Forked Lake, Adirondacks

Hannah and I went on a 4-day camping trip to enjoy the summertime and to celebrate the completion of my board exam. We've been wanting to go to the Adirondacks since we moved here, and someone recommended Forked Lake (said "fork-ed," similar to "crooked"). The drive was about 5 hours, and it was well worth it. Hannah had selected a secluded campsite; the only way to get there was by canoe.

Here we are loading the canoe. We had some rain, but we never got soaked through; our stuff stayed dry for the most part.

Hannah and I both improved our rowing/paddling skills. Our first trip to the campsite took about 45 minutes, but by the last day, we did it in 25 minutes.

Here's a view of our campsite.

In this close-up you can see our bear box and the "facilities."

Before we had the canoe unloaded, Hannah had her new hamock up and running. She was really excited about it. We both enjoyed reading and relaxing in the hamock.

This is one of the hikes we went on; these are called "Buttermilk Falls."

I had a lot of chopping to get out of my system after being stuck in class all year.

We hiked the tallest peak in the region, "Blue Mountain." It was a steep hike, with lots of slick rock like this.

At the peak, they had this tower so you could get above the trees and take in the view.

Here is one of the many lakes you can see from the top of the tower.
Here we are in the tower.

As I mentioned before, our campsite was very secluded. One day I decided to take a bath in the lake. Hannah stood on our dock to hold my towel and soap. After about 2 minutes of being in the water, I felt a sharp bite in an unmentionable spot and jumped out of the water. We're pretty sure it was the small fish that hung out around the dock. We saw them come up when we rinsed our dishes--they were there for the food. At one point they also nibbled my toes and my fingers. We were really surprized at how tame they were. I hit a few with a stick, but I wasn't able to catch them with my hands. They were some mean fish!

Lastly, this is one of Hannah's magic tricks. It may look like she doesn't have any legs, but actually she's just snuggled into a tiny ball. Thanks Hannah for planning such a fun trip!

Off to the Strawberry Patch

Aren't they beautiful?





This is as many as we though we could use before they went bad.





We've been eating them on granola, in yogurt, on cake, in a tall glass of ice water, dipped in chocolate, and I have plans for a shortcake here pretty soon. Also got some sweet peas at this same farm, very tasty. If you want to go just give me a call, I want to go back again soon.

Our Latest Projects

Syd and I bought this little guy at the Farmers Market and Brad put him in the ground. We named him Jeff-tree and he is doing great. Brad had been wanting to plant a bush in our yard and I kept reminding him that we rent an apartment and we are not in charge of the landscaping. But, he was pretty determined. (Don't tell the landlord) So far it has been just sitting there soaking up the few rays that come its way.


I made this bag with Camberly last week. Hers are very much cuter (cause she didn't try to do a zipper). But it was fun and I will have to try again and follow the pattern this time.

A project that we have been working on for a while is food storage. I just want to get my 3 month supply for now. We got this cute shelf at the scout auction (we bid each other higher without knowing it) . Then I sanctioned it for food storage instead of books and it works great. I still have a ways to go but at least it's pretty full.

Talbots gave us a shoot of their plant last year. Now we have a full grown pot. I love it and it is so easy to care for. We forget to water it for weeks and it does fine! We started another one; you can see it's vines on top of the food storage.


Last, we needed some more color in our room. This is my first floral arrangement made from silk flowers. Brad helped pick them out. I think it turned out great, except it is a little tall for where I wanted to put it. I might cut them down a bit. Oh, and sadly I didn't realize that there was wire in the stems and was therefor trying to cut them with our best scissors which stripped a section right in the middle of them. They matched our kitchen knives so now I guess I have to find some new ones.


Holly cow! These guys are expensive too, we got everything at least half off but it was still about $15 for this little arrangement(we already had the vase).

Journal stuff that I wanted to share

I was reading a good book yesterday. I had to read fast because naps are only about 2.5 hours and I wanted to finish the book. I got pretty close, but Ty woke up and it was back to child rearing. I hope his parents don't mind me sharing a few things I have learned over the last few weeks tending their amazing boy.

But first, the book. I think it was called The Mother in Me, I found it laying around. I loved the story towards the end. There were two sisters, one had three rowdy kids, including a new born, the other had tried for kids but had none yet. They were visiting when the mom opened up and talked about how she just needed to get groceries but she couldn't imagine taking the now three kids to the store. The sister is trying to be understanding and offers to stay and tend them for her. The mom then says
"I can't leave the baby, she will be hungry and I haven't pumped "
"then take her, I'll stay with the others"
"no, it's OK, I just wanted to complain a little about how trapped I feel"

They then talked about how they both envied the others life. They realized there wasn't much they could do about it and they said their good byes and the sister left the mom and her crying baby. After thinking about what she could do, she decided to go shopping!! She spent the day out trying on clothes, trying the free samples in the grocery store, picking out fresh produce and taking her time about it.

At first I was so shocked, but then she explains how she was thinking of her sister the whole time and hoped that she would love her kids and live it up for her. What a touching story for me! I realized that I do love my life.

I love sleeping all night uninterrupted.
I love heading to the mall for the afternoon, even if just to window shop.
I love reading a good book all day.
I love that I only sweep the kitchen every few months whether it needs it or not.
I love that I can leave my stuff laying around and no one bothers it.
I love that Brad and I can take off and see a movie or head to the beach anytime.
I love coming home to a lazy Sunday afternoon of naps and treats and visiting friends.
there are more, lots more...

I don't mean to make anyone feel bad. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am thoroughly enjoying our child free home, so you better be enjoying your kids and snugly babies for me!
Every time you get to take your kids to grandmas, or show off your cute baby to your mother-in-law. Every time they tell you they love you! Even every time they cry and you are the only one who can sooth them, just love it and think of those who don't have that experience.

Anyway, back to child rearing. After day after day of hanging out with Ty, I have had my patience tested and realized that I have more than I thought. I love that Ty tells himself "no, Tyler", and even, "no mouth" when he is putting something in his mouth that he shouldn't. I wanted to scold him somtimes and instead tickled him and gave him a hug.
He is a strong kid and a wiggler and when he doesn't want a diaper on it's near impossible to get it on him, but we got along great. He is the first to give you a hug after you wrestled him to the floor to get a diaper on, or a nose wiped.

I can no longer be judgmental of cleanliness. There are some things that just go the way of all the earth when kids are involved (hence being glad I only have to sweep quarterly). When your kid throws food and bowls and sippy cups and doesn't understand that that's not OK, things get a little sticky. (imagine spaghetty all over a 5-6 foot radius, thank goodness it didn't have red sauce on it!)

I also learned that poop is just poop and it won't kill you. This paricular boy has a colostomy bag, which means he poops into a bag out of his waist. Most of the time it is clean a tidy and even easier to change than a poopy diaper, but when it leakes, it really leaks!! We had an exciting afternoon when I noticed that he smelled like poop (which he never does, thanks to the tidy bags), I knew something was wrong and gathered a few supplies (new onsie, wipes, new diaper, new bag, new jammmies). I got him down and got him undressed, and realised that we had a bigger problem than I thought. Here I was holding down a wriggly boy covered in poop and I had no idea what do to so (glad for the cell phone in my pocket) I called both dad's phone and mom's phone and no one answered!! Ty was being very patient with me, but I really had no idea what to do. I finaly just decided that it was just poop and I would deal with it the best I could. I needed some more supplies, so I left Ty with strict commands to not move and went hunting for what I thought I needed. Ty was great and we did the best we could fixing him up. Dad came home thankfully and fixed him up the right way, but I was prety impressed that I had even tried instead of bursting into tears. I guess I am not as easily grossed out as I though I was.

I was prety impressed with myself when I had made it through the day and we were still happy and healthy and we had even been outside to play. But I am happy that Mom is back! I hope she had a great vacation. I am going to clean and then read a book all afternoon, maybe even outside in the sun, I hope everyone else is enjoying their life!

Roost 2009

Yeah! Here they are, finally! I know you have all been dying to see pictures from the hiking trip and I have been really slow about posting them. Sorry there are a lot and they are all out of order.

Over all we had an amazing time, we loved being with family and being out in nature with little distractions. I love the beauty and the harsh climate; that you have to be on your toes and prepared for anything.That you are living out of only what you carry on your back. The area offers little nourishment besides water and a little fire wood. We were lucky that it was warm at night with only a little rain one morning. We have had snow there some years.

It was very dry this year. In some ways that's nice because you don't get muddy and wet through the narrows, but it made us a little worried about finding enough water.

Here is the Hyatt group, near the end of the last day. You can see that we are back up on the plateau and looking great!



You can see the canyon behind us. That little notch to the right of Brad's head (to the left of mine in this next one) is Angels Cove.


The Dirty Devil river that went on forever. Brad is really much taller then little J there, he is knee deep in mud.


Beautiful Karin braving the last drop off. You can't tell, but there is a big puddle of freezing water at the bottom of this one. Mark B. kindly helped everyone stay dry by holding them against the wall till they got around it.


Brad finally made it down this one after I went first to show him how. Just kidding, he was the brave one, I squealed like a pig the whole way down.


Ryan impresses us with his rope skills.


Again, gorgeous Karin with a smile on her face making it look easy.


Cutie Pie Luke, only 6 years old, made it down all the drops like a champ. Needed a little coaching on this one (really, who wants to lean backwards over this ledge anyway?) He out marched us all the next day.


Here's Ryan, Brad, Karin and Rachel waiting to come down





Yeah for a shade break!


And a little fat man's misery.


It was a memorable trip and I am sure none of us will forget this one. Thanks for everyone who helped in planning, especially the moms who got all our food and supplies for us even though they weren't going themselves! Love you all. Can't wait for next time!

Is it spring yet?

We had a few days off of school so of course, we had to get out of Rochester. After much (that means hours and hours of) deliberation, we finally decided to go to 1000 Islands in upstate NY. We took the scenic route along Lake Ontario and stopped at Sackets Harbor on the way. As we anticipated, nothing was open. Apparently, both of these destinations (Sackets Harbor and 1000 islands) are seasonal places and everything closes down in the winter, to open again in May. But we had fun. We did find one little cafe open where we had lunch and of course the Bed and Breakfast that we stayed at was open (we were the only guests). The water was amazing. Blue and clear with ice chunks floating down. Thankfully the sun shone on us the whole time and it was really beautiful Thursday, we didn't even wear our coats! We had lots of fun and perhaps learned a few lessons from this trip.

Lessons: Be patient with your spouse on long road trips. Don't eat too much, it can really put a damper on fun when you have a stomach ache. We don't always agree when it comes to movies but, thankfully, we are both pretty self-sacrificing.

Here is the wildlife that we saw: A pretty cool porcupine.

Here are the summer houses that were all boarded up for the winter. They had these snap-on covers over their porches, very weird.

And, of course, the sickly fox.

This is the cool Boldt Castle that we couldn't go tour because of the ice.





The frozen Harbor

The rickety docks

Freezing lookout to Boldt Castle. In the summer you can take a ferry and tour the castle, but in the winter there it too much ice, go figure?



This is Brad being artistic, notice the birds standing on the ice.

This is Hannah trying to be artistic. The ice in the water was really cool, I was trying to capture it and well... here you go.

I Would Die For That and an update

Loved this song! Want to share it with everyone.

I guess I could give you all an update on how we are doing as well.

We continue to brave the Rochester winter every time we step out the door. Even when it's sunny it's freezing cold out. Some new boots have made it a little more doable this year. Brad is doing the school thing as usual. He is also doing a lot with the Elders quorum and helps out so many people in the ward. We find ourselves giving rides to people every week and meetings every Sunday and we each have quite a heavy home/visiting teaching list. We are thankful everyday that we are able to help others and are not on the receiving end.

Brad is in charge of the community service for a club at school. They just fed dinner to 50 people in the Ronald McDonald house. It was fun and I got to help out. If anyone has a chance to volunteer there it can be a very special experience. For those of you who don't know what it is, the house is run completely by donations and volunteers (there are 4-5 payed workers there). It is just south of Strong Hospital and houses families who have children receiving care at the hospital. The families are usually from northern NY but live far enough away that the commute is terrible. They can stay there for a day or a few months depending on their needs. It has about twenty bedrooms and is very cozy inside. They have dinner provided by someone in the community almost every night! Anyways, very cool place and a great idea.

I had a friend from Utah stay a few days and that was very fun. We got to catch up on High School friends and she has all the goods on people that I haven't seen in years. So yes, we sat around and gossiped, it was great. She was auditioning for the masters program on the Viola, I think she is a beautiful and talented girl (and I don't even think she reads this blog). She was a great guest. I only managed to get lost twice while driving her around downtown.

I have been baking a lot. I made more sourdough bread and cookies and banana bread. We are now out of eggs and butter and I better stop trying to bake without them. I have also been reading a lot. I just finished The Grapes of Wrath. I know that there are supposed to be lots of symbolic images in it but I just liked the story. Brad asked me if Noah had gone down the river in his "ark" yet and I said,
"no, silly, he just walked away down the river because he liked the water so much..." and then I finally got that it was "Noah" and he was going down the "river". Yeah, I just liked the story.

I guess we are still thinking about adoption. We would love to have a baby but we are not sure if now is the right time.

For now I guess we will just keep on digging.

First Booty Bag!

This might look like Sydney's ghetto booty. But it's a fabulous bag! I loved making it, though it looks better from far away.






Just thought I would post pictures for anyone I told about this project. Enjoy!

Coldest Winter In 4 years?

I heard it said that Rochester is having it's coldest winter in 4 years. I don't know if it's true, but after waking up to single digit temps all week and watching the window grow to this...

(The picture really doesn't do it justice but the ice is about 1/2 inch think) And later to this...

I am tempted to agree.
Pretty cool huh.

We love The Band

The annual band reunion was a blast. Thanks so much Carly and Jeff for hosting it. It is so good to see all of you and make sure everyone is doing all right. Hope you all have a great year! Hope we see you all next Christmas.