tonight's dinner

I was tired of peter only eating veggie burgers and peter burritos (both quite tasty in their own right, but certainly no way to live), so I decided to make something real for him to eat, even in spite of my cleansing. below, for your viewing pleasure, is the spread of our family dinner.
as you can see, peter had some freshly steamed broccoli, with roasted red potatoes and some pepperjack cheesey eggplant. anna had a lovely blend of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper.

yeah, I wonder who had the tastier dinner.

mountain climbing spy movies

The Eiger Sanction

The peaks of Eiger (the Ogre, 13,026 feet), Mönch (the Monk), and Jungfrau (the Virgin, 13,600 feet)

thanks Oms and Ops for the flick. it brought back so many memories of the jungfrau region. and who doesn't love a little action, intrigue and suspense?

for more amazing photos of the swiss alps by tom dempsey, click here.

the law of ecological tithes

today I was trying to explain to nate, my coworker, the law of ecological tithe, or the ten percent rule. our conversation went a little something like this:

[anna] let me teach you a little something about the law of ecological tithes. basically all our energy comes from the sun. the plants use this energy to make their own food, but they are only able to use ten percent of that energy. when something else eats the plant, they can only use ten percent of that energy. so as you go up the food chain, there's less and less quality energy.

[nate] but isn't energy energy? does one have a higher quality than the other?

we debate back and forth regarding energy and calories and such

[anna] I need to bring in my wildlife ecology book. I have cute little drawings to help explain this a lot better.

[nate] yeah. . .

[anna] so you should eat plants to get the highest quality energy. . .

probably some more stuff was said that I can't remember

[anna] you want to get as close to the source as possible.

[nate] so we should eat the sun?

[anna] yes, we should eat the sun.

here is a slightly more sophisticated explanation:

About 10 percent of the usable food energy in one trophic level* is available as usable food energy for organisms in the next higher level. . . With each energy transfer in a food chain, there is a significant "loss" of useable energy. . .

. . . With the energy transfer at each step in a food chain about 10 percent of the energy available is utilized for weight gain, tissue repair or gamete production and about 90 percent of the energy is lost as heat metabolic by-products, feces, etc.

The lengths of food chains are limited by the decreasing amount of energy available as one moves up the food chain. The Second Law of Thermodynamics** helps explain why big, fierce animals are rare.
Fred Montague, WaMakaSkan, 2003.

see, you really do want to eat as close to the source as possible. if you think about it, this really does make a good case for being vegetarian (or at least flexetarian). get the most out of your higher quality, useable energy!

*trophic structure: the different roles organisms play in using energy as it flows through ecosystems. the position an organism occupies in a food chain. producers (green plants) - primary consumers (herbivores) - secondary consumers ( carnivores) - tertiary consumers (carnivores) - quaternary consumers (top carnivores)
**Second Law of Thermodynamics: no energy transformation is ever one-hundred percent efficient. (with each energy transformation a significant amount of concentrated, "high quality" usable energy is "lost" as a less-concentrated, low quality, less usable heat energy.)

the chicken dance collection

thanks, miggs, for posting this via your blog. I just love it so much. during the summer my coworkers and I would often try to do a chicken dance or two. but nobody can do it quite like the bluth's.

seasonal observation

have you noticed how the sun slants differently
how the afternoon light is softer
the air cooler
how dusk sneaks up on you so quickly, the day no longer endless
it is change in motion: summer to autumn

the cleanse

I want to rid my body of the unnecessary waste in my life.

tomorrow I start day one of the cleanse. {the master cleanse aka the lemonade diet}

check here for more info; updated daily.

the pfeiferhorn: a siren's song

the pfeiferhorn is an elusive peak. tried many times by many people, she is still left to be conquered. {okay, so people have summitted the pfeiferhorn before. just not me and pete. or scotty.} but even in our defeat, we find ourselves coming back again and again.

poor planning foiled our first attempt together. fowl weather ruined our second before we even set foot on the mountain. this weekend's fate wasn't much better, it seems.

we set out late in the evening on friday. hiking in the cool mountain air and the slanted sunlight was pure delight compared to the heat of the summer sun of our last trip. we arrived at lower red pine lake at dusk, ready to set up camp and jet boil our dinner before going to bed.

we went to sleep as soon as it got dark, which meant it was around nine o'clock. which also meant we initially woke up pretty early. I won't complain, though, if I'm waking up to this scene outside my tent. it was a beautiful morning. and very leisure. {I loves me my jet boil oatmeal in the morning, eaten right out of the packet}

from our last experience, we thought we knew exactly what to do. hike to upper red pine lake and then scramble up the steep, rocky slope on the left to the ridge. follow the ridge, go across the saddle that connects you to the pfeiferhorn, summit the peak and call it a day. it turns out this route is not the best idea. we went the hard way. we went the long way. we went the more unsafe way. {we saw others out hiking it, going up another smaller ridge that bypasses the long ridge we had to traverse. it looked much quicker and easier.} you see, this ridge we were hiking scrambling across wasn't solid ground. it was a mountain of boulders. loose rock piled on top of eachother, some more stable than others. it wasn't until a large boulder slightly crushed my leg as it came loose and tumbled down the mountain that I really started to get sketched out. {I have some scrapes and light bruise to prove it} but we kept pushing forward. slowly but surely. we stopped about halfway through the ridge. what lay ahead didn't look too promising. a steeper slope of what looked like pretty loose rock. {that photo does not do it justice} we didn't want to tempt the fate this mountain had to offer. we accepted defeat. we sat ourselves down and ate lunch, taking full advantage of the view we had before us.

we had spent four hours hiking up there round trip. boulder field after boulder field. it was hard work, and very slow going. we didn't go back down the exact way we had gone up. after the requisite lunch-time stop, we did not want to hike back over the ridge we had climbed. {it looked scarier going back the other direction} so we traversed down the rocky slope face instead. once we weren't on the steep incline of boulders I felt safer, though this is when pete chimes in with, "be careful. people die in boulder fields like this all the time." yeah, very comforting. at least the boulder fields down below were more stable and secure. you still had to be leery of the wiggly ones, though. finally we got through the boulder fields and back to our camp for a very much needed nap.

after packing up camp, we headed down the trail. another pfeiferhorn trip come and gone. the peak still out of reach. but we walked away with all that the mountain had taught us and a plan for our next trip.

* * *

in mountain climbing even the most prepared suffer defeat. it is ultimately up to the mountain. she will let you know if she wants you there. she will allow you to pass through or remain with your dreams just out of reach. it is up to you to listen to her soft whisperings and learn the lessons she has to teach. the wise listen and will remain to try another day.

the pfeiferhorn: the tallest peak in the photo

what is defeat? nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better. --wendell phillips

portrait from inside a tent

the life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. --ralph waldo emerson

the state of the kitchen. . . and living room. . .

when my housewife world and my working woman world collide, the whole house suffers. I need a maid.

finding yourself

I used to be a journaler. writing about life. there were long stretches where I would write every day. and, as always, long stretches of absence. I am in a long stretch of absence right now. {though it has been said that my blog is like a journal. I still feel deep regret that my real journal doesn't even know I'm married!} it has been over a year. the last entry dates Sunday, July 9, 2006. {at least she knows about pete} this is saddening; I have not had the joy of putting pen to paper to record my thoughts for so long. I can't even begin to think about the small things of life that have been lost forever. memories cannot be trusted. it is the action of writing that preserves.

without my journal, posts such as this could not be what they are. how truly sad.

my original intent of this post was to highlight some fabulous quote from a favorite author (most likely terry tempest williams or edward abbey), but then I got thinking about the act of writing itself. writing as a preservation of who we are. so now I find myself just quoting myself; exposed and for all to see:

Sunday, November 7, 2004
courage. bravery in facing the world. facing the unknown with boldness and confidence. acknowledging fear and stepping beyond. changing darkness into light. strength.

I really want to live boldly. live deliberately. live within the rythms of the earth. am I able to do this now? am I making the most of every opportunity? do I let fear hold me back?

I do.

I can be more.

my life right now is in a good place. but I feel I should be doing more. I feel that with school there is no time for the things I really want to be doing. I want to give of myself. of my time. of my talents. I want to volunteer in the community gardens. feel the earth. learn to live more closely with her systems. I want to help others. humanitarian work. it's so easy to look beyond what is close to us and find the bigger troubles of the world. but perhaps what we must focus on is not so far away. there are needy people right here in salt lake city who need the charity of others.

but are my motivations pure? I want to be this better person. but is this desire for the right reasons? do I want to do good so I will look better in the eyes of another? I do want to learn to live sustainably for myself. for the earth. I want to be more conscious of the my effects on the landscape.

{I then go on to say, "I wish I could find someone with the same ideals. with a strong land ethic. someone I could learn from and gather strength." I'm so grateful I found peter. he is this person.}

this entry embodies the person I was, am, and am becoming. it is the courage in living that we must learn to embrace. these acts must not be forgotten.

so with that I urge you all to write. and I will finally let my journal know that yes, I did end up marrying pete. (I know she's been wondering.)

hip hip hooray!

you've come along way, baby.



















and there's a long way yet to go, together.















happy birthday.
I love you infinity times ten. (plus one)

NOTICE:

the birthday pfeiferhorn trip has been postponed due to severe weather conditions. it has been rescheduled for friday, september seventh.

pete was pretty excited about the prospect of being hit by lightning while standing on the peak on his birthday. that didn't sound too exciting to me.

birthday adventures

gone to hike the pfeiferhorn.
hope the weather holds for the summit bid.
will be back tomorrow with an older husband.

B2S swap!

oh my goodness,
this has been
my favorite swap
to date.

as always,
thank you marta
for hosting.

and thank you
holly for the perfect
back 2 school
(or crafting!)
goodies.

thank you!!

shake justification

pete and I walked ten thousand steps for our shakes tonight. literally. four miles. they were the best shakes we've ever had. all the fun without the guilt.

fun with duct tape!

I was at the DI today and found an old men's shirt that I want to recycle into a cute new woman's shirt. {along the lines of that cute "maternity"-looking style that is so en vogue these days--I love it because you don't have to worry about your tummy!} btw, I also found all these patterns--you know, from the seventies, eighties and nineties!--for fifty cents! who knows if all the pieces are there, but at least they will give me basic ideas on how-to's, elements and alterations. I am so ambitious! I recently bought a pretty cute shirt in this style that I am going to use as a guide (not necessarily a pattern because it's cute, and I like it, and I don't want to cut it up.) But since I don't have an actual pattern for what I want--I mean, I'm pretty much just making it all up--I want to make sure it will fit me. that's where the DIY dress form comes into play.

I found a step-by-step over at Etsy Labs that looks easy enough. Becca, I know you wanted to make one of these a while ago, still interested? if not, I just might have to wrangle Pete into helping me. and we all know how he will probably feel about that.

{duct tape dress form tutorial here.}

so, has anyone out there in blogland ever attempted one of these? or does her own pattern drafting to make her own clothing? I am slightly intrigued by it all.

Food Awareness

I was reading today's post --the evils of trans fat, hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated anything in foods -- on This Week for Dinner and was curious to see what sort of unhealthy food was lurking in my cupboard. I really hate how healthy-seeming food is more often than not just plain ol' bad for you. Those Fiber One Chewy Bars (shown in the photo below) claim 0g Trans Fat, but do in fact contain hydrogentated coconut oil, high maltose corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup! Yikes!
As you can see I was so concerned about my well-being that I frantically searched my cupboard for anything including the words hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated, or high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients. Some foods were obviously going to be bad for me, but others I was slightly surprised. (those fiber one bars for example)

Why do we do this to ourselves? As a society we are so prone to things that are unhealthy for us because they are convenient, quick, and easy. This highly processed food that has streamlined our lives is slowly killing us. Will you stand for that?

Take a step back. Do you know where your food has come from? Do you know how many miles and how many hands it has passed through to get to your plate? This disconnect (and there is a disconnect from the environment in general in this modern society of ours) not only scares me, but saddens me as well.

I want to take steps forward. I want to reconnect with that which sustains me. I want to implement positive change in my life toward eating healthy, eating whole. This means I have to live a simpler life. {though some might say more complicated} I have to take the time to prepare my food using ingredients from whole, natural foods. I want to lessen any dependence on highly processed foods I might have.

I think without realizing it, though, I've already started taking steps. But I could do more.

Options are out there:

• Get dirty: Grow your own food.
• Support your local community: Buy fresh produce from your local Farmer's Market or CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
• Try the Eat Local Challenge for the month of September.
• Consider a more vegetarian diet. Flexetarianism is cool! Plus you can't go wrong with a diet based mostly on vegetables and other naturally grown things.
  

Now that I've rid these unnatural foods from my cupboard, how do I rid them from body?! A cleanse is called for!

revelation

this housewife thing must be getting to me. today I found myself ironing my apron. {and I had this intense urge to iron my pillowcases too! don't worry, I resisted that one} ironing my apron?!

but a girl's got to look good whilst in her palace! (because, you know, the kitchen is my palace...)

fun crafts with wax!

do old crayon bits got you down? you need something to do with them because you'd rather not throw them away? but come on, nobody likes drawing with the unwanted stubs! well, then here's your chance to give them new life. recycle them into fun, multi-colored crayons the kids (and let's be honest, you!) will love to draw with!
(since I don't have children I don't have old crayon bits. good thing there was a sale on all things school supply)

arrange the broken bits into a fun shaped tin for baking. or, if you don't have anything fun shaped that's suitable for baking, you can melt the crayons in something else and then pour them into molds or even heavy-weight cookie cutters (on a cookie sheet, of course!) work too.

bake at three-hundred degrees for about ten minutes or so. it is fun to watch the crayons melt into ooey-gooey swirls of color. once the wax has melted, remove from the oven and let cool. I used non-stick tins, and as the wax cooled the edges came away from the sides of the tin making it oh so easy to take out! hurrah!

get creative with the color combos. this could be hours of endless fun. seriously. and look how cute they came out!

tune in for my next installment of fun crafts with wax! where we will be learning how to make pictograph/petroglyph style art using sandpaper, crayons, wax paper and your iron! fun for the whole family!

reduce, reuse, recycle

anna: I really like making leftovers into something new. it's more exciting.

[the previous night's ratatouille is now tonight's delicious lasagna!]

peter: yeah, what are you going to make these leftovers into?

anna: I don't know. . .

peter: maybe cake?

the utah transit authority

Salt Lake Bus Route Redesign:
Sunday, August 26, 2007

sticker found on a light on the uofu campus. [image via my cellular telephone]

I can't decide if I should be excited or scared. will this redesign revive public transportation use in this community? or kill it off completely? uta is claiming the route changes will make transit in the city faster, easier, and the like. basically their plan consists of channelling routes to make getting into downtown faster and transfers to trax easier.

I am an avid public transportation rider. I ride the bus and/or train whenever I can, even if it's not the most convenient option. I believe in it. but when I see these signs on major routes all over the city, I get a little worried. uta, are you sure you know what you're doing?

the decisions the uta board has made over the past few months regarding the big change has baffled me as well as many others all over the city. For one (and this affects me greatly) they have taken all five bus routes off of 700 East, a major thoroughfare. They have moved service onto 500 East and 900 East, which are slower, narrower streets.

They're changing demographic, they say. I think the utah transit authority is focusing on those in the outlying suburban areas, hoping to get new ridership at the expense of the "local" riders already using the system, depending on the system. My neighbor included. She is devastated.

The redesign actually might really be beneficial for me. There is a new bus route that runs right up my street and goes directly to the university of utah. no more trax transfers. and there are plenty of routes (9th east and 5th east included, I think) that are running every fifteen minutes during peak hours.

so we'll see how this plan affects public trans in the city. I'm sorry to all you out there who's bus route is being cut indefinitely. (and I think that might be quite a few of you) hopefully you can find alternate routes. and hey, there's always your bike!

my lunch

simple + delicious:
avocado/cheese tortilla wraps

housewife: day one

last friday I ended this summer's stint with club u. as always, we went out with a bang. or should I say splash, with raging waters--utah's beach. though technically, in my heart, utah's beach is the shoreline of the great salt lake. it is the capstone event of a summer filled with fun.

I will miss you, club u.

now I'm on to my next adventure. unlike two summers ago when I ended club u with a sabbatical, or last summer when I ended club u with a wedding, I am ending this go-around with a domestic hiatus. I am now a housewife.

okay, okay... so really I'm just on vacation for the next two weeks. then I'll resume my duties in the youth ed office--ten hours a week. ten hours a week isn't much, you say? okay, you caught me again. I need to find another job as well. but until then I am going to make the most of this time I have purely for myself. it has been absolute heaven thus far.

today I had time for:
running
reading
writing
cleaning
laundering
erranding
shopping
buying
eating
everything!

arby's strawberry banana swirl shake

don't try it, it totally sucks. it's somewhere along the lines of "treat milk" (aka "pink milk" aka nestle's strawberry milk) mixed into crappy soft served ice cream. and the banana swirl? yikes! it tastes like the yucky fake banana flavoring! not a very fun combo, to say the least!

do you have the hankerin' for a cold, tasty treat of the strawberry-banana variety? try a shake from hires big h, or iceberg, or even the AC for that matter! they all know how to do the strawberry banana shake a whole heckuvalot better! I should know, I'm a SBS connaisseur--it's the only shake flavor I ever really order...

strict fire regulations

impromptu campfires via the zippo,

s'mores never were so good.



a little fun in the wilds: car camping in the wasatch.

pool rules

has anyone heard of the five minute break?

while swimming tonight at a local pool in town (the taylorsville community pool to be exact) the lifeguards all blew their whistles at the same time, instigating the five minute break. what is the five minute break you might be wondering? I don't know, I'm still trying to figure it out. it basically consisted of everyone getting out of the pool for five minutes--and not all the way out mind you, we all had our feet dangling as we sat on the side. to top it off, a storm was blowing in from the south. instead of the five-thousand degree temps we've been having, a fabulous little chilly breeze was had by all. a cool front + wet bodies equals not so much fun. all the lifeguards sat at the ready in their chairs, but nobody was allowed in the water.

when asked why we needed a five minute break, the lifeguard responded, "to check stuff." what that stuff is, I have no idea.

is this a standard procedure? does your community pool enforce this? it seemed slightly bizarre to me.

photo courtesy of: kellicrowe.

family vacation

peter and I decided we needed a roadtrip, so today we took off to one of my favorite places on the whole planet: sanpete county. yep, that's right. I said sanpete county. fairview, spring city, ephraim, the whole shebang.
after a tour of my alma-mater, we had a lovely jetboil picnic on the campus of snow college. I reminisced the whole time. I miss those days...
then we drove home via the mt nebo loop scenic byway. a very scenic drive, to say the least. here we are at the devil's kitchen, otherwise known as little bryce canyon.
looking back at mt nebo herself, the tallest peak in the wasatch range. nearly 12,000 feet in elevation, she is a beauty to behold. we topped out at 9,500 on the byway. I nearly got HAPE.

iLove

here is the sweetest surprise, a gift for no reason in particular: a cute little white MacBook.

thank you, peter. it is going to revolutionize my life. and my blogging? now I can computerize in style.

I'm an eat-whatever-you-want-etarian

as many of you know, I'm a flexitarian. and no, I did not make that term up. see below.

an excerpt of an article from Spark People:

"What do you eat?!” may be the question most often heard by vegetarians, as if meat is the only food group available. Obviously, as the five million thriving vegetarians in America have shown, there’s a lot to eat, without choosing meat—and they’re healthier as a result.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, vegetarians have lower rates of cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and asthma. While simple recipes abound for tasty meatless fare, vegetarianism is a leap that many aren’t prepared to take. But you can still have many of the health benefits of a vegetarian diet without trading your turkey for Tofurkey by trying "flexitarianism" on for size. Flexitarians, or semi-vegetarians, are “sometimes" vegetarians, meaning people who reduce some of their meat consumption and fill the gap with other plant-based food groups—eating a mostly vegetarian diet, yet remaining flexible.

I really like being a flexitarian for the pure fact that it sounds cool. and that nobody has ever heard of it. and really it just means that I can pretty much eat whatever the heck I want. I mean, you might be a flexitarian and not even know it!

I really do try to eat more like a vegetarian, I swear. but who can resist burgers?

my peeps

here we are, rockin' harder than bon jovi

club u rock 'n roll music star dress up day

book club readings: ordinary wolves

if I were to have a book club, this would be on the list. seth kantner's novel, ordinary wolves, is a beautifully expansive story of the alaskan wilderness and all those living within. it is a coming of age story; a story of social unjust and racism; a story approaching some of life's toughest questions. in it the land and her people are not romanticized; it is a harsh reality set amongst a harsh landscape. and as kantner grew up in the wilderness of northern alaska himself, some say that ordinary wolves is somewhat autobiographical. I think it is one of the truest depictions of the land, native and non-native peoples, and attitudes between the two.

The sun was warm on my neck. Slowly, I felt like Cutuk again, the little boy in the big wilderness. Before this constant thirst hiding between coffee and alcohol, sugar and sex. I wondered if I had always been afraid. All my life there had been power out there that made the decisions. It hadn't been so apparent when no man owned the land and we could laugh at storms and hunt harder. But no w everything was square and electric and came off airplanes. And we lived here not really knowing what the power looked like, who it listened to, or how it held its fork.

I was tired of it. I didn't believe in it. I stood up and brushed sand off my butt. "I'm not going to be a dog. I'll take the wolf's deal."

seth kantner is a true artist. not only of the written word, but of wildlife photography as well.

the human body after a lifetime of sunshine

kids, this is why you wear sunblock. yikes!

PS this is also why that argument
if I'm going to die, I might as well be tan
does not work for me. trust me,
you don't look good when you
look like a wrinkly, brown elephant!

favorite things

thank you, kelly, for hosting the swap.

thank you, kate, for the fabulous swap items (and putting up with my swap delinquencies).

iced tea
herbal tea
notepad
recipes
fabric and such

hurrah!

scrabble sunday

peter 247 | anna 215

community garden eats

we were partakers of the bounty of the first yielding of our future food tonight. yesterday we harvested: beets, baby carrots, lettuce, green onions, and a zucchini. all hail self sufficiency and sustainable living!

red pine via little cottonwood canyon

destination: upper and lower red pine lakes;
a *scouting trip for the pfeiferhorn

lower red pine

lunch at upper red pine

negotiating the boulders

scenic vista

*scouting in the sense that we couldn't summit the peak that day for many various and sundry reasons, which include, but are not limited to: having minimal hours of sleep the previous night, starting the hike in the mid-day heat, failing to pack enough water, et cetera. we will be better prepared next time.

the proof is in the pudding!

my lil' sis gave me a hot tip the other night: this vanilla pudding tastes like cake batter. and it's true! hurrah!!

now if you know me at all, you know I loves me my cake batter. now I can have all the fun sans the raw eggs!

so rush out and stock up! make sure it's the sugar free variety of the kroger brand. accept no substitutes.

enjoy!

nuno is uno!

happy birthday, little man!

photo courtesy of eliza c.

the tao of the slackline

focus.
release your inner monkey.
step softly, but step surely.
feel the line beneath you; become one with it.
as in life there is chaos in the peace and peace in the chaos.
embrace both sides.
there will always be distractions, focus.

our babies

with future food comes future juicing love:
beet + carrot

touched with ocean

all that we do
is touched with ocean, yet we remain
on the shore of what we know
--richard wilbur

week one: pirate's of the salt lake valley

well, the first week of camp is over. what a relief! we can finally get into the full swing of things. I'm actually quite excited for the summer ahead. we have an absolutely fabulous staff and a lot of fun stuff planned.

monday: the whole camp went to liberty park, which is always a good time. I did a place-based lesson of the salt lake valley in the seven canyons fountain. it covered such awesome things as local geography, a little history, but it was mostly about watersheds. (too bad the actual fountain was closed for maintenance... no dipping in any "streams" to cool off.)

tuesday: I took a group back to liberty park for my elective. this time it was fred the fish. man how i love fred the fish. it's a great lesson on storm water pollution. some things I learned this go around: the kids are more engaged if they can actually hear and understand what is going on, but dumping yucky things in a jar is always fun. that afternoon I just ran some random sports (boccie ball, frisbee golf, and field hockey/soccer) games for the younger groups, while they weren't making boats to float in the marriott library fountain.

wednesday: it totally rained! all our plans had to be changed since we do everything outside. I took my elective group to the marriott library to read nature stories. that afternoon the whole camp went swimming at steiner (except for the youngest groups because there isn't a zero entry to the pool... they went down to the slc main library instead.) and swam in their indoor pool. we had looked at the wrong shuttle times (the summer schedule runs off the normal afternoon schedule, who knew!) so everyone was a little cold on the way back to campus. overall it was a fun time, though.

thursday: my elective group went swimming at the HPER pool on campus. I got to work in the office instead of swim. I was there pretty much all day. oh, and it was another rainy day. which is always fun for camp.

friday: we went up to rockport reservior, but didn't swim because it was too cold. we also went over to jordanelle state park to check out the nature center. jordanelle was really fun. I pretty much hung out with the littlest group--the five year olds--and had the best time ever. their counselor, lisa, turned everything into a teachable moment. these kids were so engaged! we even got to see an osprey nest! the only bad part about this day was that we were fifteen minutes late getting back to campus. some parents weren't too happy. we would've been on time but three kids refused to hike any faster than they were going. as a result, the rest of the camp was waiting on a bus for twenty minutes...

so the week, even despite the inclement weather, was a total success. it was very reminiscent of the first week of camp two years ago: the rain, it being the first week, having to be in the gym instead of on president's circle, the smaller group sizes... but luckily this year there were no random rainy day gym accidents. no broken femurs, no reason for a totally ridiculous law-suit.

the only real accident we had this week involved a counselor. but he fractured his knee-cap in four different places and won't be able to walk for weeks... yikes! that is pretty major, but at least it didn't involve one of the campers!

fave quote of the week:
"club U rocks harder than bon jovi!"
said by an eight year-old camper

air time

ready. . .

set. . .

jump!