big laramie river trip

i have a love/hate relationship with whitewater kayaking. for the first 10 minutes i am on the river and anytime i am not kayaking, i am filled with dread and fear. all i can think about is the terror of missing my roll and swimming in frigid waters, scrambling to collect my gear and get to shore. but once those first 10 minutes on the water pass, i find myself actually having fun, smiling even. poor brandon, he knows that this is my pattern (heck, even i know this is my thought pattern), but all the logic and rationalization in the world has yet to shake me out of this vicious cycle.

i honestly cannot recall the last time i was in my boat, but i think it was about 2 years ago. i know i had fun, but my non-rational brain says, "yeah, you were happy at the end when you weren't dead, but don't fool yourself, you did not have fun in your kayak." and so, i avoid and avoid and avoid. once i even started a kayak journal so i could have evidence of my experiences and of my enjoyment of time in my little blue boat, but it has done little to override this sabotaging voice of doubt.

for our friend heath's birthday we decided to take our kayaks (and their stand-up paddleboards) on some easy whitewater. i was pretty nervous about the experience as i had been on the same river once before, at flood stages, but i tried to hide my fear because i wanted to a) look badass to my friends who had not seen me kayak before and b) not make them afraid, considering they hadn't been on whitewater before. somehow needing to pull it together for other people helps me get over my own stuff better than any other source of motivation. 

you know what, we had fun! it was the first sunny day in weeks, the canyon was glorious, and i remembered how to maneuver my kayak. i only did one run (the others did two, but i was so tired from hauling myself and the babe around the rapids and rocks with relaxin hormones running through me, making all my muscles operate sub-par).

amazing day on the laramie river through jelm canyon.

our laramie family. we honestly would not make it here without them.
so, so grateful for heath and emily!

and this is the point where i got stuck in my boat at the take-out. brandon had to come heave me out because i could not pull myself out of my boat. ah the joys of having completely relaxed ab muscles!

how far along: 25 weeks

total weight gain/loss: not sure, but close to 15 pounds (if not over).

maternity clothes: yes! i have had to wear maternity pants for a while now, but recently discovered that most of my non-maternity shirts no longer cover my belly and the panel of my maternity pants, which means i have about 4 shirts to rotate through. creativity is in order each morning!

stretch marks: still none, but i recently learned that for some people they aren't visible until after delivery and your stomach starts to try to resume normalcy, so i am staying on top of the cocoa butter/coconut oil. 

sleep: i am incredibly resentful of the fact that i cannot go through the night without getting up to use the bathroom. yes, i know i am going to be getting up a lot in the night once this baby is out in the world, but i have never been one to get up in the night to pee before and it is not a change i am embracing. i now take 1/2 tab of unisom at bedtime and a 1/2 tab at 3AM when i get up to pee, which seems to be working for me, because i have had a heck of a time falling back asleep otherwise.

best moment this week: going paddling with brandon, heath, and emily!

movement: more and more! brandon felt her the other day and said, "whoa, it feels like you have a fish in there!" (the thought of which creeped me out).

food cravings: tuna melts, olives, and fruits (not all together though).

gender: female.

what i miss: ingesting whatever i want without a second thought. for instance, i feel a cold coming on and want to take extra vit C and echinacea, but i have to go to our providers' website, search for each of these supplements in their guide, and make sure they are "safe" for me to take while pregnant.

milestones: according to fetus development websites, the baby can now tell which way is up and which way is down. hopefully the kayaking i did this past weekend didn't throw her off too much. she was wiggling a ton at the put in and then settled down until i sat in the sun at the takeout. whenever my belly gets direct sun, she moves so much--i think she is a little sun worshiper like her grandma and her momma!

brandon could not have been happier to have a day in his boat with his family and best friends. this guy is generally pretty satisfied with life, but at the top of his wish list is more paddle time with me. 

the reframe

lately i have had a lot of conversations with people about my {mis}perception of myself. particularly surround this belief:

i am shy.

yet, no one believes it. all my laramie friends challenge me on this, insisiting that shyness is impossible for me. one friend burst out laughing when i first told her i think of myself in this way. she thought i was being sarcastic, which admittedly, i often am. never-the-less, my shyness is real, despite my ability to have a conversation with a perfect stranger about just about anything.

i found this lovely little cartoon via pintrest that made me laugh. perhaps my ability to talk with strangers makes it difficult for people to believe i am shy. but i am telling you, i am incredibly introverted. just misunderstood.

 

we have a whole bunch going on right now, brandon especially. he defended his master's thesis yesterday {& was amazing!} & leaves for his PhD field work monday. he isn't complaining about spending the next three weeks in his kayak in jackson though--for his PhD research project he picked an awesome location & means of data collection. 

play-boating pelicans

last week the whitewater play park in casper came in pretty big time. brandon was thrilled to have an opportunity to kayak big water that rarely occurs. {apparently they are working on a dam upriver so all the water is free-flowing, music to his ears!} 

we headed north in the afternoon & since play-boating is not appealing to me i decided to go for a big long run while he boated. i ran hard & fast because a big storm was coming in. when i came back brandon was just putting on the water. {why is that going for a run always feels like a long exercise session until you compare running-time to real-time? twenty minutes of running feels like so much, but 20 minutes of anything else is no big deal.}

anyhow, when i came back from my run i noticed what i thought was a white garbage bag recirculating in the surf. then i noticed this strange movement and briefly thought a child was in a plastic bag trying to extend their arm to swim. hmmm, the mind makes strange sense of what it doesn't understand. ultimately i realized it was a pelican, stuck on the wave. i sprinted to the car to get my camera & snapped a few shots.

the bird doesn't look so good and clearly couldn't get off the wave on his own. brandon is adamant that he saved the bird's life, so don't get too offended by him using his paddle to pry the pelican off the wave. i think brandon was just fed up with not being able to surf the wave due to the bird hogging it up. 

pretty crazy, huh? there was another kayaker there who is an animal biologist & he said he has never seen anything like it.

shipping out

i'm off this afternoon to work as law enforcement for the fire burning 70 miles from our place. we are hoping that brandon gets in on fighting the fire soon also, but that will have to be after the boy scouts depart.

i am sure to all you blog readers, it is a funny thought that i will be law enforcement, but indeed that is part of my job. i have even written my first ticket (not to a person so much as an improperly parked car, but who's keeping track?).

in other big news, i finally kayaked the canyon. it is sad that i waited until 2 month of working here to conquer it, but alas the initial run is behind me and went well. i even managed a stern squirt (a basic-level play move i have never done before) and had a combat roll in the largest rapid on the run. all-in-all, a good run on the snake!

just wanted everyone to know we are happy and healthy and enjoying life in the wild west.

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.

hole in the wall

check out the sweet video that brandon made of he and alex yaking on the grande ronde. (be warned, it is a little pixelated, but worth it!):

good news... finally!

we haven't had a lot of good news these past few months, but today we both heard great things. each of us got jobs in jackson, wyoming for the summer! i will be a river ranger (aka: low-level, non-weapon packing cop) and brandon will also be working for the forest service maintaining campsites, doing trail clearing, enforcing campground regulations, etc.
we are both eagerly looking forward to a summer in the tetons.
they have us set up in "rustic cabin" along the river (includes running water, electricity, and potentially a bat family) which is great. we start on may 27 so we will get some time at home with the family before we take off for the rocky mountain range.
if any of you decide to come visit, be sure to check the events calendar for concerts and other exciting things. we would love to have visitors!
if things go according to plan, this will be our view:we have this requirement that we have framed art/photos from each place we have lived up around our house. this won't be a hard location to take stunning photos from!
in other news, brandon had a wonderful birthday (the news of the jobs coming through was a great gift!). he got a zero degree sleeping bag and was able to share a nice steak and potatoes dinner with some of our best friends. to top it off we got to see erik and kayla last night. we are a blessed couple indeed!
i also broke down and went to the doctor this afternoon: sinus infection! wohoo! i am on antibiotics right now and eager to begin feeling better. brandon is being really patient, but i have been whining for the past five days.

frisbees over spokane

on saturday we drove up to riverside state park, just outside of spokane to spend time with erik and kayla (and the pilkingtons). being in the company of good friends is always wonderful, but being in the company of good friends while surrounded by the beauty of the spokane river takes the cake! we had a blast and ate like kings and queens thanks to kayla's folks. somehow cold spaghetti just won't cut it for camping food for us now!

we also experienced the underground world of disc golf. (although we weren't up to par as we had frisbees--way lame in the disc golf world!) here are a couple of action shots...

my killer athletic instincts at their best

looking a bit more graceful

one of my favorite things to do while camping is to pull out the camera and catch the world as it wakes up. these two photos are from the bridge over bowl and pitcher rapid. (the rest of the photos are on our flickr website--see sidebar)
we went into the city this morning and hit target, rei and another outdoor store. then we went to p.f. changs and ate until our bellies were full. what a treat! mmm.

after our much appreciated lunch we headed out to the river to do a bit of kayaking. at the put in we met a great couple who we spent the afternoon with. despite the intimidation/compitition factor in kayaking, there are some chill boaters out there and these two were awesome. it was fun to make new friends on the river! then we drove home in the rain and are looking forward to a good sleep!

this was our beautiful view on the drive homea very happy weekend indeed!

kayaking the kiwi

we ran up to north for a wedding (which we missed entirely) and met up with a bliss-stick dealer. brandon has wanted to check out the kiwi boat company so he took the "RAD" out for a spin. meanwhile, i took photos. these are just a few, as there were over 100 in total. you can see more on our flickr.com site (click the link on the left sidebar.)

so this is us being, well...us.

(i think i am looking a little maori here, just need some face tattoos.)

the beautiful country we found ourselves in.

brandon showing off some sweet moves.

two of my talents: taking silly photos and balancing things on my head.

we even found a little love on the beach shore--we left the unique rock there to make someone else smile. my favorite picture of the day. i just like the lines and the contrast in black and white.
our little outback served us well this weekend, as a dining room, a sleeping pad, an off-road machine, and occasionally as a changing station. a colorful carload.here we are, the blissfully happy couple!unfortunately i was unable to catch a single photo of the 15 trains that blew by our make-shift campsight last night (in a parking lot). who knew trains were so busy these days? we are pretty tired tonight and looking forward to sleeping in a bed (with sheets, and without nearby train tracks or nosy parking lot guests).

adventures in eastern washington

the following photos were taken on our return from our sisters-seattle whirlwind trip. brandon has eyed this "crazy creek" (it's official overstreet name) for a couple of years years. he conqured it, so now when we drive by he doesn't have to wonder any more.

we didn't see this fine little sign until his fiesta was complete. he seems to be fine now...

hmm, what about kayaking? is the water okay to paddle in?

and for the grand finale: this exploder was submerged halfway up to its doorhandles prior to this photo. guess where? just outside of grand coulee!
let me tell you, water isn't going to slow those folks down--they'll just dam it up!