Amazon Delivers

I love coming home to find little smiley faced cardboard boxes on my doorstep! Today's deliveries included:

The Game of Thrones Season One on Blueray.  This one was pre-ordered right after Christmas with some Christmas gift money!

And a new Eye-Fi Card. I can't live without this thing and my old one has finally become just a memory card. The wireless connection no longer functions so I am so happy to have this new one!

Take Me to the Movies

Movies have always been such an important part of my life with Josh, starting with our first date - Jurassic Park. When we were young (read pre-kids) we went to the movies at least twice a month.  We had to be one of the first thousand subscribers to Netflix when we bought our first DVD player in 1999.  It was a big transition when we had babies - way more Netflix and much less theater time.  I don't think I quite went a year not going to the movies but I remember the "first" movie after each baby, both the anxiety of being away from the baby and the joy of being back in the theater.  In fact, I remember so vividly the first movie Josh and I watched after we got back together following our first (and only) big breakup. The movie was far from fantastic, Mission Impossible, but I was so happy to be sitting next to him again in "our place".

This year we finally cancelled our Netflix subscription with all the weird cost increases and company changes.  We still don't hit the theater quite as often as the early days since it is crazy expensive to take a family of four, but we try to go fairly often. It is amazing what technology has brought us - with broad band internet and the variety of online, on demand movie services.  We now use Vudu and Amazon pretty regularly as well as Redbox for rentals on the fly. Since we had slowed down our Netflix consumption, never really feeling like watching the movies we happened to have at the house, it feels like we are watching so much more lately.  Now "our place" is more likely to be the big comfy gray couch.

Last Friday was an early release day, Josh was home from Wenatchee and I was off early (and the wind was blowing madly) the way to spend our afternoon was obvious - off the movies we would go! Again - no one could agree on anything.  There were only 3 family friendly movies out - Boone had already seen Journey 2, we had plans to watch The Lorax (can't wait) on the 17th and I was the only one interested in watching The Secret World of Arrietty.  Redbox iPhone app to the rescue - we reserved both Hugo and Puss in Boots and headed home.

Last fall, I really wanted to take the boys to see Hugo but no one was interested but me. It was also seemed to have a really short run in the Tri-Cities, go figure. The movie was pure MAGIC absolutely beautiful. The story was fantastic - I cannot wait to read Brian Selznick's next book. I am so happy we finally watched it - (though I am sure 3-D would have been even cooler!) I was teary at the end and Boone, who only watched it to humor me, lay on the couch next to me, mesmerized. 

We watched Puss in Boots and finished the weekend with Abduction (mehhh - 2 stars) and X-Men: First Class (how had it taken us so long to watch this one?)

The Academy Awards always produce a flurry of movie watching for me (nominated movies or otherwise). I get a new excitement for all those films that I might have missed and burning desire to soak them all up. Even though there are absolutely times that I am annoyed by the time I lost sitting through a flop - the good far outweighs the bad.

Today

Outside My Window -There is snow everywhere.
 
I am Thinking - That it really is time to say goodbye to old Tug. Watching him in this cold is so sad.

I am Thankful - That I have a garage to park in this winter.

From the Kitchen - Not much of anything lately, its no fun to cook when Josh isn't around to enjoy it (or to help me make the boys eat it).

I am Wearing - Snow boots with wool socks and some CAbi clothes.

I am Creating - Space and order after Christmas. No new crafty projects at this time but I'm trying to take more photos again.

I am Going - No where in this weather if I can help it.

I am Reading - Finally started Harry Potter with the boys and I'm reading Sister: A Novel which is riveting.

I am Hoping - That Josh makes it home for his birthday on Thursday and that he doesn't try to come if it stays yucky.

I am Hearing - Grunts and groans from kids playing too many video games.

Around the House -I still need a dining table but it really looks like a home after being here a year.
 
One of my Favorite Things - The kids getting excited again about My Job Chart.

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week - Dinner out for Josh's birthday - a much needed date night and maybe a movie too.

Josh's Mt. Adams Climb

Yes - it really is a post from Josh...


About two months ago, while having a few beers my buddy Tim, he told me he was planning a trip to climb Mt. Adams, and asked if I was interested.   With my courage shored with by a few cold Dos Equis I said I'd love to join the group. The plan was to drive to Trout Lake on the first day and hike from the parking area to "base camp" around 9000ft. There we would set up a camp eat sleep and prep for day two. The second day would include a pre daylight excursion and climb for a mid morning summit then head back to base camp pack up and head to the truck for a night of camping BBQ'ing and drinking.i

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We met Saturday morning to lay out all our gear and determine what was needed and try and eliminate duplicate stuff. We had done a pretty good job of getting our stuff lined up but we still needed a last minute trip to REI and the grocery store. We met at my place Sunday morning at 6am and headed to Trout Lake Ranger station to register for the trip. It cost $15 for a weekend pass. We were told the snow level was very low and we would have to park 2.5 miles below the trail head at 4400 ft, which was great because 15 miles didn't seem like quite far enough to walk! Since it was Sunday morning there were quite a few cars parked on the road to the trailhead but we found a spot and headed up the mountain. Thanks to the low snow level the hike had a nice little warm up of 2.3 miles to the trailhead. The snow was pretty consistent at the trail head and made the walk much more difficult.

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Setting up camp for the night was super cool. We were at about 8900 feet, well above the tree line and the place looked like the moon. No life anywhere just big volcanic boulders snow and a few small sheltered areas that had been dug in by previous hikers. The common place to stay is called Lunch Counter by the professionals we were about 600-700 feet below that but as I said before, we were gassed, and seeing 2 small nooks for the tents among the rocks was a life saver! We pitched our tents and set about unpacking and cooking dinner... That is melting to snow to make enough warm water to cook our MRE’s. The selection of MRE’s is pretty good and you can have just about anything, some good some bad. In my limited experience, keep it simple. If it is normally dehydrated it’ll taste better ie. dehydrated noodles and rice - good... dehydrated Chicken breast with Mashed potatoes - bad.

We were settled in about 9pm and pretty much ready for bed. I put on a fresh pair of socks which was better than ___ (I’ll let you fill in the blank), then threw in a packet of Via coffee kicked my feet up and watched the sun set over Hood, St Helens, and the entire lower Columbia Basin. Very Cool! About 10:30 I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore (even though it was still daylight) so we turned in for the night. We were a little worried because it was about 28 degrees with a 20mph wind, but in the small tent and our bags we slept like babies and there were no reports of anyone getting cold.

We set the alarm for 5:00am, a Little later than we originally thought, but after talking with several people on the way way up it was determined we didn’t need to start so early.We were all up before 5 and never heard the alarm go off.

Hot breakfast (dehydrated granola in milk for me) another cup of coffee and we were off! We started walking about 6am. The Summit is 12,300 ft so we had approx 3400 vertical to climb today. The ascent to the false summit is massive and intimidating, but I found it to be easier if you just don’t look up... Everyone I had talked with warned me to be ready for the surprise of how much farther we had after reaching the false summit, and they weren’t kidding! I was the first of our group to reach the false summit so i had time to watch a ventricular cloud formation blow over the summit and completely white out the view. By the time the rest of the guys got there it was pretty menacing looking. We decided to trudge on and see what the mountain would bring!

The hike after the false summit went surprisingly quick. Before we knew it we were standing on the top of the world... well higher than any of us had been except for in a plane. It was about quarter to ten and we had made it! I remember trying to determine if the altitude was affecting me, I didn’t feel like i was starving for oxygen but in retrospect i do recall feeling a little “drunk” for lack of a better term. i remember fine motor skills like zipping up a jacket or putting on gloves seemed to take more concentration than normal. Other than that the 45 minutes we spent on the summit was incredible! The view is un-describable, Mt St Helens, Rainier, Hood, Sisters, the ridge to the east of Rainier which I think is called the Razorback all surround you and all above the clouds.

The biggest bummer of the trip was that the clouds that were covering the summit that day prevented the snow from getting slushy, this made Glissading suicide... If you aren’t familiar, Glissading is sitting on your butt and sliding blissfully at the speed of your choice to the bottom of the mountain. We were forced to walk down a couple thousand feet before we could start Glissading.

The walk back to the truck was so much easier! Slipping sliding and glissading downhill is so much better than 8” steps uphill! All in all The trip was so cool... I’d say if you don’t want to start climbing don’t do it once! I will be doing it again. I would like to climb Adams a few more times then maybe move on to anther mountain.

This was waiting for me when I arrived home, nice to be missed!

Finally - A Weekend at Home!

It sounds so boring but it is exactly what I needed!  Summers are so busy and we love seeing all of our friends but there is still so much to do at the house.  Saturday after my regular breakfast of champions (a vanilla latte and Luna bar) I mowed the lawn and tried to pull up crab grass.  I got a sunburn and very sore leg and back muscles for those efforts.  Josh entrusted me to do some experiments with lawn chemicals (not something I am usually a proponent of but we really need some assistance to get this yard up to our standards).  He  spent the day getting sheetrock up in the shop and moving things all around.  We also got 8-10 loads of laundry done too.
This morning we enjoyed yummy blueberry bagels from Thursday's trip to the farmer's market and introduced the boys to Styx! They are playing the "trust game" in the photo but I'm not sure they know that. Next up is local raised and butchered ribs smoked on Josh's Green Mountain Grill, if I can figure out how to use it!