back from the void

"finally!" you all say. i know we have been seriously lacking in the blog post department, and especially in the photo department. hopefully this will redeem us a bit!

we have had a lot happening in the past few weeks. i went to the river ranger rendezvous in salmon, idaho. we got to go on a day-long raft trip on the upper section of the salmon which was awesome. i have spent so much time on the lower section, down near riggins, it was a nice change to see a different part of this river.

after that we went to pocatello for a week for forest protection officer (fpo) training, completion of which allows us to write tickets. so now we are unarmed and not all that dangerous, but we can write tickets of up to $5,000!

while we were at fpo training we celebrated our 3rd anniversary. it wasn't the most special, but we won't forget it. pocatello doesn't have a lot of nice places to eat so after driving for a couple of hours (and both of us edging on food-deprived crankiness) we settled on texas road house. if it is ever your anniversary and you find yourself walking to anything with the words "road house" in the name, return to your car and go anywhere else.

this photo is from when papa came to visit--it is such a treasure of a picture! we had a wonderful time rafting and it was certainly a memorable father's day. i work with two guys from the czech republic, ondra and jirka. we took them on a hike last week and accidentally mentioned our hopes of reaching a mountain lake. i say accidentally because when these two set their mind to something there is no chance of stopping them. the map we had wasn't detailed enough and therefore we weren't on the correct trail for reaching the lake. after a couple of hours in the heat brandon and i had to insist on turning back. ondra and jirka were terribly disappointed, but we could have hiked all night and never found this elusive body of water.
this photo sums up our life: brandon hitting something big and me tentatively going along side him. i swam shortly thereafter on this shallow creek, banging up my chin, nose, helmet, and legs. i think this trip solidified my discomfort with "creeking". for now, i'll just stick to deep rivers--ironically they are much safer.

and this photo is from the (steep) hill behind our house. this is also the hillside where the local elk herd are spending their summer. we live in a little compound of sorts and are having nightly bonfire gatherings with our neighbors. the river is about 300 yards past the yellow house, so we are within walking distance, which brandon has been taking advantage of daily.