beautiful day

I am fortunate to be part of a group of seven amazing women who get together periodically for cocktails in celebration of birthdays, and who come running when someone has a baby, a wall to paint, or a crisis. Our ages span over 11 years, and we all have different life situations - some with kids, some without; some with busy professional lives, some raising kids full time (some attempting to do both...). For the past three years we've put our regular lives aside for a couple of days on a mountain somewhere. This year it was only one day, but it was a beautiful day on Willamette Pass.

Rohanna snowboarded for the first time in 14 years. She shredded.

We all felt a little looser after our requisite

half-time pints in the lodge.

And here we are later, wearing our ninja gnome t-shirts. Yes, I did say ninja gnome. (A testament to the amazing things you can find on the internet.) Over the years, one of our number has gifted each of us with a garden gnome to watch over our yards. Another of us has been absent for a couple of months lately getting chemotherapy and radiation treatment. We have become self-styled "cancer ninjas" in support of her efforts. So now we're ninja gnomes, I guess. This is us, making idiots of ourselves at a restaurant, so we could make Jess laugh. Somewhere we heard that laughter is good medicine.

(No, we said, we're not a team. Or a cult. It's...well, its' complicated.)