home

Have I said that it's good to be back? Because it is. It really is. After (nearly) four years of marriage I would find myself referring to "home" as North Carolina-- which is totally weird when your married because 1) I haven't lived there for 10 years, 2) My husband has never lived there and 3) I have no country accent (which everyone points out when I say I'm from NC).  

But I've noticed lately that every time I reach the junction of 191 and 313 after we've been away for a while and I see the burnt red cliffs jut out from the flat desert-- my stomach starts to feel fuzzy and I turn up the radio, start singing and get really, really happy. I look ahead at the Colorado River and see the spread of green Cottonwood trees covering the little valley and I feel like I'm home. All of this melodramatic nonsense reminds me of the African American girl in Plato's Closet (NC) tellin' her friend, "gurl, you corny." I know, it's true. 

Yesterday I decided to repeat the Primitive Loop hike in Arches that I did last year 8 months pregnant. I think it was easier carrying Liesel on my back than my front albeit I was sweating like a pig and it was way hotter than I was expecting. 

And today B wanted to get out (he didn't start work till 1:30pm)-- so we went climbing at Wall Street and did the fitting Cracko-Diablo since after about 45 minutes it was as hot as Hades. 

Which meant lots of sunscreen (which Liesel graciously guarded for us). 

And then a dip in Mill Creek. Ahhh, yes. Nothing like the freezing cold mountain h2o to cool you off. 

Caveman? Scientist? Interpretive dancer? Wizard? Adorable mud-covered baby discovering sticks? Yup. 

Cheers, Moab. Let's make the next 9 months count because I'm already starting to miss you.

good grief.

Happiness is:

1. Carhartt overalls-- virtually impenetrable and they almost never need washing (and there's none of that low-rise-muffin-top baring when you wear overalls)

2. swimming outside when it's almost October

3. Eating a BLT

4. biking to the grocery store in perfect weather

5. sitting in the skychair with L and her adorable gummy smile

6. nap time

7. watching Liesel turn pages in books

8. eating lentil soup

9. post-alarm-early-morning-procrastinate-waking-up-snuggle

10. weeding 

play date

This little stud is Owen. He and Liesel bonded over their shared love for sucking on toys, eating watermelon and crawling. I've had a flood of memories come back to me after moving back-- mostly of my first few weeks home with Liesel and the delicate feeling that is being a new mom. It has been such an amazing 10 months watching her grow. 

Tale of Two Cities

Or really, tale of two very small but awesome outdoorsy towns. This is mom and I on our last hike around Jenny Lake. 

My mom came last week (after visiting my grandma nearby) and helped us pack up the cabin, clean and move out. We traded our snowy mountain peaks and fall weather for a few more months of sunshine and the red buttes of Moab. Feels good to be back (and it feels good on my back. . .thank you king size bed  for the best nights sleep I've had after months of B's knees in my back). 

Will you stay like this forever please?

Liesel is growing so much these days that I know if I don't stop and write it down, she'll be past this and on to the next stage! I feel like I find myself looking at her and saying, "man you are SO cute!" like 50 times a day. Is that normal? I'm sure it's normal. I wish I could keep her at this stage forever. 

First and foremost, she is curious about everything. She'll study the carpet, the camera, a pinecone, the straps on her carseat. . . you name it, she'll study it. She doesn't just look at it, she turns it over in her hand, rakes it, tastes it, moves it to the other hand and does it all over again. 

She has to feed herself. She doesn't want me to give it to her, and if I do she'll push it right back out again with her tongue. She likes to eat what we eat mashed up. She liked the enchiladas, but not the garbonzo/basil/bleu cheese salad (I barely liked that one). She likes all fruits, especially pears and she loves yogurt and smoothies. But who doesn't? If I'm eating something, she'll grab my hand quick as lightning to see what it is and then take her little fingers and grab some also. 

She is always moving now. Rolling, crawling, creeping and scooting around the house. She loves to look out the window and play with the curtain and she especially loves standing up, but hasn't learned how to pull herself in that position yet. I love putting things on her head (aunt Jemima? Pirate? Cowboy? Bloomers?). She loves bath time and will obsessively turn the light off. I'll turn if back on, and she'll reach behind her and turn it right off again, then go back to playing with her duck. This happens about 20 times during bath time. 

I'm not kidding when I say she loves being outside. She really does. If she's upset and I bring her outside, she stops. If she's been inside too much, she lets me know. She loves sitting in the Chariot and looking out the side window while I jog or bike. She really likes her backpack carrier when I'm hiking (as long as I don't do more than 5 hours) and doesn't mind the feel of grass, sand, dirt or stones. 

She's still really into the nose scrunch face and after letting her cry it out for a couple nights at my parents house, she is finally sleeping through the night. She looks like a little angel when she sleeps and I usually find her in the strangest positions. She' s still a fairly light sleeper and if I go in and look at her, 9 times out of 10 she'll wake up. 

She loves Brian. If he's home, she's usually in a great mood. And she has a death grip. She likes it when I hide, make her clap her hands, dance with her on my hip and sing. She doesn't seem afraid of anything yet. And lastly, she's going to be amazing at hand jams. She still keeps her thumb tucked (like making a four) when reaching for just about everything. We figure she's almost ready for the Creek again. . . and so are we.

I would bike 6,000 miles

Meet B-rad and Mary. 

They started biking in Maine in May. They showed up at my house by bike. These two are some of the most likable people on the planet. We've spent some quality time together; I narrowly missed barfing in their car due to dryer-sheet induced pregnancy sickness (I barfed in mine instead), spent my first trip to Indian Creek with Mary and Brian (and Mary put my fears to rest when I was worried Brian liked another girl), spent every waking hour with her for 6-weeks on Spring Summit, cleaned apartments at BYU with her and spent her bachelorette party biking the White Rim. We're going to be friends for life.

Their home-sweet-home outside our home-sweet-home.

We had a mini college reunion with Kori, Sven, Brenna, Brad and Mary. 

Everyone is slowly pairing up and getting married. . . now if we could only convince them to have kids!

This tan line is totally for real. I guess this is what happens if you bike 6,000 miles? They just finished their trip in SLC, Utah and are moving up to Alaska for who knows how long (*sigh). 

For Brian's birthday we made pizzas on the grill. A new love. We repeated it for these guys along with chocolate chip cookies and we could all barely move afterward.

PS: Brian's on the Saddle for the night. It's raining. Liesel's asleep. It feels like fall. A wolf was staring me down across the creek on my hike today. I'm staying inside tonight.  I had a plain hotdog and peas for dinner (about-to-move-use-up-the-food dinner). Yes, the title of this blog is a shout-out to that stellar song by the Proclaimers.

The Season's Last Hoorah

The hike up took probably twice as long since I couldn't stop gorging on these babies-- wild ripe huckleberries. They were the biggest I've ever seen! I ate so many I wasn't even hungry for lunch. 

The day after I got back from NC (and after sleeping for 12 hours-- did I mention Liesel finally started sleeping through the night?), I decided to join Brian for his patrol up South Fork of Cascade Canyon and then down Avalanche Canyon. I had never been in either of these areas, but had always wanted to explore them. The length of the hike (20 miles total) made it too long for one day+baby and Avalanche Canyon is a little more confusing (not a marked or maintained trail) for me to do alone. 

The hike up was amazing. I saw two huge moose (check out the rack on the bull in the photo), ate tons of berries and Liesel was the typical celebrity-- smiling and flirting with everyone we passed. And in true Teton fashion-- the trail was both longer and steeper than I was expecting. I should note that Liesel has learned to stand up on the hip straps of my pack and grab my hair. I kept laughing while saying "no!" so I don't think she got the message. 

We met Brian at the cache and Liesel got to hang out with daddy (or should I say daddy got to hang with Liesel) for the first time in two weeks! 

I'm not gonna say it. Okay, I have to say it. The wildflowers were AMAZING. 

Even more amazing is how adorable this little girl is. Holy cow, how do you choose just one of these photos? 

Liesel was up at 5:45am rolling around the tent, talking and playing with zippers. 

No oatmeal for us. Brian cooked up eggs, sausage, string cheese and toast. I love waking up in the mountains with the sun shooting through the peaks and onto the valley floor. It makes you feel alive.  Which is good, since eating an entire package of sausage in less than 14 hours makes you feel like you're going to have a heart attack.

My bruised hips were in need of a break and since hardly anyone hikes up Avalanche divide and into the canyon, Brian hauled Liesel for the day. That is the Grand and Middle Tetons in the photo-- we're on the back side (or west side) of the mountains. 

Us at Snowdrift Lake with The Wall behind us. 

On top of the divide with Kit and Snowdrift Lakes behind me. The trail ends here on the divide, so you just pick your route for the next 5 miles until you connect with a social trail further down canyon. Mt. Whister and Veiled peaks are behind me.

Shoshoko Falls bellow Taminah Lake. 

More moose. So many moose. 

Our only break was right here. A quick socks off, shoes off, shirts off and cool off. Then the last 5 mile slog through (and over) the trees. One of the most beautiful backpacks I've ever been on. Here's to you, Tetons, for another amazing season. Just 10 days left! 

me, my sisters and the Atlantic

Emily (33), Sarah (38), Catherine (30), Lindsey (25) and Me (28)

I'm 70% a mountain-western states-open spaces-girl, but I still need to satisfy that 30% beach-salty-ocean-sand-waves-sunshine side at least every few years. And I have to say that my most favorite place to vacation is the beaches of NC. The water is warm enough to swim in, the sand dunes are beautiful, the houses quaint and the horizon is skyscraper-free.  I mean, even the expert (sarcasm noted) novelist Nicholas Sparks uses the NC beaches in all of his novels. A few years ago my sisters and I (minus Em) had such an awesome time backpacking for a sisters only weekend (I do love my bros Ryan and Kevin-- but sometimes we ladies can be exclusive) that we decided to repeat it on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 

The surf was incredibly powerful-- if you didn't fight it, you'd be a 1/4 mile down the beach in 2 minutes-- and the waves would pummel you. But I almost like that better. Hurricane Irene didn't do much inland (we live 2.5 hours west of the coast), but I think the sea was still feelin' it. 

Liesel LOVED the ocean. She loved the sand, she loved the salty water, she loved the waves and she loved all of it in her mouth. 

Me and Em trying to get Liesel to sleep in her tent. It proved completely ineffective. 

All NC hotdogs must have chili and coleslaw. It's a condiment like ketchup-- even at the gas stations. 

I feel like I should offer a tribute to my mom who stayed home with 2 toddlers and an infant for the entire day so we could all go together. I'm already looking forward to 2013 when I'll be back for the Hatch reunion at Ocean Isle.