In December, we decided to devote some time to ourselves. We came up with the idea to take one weekend each month and do something different, just focusing on us. No rules, just a weekend to ourselves. My months are the odd ones (jan, mar, etc) and Greg gets to plan the even ones (he says it's because he wants his birthday month!). That being settled, it was up to me to plan January. What could we do that we have never done before, that would be fun and somewhat inexpensive? I came up with snowshoeing!! And since Greg had never been to Mt. Rainier, I decided that was the place to visit. It just so happens my sister's husband, Bryan, works for the National Park Service and is "stationed" at Mt. Rainier so now we had our own personal guide! It was an absolute blast and one I want to do again! Beth and Bryan hosted us for the weekend and took us on a magnificent scenic trail.
Beth and Bryan have their own snowshoes; we had to rent ours. It isn't near as much gear as when we were skiing or maybe it is, but it's much lighter!!!
The park entrance - we still had an hour's drive up to Paradise where we would begin our expedition.
We saw the mountain "peek" out from the clouds. A beautiful day- no snow, but overcast with sun breaks. Fog rolled in later in the afternoon so we were thankful to have such great weather in the middle of the day.
Here we are......we had just finished lunch and were ready to tackle more trail!
We ended the day with a rousing game of spades. It is our tradition to play men against the women. And yes, Beth and I lost the series again! We just can't seem to catch a break against these guys! What a weekend - good food, great friends, lousy cards (at least that's what Beth and I thought!), and lots of laughter! Thanks, Beth and Bryan, for helping us have a fantastic time! Love you guys lots!
I'm just starting with the first blob of molten glass. I had to keep turning it to cool it down and begin the shaping process for adding color.
Adding the colors: blue, green and white 
Greg did the same thing as I did. He's tweezing his colors in (he chose pink and purple).
Greg's done blowing his float - the colors aren't nearly set. They put them in a kiln overnight to get the colors to fire in.
The results! We will remember this experience for a very long time! 
So after the glass blowing, we hung out at Depoe Bay looking for a mat....more at the end of the story.....and we spent the afternoon just browsing the shops. It was very windy with winds gusting at 60 mph, and pelting rain, but we had fun running from shop to shop! Even bad weather on the beach is good day! We ended up at the Surftide Motel back in Lincoln City in a room with a fireplace and our private beachfront balcony.
Here's the view from our balcony.....very romantic!
And now for the rest of the story......Greg found this mat last summer when we were whale watching with my sister and brother-in-law. Greg and Beth laughed about how we should buy it and have outside for when they come to visit! So.......while in Depoe Bay, we went from shop to shop (because of course, we couldn't remember which shop it was in!), and finally discovered it! So here it is (we like saying "Butter my buns" but I guess the original saying is as it says above!). These date weekends are way fun and I'm so thankful we are doing them! 
This was one of the steep climbs we undertook. Greg is actually 1/2 way up the hill when he stopped and took pictures of us beginning the ascent. We snowshoed for 4 hours and were exhausted at the end of the trek. Great day it was!
Meysa liked the googles look! Safety first!
And here are the three at the end! 
