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Nie Nie

I might have a problem. I enjoy reading other people’s blogs. I mean, I really enjoy it. It started when I found myself following comics and the need I had to check in on my ‘friends’  daily. Then the whole world of blogging happened. We started ours when we went to Australia, but didn’t stick with it when we came back. Our friend Wren started his and he’s linked to a bunch of other people we know and care about. This summer I found myself following along with different bloggers at a wedding web site and I even borrowed some great ideas from some of them.

I follow blogs of people that I actually know, and a few that I wish I knew. I recently found myself more invested as a reader than I had been in a long time. In the New York Times there was an article about a woman named Stephanie Neilson and her family.

It is a story that brings a huge lump to my throat. An amazing story. Stephanie has been blogging since 2005 about her husband and 4 children. On August 16 of this year, the very day we got married, Stephanie and her husband, Christian, were in a plane crash. They both survived and are in recovery. Stephanie burned over 80 percent of her body and her husband (Mr. Neilson, as she lovingly referrs to him in her blog) 30 percent of his body. I know, horrible.

The part of this story that allows me past the lump in my throat is the amount of lives that Stephanie touched while blogging and how many people (world wide!) that want to help out. Of course Stephanie can no longer blog;however, her sister often writes of the children and how Stephanie and Christian are doing. Problem or not, blogging in a strange way makes me feel connected….

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Mount Dickerman

View from atop Mt. Dickerson

The honeymoon is officially over. How long can you really wait before claiming that? At any rate, Hannah and I came back from hiking around Mt. Ranier last Wednesday and decided to go our separate ways for the weekend. Hannah went up the Anacortes to get Sydney and I attended Mischa’s Annual Guys Hike. I think this was the 12th Annual Event which started as a bachelor party when he got married. I can’t remember when I was first invited to attend (version 7 or 8 I believe), but they’re always memorable. Mostly because the group of guys are always great to be around and the hike never fails to be some sort of crazy scramble to the top of a mountain. Past hikes have involved walking across snowfields and climbing up tree roots in what seemed like a nearly vertical ascent.

This year’s version didn’t disappoint. Mischa decided Mt. Dickerson outside of Granite Falls would be our target (sorry I couldn’t find an actual map of the trail). It was a little over 4 miles each way and ended up being about 3000 ft in elevation gain (really tempting to make the uphill both ways joke here). Let’s just say going down was faster than going up, but the views from the top were amazing. To the north was Mt. Baker, west the Puget Sound, and south Mt. Ranier. We were able to camp in a meadow just below the summit, so we got a great view of both the sunset and sunrise. As an added bonus there were a couple black bears in the neighboring valley that we could see from the summit. They’re agile climbers indeed and I enjoyed watching them climb the cliffs in search of food and shelter for the night.

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Impromptu Dinner

Yesterday Kara called and said that Brian Ashbach dropped off four fresh, clean crabs at the library where she works.  He had just caught them off of Guemes Island! In all my life nobody has ever dropped of crab at my job….ever.  Maybe I’m in the wrong field of work. 

When Kara offered to bring it over to eat I found myself almost saying no. I know, what was I thinking? Once I got my head on straight I invited Chaya and Jeff over as well. Such fun.  The best part (besides the crab, obviously) was that we got to play CRANIUM!!!  I bought the new version last October and last night was the first night people were willing to play. I was not let down.

Sydney came back from Camp Janet and was working hard to make sure she was on somebody’s lap. Apparently, her bed two feet away was too far away from the action. Kara was sweet and held her for a long time.

Thanks Kara for sharing the delicious crab!