3 amazing things right now

3 amazing things:

1- It's still summer, hot hot yummy summer

2- We adopted our puppy today! We're a family of 3 now! I can't wait to pick him up on Monday! I can't seem to talk about our puppy with exclamation marks!! Because PUPPY!!!!

3- We camped at the North Cascades last weekend. Just like we did last year and I'm sure will do every year for as long as we live in Washington State. Which makes me think I might never want to leave WA, ever.

Here a few shots from our whirlwind trip.

Not pictured: What we look like after a 14 mile hike, what we look like after driving 6 hours in an Aircon-less car across a desert, what we look like right now as we try to patiently wait for Monday. Because puppy!

 

We went camping and I can't find a good blog title for it...

Oh camping/outdoor/fresh air/long summer days! I thought you'd never get here, and here you are. (Sort of, today is cold, but generally you're here)

This last weekend was a 'trial run'. We only spent the Saturday camping and it helped us remember:

- that sleeping on the ground is in fact, still hard.
- to pack: tongs, paper towels, more cookies
- that yes! We still love it!
- we can't believe we get to live this close to this kind of awesomeness. I love you Northwest America.

That road trip and other thoughts

Reflecting on;

Just how different things are going to be for a while.
a Short while or a long time, both scare me equally.

The past week's road trip through the Olympic peninsula...
The long drives,
and long conversations,
big evergreen trees,
the gift of beach side campsite in high season,
washed up logs and dead crabs,
watching the moon set over the ocean for the first time in my life,
that thunderstorm,
wondering how everybody got to the other good campsite before us,
the 'check engine light',
how much we ended up talking about twilight,
tsunami escape route signs,
the scariest bunny encounter ever,
camp food,
West Coast sunsets,
how to be present,

Trying to cultivate the kind of life that doesn't live for one adventure to the next, planning road trips and counting off days to the next travel date. This is hard, and I'm not sure I'm getting it just right, but I want to. Don't let me miss the wonder of even ordinary days.

For now these iphone vscocam photos, I'll share some more soon.

Camping and marriage

You know, a pleasant surprise? Like buying a second hand book and finding someone left a 20 dollar note inside, a forgotten bookmark maybe. Paying for economy, getting the bump up to business class. Waking up and it's a Saturday not a work day. Buying one and getting a whole other one for free, unexpectedly!

I don't really know how this feels, but I can tell you about the most pleasant of surprises. Marrying this handsome guy, discovering how much you both love camping AFTER the wedding.
Ben and I met in Vietnam, we didn't do outdoorsy things there, we lived in South Africa together briefly, did a few more outdoorsy things but not really. Spent a year in a long distance engagement, so, as you can imagine, not much outdoors action going on there.
Till we get married, we survive the wild Northwestern never ending winter, finding a passionate love for being outside, being outside together, and more recently camping.
Ben didn't know marrying me that I'd happily deal with sleeping on the ground, brave outhouses, smell like mosquito repellant and miss a shower here and there for the pure joy of camping. We freaking love it!


A most happy surprise we have been to each other.

This is us camping rustic style in Big Meadow Lake over the weekend.

How cool are our orange chairs? Ben won them in an office draw a day before our camping trip. So bright and kind of tacky, I love them!