Red Pine Trail

On Monday/Tuesday we went with our friends Rob and Jill Tobler on a short hiking trip into the mountains. It was awesome. It was about a 3.5 mile hike with the last 2 miles of it straight up the mountain!

Lugging our 40lb backpacks up it made things a little bit more tricky but it was worth it once we reached the top, as there was a beautiful lake we got to enjoy. It was such a relief to take off the packs and set up the tents. Dinner consisted of tin foil dinners, grilled corn, roasted cinnamon apples, and smores! Why does food always taste better when camping? The dirt and bugs that get mashed in. It was also really cold since we were close to the timber line which also accounts for the snow that was still on the ground. Jill and Rob forgot warm clothing so Jill used a trash bag (which she says worked great) and Rob a sleeping bag. So funny. The rest of the evening was uneventful, we played a few games with some cards and then went to bed exhausted.

In the morning Jamie and I hiked up the side of the mountain to see if we could reach the crest of the mountain and see the sun. Lets just say that there was always another mountain in the way. Jamie even scaled up further than Michelle, but still nothing. Oh well. It was a fun jaunt. Jamie is the very small figure in the center of the picture towards the top.

After a breakfast of oatmeal we packed up our tents and went home. We thought the trail would never end, but finally it did.

Michelle's favorite part was being outside where everything was beautiful and the air was clean and smelled great! Jamie's favorite part was eating and the company. Yeah for the beauty of the earth and for us documenting our life.

Let Freedom Ring

Both Jamie and I are huge fans of the 4th of July. We enjoy the feelings of patriotism, lighting fireworks, and having family nearby. Jamie even likes the 4th so much that he makes his food into American flags so that he can eat it and be one with the holiday.

This 4th of July we have had so much fun doing a lot of different things. We started out by waking up at 6:30am on Friday to watch the Balloon festival. They started filling up the balloons a few blocks north of our apartment so we just walked up to witness this fun event. It was worth it.This event is actually a competition among the pilots of the hot air balloons. Their goal is to swing over a large x on the ground and see who can get bean bags the closest to it. The guy above got pretty close on his second try.

It was such a beautiful morning.

We thought the pig balloon was awesome. There was also a Smokey the Bear balloon but we didn't get any good pictures of it.

Jamie and I also woke up about 6:40am on July 4th to participate in the Freedom Run. Jamie ran a 10K and I ran the 5K. It was really fun. I saw some guy dressed up like Captain America (the full costume with muscles) and some guy dressed like Uncle Sam on stilts (and yes he did run in the race). It was a great way to start the day. After we cleaned up a bit we went to watch the parade. We arrived a little late but we were still able to find spots next to Bryce and Lisa. Sophie was so excited about the whole thing.

We ended the day with a family BBQ (both with some of Michelle's family and some of Jamie's family), a small display of fireworks for Sophie and Travis (courtesy of Jamie), and then watching the 'Stadium of Fire' fireworks. The fireworks couldn't compare to Bostons but there were some awesome loud ones (which are Michelle's favorites) and since we were right underneath them in a parking lot next to the stadium we could feel the shock waves as we watched the fireworks light the sky!! It was awesome. We love the 4th of July. It is such a wonderful holiday. Hopefully you all enjoyed it as much as we did.