A Conquest to the Cables

Sometime last year I got this crazy idea that I needed to climb Half Dome in Yosemite.  My idea became a reality when I got Jason, his mom and his dad on board and we purchased our cable permits online back in about February.  Jason and I trained hard for this BIG hike by doing smaller hikes any chance we got.  About a week before the trip, we got bad news that Jason's mom was not feeling well and they would not be able to go with us any longer.  So we quickly recruited two other people: my brother Russ and my dad Keith.  And this is where our journey begins...

We arrived in Yosemite on August 20, 2010 and got our first glimpse of the BIG ROCK that we would be climbing the next morning.  We then moved into our canvas tent in Curry Village and instantly appreciated not having to set-up or take down our own tent or make food!

Half Dome in all it's glory

Welcome to Camp Curry

The kids outside of our tent

We knew we would be having a 4am wake-up the next morning, so we got to bed early our first night.  Much to our surprise we couldn't sleep because of a noisy trash can outside of our tent, a bear running around the camp, a family chasing the bear with bright flashlights, and a multitude of other happenings.  I think I came out of that night hoping for 8 hours, but only getting about 3!  Luckily the adrenaline kicked in and tired was not even in my vocabulary that morning.

We hit the trail at 5am!  Hiking in the dark for about the first hour was a little terrifying knowing what kind of wildlife was out there, but luckily we only ran into a baby skunk and did NOT get sprayed.

Only 8.2 miles to go!!

The beginning part of the trail consists of A LOT of stairs!!  These stairs are tall and torturous and really made us wonder if we would make it to the top.  Luckily some highlights of the neverending stairs are that they lead you to two beautiful waterfalls: Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls.

Let the stairs begin!

"Fire Power" was what got us up those stairs

Vernal Falls

Nevada Falls

After a steep climb to the top of the last falls, Nevada, the trail leads you into Little Yosemite Valley where you get a little less of an incline in the trail.  The perfect place to catch your breath and keep pushing on!  Just when you start getting used to the nice foresty area you climb out and hit the Sub-Dome.  This is where the trees end and you begin your last big climb to cables in direct sunlight on pure rock!

Welcome to the Sub-Dome (yet Half Dome still looks so far away)

Climbing the stairs up the Sub-Dome (just a straight fall down)

Once you complete the Sub-Dome you are at the cables.  Nothing can prepare you for what you see when you arrive!  These cables are close to a 90 degree angle straight up!!!  We took a little breather at the base of the cables and then went for it!

The four of us right before we climbed the cables

We then were at THE TOP!!!!  Everything that we had just done seemed so minor at this point.  The view from the top of Half Dome was UNREAL!!!  We could see where we started from along with a 360 view of everything!  If the wind hadn't been as bad as it was up top, we might have wanted to stay up there for even longer.

We started way down where that road is

Jason holding the valley in his hand

Laying down to get a good view down below

Me and my dad on the very edge of Half Dome

Can't get much closer to the edge than this!

The 4 of us made it to the top!!!

We were anticipating the climb down the cables to be tough, but much to our surprise they seemed easier than going up!  It only gets tricky when you have someone coming up while you are heading down and then you just need to find a way to brace yourself.  We felt very accomplished once we made it down the cables!

Coming down the cables

Thumbs up for making it down safely!

The hike down (after the cables) was a little rough on the joints.  We were starting to feel tired and sore, but knew that we had to keep going.  Since we didn't want to take those awful stairs down near the falls again, we decided to take the longer trail (the John Muir trail) to the bottom.  Less stairs was a nice thought!

At the top of Nevada Falls

A look back at Nevada Falls (on the right) and Half Dome (on the left)

We reached our camp after 20 miles in 12 hours!!  We were feeling the pain at that point, but felt a huge sense of accomplishment for what we had just done that day!  This was truly an adventure that we will never forget!

Back to where we started at 5am! 

It was about 4:30pm at this point

If you want to see more from our trip, check out our video (compliments of Jason):

Half Dome Video on YouTube

I Feel on Top of the World!

Another HOT summer day here in WA!  Don't think I'm complaining, I do really love it!  I just think I might be choosing the wrong activities to do on these hot days.  So with that being said I gathered up my crazy friend, Kali, and of course Jason and Coda, and we headed out for one heck of a climb.

Today we hiked to Mt. Pilchuk.  It's about a 6 mile roundtrip hike with an incredibly steep climb all the way up to the lookout at the top.  This lookout used to be an old fire lookout, but now serves as a viewing platform for people to see panoramic views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, the Olympics, Seattle and the San Juan Islands (just to name a few). 

As nice as the shadey parts were for keeping us a little cooler on the way up, they were less enjoyable because of the massive amount of BUGS!  So we seemed to push ourselves a little harder than we would just so we didn't have to stop and get eaten alive.  But as we hit the direct sunlight, we were welcomed with many gorgeous views (and a lot less bugs!) as we continued to make the climb to the top.

Looking back at the view on our way up

Taking a break with a VERY HOT doggie

Beginning to move out of the trees

Kali and Jason

The final part of the climb is a small "boulder scramble" to get to the lookout.  A little challenging with a dog, but we are lucky enough to be able to carry him.

Jason carrying Coda as he "scrambles" up the last part

The ladder is the last challenge into the lookout

Once at the top, the view seems to make everything we just went through totally WORTH IT!  We felt like we were on top of the world!  And we knew the trek down was going to be nothing after making that climb up!!

A view from the top of Mt. Pilchuk

AMAZING!

Kali and me out on one the edge of the rocks

Crazy how the trees just end!

The four of us outside of the lookout

Me and Jason out on the rock

A picture taken from the rock of us at the lookout

This lookout is held up with these lovely cables!

Although the hike up was hot, buggy and tiring...the view was absolutely worth it all!!! The only word I can think of to describe it is BREATHTAKING!

 

Beautifying the Backyard

Our backyard has started to look a little on the shabby side ever since we brought Coda home.  As much as we wanted to stop him from digging holes in our yard, nothing really worked.  So we finally decided we needed to do something to make this backyard beautiful again.

Of course we pick not only a sunny day (which is good for backyard work) but a HOT day at that!  It was nearly in the mid 90s on Saturday and we started our lovely backyard work right at the peak of the heat.  What were we thinking?  Well I know Jason was thinking I was crazy, but when you have the time there is no room for procrastination!

Our tasks at hand sounded simple, and they actually were.  We wanted to put a brick wall around our plants and add mulch to those areas inside the bricks.  We then wanted to do the same thing around our newly planted tree and also add another little brick area and a new plant to an empty spot by our gate.  A simple task seemed a little more tough when the sun was beating down on us...but we did it!

Take a look at the before...

Just one corner of our work

The during...

Such a trooper for working in the heat with me

Coda was mostly entertained by fishing out ice cubes from his water bowl

Starting to level the ground at the tree

And the after...

Check out our new brick wall

A nice picture of our new plant on the left and the tree's brick

I forgot to add that we added these cute little hanging baskets to our Pergola

Looking back at all we did that day, I would have to say we are pretty proud.  We now have a backyard that we enjoy being in and hope to be able to keep it that way.  Coda now has a lot of new rules to learn!

Girls Night Out!!

Last weekend Jason headed out with the boys for our friend Brady's bachelor party.  The boys went camping all weekend and did a little tubing.  A wife can only do so much when it comes to them taking pictures.  So I sent Jason with the camera and told him to take pictures, and of course he comes back with NOTHING! 

During this same weekend, the girls all got together to celebrate the bride-to-be, Abbey, at her bachelorette party.  She had 3 girls come in from CA and the rest of us were the WA crew.  We started the night off with a little pre-party at Abbey's house to enjoy some drinks and goodies.

The bachelorette, Abbey!

We then moved onto dinner in downtown Seattle at the Hotel Monaco's restaurant called Sazerac.  The restaurant treated us well giving us our own little private room to celebrate.  And a complimentary "chocolate cake" shot for the bachelorette (not to mention she had a minor freakout and it took about 10 minutes to take the shot, which sounded so yummy).

One of the cars on the way to Seattle

The girls at dinner at Sazerac

Abbey getting ready for her shot

The bachelorette party...

(left-right) Lindsey, Khris, Meghan, me, Abbey, Elise, Kate, Mary Ellen, and Cassie

After dinner we came back to Abbey's house for games, gifts and dessert.  Everyone else stayed over for a sleepover, but unfortunately I had to be the responsible parent and come home to take care of Coda since Jason was off camping.  All in all we had a good time being together and celebrating the bride-to-be.  Next up...the wedding on Sept. 5 in Napa!!

The Reunion of all Reunions!

At the end of July Jason, me and Coda drove back to Oregon (seems like we have spent a good amount of our summer going to and from there) for the MASSIVE Lumsden Family Reunion in Sun River, Oregon.  It's about a 7.5 hr. drive from our house in Everett, and we for sure weren't used to driving that far in a long time!  The unexpected desert that popped out from the thick forest was a surprise as well!  We were beginning to wonder where the heck we were going as we watched the trees go away and the temps rise!! 

This was the biggest of the reunions they have had topping out at about 86 people (some family, some friends...I just know of them as all being part of the family somehow), which totaled 16 houses.  I believe the last "real" reunion was back in 1994 as well...so it was fun for everyone to see everyone all grown up.

The welcome sign got a little wet from the freak downpour

And to try and simplify the family tree, this whole reunion is based around Jason's grandpa and his other siblings.  Jason's grandpa's youngest brother is the only surviving one today, but all the family still manages to get together for some good times!

Our long weekend included many fun activities.  The first activity was a BBQ dinner all together at one house and then drinks later in the evening at another house.  We managed to dodge the massive rainstorm by the time we had dinner.  We hadn't seen rain come down like that in a long time!!

Sharing pictures and stories from other reunions

Drinks...Glenda, cousin Dave, his girlfriend Jess, and me

We spent our first whole day in Oregon going to lunch at the Deschutes Brew House and then on the Deschutes Brewery tour in Bend, Oregon.  Such a cool tour allowing us to see all the aspects of the huge brewery!

Bree, Scott, Brian, Jason, me and cousin Lisa at lunch at the Brew House

Jason and I outside of the Deschutes Brewery

Sampling the beers (truthfully Jason just drank all of mine)

On the tour

The second night we shuttled over to La Pine, Oregon for another fun dinner altogether at the American Legion Hall.  Lots of stories were told and reminised upon.

Some of the kids...Brian, me, Jess, Dave and Jason

Everyone in the American Legion Hall for dinner

Brian reading us stories from grandpa Mace

Our last full day was spent rafting the Big Eddy on the Deschutes River with a group of 22 of us.  Even though it was a short trip down the river, we got some killer rapids and a mighty good soaking!  And while we were out having fun on the river, Glenda and Scott were being super grandpuppy parents and took Coda on a little spin with the bikes.

Bree, Jason, me and Brian at the house before rafting

While we were gone, Glenda had Coda "mush" her on the bike

This is what we like to call "drinking the Deschutes"

Not totally sure what we have in store for us...it was A LOT of water!

One last big drop before the end

After rafting we took a little walk down the bike trail to the river to get Coda interested in swimming.  Erin, Jason's second cousin, and her Border Collie Luna came along too for a little swim.  Neither dog was excited about getting in, but we made them anyway.  Luna learned that she actually did enjoy the water!  Coda...not so much :)

Jason and Erin trying to talk the doggies into getting in the river

We decided we just had to put Coda in the water (he did NOT like it)

Once Luna was put in the water, she started to swim and seemed to like it!

And to top of our last night of dinner we had a Cook-Off Competition between the family.  Let me just tell you that this was PURE DELICIOUSNESS!!!!  We have some amazing cooks in the family!!  The winner of the best beverage was Kate with her Buddah Blue cocktail.  The winner of the best appetizer was Uncle Lou (Jason's grandpa's youngest brother) with his Shrimp Cocktail.  The winner of the best side dish was Bridget with her Cheesy Grits.  The winner of the best entree was Uncle Lou again for his Pulled Pork.  And lastly, the winner of the best dessert was Peggy (Uncle Lou's wife) for her cake.

Me and Luna at the Cook-Off

Some of the cousins and an aunt...

Meghan, Liz, her husband Josh, aunt Faith and Meghan's boyfriend Adam

Aunt Velma and Uncle Mike cooking up some pineapple goodness!

The night didn't end with dinner!!  About 21 people came over to our house to play in a little Texas Hold 'Em Tournament.  The buy-in was $20.  It lasted for about 2-3 hours and the 1st place winner was Dave winning $180!

Uncle Lou all ready for some serious poker

All three tables playing in the tournament

One sleepy puppy trying to sleep through all the noise

Dave, the big tournament winner!!

We had a great time being all together and Coda enjoyed playing with his new friend, Luna.  Without Luna we are not sure what we would have done.  Since Luna is a herding dog, she always had her eye on Coda.  We would let Coda off the leash in the front yard and they would run laps around the house and then Coda would wander off into someone else's yard.  Luna would always know where he was and would get him to come back most times.  We loved Luna!

New best buddies...Luna and Coda (and me of course)

Coda and Luna playing chase with the frisbee

Isn't it cute how Luna's tail is over Coda's back?

Hopefully it's not too long until we are all together again for the next Lumsden Reunion!