Hiking Club! (Hike #3)

Aaron is soooo jealous that I have summer break and leading up to it he kept asking, " What are you going to do with all that time off?!" I have been keeping busy and doing things I was too busy and overwhealmed to do during the school year. One of the activities I am doing is a weekly "hiking club" - I invited my co-workers and other friends to join me for a weekly hike. This last week we hiked the Trail of 10 Falls at Silver Falls State Park near Silverton, OR. It is one of my favorite hikes and I was lucky enough to have Jill and Kellie join me on the 8.5 mile loop. Here are some shots Jill took...

185 Steps...count 'em!

Summer so far: Rafting - Girls Weekend

This last weekend I went on my first ever rafting trip on the Deschutes River near Maupin, OR. The weather was nuts the whole weekend. It rained the Friday we arrived and some more the next day. The weather seemed to clear when we were ready to get on the river. We navigated successfully though our first set of rapids called Wapinitia.

We weren't so successful on the next set called Boxcar. A rush of water swooped me out of the raft and I went for a thrilling ride down the river. Notice I started out wearing a hat and sunglasses...

After all the excitment we stopped off for lunch. Just as we were finishing our meal it started to downpour. We huddled under a bridge to wait it out. After walking over to the bathrooms in the park (and enjoying having warm water) we headed back to the raft to get ready to take off further down the river. Just as we were getting ready another downpour including hail came down. Remember we were under a bridge... the nasty water that had been on the road above dripped gushed down on a couple of the girls. Yuck!! At about this point I started not feeling so well. My vision was blurred and my stomach unsettled. Rather than risk navigating the river in poor weather and with the strange symptoms I was having we decided to call it a day and one of the girls hiked up to the road to hitchhike to get the vehicle we left at the end spot. I came back home that night nursing a headache. (I rarely ever have a headache!) After calling the nurse's line at the doctor's office for advice they told me just to keep an eye on it and have Aaron wake me during the night as there was a chance I had a mild concussion after being tossed around in the water. It took a couple days to feel "normal" again, but I did have a good time on the trip!

Summer so far... WW-baptism, MT

Aaron and I spent the first weekend in July in Walla Walla where we were godparents for our nephew Israel's baptism. He did pretty good, but was facinated by the candle. We enjoyed a family barbeque afterward. 

 It was Father Tyler's first baptism since he has been at St. Patrick. He was just ordained in May.

On the 4th we walked up the street to the VA to watch the firework display. The next day we made our way to Montana. We took a break for lunch in Spokane and had lunch with my friends Karen, David and there not so much a baby anymore Kaelyn. We arrived in Missoula that evening and played a shortened round of golf at Linda Vista. Only 5 of the 9 holes were open due to flooding. The mosquitos were out with a vengance! The bite marks are just now starting to go away and it's been two weeks. The next day we continued east to Lewistown, MT. We visited with Lois and Bing on their farm and they put us up in the camper they won. (It was pretty nice!) That evening we stopped in to see Aaron's Grandma Wichman. She had a neat assortment of family photos and cards in her room and was very excited to have company. It had been about 10 years since Aaron had seen her, but she still remembered him. The next day Bing took us on a tour of the farm and seed plant. It's amazing how much tractors have changed. They come fully loaded with GPS now! We also stopped in for another visit with Grandma Wichman before heading south to Billings to see Kristin. The following day it was back to Missoula to get ready for the Missoula Half Marathon. We stopped off in Bozeman to get some Bobcat gear on the way back.

My friend Jenny drove up from Utah to run the race with me. It was fun and the community was very supportive of the runners. Here are some shots from race day.

The next day it was back home so Aaron could get geared up for a project he has going at Detroit Lake, OR.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

Isn't it annoying when the person with the mic can't stop checking it? Anyway, here is my 1st (test) post.