One Hike Per Day

One of our goals for the week is to take a hike every day. We also have bowling, going to the playground, cooking amazing food, riding bikes, and eating sorbet on the list.

Wild Adventures in the West

Yes, I have a lot to catch up on: I'm 22 weeks prego and still feeling great, our offer was accepted on a condo and we're aiming to close before we have to move out of our apartment (but we're cutting it really close!), and we are all over the place on vacation. We spent a few days in Ohio before flying to Montana. We've only been here for a few days but so far we've been hiking, camping, and horsebackriding. Scott did a crazy triathlon with his little bro and a bunch of his friends. It was a half-mile swim, 18-mile mountain bike ride (and I mean mountain), and 5-mile run through the foothills of the mountains. It was tough, but Scott finished it in about four hours. I have awesome pictures, but they're all going to have to wait. I have zillions of awesome pictures, but they're all going to have to wait. After all, I'm on vacation.

This post's photo is from today though. Scott went backpacking with his dad and brother; they're off to the Beartooth Range for a week. While they're gone, Bruce and Scott's mom and I will be doing lots of hiking, cooking, biking, relaxing. Today, though, Bruce and I drove to the metropolis of Rexburg, Idaho to visit my brother and sister. We met my nephew, Taylor, for the first time, and got to spend lots of time with Chris, LaTrisha, Marissa, and her fiance Tevita (or as Bruce calls him, "Tofu Pita"). The morning was perhaps the most adventurous part of the day....

Chris has his pilot's license and offered to take us for a ride around Rexburg. We went to the airport and he grabbed a little four-seater single-prop airplane. Marissa and I sat in the back and Bruce and Chris sat in the front. We were all outfitted with headsets so we could talk to each other (the plane was really loud) and Bruce just loved that. He started reciting parts of The Incredibles - where Elastigirl is flying an airplane and tries to swerve a torpedo while yelling "Disengage! Disengage!" Chris ran through his pre-flight checklist and took off. I was quite worried because Bruce was an arm's length from a zillion brightly colored buttons and a steering wheel. But to my surprise (and great relief!), Bruce didn't touch the steering wheel until it was "his turn." Chris let Bruce control the plane for a few minutes, carefully showing him how to gently roll right and left and climb and descend. It was a little scary to see Bruce's hands on the steering wheel and the ground soooo far below, but Bruce was actually very gentle with the wheel and obeyed when Chris finally said, "Okay, it's my turn now." That was really fun, but I was glad to be on the ground afterward.

That is just one of our many adventures. I'll save the other stories and pictures for later because I'm super-tired and I still have some work to do tonight.

Over and out.

Roadtrip!

We've ventured out on our official post-thesis adventure. We drove along I-90 and stopped at Niagara Falls, meeting Scott's sister and my brother and their families. Somehow we all arrived from different places within a half-hour and found each other; that in itself was a miracle. We all looked at the Falls and then sat down for a picnic lunch. Bruce had fun playing with all his cousins, but kept saying that he just wanted to get in the car and go to Grandma's House.
After we had our fun there, we hopped in the car and made the last leg of our journey to my parents' house, where Bruce got to ride the Jeep, climb some trees, feed the ducks, play, and RUN around!

Another Weekend Hike

We went hiking again this weekend. We did the same trail that we did last weekend, but another part of it. We covered a bit over three miles, with several breaks for blueberry picking, water chugging, and goldfish snacking.
Doesn't Scott look like he's posing for senior pictures or something? See that smile on his face? He's in love with his hiking boots.
Bruce and I picked wild blueberries along the trail. They were tiny, so it took almost a half-hour to pick a pint. Also pictured is the belly. I am halfway there: 20 weeks. Bruce insists that we call her "Savannah." I have no clue where he picked up that name and why he likes it so much. Scott is voting for "Charlotte" and I'm still having a brain-freeze with girl names. Baby Whateverhernameis is now big enough that I can feel her kicking around; yea! We went to a work party this weekend to celebrate the web site's launch. Bruce got to sport his awesome Spiderman swim suit and play in a swimming pool, jump on a giant trampoline, and eat potato chips. He slept very well that night.
This is just a random picture from the community beach that we frequent. We go almost every day but I rarely bring along a camera. But here's our one beach picture and it accurately shows how Bruce feels when we are there.

Scott version 2.0

Scott has been taking some time to relax lately. He's doing things he hasn't done in at least two years: sleeping past 6 a.m., hiking, coming home for dinner, fixing my jogging stroller tires. As I write, he is watching an old episode of 24 on his computer (or maybe that's what he said and he's really playing with Matlab). Earlier tonight he helped a friend move, and before that we had dinner with people he invited over! Watch out world - it's a whole new Scott here. Or shall we say Doctor Scott? Anyway, Scott went boating and fishing with some friends this week. Bruce and I met up with him after his outing and we all went and looked at houses together. We found one we like and put an offer on it today. More details on this later.
In the meantime, here is another reason we need to move out of our current place: flooding. I woke up at 4:30 and took a trip to the bathroom. In the early morning quiet, I heard rushing waters that were rushing a little more than usual (perhaps that's why I had to go to the bathroom?). There's a stream by our apartment complex and it always sounds like it's raining, but it sounded different. I peeked out the window and saw that the whole parking lot was under about 8 inches of water. I woke Scott up and he put on his Tevas and slogged through the flood to our car and moved it. The water looked like it was still rising, so we woke up a bunch of our neighbors whose cars looked like they were going to float away. When Bruce woke up a few hours later, he put on his rain boots and went out to jump in the biggest puddle ever. He thought it was so cool.
And it got even cooler when a backhoe came to break up the little dams in the stream and cordon off part of the parking lot. Bruce and the girl we babysit were glued to the window most of the day chanting "noisy trucks! noisy trucks! backhoe! noisy trucks!" while watching crews sandbag a retaining wall by the stream. Coooool.

Hiking and Scrambling

Check out Scott lacing those babies up. He got brand new hiking boots - courtesy of the in-laws as a graduation gift - so we tried them out on Independence Day.

After wearing them around the house for a few days, we tried them out on a really cool trail that involves a lot of scrambling up and down boulders. Bruce loves climbing; as for me, my center of gravity is continually shifting so I am just getting slower. Bruce definitely deserves hiking boots, but his feet are growing so fast that it's not worth buying a decent pair. Sorry Bruce - maybe when you get your PhD...The trail climbs up and over a bunch of big rocks, through a stream......under some trees...
...and through a patch of blueberries.


(yum!)Bruce loves following the little marks that make the trail (see the little white "L" on the rock?) and gets giddy and runs to the next one when he sees it. Bruce found this cool little caterpillar on the trail and said it was his friend. He carried it for awhile and only put it down after we insisted it needed to eat a leaf.

After our solitary hike, we spent a few hours at the community beach and then headed to the fireworks downtown. We got an awesome parking spot (after asking some guy to move his Harley a few inches forward) and hung out with friends from church for a few hours. We brought a DVD player so Bruce and his buddies watched a movie on a picnic blanket while we waited for the show to begin. We didn't get a great view of the fireworks - we were sitting behind a row of trees - but Bruce was still thrilled with what he did see. As soon as the last firework popped, we ran (and I mean ran) to our car and got out of the city before the big traffic jams ensued (good work Scott).

Here's what I do with my "spare" time

I've been working on a new digital camera review web site with some old friends for the past few months, and we finally launched it yesterday. Presenting...

H2Hreviews.com

It's a head-to-head comparison web site, so instead of checking out one camera at a time I now get two or three or even four sometimes.

The site is brand spanking new so it still has plenty of bugs, missing links, etc. If you have any feedback or see any errors, you can send it to feedback@h2hreviews.com or send it my way.

She's a Lady

It is indeed a girl. The radiologist checked out her head and profile first; maybe they all look the same, but the shape looked a lot like Bruce. Then the radiologist checked the heart and took a few measurements and said, "Looks like it's active." Her little feet were dancing all over the screen. The radiologist looked down under and she is a she. A very active she. Bruce may not have a wrestling partner (or maybe he will - this is one tough little girl!), but he will have a great dance partner. Can't wait to see these dance moves in stereo.