Richard & Rachel Visit

We had visitors! Yay! Richard and Rachel came for a long weekend visit. They flew in Thursday afternoon and went home today. We had a really great time. They were a nice reminder of home. Unfortunately, we didn't have the best weather. Mostly cloudy and rainy at times. At least it wasn't in the 20's the whole time! Mostly 50's. We started the visit with a good view of the city. Between Richard's GPS and mine, we finally found the "best view" of Pittsburgh. 

We also had an interesting adventure at the Carnegie Science Museum. We played around, saw an IMAX show... and  a few other things...

We were able to board an old submarine they have in the river behind the museum. It was very interesting since Jon used to be a frequent visitor on the subs for work. I felt very bad for him after seeing the conditions. No space! And it stunk like nothing else...

So here is Richard. With his shirt still down... He's riding this crazy contraption at the science museum. He was brave to give it a try. Rachel tried it as well and did awesome! They both completely flipped, which looked really hard to do!

We also had dinner with some Pittsburgh friends of ours, and went to a game night with some other people. I think they got the full "Pittsburgh experience". Hopefully they had a good time and weren't too bored... We sure enjoyed having them. There are more pictures posted in the slideshow, so take a look!

Spring Break 2009

For Jonathan's spring break we decided staying home a little and relaxing would be great, but we also wanted to take a small trip somewhere close. We decided to go skiing! We hadn't been in about 3 years and figured while we were up north and only 60 miles away from a resort we definitely had to fit in a trip. We decided to spend two nights at the ski lodge. It was pretty great, we got a discounted rate since it's the end of the season. It was a beautiful drive. We had a nice fireplace and Jon did an excellent job starting the fires!

Here is the mountain. Only 8 trails were open for skiing. We went during the week, so there was hardly anyone else there! No lines, no waiting. Very nice.  Earlier in the week it got up to 70 degrees here! We were so bummed because we figured we would lose any chance there was of skiing. We were pretty lucky there was some left over snow! While we were there it never got above 35 degrees... strange weather.

Here's Jon skiing. I was taking a rest after a ridiculous experience with the ski lift. I've never had a problem getting on a ski lift, but for some reason this time it didn't go so well! I thought the chair was coming up quickly behind me, but obviously I was wrong, because I sat down too soon and landed on the ground in front of the chair! And of course, the chair kept coming... right over me. I did some crazy flip so that it didn't hit me too hard, and ended up on my back somehow. Poor Jon ended up on the chair that ran me down and was looking back at me when I finally got helped up! Not a great experience. 

As if the chair lift wasn't enough fun for the day... After lunch we decide we'll ski the "easiest" trail again and then move on to a blue. We picked the one I had really liked skiing, which we had done about 4 times already that day with no problem. About half way down, after one small spill, I had a major fall. We had both noticed more ice on the mountain than had been there previously. Not a huge fan of skiing on ice. I was going at a pretty good speed, went to make a turn and my pole caught on the ice in front of my ski, causing my ski to catch on the pole and literally flip me forward on to my right side. My right shoulder and arm slammed into the ice. It happened so fast, it pretty much knocked the wind right out of me. I was stunned and sore, so at that point we called it a day. I figured I would be a little bruised and swollen, but I definitely didn't expect to wake up the next morning and not even be able to lift my arm. 

Me sporting my super fancy sling. We got back home on Friday and finally decided I should see a doc. I couldn't get into the doctors office, so I ended up having to go to the ER. I needed some pain drugs for sure, and we figured it would be smart to make sure I hadn't broken anything. No break, the doc called it a sprain when I jammed my shoulder but couldn't rule out rotator cuff tear. I'll see an orthopedic specialist this week. I can't raise my arm at all without help, can't dress or write or feed myself with that arm. Can't drive. Of course I'm out of work until I can move it again. It feels muscular, like I tore apart every muscle in my arm. But hopefully it won't be more than 5 days to a week before I'm back to normal. Can't afford to miss work! How am I typing this, with our super fancy wireless keyboard that I can put in my lap! The hand and fingers still work : ) I must give props to the best nurse and housemaid there is. Jon has been really great. Thank goodness he's still out of school this weekend and has time to help me. He's cooked and cleaned, washed dishes, laundry and will help me grocery shop tomorrow. He helps me dress and get my sling on and goes crazy if I try and do anything with the arm. He's been great. So that's our spring break for you. The most memorable to date. 

Jonathan as Tom Selleck...

Don't worry, he finished shaving...