Distance - 9.25 miles Elevation Gain - 4,500 feet Our training for the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu has begun! My parents were thoughtful enough to watch the kids while Stacey and I began our training sessions for Peru in September.
We drove down to Buena Vista for dinner and then a little ways up Cottonwood Pass to the trail head Friday night. Typically I get up really early (e.g. 3 a.m.) for hikes, drive out, hike, then drive back. This trip was the first time I drove out the day before and car camped. The new 4Runner "camper" worked great. We just laid the seats down in the back and got all comfy on air mattresses and sleeping bags. Cleaner, warmer, no insects, and no setup/teardownrequired like you have with tent camping.
This was Stacey's second 14er and my 24th. However, I was the slow one on the day. It took longer than usual and was one of my harder days on the mountain for several reasons. First, I had received 4 immunizations for Peru two days prior, which made me a little bit off. Then, I was battling some dehydration on top of it being a really hot day. I've also been fighting a bad ankle (feels similar to a sprained ankle) for a couple of weeks. I went really slow in between painful steps and feeling a little nauseous until we made it to the top. At the top I reached for my miracle product, Red Bull. After drinking a little bit of that I felt amazing and back to normal. It's always been great hiking, but this time it REALLY worked.
The hike back down was long and hot. Towards the end I took of my shirt because I couldn't take it any longer.Thankfully we had a ice cold cooler with water waiting for us. The area was beautiful especially towards the bottom section near the river. This was good training. We did 9.25 miles but 9,000 total feet up and down. Although the Inca Trail is going to be about 26.0 miles over four days, we'll only gain/descend a total of about 12,000 vertical feet. We did 75% of that total today.
Happy Birthday Buddy! Here are some pictures of the family party we had for Jonathan, complete with the silly birthday hat Julia made for him. Both grandparents joined us for present opening, cupcakes, and festivities.
After visiting my grandma for her 90th birthday, I decided that I needed to spend some time on Ancestry.com. I had seen the commercials. Having always been interested in family history, this seemed like a good project to keep me busy during a slower time of the year. I pulled out an old poster board project from high school where I had made a family tree and set to work building a family tree while waiting for my DNA results. I ordered the kit and it showed up quickly. It was pretty simple: no food or water for 30 minutes and then spit in a tube. I put my spit in the prepaid box and mailed it off. About a month later the results were in. Before I get into the results I'll give you some background information. Due to already knowing years ago (and confirming recently on Ancestry.com) my family tree/history, I was very confident of the main areas that I would fall into. Scandinavian, British, and Northern European (French/German). My Mom's side had recently emigrated from Norway, and I look a lot like her father. In fact, many times I've been told by other family members that I looked just like her dad who was 100% Norwegian. I walked into a Scandinavian store in Washington when I lived there and the shopkeeper/owner who I never knew saw me and immediately asked something about me being Norwegian. My Dad's side is the British influence, but had been in this country since at least the 1600s, so I figured with so much time gone by that those origins had been diluted at least a little bit. You can bet I was a little surprised when I got these results. The regions were all what I expected, but the percentages between British and Scandinavian were flipped from what I expected. In fact, I apparently share the same amount of DNA as the typical, average Brit. It is a pretty close match and the Norwegian DNA in me was a lot weaker than expected. Quickly about the test. If you want to review the results, you can click on this link. The short version is that segments of my DNA were compared to a panel of DNA from known regions all over the world. In other words, past studies have gathered samples of DNA from thousands of other volunteers with long family histories in a region (i.e. natives) to which they have developed a "typical" profile. My DNA was compared to these typical profiles to see how strong of a match results. There is a lot more math, science, and simulations run, but that's the basic gist of the test. I may test again just to eliminate any random results and confirm the percentages. For now, I guess all there is to do is pour a cup of tea. Or maybe I should look into getting a kilt. I haven't figured that part out yet. Chances are from verbal family legend and the fact that we lived in the Virginia colony in the late 1600s it probably means England, but I hope to find out for sure as I complete my Dad's side of the family tree.
Today was windy, rainy and cold, in addition to it being the last day of second grade for Julia. Stacey reminded us all that she is now halfway through her time at Chinook Trail. I had taken the day off at work to help out at field day. Julia was really excited that I was going to be with her at school all morning, and even more disappointed when field day was canceled. The weather was terrible. Even I didn't want to be outside let alone making the kids run around in it.
Instead I ran some errands and then had lunch with Julia in the lunchroom. I am pretty sure I had more time to eat at field training (mini version of basic training) in the Air Force.
The day after school was out Jonathan had a small birthday party with two of his friends from school, Sawyer and Aaron. Both of them were heading out of town soon after, so Jonathan benefited by getting to celebrate his birthday early.
This year he wanted to have his party at Build-A-Bear workshop. At what age are stuffed animal parties for boys no longer cool? I hope it's a while off. Sawyer and Aaron were really excited when they found out that they also were going to leave with an animal. They both thought that Jonathan was going to be the only one. Jonathan and Sawyer both got Chase from Paw Patrol.After the party they all went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch to celebrate.
A couple of days after the party I caught Jonathan talking to Chase at home. He was telling Chase how happy he was that Chase now had a nice, warm house to sleep in and that he no longer had to sleep in the cold, dark store. A true stuffed animal rescue story.
Here is a picture of Julia and Jonathan helping me load Stacey's surprise Mother's Day present into the car. Julia was almost able to touch the pedals with the seat all the way down, so we were pretty sure it would work for Stacey. Caterpillars are fun. Caterpillars turn into butterflies. Butterflies get eaten by Freckles even though their cage was on the top shelf of the pantry, eight feet above the ground. This will be forever remembered as the Butterfly Massacre of 2016.
Jonathan and Julia got new Build-a-Bears. Julia had gotten a bike seat for her American Girl doll last winter, but Jonathan didn't have anything for his stuffed animal. Never fear, a beer-themed stuffed animal carrier is sure to please the neighbors.
Not much to do this weekend except cuddle up for warmth and learn how to play Monopoly. March and April are the snowiest months around here, don't you all forget. Check out the dining room - all done!
