Sicky McSickers

A diagnosis! So I had an appt. with my MD on Tuesday the 15th and said I'm tired, I always have a headache, I'm coughing up green stuff, congested, rashy at times, and we know I'm profoundly anemic.....what's going on?? With all of my different symptoms and the way my chest sounded she said I community acquired pneumonia. She gave me some antibiotics and told me not to go to work for a while. I was negative for mono and lupus , so at least it's a very treatable thing. It's a blessing in disguise to know what's going on, so now I don't have to think I'm crazy for feeling so bad all the time. Every night at work I would feel crummy, but not quite enough to justify going home. I'm very excited to start feeling back to normal again! I can finally let myself slowdown and take care of this thing with no more night shifts and climbing trips for a while.

OK....so I've gotta admit I have been going a little stir-crazy at home without being able to climb or do anything active. I'm not used to it at all! Granted, I do love sleeping and I do love my down comforter, Which I took full advantage of by sleeping through the first 4 days and nights, but now that the antibiotics are kicking in (I'm on my second round), it's a struggle to make myself relax. I'm sooo used to getting out of town every week and definitely not used to being sick and laid up in bed. Makes you feel very blessed to be healthy the majority of the time!

Lost Lake R&R

So after getting back from the Sawtooths, I knew I didn't feel well, but I also knew I didn't want to spend the day cooped up at home doing laundry and watching TV. We decided to take an exploratory day trip up to Lost Lake outside of Hood River with the ground rule that only relaxation was to be had.
After a little sleep.......

A little sun...........

And a little summer picnic...........

....I think we all felt a lot better!

Oh Idaho!

Daniel and I paired up with John and Brock (Cultivator of the rare but badass handlebar mustache/mullet combination!) to climb in the Sawtooths, a land of glorious granite. The approach to the Elephant's Perch, our first destination, was not difficult.

Taking the boat leaves only about 2 miles of easy hiking on wilderness trails.
John and Daniel setting up the tents.

The Elephants perch. Our route, The Mountaineer's Route, goes up and to the left of the light colored diamond formation to the top.

Climbing

At the top!

Climbing boys will be climbing boys. A really fun day!

The next day was much different since the first. I had been feeling sick for the past month, just bad enough to feel bad, but not bad enough to totally take myself out of the game. I wasn't so sure I wanted to go, but succumbed to peer pressure and here I was. The first day I really developed my deep, lung-expelling cough but the next day was even worse. We had decided to do a classic peak called Warbonnet. While we knew the aproach was long, I think it might be agreed that it was epic. tent to tent the hike and climb took us a total of 15 hours. During this time I felt sooooo bad, coughing up green chunks, etc...The body wasn't agreeable to being close to 10,000 feet in it's state. Thanks for all the support and patience guys! Here's a brief synopsis.

After hiking up to the first lake from our camp, the first big pass we had to hike up to is through that snow field on the left

Then over and down to very last lake you can see (hint: you have to squint your eyes to see it, it's at the end of the bowl), traveling on the left.

Oh wait, we're not even really that close yet. Once at the lakes, our next destination is the peak on the farthest left of the pic (by the tall trees).

There she blows....but check out the hike to get up to the climb...

Primarily on this....

If I was 100% I would definitely say the climb was worth it though. Check out those views!

And the rappell

But then you have to go back....bummer!

We'll be back when I'm in a full state of health, the sawtooths are worth it, even when you don't feel well! Thanks for a good trip guys!

Lopez Relaxation

After some marathon days of work to pay the bills, John and Denise (Mama and Papa Harro), Daniel, and I headed up to Lopez Island for some R&R. I'm having a hard time describing how relaxing Lopez is. The majority of our days were spent reading/napping in the sun interspersed with some hiking/bakery/beachtime. There is nothing you have to do...unless you want to... the scenery is to die for....the weather was amazing....and you can only hear the sounds of birds chirping , no road noise, no city noise, just peace and quiet. Not to mention the food. When Rich and Nina Gartland and John and Denise are together there is no lack of good food to eat. Scones, cookies, homemade bread and jam, steak, pasta, etc....homemade and so so good. Reuben got to go too and hang out with Colin's service dog Benny. Definitely some teenage boy dog fun was had by the two of them. So much fun that they actually went on a little unsupervised adventure. Luckily, praise the lord, they were found about a mile away frolicking in the water!

A Full Semi-Circle Rainbow appeared the first night we were there

They cut and baled the hay field the next day we were there

A Little Hiking

A Little Puppy Love

Of Course Daniel was most excited about the fire boat ;-)

The Harros come to Portland

It has been way too long since we have seen Daniel's parents so we balled up all of the missed visits into one when they came down from Soldotna, AK to Oregon for 3 weeks. Between time hanging out in Portland, Going to our friends' wedding, and vacationing in Lopez we got a chance to reconnect, spend some quality time with one another.... and have dinner waiting on the table before going to work :-D...Thanks Momma Harro!

Like Father Like Son