Birthday, Flying, Traveling, Invites

Spent this past weekend in Moab, UT celebrating the 29th Birthday of Me... it was a blast. We had a large crew of people from Boulder and Crested Butte. Liz surprised me with some Strawberry Shortcake in the desert with candles and everything - it was quite nice.

We mountain biked Saturday and Sunday and much fun was had. Thanks to everyone that called and emailed on my birthday! It's April 26th - for those of you that didn't know - now you do - so no excuses next year! ;) The pictures from the trip can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/MarkSBdayMoab they're mainly mtn biking sequences... didn't get a single picture of me... but I'm not the good looking one of the two of us - so that's ok.

The first batch of invites went out yesterday - the second batch will be a week or so behind them as the printer screwed up the quantities... oh well. Everyone should know by now that they're invited... we're in the process of refining our honeymoon plans - we're trying to find places that have the best exchange rates and the best cost of living - right now we're leaning toward: Fiji, Tahiti, Bali, and Thailand. We'll let you know how things progress. We're still planning on not registering for much and simply asking for help for our trip.

I'm flying tomorrow morning for my second Biennial Flight Review - hard to believe it's time again... time flies - ha - no pun intended. The BFR happens every two years and is required by law for all pilots to prove their proficiency... hopefully I am - I should go to bed instead of writing in the blog... bummer thing is that the flight school where I fly is ending their plane rental as of tomorrow - I'll be looking for another way to fly here shortly - sounds like there may be at least two options - but nothing as easy as having one at my disposal whenever I wanted.

Aerial photography has picked up again - been getting calls and emails left and right - which has been nice. Spring and Summer are always the busiest.

Liz and I are both heading off to travel on Thursday. I leave for CA to visit Steve, Jackson, Jenelle, Robert, Shawn and his beautiful wife Meghan and then head to San Francisco to see Eric and Sarah - I'm excited. Meanwhile, Liz is traveling to MI for a bridal shower and to have her wedding dress fitted - exciting stuff! I'm sure it'll be gorgeous! I pick up my wedding tux tomorrow - hopefully it looks pretty stylish!

Ok - off to bed - good night everyone!

Flobots

Just thought I'd throw a shout out to former-roommate Jesse Walker and his band The Flobots who are making it big - and living the dream! They signed with Universal this past month - and their song Handlebars is leading the request lines for most of the radio stations that have begun playing it! They are in the top 100 most purchased songs on iTunes! Here's a brief article:
http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_8707202

There is a war going on for your mind - if you're thinking - you're winning. Thank goodness there are bands out there making good music with intelligent lyrics - I'm proud to say that I knew him when...

We rise together! Check them out on www.flobots.com or watch this video:

Rafting

We just got back last night from 3 days of rafting on the Colorado River. We started in Loma, CO and ended in Westwater, UT. It was absolutely amazing. Charley had her first river rafting experience along with her first camping trip - she fit right in and loved it! She did manage to get some pretty serious burrs which I think hampered some of her desire to run around. She only fell in once and with 45 degree water she learned quickly from there on out. It was quite the trip. There were numerous bald eagle sightings including two nests. We even went cliff diving and rock climbing! It was the first time that the state opened that section of land along the river to Turkey hunting - so part of our group went hunting and came back with two birds. Fun was had by all (except for the turkeys)... Gobble. The full photo album can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/RubyHorsethiefCanyonRaftTrip

Snowmobiling

Went snowmobiling the other day up at Irwin by Mt. Owen and a number of other peaks. It was gorgeous. There are some pictures of Steve Church's cabin for the Rancourt's viewing pleasure.
The pictures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/SnowmobilingApril08

Finally got the sled running full power today - I'm excited to go out on it again tomorrow.

Liz is part-timer of the year!

Liz was awarded part-timer of the year at this year's end of the year patrol banquet. The Golden Spool as it's called is an honor and I'm very proud of her - you should be too!

The season ended on Sunday with a glorious Spring day filled with debauchery and some great skiing. We spent the day on Monday taking the mountain down - which was fun to have the entire mountain to ourselves as we took down all the ropes and dismantled the ski area for the summer.

We're off to the patrol pig roast this afternoon.

The second picture is of the King and Queen of Flauschink (the king happened to be a patroller this year) - Flauschink is a crazy little festival that the people in Crested Butte have created to "flush" out winter and bring in spring - hence the "scepters" that look curiously like plungers. The last week of the season the king and queen parade around town and on the mountain - they held court on the peak for a long time Sunday before going to Flauschink hill (a spot on the ski area that sits in the sun above the ice bar) where there is much merry making. It was fun - it's a great way to end the season. The woman in the picture is Stacie (Liz's co-worker and good friend at the Clinic in town).

Hope you all are doing well!

Some short ski Videos

Here are a couple of short videos from the last few powder days.


Mark drops off the low end of wolf's lair


Mark Selto Dropping a Cliff in Fredos


Chris Phillips dropping off the diving board (Warning: explicit language)


Mike drops off of Moosehead Rock


Mark drops off of Moosehead Rock


Mark flails off of Cheeseburger Rock

You'll never guess...

MORE SNOW!! Monday and Tuesday were some of the best skiing I've ever had in my life... maybe we should postpone the wedding or move it to Hawaii - or at least you all should bring your skis in June!?? The beach is starting to sound better and better!
Mike and Carson going big in Wolf's Lair. Life is good.

More Skiing

The season will wrap up at the resort next Sunday (a week from tomorrow) - it'll be sad - but the skiing is still incredible so we'll be utilizing the snowmobile and the skins a bunch. Hopefully the snow will be melted by June 21st!! It's supposed to snow all week...

While returning from Jackson and Jenelle's wedding we drove into a blizzard.... it left us with a solid 24" of snow or so. Monday and Tuesday were powder days! Monday we spent on the resort and Tuesday Liz and I spent in the backcountry - we skinned up Red Lady Bowl which faces town - it was gorgeous - though it got a bit windy up top and Liz was a bit dehydrated.

I patrolled the rest of the week which was fun. We started doing guided tours of 3rd bowl yesterday (which I led) - the skiing was incredible (we had to close the terrain to the public before this last storm cycle due to the East-facing aspects becoming an avalanche concern - so we led people to the North facing aspects which are till skiing like it's mid-winter.) I went back today on my day off to do two more tours... it was fantastic.

Here are some pics from the Monday after Jackson's wedding and a short video of our buddy Mark dropping a pretty large cliff:

The Wedding of Jackson and Jenelle

The wedding was a blast! Jackson and Jenelle looked incredible. Jackson in his Marine formals was looking sharp and Jenelle was a gorgeous bride to say the least. It was an honor to stand up there with them on their special day. It was great to be up there with all the guys from college. Needless to say we had a blast!

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the bride and groom - I'm going to place all the blame on Liz for this one... I was a groomsman so I couldn't be more normal shutterbug self. So send us a picture if you have one for me to post!

We do have some fun ones though: