Aug. 3- Harry Potter Swim Meet

 

Aug. 2- Peppermill Relaxation

A long, long, time ago I had many reasons to take back a gift. None of them were good reasons. When you get a gift, you should just appreciate it and accept it. Lesson learned.

Many years later, fast forward to August 2, and we finally get that gift together. Late, yes. But we're lucky to have the patience and love to get us there. It was such a lovely afternoon together. We had wonky massages that messed up both of our necks, but the time in the pools and sauna and cold plunge were so relaxing.

Dinner had some bad news that upset me. But we're learning how to really communicate and try to listen and hear each other. It's taking a lot of work and a lot of effort, but I'm proud of us for trying.

 

August 1- Mt. Whitney

Mt. Whitney is a life changing mountain. I was hoping this time around I could find some answers. All I could think about was my husband. How much I wanted to fight for our marriage. Looking back, I just feel tired though and wonder if it's worth the fight and effort and pain.

I went with my friend from the gym, Shauna. She was the perfect hiking companion. We made great time up the first few miles in the dark. We started at 2AM. (I think?) The sun rose and we started to notice just how much snow there was. We had a couple snow crossings where we took it slow and got lost off the path on the first campground. Thank goodness Shauna had downloaded the trail, it saved us A LOT OF TIME off the path, which is so easy to lose!!

Once we got to the 2nd camp, that's where the real "fun" started. My philosophy going into this was if I didn't feel comfortable, I stop and am done. Well, not only did I not feel comfortable, I had no choice to go back down. We followed a person up the chute and that was a mistake. There wasn't enough snow to trudge up safely so it ended up being a very dangerous scramble. Very dangerous. I thought I would die and prayed the entire time. We should have taken the switchbacks but I digress and will get to that shortly.

Once we were past the chute, we had about 3 miles to summit. Those miles are long and never ending. Of course there was more snow and we had to do more scramble, but we were at least past the hard part, or so we thought. The mountain had perfect weather and once we were on top, we enjoyed a short lunch and started the descent. We were off the summit by 12:00 noon and I was so glad! We had talked with quite a few people and they were still on their way up. I knew it would be dangerous so I was glad we had made it and were leaving. There was a family with small children. I couldn't believe it. The conditions were so very bad.

On the way down we hit the switchbacks. THEY WERE COVERED IN SNOW!!! It was so bad. I didn't have crampons because they don't rent them if you have trail runners. I have no qualms now with buying an ice axe. It was so bad and so very dangerous. I truly wanted to live. I was so worried I wouldn't get home to my family. The cellular service was so spotty. On the way down Shauna's knee started to hurt really bad. She was limping the entire time down and was in tears. We didn't end up getting off the mountain until Midnight.

Needless to say we were exhausted, we tried driving but I knew it wasn't safe. We stopped in Bishop and slept a few hours before heading home. It was quite the climb. No injuries for me. Lots of time to think about life and what's important. Felt God with me the whole time.