Hello Mr. Grizzly Bear

It's a long story so bear with me (heehee) ;)

We did a long 13 or so mile hike one day. Around mile 8-10 we came across this very minimalistic chalet people have to hike to and can stay overnight. A couple of people told us they saw a large male grizzly on one trail we were going to be taking but that he was far away. We continued on and passed two guys who said they saw the bear about a mile back but also said he was super far away. Jason was kind of excited to be able to take a picture of this bear. Well a mile came and went and there was no bear. Figured he had moved out of sight or something. At this point we are only 2-3 miles from being done with the hike and aren’t even thinking about bears anymore.

I was walking in front and as we turned a bend the bear was RIGHT there about 10 feet from us. Too close to walk by and too close to just back up. We were talking but apparently weren’t being very loud. I reacted and clapped really loud. All the rangers told us to yell or clap when going around blind corners to not surprise a bear but I’m not too sure you’re actually supposed to clap AT the bear :) The grizzly stood up on his hind legs, pretty big, and then ran away. When he first ran he went into a bush and you couldn’t tell if he was coming at us or away. That was a fun second ;) We walked pretty fast the rest of the way down! It was just the rejuvenation I needed to finish the long hike!

Ironically, this was the only day we forgot to bring our bear spray. We did a hike at the beginning of our trip where we were completely isolated, not a single person out there and the trail was overgrown at parts. We saw multiple signs of a grizzly bear then and I was actually more nervous on that hike when we had the bear spray and didn’t even see the bear then when we actually ran into one! Jason took a picture when we were far away from the bear. Unfortunately, you can’t see just how large he was!

Besides all the fun bear stuff it was such an amazing trip! I’ll make Jason blog more about the trip later but it was beyond words!!!!

Things I learned on our trip…

1. Six tenths of a mile can be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.

2. I have a love/hate relationship with facebook. I didn’t check it while on our trip and loved it, but when I’m home I can’t seem to stay away.

3. My goal is to never allow Kate to watch MTV.

4. Kate will also be ending her semi dance career by the ripe age of 5. Have you seen Dance Moms???? Who are these people?!

5. EVERYTHING is more fun with someone you LOVE

6. If a bear was to charge me I could stand my guard without freaking out. In this situation I also have the fight not flight reaction (maybe too much actually).

7. It’s more fun to turn the TV off and listen to the creek out on your balcony.

8. No camera or lens can fully capture what the human eye can see.

9. The air out West really is cleaner and easier to breathe without all the humidity and smog.

10. I love hiking and being in nature but I also love seeing the buildings of downtown Atlanta. It just makes me happy.

11. You can do almost ANYTHING when you finally have some hours in the day where you don’t feel like death.

12. My life would be complete if I had someone to cook 3 real meals for me each day. I also am happiest when I eat an outrageously ginormous breakfast everyday.

13. It’s nice having someone who completely loves you

The day I climbed out a 2nd story window

This happened awhile ago but I need to record it because it’s definitely an event worth remembering! Kate went through a stage a long time ago of locking her door and closing it. Sometimes with her in the room or not. She just liked pushing the little button. It got annoying always finding a wire hanger, ruining it and unlocking the door. I finally turned the knob around so she couldn’t do it anymore. In hindsight it would have been smarter just to take the door handle off…

One early morning, Kate, Abby, and I were playing in Kate’s room. All of a sudden I heard Kate slam her door and then giggle. I just KNEW what happened. Sure enough we were locked in. I searched her room but apparently a 2 year old didn’t have too many tools or sharp objects in her room. We were stuck, with no phone! Now this was about 9AM and Jason was getting home from work around 6PM if not later that week. Problem! If it had been later I could have waited it out, but Abby was just a baby who wouldn’t understand and both girls would have been starving.

There isn’t a home behind us and our neighbors on the side can’t see the back of our house so I couldn’t yell for help or anything. Since I had to do something there was no point in waiting around. I took Kate’s sheets off her bed and tied one end to the wood slats under her mattress. I don’t know any special knots so I just put some weight on the mattress and tugged really hard to see if it would hold. Seemed okay. Apparently it’s hard to tie sheets together so I took the rope like material from a bag she had to tie the fitted sheet to the top sheet. I had baggy pajama pants on and was afraid they would get caught on something so I took them off. (I was definitely a sight to see and so glad no one saw)!

I threw the sheets out the window while threatening Kate to almost tears to stay away from the window and help keep Abby away. My biggest fear was she’d lean out to watch me and fall. It was kinda hard swinging that second leg over the windowsill. My shirt, of course, got stuck on the nail where the screen went. I learned at that moment that I can support my entire body weight with one hand as I reached up to free my shirt. I shimmed down, ran in the back door, upstairs, and freed the girls.

That was a fun morning

PS. I worked up the nerve to do this by saying it’s just like repelling. Um, yeah except for the part that I had no harness and would have to actually support my body weight and hold on. Didn’t quite make that realization ‘till I swung both legs over…

A Child’s Prayer

I love when Kate says the prayer and each time is cuter than the last. Here’s an example from her prayer yesterday:

“Bless we have a good day, Mommy feel better, Daddy be okay because I want him to be okay (she asks for Daddy to be okay EVERY time and we have no idea why :)) so I can go camping with him and my backpack, Jesus Christ, oh and bless the food, we can go to Grandma’s later and we can play and have fun, and Abby can go… Jesus Christ, AMEN.”

Abby participates by folding her arms when we tell her it’s time to pray. I love my girls!

Fourth Fun

Our weekend started with the pancake breakfast bright and early at church. They had balloons and the kids could make rockets then watch them be shot up into the sky. Kate’s exploded but since Jason made it he takes all the blame!

My Dad and I ran the Peachtree Road Race for his 19th time and my 9th year running. It was so much hotter this year than the past couple of years! Which made it harder, plus I’m out of shape due to it being so hot and being sick forever. Even though it was harder this year, we did it and it was still a lot of fun! I’ve really come to enjoy this tradition and want to continue running in the race. Jason, my Mom, and the girls went to the parade where they had a blast. In a year or two Kate will be old enough to decorate her own bike and ride in it for a little while. She’s growing up so fast!

We planned to watch fireworks at St. Ives that night, but heard they weren’t going off until around 9:30, which is pretty late for our kids. Instead, we went to our friends and did our own homemade firework show in the rain. It was so much fun! We drove to a parking lot, laid the seats in our car down, opened the trunk (which kept the rain off of us) and watched the guys try not to kill themselves :)

Abby’s very serious about her patriotism

It was a pretty great weekend. Kate loved all the treats she got and being able to hold sprinklers. The rain didn’t even faze her.

Mother’s Day

We had to push Mother’s Day back a weekend since Jason was in AL helping with the tornado cleanup on the actual weekend. He told me later that he was the only guy with kids who stayed through Sunday and was feeling kind of bad about staying. I had no problem with him staying the entire weekend. First, really, I’m going to complain about him helping people who lost EVERYTHING?! Second, if he had come back then I would have only gotten one day instead of a whole weekend! I’m not selfish at all ;)
We continued our tradition of going to Helen, eating lunch, playing on the playground, and getting lots of chocolate and fudge to eat.

Girls playing in the morning. They really love each other and I love watching them together.

Kate loved feeding the bears. I know I’ve said this before but this place is kinda awful. I’m a hypocrite because I go, but it can not be a healthy environment for the bear. The kids just love it though…

Haha, they’re always making us laugh!

Had a little trouble getting a mother/daughter picture but I like these.

It was a great day/weekend!

Temple

We went as a family to the Atlanta temple open house. The temple was built in 1983 but just underwent major renovations. Jason remembers going when he was only 4, especially having to put the booties on :) I’m so glad our girls were able to walk through, hopefully Kate will remember it a little.