Recent Trip to Camp Muir

Stuart and I decided to head up to camp Muir in the middle of the night. We began our hike at about 1 am and made it to Muir by about 6:30. We crested the clouds at about 4:30 just in time to see the sun hit the tops of the clouds and also to light up Mt. Adams in the distance. I did not do well on sleep deprivation...

Also, can anyone tell me why my pics don't blow up when you click them in the blog? Is there a way to do that?

Here is a shot of the moon just as we were breaking through the clouds. It was awesome!

Here is Stuart heading up the mountain in the wee hours of the morning.

Mt. Adams looked beautiful in the morning light!

I am about to head down on my skis.

Stuart was glad to have his skis on his feet instead of his back.

Panoramas above the clouds.

Easter Pictures

We took some fun pictures in the kids Easter outfits.

The kids obviously get their good looks from Mommy!

I'm not actually smiling...I'm grimmacing. He loves to pull my hair.

You would think someone would have told me my hair looked like this prior to this shot being taken. I can thank the little butterball for this hairdo.

Snow Caving

Here are some shots of Ben up snow-caving with the scouts. It was a beautiful day up there and we had a great time playing in the snow. Ben got some new snow shoes, which he wore the entire time he was up there!

Here is Ben snow-shoeing out of camp with his pack on. He packed his sleeping bag and all of his clothes. I only carried his sleeping pad. He is quite the hiker and camper for a 6 year old!

Family shots

We decided to use the new camera to try to capture some shots of the kids for a Christmas card. One indoor and one outdoor. Will didn't last long for either one so we likely won't get a family picture with him smiling until he is a little older...or happier.

Fun with the new camera...

So we decided to go ahead with the D80 purchase. Since digital cameras have made film cameras nearly obsolete we have only used point and shoot digital. I have missed having a really nice SLR for creativity and better shots, so we decided to go with the Nikon D80. So far we are super impressed but have not used to even close to the full abilities. Here are a few shots we took the day the camera arrived.

Saturday Morning Fun

So thanks to having a dog who is bred for ratting, Sam showed us that we had some rats visiting at night and hanging out in our rock wall. He has been running straight to the rock wall and sniffing like crazy. When I sprayed water in it, I saw a huge rat run into another crack of the wall. I decided to go buy a live trap so I could make sure he had that "ratter" instinct. Sure enough! Here is a pretty funny video of Sam having his way with a little rat. We're hoping to catch the bigger one soon.

Campout with Ben and the scouts

I took Ben camping with the scout troop. He turned out to be a mountain goat in training. On Saturday when we woke up we went on a 10 mile hike and Ben hiked the WHOLE 10 miles! He kept pace with the fastest scouts and kept a better pace than most scouts! He didn't complain even once (unlike the scouts) and didn't ask me to carry him at all. He is a great hiker!

Here he is eating some trail mix at mile post 4.

Here is a short video of Ben running down the trail. It was a beautiful area!