Just Joy. Just blissful joy.Big smiles,.. lots of em'.(Huge, deep sigh)

I think that we might be getting better at this.;-)

Having Race at home has been so incredibly relaxing. For BOTH of us. I think that as a family, we are definitely learning how to live this life better. And that's pretty big stuff, because for the record, I don't know ANY other family who is living this way.I am sure that they are out there somewhere, but I doubt that we'll ever meet. So we are pretty much wingin' it here. And I'm feeling pretty darn great about it!

This is for Dy:
When we brought Race home,the first thing that happened was the kids ran around in breathless circles trying to grab dad's arm and pull him to their room first. They were so excited to show him their gifts, rewards, and acheivements. It was great. And even though Race was fighting unbelievable jet lag, he was patient and enthusiastic with each of the kids. Right after that we had our second Christmas. The tree was still up, we put on a little Harry Connick Jr (my choice, of course) and all gathered around and handed Race the gifts that each of us had chosen for him. It was really sweet to watch the pure joy on the face of each kid as dad opened their gift. He was moved by the generosity and thoughtfulness of his kids.

After he had been home about a week, he and I took off for our little getaway. This was PERFECT timing. Jet lag was still very much an issue, so to get away and relax, eat, and hike in the outdoors was the perfect remedy.


We could walk to dinner each night, which probably increased the general wine consumption. ANd the meals were 5 star-incredible! Each meal was beautifully presented with so many flavors in each entree that it just made your mouth happy. And all this in a resturant that had 12 tables....................and you could wear jeans. Heaven.

When we went to hike, we had a bit of trouble finding the trail head.(O.K.-scratch that- *I* had trouble. ONE of us could actually READ a topo-map) When we got to the trail head..........it was a solid sheet of ICE. The whole mountain was covered in about 3 inches of snow that had been iced over. The temp at the trail head was 34 degrees. She wasn't going to get warmer as we went up!

*As an aside, I must say that once again, RACE KNOWS GEAR. My stuff held up so well that I couldn't believe it. I wasn't ever cold. Not even once. Even my feet were warm and dry. Remind me to tell you the whole set up that I have. It REALLY makes the difference in being able to ENJOY the great outdoors.*

We decided to give it a try and just go as far as we could. Without cramp-ons and actual picks there was NO WAY that we would be able to do the scrambling, but we figured we'd go as far as we could.


We started off:

I didn't fall until I had gone at least 3 feet. Yeah. That ice? That's hard to walk on. We decided to walk to the side of the trail. Each and every step had to be planned out because you couldn't tell what was hard,crumbly snow, and what was hard as glass ICE. Up we went.

The further we went, the smaller the icy trail became, and the overlooks were becoming treacherous. We never saw another soul, and the woods were snow covered and beautiful.....and totallyserene and quiet. After going up over 2000 feet we decided to head back down. It was taking us so long to climb, that we had to start back down. We didn't want to be stuck on that icy mountain in the dark .
I was a little dissapointed that we couldn't go to the top, but I was also relieved when Race thought we'd better head back down. We had both slipped several times, and the overhangs were starting to look pretty scary.

We got back down using switch-backs, which were much softer and less treacherous. When we got to the bottom, we pulled out the sandwiches that we had gotten at the local bakery. We sat and ate and enjoyed the surroundings. We also shared our lunch with the local "trail dog" who hangs out there looking for hikers just like us. It was really just such a wonderful time. I didn't get many pictures............mostly because I was concentrating on not splatting myself face-down on the ice. But the few that I did get help to show the icy trail.

Thanks for checking back in on us. Race has Austin at Scouts tonight, so I am enjoying a little computer time!

Cheers!

Melissa