I love hiking with a bowling ball under my shirt.

Every year since I can remember my family has always had a fall camp out. We would load up the van with camping gear and head into the Appalachians of the North Carolina to see the patchwork of color spread over the rolling hills. It was also an excuse for us kids to gorge on Dinty Moore Beef Stew and homemade apple crisp. Brian and I decided to keep the tradition alive and drive up to the La Sals last weekend with Austin (B's friend from high school) and his girlfriend Mariana. It was F-U-N. B showing off his man skills and the fire where we cooked our tinfoil dinners, apple crisp and smores.


The next morning B and Austin ran around tipping over tall dead trees.

Hottie in the Aspens.

The aspens actually were really yellow and beautiful, but these photos were taken at a lower elevation and they were still kind of green. Oh well. . .

And today we hiked Courthouse wash in Arches to "the tunnel."

Meditating on the red rocks; part of my pre-labor preparation (kidding. . .)

The tunnel! It was kind of a doozy to get into this thing. Brian was cracking up just watching me.

The martyr himself. B does not love hiking; nor does he love hiking in the same park that he works in all week. This is him being a champ:

35 weeks baby!

Like a storm in the desert

It's good to be back in Moab. I love this place. The day before yesterday after bry and I got all of our errands out of the way, we went up Long Canyon to do a little hiking (for me) and climbing (for him).

In front of Maverick Buttress.

We made it up to this sweeet spot on the cliff. It was beautiful!

Brian was DYING to climb. I know he's been a "climbing ranger" all summer, but there really is nothing like desert crack. We met up with Bobby and luckily they got right on the climb because a storm was rolling in:

It was thundering and pouring rain after about 20 minutes. I'd say hearing Brian shout how much fun it was while climbing made it worth it for only one climb (although I didn't climb at all, so no worries). It was a pretty cool storm-- wind blowing up canyon, thunder and dark clouds.

Jug-handle arch and a rainbow:

The drive home is next to the Colorado River. . . pretty beautiful!

S[t]AR

So I have to brag about my man sometimes. This past weekend he went on 3 SARS in two days (luckily I was out of town visiting my sister Sarah and my Mom in Colorado Springs and not whining that I was home alone). One of them required a 300/400ft raise (shown above) to rescue a man who had been trapped for three days. I've heard from several people that he did an AWESOME job. He had the most technical rescue experience of anyone on the team and organized much of the rescue effort (helicopter, rope systems, the rescue plan, etc). I got this photo from Sharon's facebook (thanks!) and I think B is the one in the gray shirt.

I also had an amazing weekend! I drove to Colorado Springs to visit Mom and Sarah (and my nephews and niece)! I realized on my drive home how completely hopeless B and I would have been trying to shop for all that baby gear on our own. I really put those ladies to work running errands for me! We managed to squeeze in a lot of fun and chat time; hiked at Garden of the Rocks, ate out, watched a movie, talked, etc. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and didn't get photos! I am getting beyond excited. . . especially with all the baby gear piling up. Two months!