Punch Me Guido. Punch Me in the Face.

This weekend was a weekend of Brooke's family get-together in Sisters, and we totally crashed their party.  Thursday night Brooke's cousin Zak arrived in town from Southern California.  We joined him and his sister Heidi for some minor league baseball and a cheap beer on Thirsty Thursday.

A classic family shot:

And the posed family shot...

We were a little distracted during the game, but apparently we won.  We were also pretty much the last ones to leave the stadium.   After much discussion, taking a little freedom with an art sculpture, and giving confusing - and possibly wrong - directions to some tourists, Brooke and Heidi agreed that Brooke and I would take The Merchandise (aka Zak) with us for the night, making it easier to transport him to Sisters the next morning.

To spice up the trip to Sisters Friday morning, Zak challenged us to take 10 random pictures along the way.  We lost count about half way through, but here are some of the highlights:

Picture number 1...

The "classic" toyota pic

(I really need to work on my photo-shopping skills...)

When we pulled up to Rich and Colleen's place, Colleen's homemade ginger molasses cookies were being pulled out of the oven.  I mention this, because the weekend tended to revolved around cookie breaks.  We hung out for a bit before the three of us continued into Bend for shopping and possibly a movie.  But since nothing sounded good, we entertained ourselves by perusing Bend's finest stores (that's right, Gear Peddler and Shopko, baby).

Yes, that is a bike attached to skis...

Home-made hood ornaments a such a dying art, don't you think?

I love small town convenience stores.

You really have no idea what you'll find.

On Saturday morning, Brooke and I had grand intentions of waking up super early and hitting the mountain hard all day long.  Instead, we didn't get out of bed until 8, then of course had to dig into Colleen's fantastic breakfast with the family and enjoy homemade quiche with a side of witty repartee.  Brooke's family is absolutely hilarious - its hard to keep up!  Then we had to find Bellatazza, our favorite Central Oregon coffee shop.  We rolled into Bachelor's parking lot at 10:30am.

View from a particularly difficult green circle run

By the time we got up to the mountain we had discovered that, as of last weekend, they are now in Spring hours - meaning the lifts close at 1:30.  AND Brooke's favorite run, Northwest Express, also closed a few days earlier.  But don't worry.  That didn't stop her from having a killer ski day.

And I enjoyed my token run and hot cocoa in the lodge.

After skiing, we stopped in Sun River to say hi to Gary and Val, which is always a delight.  We spent about an hour and a half watching tear-jerkers and comedy routines on YouTube before heading back to Sisters for a dinner party with the whole family.

The dog finally has ample room to run free,

and where does he want to be?

Sunday morning we all gathered around the table for another amazing breakfast before heading to church, followed by a stop at Sisters' Coffee Company. We filled our afternoon outside with a little shooting (I was soooo excited).

Rich - locked and loaded

Heidi showing us how its done

The woman can cook AND shoot. What else do you need?

Zak "helping" his little sis keep her line of sight clear

Jason helping Lauren line up her shot

The sniper (watch out, Sydney Bristow!)

Around 2:30 we said goodbye, and began our trek home.  Okay, actually we began our trek to the Outlet Mall.  Hey, priorities.  On our way out of town we of course got more coffee to amp us up for ballads and chick music all the way home.

Can someone explain this one to me?

(We may have stole a few extra molasses cookies)