home again!!

what a wonderful vacation. it was as perfect as it could be. it was seriously almost uneventful in the bad sense of the word. we made it to the top of Long's Peak on our exact anniversary date (july 23) and were the first ones up her. it was glorious! we had rain/lightening/thunder storms almost every afternoon, but thankfully we were already set up inside our tent by that time. the backpack was wonderful, one of the best i've ever done.

we stayed in a cabin a couple of nights- glorious human comforts! i love backpacking, but deep down, i strongly dislike camping. i know, that sounds unbelievable. but i dont' really enjoy sleeping on the ground all wound up in a mummy bag, or all the dirt, or no water, or no bathrooms. i enjoyed the cabin immensely.

we met up with sam higby for a day and a half of climbing in lumpy ridge. it was so good to see sam again. we've gotten to see him more than any other friend from back home since he lives closest ( colorado is still 8-9 hours away!) climbing was fantastic- interesting rock in lumpy. it is not easy to place climbing protective gear in the rock making it very interesting to climb. we climbed a couple stellar routes however- it made me wish lumpy were closer!

we boozed up in wyoming. and some in colorado too. i have found a new joy in unfiltered wheat beers. yummmmy! by 'boozed up' i mean we bought a lot of beer, not that we drank a lot of beer. we now have enough 'real' alchohol to make it to our next trip out of state. i am a baby beer drinker- not hard core at all and i can recommend a couple beers to other younglings. Easy Street Wheat by Odell's out of fort collings, CO- ummm good. add a slice of lemon to it. also, any apricot hefiweizen (sp?) or a wit bier is good as well. there is just something very special about a beer after doing any sort of hard activity- thinking hard, climbing hard, cleaning hard, etc.

annnnd, welcome back to real life. i am once again on a night shift. it is getting harder and harder to come to work. for my own sanity and length of career i think it is wise to start considernig other options in nursing at this point. i am investigating our primary children's hospital here, just down the street from my hospital. i think it is probably a good idea to keep chaning things up so i don't become bored and tired with a current place. i htink mostly it is my schedule that detracts from my current job b/c i enjoy the traumas and people that i meet (for the most part) if onlyi could have a job that allowed me tow ork 3 12 hour DAY shifts in a week i would be so happy. unfortunately, that may be hard to find as night nurses are quite the commodity (but not enuogh of a commodity to have our hospital give real incentives to make us stay at nights...)i like to only work 3 days a week for climbing sake. sigh, i am hitting the slump a bit early tonight. 1 am. shoot. it usually comes at 2 am and at 4 am. gosh this is hard.

my sister is pregnant again. i have one nephew currently and another something (nephew or neice) due in february. i hope to make it over to ohio for the birth.

i am so happy we serve a creator who saw fit to imagine such a world for us. mountains like Long's Peak, valleys of pine trees, even the elk, the fields of corn and wheat we passed in wyoming, and the lightening storm across northern utah--jesus reminded us all over again of his love for each of us and his desire for relationship with us. we read donald miller's searching for god knows what while driving and hiking. it brought about some great conversations. it's an interesting book to be sure.

hopefully i will actually post a few pictures here some day- of zion and of rocky mtn.