We are both excited for our thanksgiving break! Well deserved. We spent this weekend in San Diego and LA visiting our families and friends. It was great to see everyone even if it was very short. Lots of eating and a few good (warm) hikes. Tomorrow we will be putting calories in the bank by running a 10k prior to dinner!
Labor Day found us climbing Mt St Helens with a group made up of Linfield faculty, students and a couple of Janet's newly minted EMT friends.
Janet decided to add a few more letters after her name by taking an EMT-B/Wilderness EMT class this summer. The course took place at beautiful Snoqualmie Pass in the Washington Cascades. This required me to endure for one month (28 days to be exact) dorm style lodging with an eclectic group of students. Among the oldest in the group and being a light sleeper, I chose to sleep most nights in my truck!!!! I completed the course, passed my practicals and board exams and am now a certified EMT-B, WEMT, and MPIC! I am planning on volunteering my medical services to the local community as well as for different sporting events. I am hoping to go to Antarctica a
s a medic... we'll see if that happens! On one of the weekends of the course, I took off to climb Curtis Gilbert, a 8000 foot peak in the Goat Rock Mountains. We did not summit, however we had a fabulous climbing experience- with route finding in the snow! Jay came up and visited for the last weekend of the course. We did a day hike on the PCT South from Snoqualmie Pass. This is certainly a beautiful area of the world!
Janet also ran the Hood-to-Coast last weekend. This entailed a team of 12 runners to run 197 miles from Mount Hood to Seaside o
n the Oregon Coast. Each runner runs three 4-7 mile legs of varying difficulties. What an amazing experience. The logistics, the vans, the traffic, the fun and most of all the group! Jay met me out at Seaside- he was our teams 3rd volunteer and got to play security for a couple of hours. Jay and I will both be running the HTC next year. Want to join us?
Jay has become quite the fisherman- kayak fisherman to be exact. He has brought home several Salmon keeping Mom very happy. His latest adventure took him to Nehalem Bay outside of Tilamook where he landed a 30 some incher (28lbs???) Chinook Salmon. The catch was a thrill as the fish took Jay for a good ride in his Kayak! Plenty of Salmon dinners when you visit!
Hazel has been working madly in the garden. We had a short hot spell (100 degree days)- which slowed the progress in the garden- but the cooler weather has allowed mom to keep busy! Mom has been laying a flagstone path around the Jacuzzi that will eventually meander down to the Garden. Our Garden is producing more veggies than we can consume- Jay and I have been giving away huge zucchinies like crazy. 
This past week we headed out into the Three Sisters Wilderness for four days of backpacking. We headed North from the East end of Cultis lake towards Winopee lake at about 4500 feet. As we approached Winopee lake our progress was significantly slowed due to the lingering snow pack! The trail disappeared and we had to use blazes (backed with map and compass) to find our route. We camped on a high ridge above the snow- it was a very beautiful, starry night- with plenty of mosquitos (snow melt = stagnant water)! If you weren't in the tent, you were completely covered from head to toe with clothing or mosquito netting. http://www.centraloregonfavorites.com/html/oregonmap.html
We decided to head back south to lower lakes in hopes of finding less snow laden trails. We headed west around Cultis lake and stumbled upon a campground accessible only by boat or foot. The campground was completely empty- not a sole (except for the deer, squirrels and many birds)- we had the camp ground, beach and docks to ourselves- it was a little bit of heaven- with a tiny reminder that you are still on earth- mosquitos! 
Luckily, the end of the dock had a steady breeze which elimnated (for the most part) the mosquitos. We spent the time fly fishing (we caught a few rainbow trout)- relaxing and playing with Jazzy in the ice cold water. We ended up staying in our small bit of paradise for two wonderful nights. Afterwhich we hiked out and headed home to 102 degree weather! 
