us to many a homemade meal.  Can't ask for better than that.

These days I've been trying to adhere to a better schedule where I go to bed early and wake up early.  In other words, I'm getting closer to 30, but it does have some advantages.  It means that I wake up earlier than most without an alarm and catch some great photo opportunities.  Hence, then following three pictures:

You might notice that the lighting is super bright in all of these, and yet they sleep on.  I was going to put a couple more early morning pictures up, but I'm sure the girl wrapped in pink would have killed me.  While waiting for others to revive, I chilled with "smelly cat".

I also played designated driver for most of the trip.  This is me showing my displeasure at something.  Perhaps the fact that we're listening to that godforsaken Brittney Spears song for the 10th time.  Either that or perhaps it's the pink seatbelt guard that's sucking away my masculinity.

Here's the crew that drove together in Ritika's car.  All from the same lab except Alecia, a fellow homeschooler like me.  

I was so pumped.  Ritika was so "are you serious?"

After arriving, we met up with the rest of the gang.  This picture makes Ritika look like she's the boss or something.  More people from the great Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois.

Ritika may have been the boss of the 1st-3rd year students from lab, but unfortunately she was not the boss of the slopes, despite her optimism.  I have to congratulate her though, because she continued to have fun throughout the entire day, whereas under similar circumstances, I definitely would have given up.

Notice how they give really short skis to really short people.

Getting to the top was no problem, it's just the coming down part that was a little tricky.  Well, coming down slowly and on your feet.  Fortunately, Ritika is a little more flexible than most.  This is the first attempt coming down the hill.

And the second.

On the third, she managed to stay standing by holding onto my arm, but the results were still a little iffy.

Oh well, we moved on to something that we both could enjoy.  Greasy food.

During lunch, a brief altercation erupted between two of my coworkers, and I think this is Matt giving a mean stare to Adam.  Don't worry, the altercation was about as fierce as Matt's look, as I remember it.

Matt had a much different face on the ride back home.  Worn out from the boredom of wimpy greens and disappointing black diamonds I suppose, since he's the best out of all of us by far.

He he.

At the end of the day, the entire Kenis lab crew caught a picture together.  Again Ritika is trying to look like she's boss.

And here's the complete group.

Thanks to everyone for a really awesome trip, especially Isaac who coordinated the whole thing, provided parents to cook for us, and also did an excellent job forecasting the weather, including the "frontal genesis event" that we had to drive through on the way back home.  Saturday: warm yet icy.  Sunday: Insane snow, getting the car stuck in the driveway, nearly dying in Wisconsin.  Sigh.