Skagit River: Newhelem, WA

There ended up being a big group of us camping but it was easy car camping so there was no shortage of play things or junk food for anyone. I seems that when the kiddos are this young, car camping is really the only way.


Here's the birthday boy, wearing baby leg warmers and a hat he can't just pull off his head.


Brazos and Papa. Jason was a river guide on the Kern river for a few seasons, he was an excellent boatman. I felt super comfortable with him; I never felt scared of the water, even the rapids, he just made it fun.


It was a big campsite too, awesome group site. this is looking up from the river to the pavilion we had for when it rained. There were 6 picnic tables under it, a grill, and a fire pit under some trees. The biggest issue we had was that they all had tents sooo big that there wasn't room for all of them.



And this is the Skagit river, it was right at our campsite. The first time we went down the river we put in right at the site. The second time we put in at the real put in. But both times we did a 9 mile stretch with class 3 rapids. it was awesome. such a beautiful way to see the river. One of their friends has a permit to float the Grand River next summer, I'm secretly hoping they somehow need a paddler.

Moving Right Along

This is the patch I made for Kelly, but I haven't finished her whole handkerchief yet. She and I went to the University District today, there's a big festival. I got some lovely earrings and a few christmas gifts. and these neat little plants that live just in the air, I'm going to make a little hanger for them they're really neat.




This is my new black horse--
Cass finally lost almost all his winter coat. He has a pretty good cut on his leg I've been nursing lately. There's an outbreak of an equine herpes virus (it's like a flu for them, but some strains can affect the nervous system), so the barn is kind of on lock down because it's highly contagious. So really, it's ok for him to be chilling in the pasture. Hopefully they'll get it contained over then next few weeks.

Here is this months cake:
a lovely chocolate layer cake on request per Dr. Dan

The rain has let up a little here, a few lovely sunny days. Now everyone is lovely pink colors and in a better mood.

These are from shananigans last night, thus resulting in the abundance of voice mails you woke up too.

In the bud

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

Anais Nin

WFA Training and my Last Day Off

It's been raining pretty steady up here since I arrived. I'm psyched that my new tent is holding up and that we'll have a green summer, but dang if I'm not getting a little tired of the rain. There was a picture in the paper showing two cities--one grey and rainy, the other sunny and clear--and asked which one was Seattle and which was Denver. The sunny city was Seattle, the grey one Denver.

The rain has made WFA training interesting, although more scenarios would have been nice. Saturday brought some bott-scooting to the local bluegrass band "Missed the Boat". I use "bluegrass" pretty lightly, but they were good and we danced well into the night.

Sunday is my last day off until July. I slept in (until 8:30, woo-hoo!) and treated myslef to a big old pancake, eggs, hashbrown, biscuits and gravy, and coffe breakfast. There was a sign at the cafe offering a reward for a lost horse. The picture showed the horse saddled-up, which makes me wonder how the person lost his horse. Hopefully all is well and right with the world and Buddy will saunter on home. Afterwards I headed up into the hills just outside of town. They ain't joking when they say "Mud Season". I'm thinking of some hot springs to end the day with and then tomorrow will bring the season and hard-work.

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Rocky Mountain Youth Corps training

I drove up with my mom and a co-worker, Ingria. The drive up the Poudre Canyon was beautiful. It's been years since I had been that far up the Poudre (tee hee) and it was awesome to see some familiar sights. I was worried when we began driving through areas with four and five feet of snow left, but the snow thinned as we drove past Cameron Pass. We headed down into the valley where Steamboat is located and everything was green and lush.

The RMYC office is located just west of town with plenty of space for tents and incredible views in most directions--excepting the electric sub-station to our north.

On the first day I headed up the hill behind our tent-city and found a little pond and an awesome field with views of the Sleeping Giant and some 10,000+ foot peaks.

Horsetooth Bouldering

Benijana and I headed up to Rotary for a quick bouldering session. It was a beautiful day for some climbing and even though we were both pretty rusty, it was awesome to be out of doors. Here's Ben after conquering a sick flake. Also some shots of the reservoir and Horsetooth Rock (the hike we did with my mom in January).

Weddings, pt. 2

Kael and Sarah had a beautiful wedding near Lyons, CO on an old farm. It was a chance for many of us to get back together. The ceremony was gorgeous and heartfelt, with not too many dry eyes in the crowd (I blame mine on my allergies, plus I had something in my eye). I was proud to stand up with Brendan, Pat and Joe as Kael's groomsmen. We must've been the goodest-looking bunch of fellers in Colorado that weekend. The party was an awesome time, complete with a band that played the
jams that kept us dancing.

The House Sitting

I'm getting more comfortable here at the house and enjoying having
alone time to meddle in my own doings.

These are my charges while I'm here, and no that's not fancy camera work, they look identical most of the time. I'll pet one for quite some time before I realize it's the other one in my lap.




These are other things I've been doing with my time:
Beautiful kombucha mother from Jess at work
embroidery too, I got lots of pretty colors at the store today, too much sewing will probably follow that.
Climbing gym and a wonderful ride today, the dinner with Zach and Kelly, Erin came to give them massages, they both fell asleep.

Weddings, part 1

Gabriel and I headed to the "Segunda" to get some new threads for the wedding. I'd say we did a pretty good job, all for under $15. Here are a few good shots from Jerod and Audrey's wedding. Lots of handsome and pretty Mexicans. Muy picante!

While you're far away dear

I don't know if you'll enjoy this or not, but I would love to see pictures and hear stories from your travels, not that I don't like face book, but...