Our campsite. The view was great! Notice though that our tent is a little lopsided. Oh well, we thought, no big deal. Never ever will we do this again, no matter how great the view. I was smushed up against the side of the tent and Paul was smushed into me. 

I take a nap by a stream 

Mountain Goats 

Elk 

Sunset 

This is right before we packed out. 

Alysun, Paul and Annie pick blackberries. Emma eats blackberries. Notice the berry stained hands, mouth and shirt. 

We had a dorm section reunion last night at Carmen's apartment in Wilsonville. This was my dorm section from my first year at MBC. From top left are Carmen (celebrating little girl on the way), Charlene (celebrating engagement), Sarah, me, Kelsey, Christy, Liz (celebrating little girl on the way), and Liz (celebrating engagement). We had lots to celebrate and it was fun to catch up with everyone.  

Paul is proud of his turnips. 

We are starting to get produce from our garden. So far we have enjoyed snap peas, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, turnips, beets and cilantro. 

Paul and I decided to go backpacking at Mt. Ranier on Thursday. It was very warm when we hiked in to Upper Palasades Lake, 3.5 miles of up and down, up and down. I am a person who tends not to complain until they are uncomfortable and mosquitos and other flying pests drive me nuts. There were alot of mosquitos. At one point I looked at my elbow and there were four mosquitos biting me! (I remember actually hiking in the Olympics one time when the flies were especially terrible. They would fly around your head until you felt like swearing. After half an hour I was so frustrated that I was crying.)
The lake was beautiful. I went for a swim after we set up camp. The sunset was beautiful. The next morning we woke up to thunder and lightning. It rained most of the morning. We decided to pack out and try to find a sunnier place to camp. On the way out we saw pica, elk and marmots. Once we got back to the car we decided to go explore the Wenatchee National Forest that borders Mt. Ranier. We had only eleven dollars in cash - so our plan was to find a campground that cost less than eleven dollars. We drove all the way to Yakima and couldn't find one for even under fifteen. So we decided to spend the eleven dollars at McDonalds in Yakima (it is 9 pm by now and we haven't eaten) and then drive back home and sleep in our own beds. We had a great time listening to Lars Larsen on the way home. We arrived home at midnight last night. It was a great adventure. We saw some places we had never been before. Moral of the story: plan for rain and bring more cash! Enjoy the pictures!

Packing in to our site. 

Upper Palasades Lake - were we spent the night. 

This is a picture of Paul and I waiting out a thunderstorm on Friday morning in our tent. Sound oddly familiar?  

After the thunderstorm we packed out in the fog. 

Paul at the mouth of a cave. He looks like a miner with that headlamp on. hi ho hi ho - it's off to work we go!! 

We love marmots!!!! 

Indian Paintbrush 

We finally got a good picture of Dexter. He tries to lick the camera.  

I decided that smores would be a nice treat. They really don't taste the same when you're not camping. 

My friend Kara and I had a girl's weekend. We went to Port Townsend and the lavendar festival in Sequim. We stayed with Sarah and Paul in thier new house in Port Townsend.  

Typoglycemia

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but rtaher the wrod as a wlohe. Such a cdonition is arppoiately cllaed Typoglycemia :)-

Currently Reading: "No Dark Valley" by Jamie Langston Turner. This is my fourth JL Turner book this year. The Suncatchers was my favorite. 

My Fascination with Babies

Recently my friend Alysun wrote a blog about being a stay at home mom. It started me thinking about my interactions with people in my life who stay at home with their kids. I always find myself asking tons of questions like, "when does he sleep?" "what do you feed her?" "what is your day like?" "how did you decide whether or not to put her on a schedule?" I think I am mostly trying to picture what my life will be like someday when I have a baby. How will I balance things I already like to do like camping? Can you do that with a baby? I need to know these things. There always comes a point in the conversation where I think to myself "I am being extremely nosy and I need to stop". Thankfully, my mom counsels pregnant women for her job. She has charts, books, etc. The problem is, I know that even with all my questions answered I will still feel, as Alysun said, "grossly underqualified" to be a mom.

This past weekend we went camping at Tahklahk Lake in the Gifford Pinchot Forrest. Enjoy the pictures. 

Lupin in the meadow 

Reflection of Mt. Adams in Tahklahk Lake 

Paul climbed to the top of a rocky lava flow on Sunday. We had beautiful weather.