Mt. Hood, Part 1

After the Thorp/Westermeyer wedding, we went backpacking with the siblings of the bride and groom (Allana, Chris, and Stephen) and the father of the bride (Dr. Westermeyer).  We had a wonderful time, and kudo's to the Westermeyer's for being willing to go tromping off to the woods with us so soon after Allie's wedding.  Here are snapshots with mostly people as the main subjects.  The scenic pictures are coming in the next post.

 Barry packed this watermelon up to our campsite.  We then cooled it in a rock "bathtub" that Allie and Allana had made in their younger days.

 We all were greatly amused by Chris's hiking outfit.  

3 years...

And I love him more and more :)

and i'll post the next picture because he would prefer it so :)

No one I'd rather be miserable with

We're two sick bunnies right now.  Sniffling, coughing, aching, feverish.  Repeat.  We take turns mustering energy to do a few dishes, make a meal, and take care of the other one.  We do miss our Mom's right about now.

We say things like, "Why don't you take a bath",  "Might it be a good idea to call off tomorrow?", "Here's some echinacea tea", and "How about we listen to James Herriot?"  When school must be done (such as my 28 page research paper that I turned in today), the other sits (or sleeps) sympathetically nearby for frequent encouragement.

In all honesty, this sickness has its positive points.  It has been over a month since we've gotten to spend this much time together.  Internal medicine rotation seems to have that affect on many couples.  It's so nice to be together, even if we are sleeping half the time.

And, as Barry so aptly put it as we lay limp underneath the covers around noon today, 

"There's no one I'd rather be miserable with than you"

Barry

He has the most infectious smiling eyes when he's happy.  I love it and I love him!  

Christmas 2012

I'm trying to do a better job of posting my pictures closer to the time in which I actually took them.  I'm still working to get caught up on pictures from, ahem, 2 years ago.  But you see,  I have a hard time processing some of my most favorite images because I find them a bit intimidating.  So forgive me when I post age-old pictures, but this post is only one month old!  I was going to post pictures from this past weekend (shocking, I know!) but when I uploaded them, I found pictures from Christmas which I had completely forgotten about.  You can see more on my tumblr blog (you have to go back a few pages) but here are a few that I took with my real camera :)

Christmas was absolutely wonderful, but absolutely too short.  The more time we spend here in Loma Linda, with the stress and intensity that comes from full time medical school for Barry along with his many other commitments (Street Medicine, a Masters in Bio-ethics, grant writing, etc...) combined with my full time work as a nurse, plus part-time Masters work, it really starts to get old after a while.  We don't mind being busy, but when you're so busy that you can't stop to truly enjoy each other, when friends grow fainter because you are always studying, then you start to long for a slower pace.  We got to enjoy a blissful week of that slower pace over Christmas and it was just wonderful.  We're here for a reason and we don't regret that, but we are oh so thankful for family and true warmth that Christmas brings.

Alison Falls and Lemon Lillies

The San Bernardino mountains have tons of incredible scenery that can't be accessed by trail.  Barry and I have enjoyed learning from the locals some of the best areas to explore.  One of these places is Alison Falls, accessed only by a steep cross-country trek.  The area is also home to the rare lemon lilly, found only in Southern California and parts of Arizona.  They smell heavenly!

 From above

Sabbath Morning at Death Valley

Barry and I rose early and had worship on a bluff overlooking our campsite.  The morning light set off the distant mountains in such a tranquil way.

Sleepy bunnies :)

Barry taking a walk.

Spring green in the desert!

After everyone awoke and a grand breakfast was had by all (our meals were spectacular!), we headed to Badwater basin, the lowest point in the U.S.

Salt flats at Badwater Basin.

The guys in a canyon we hiked up.

Barry going for a climb.

Salt flats in Death Valley.

Spring Break Snow

Spring Break this year was a rather muted affair but we managed to sandwich the midweek work (Christy) and study (Barry) with two fun, drastically different weekend trips.  The first weekend brought a GI bug to my tummy and a huge snow storm to the mountains.  Despite my stomach's protests, I was NOT going to miss out on winter.  So on Sunday we headed up for a snowshoe hike that turned into a slow plod (on my part) that turned into Barry pulling his ill wife on the sled.  But it was still beautiful, full of fresh air, cold snow, and blue skies.

Up next: Death Valley National Park!