Boulder River Hike

Since we don't think there will be any snow for the rest of the winter, we took advantage of this unseasonably nice weather and hiked 2 weekends in a row! Yesterday, we headed up north to Boulder River, which is east of Darrington. We haven't really done much hiking outside of the Central Cascades, so it was fun to try out a new area, and really nice to get outside again. This hike was a bit longer at 8.6 miles round trip, and a bit more strenuous than the stroll we had last weekend, so we are getting good and warmed up for some tougher hikes this spring and summer!

This hike goes along the Boulder River, and passes three lovely waterfalls before ending at a nice camping area at the river's edge. You can keep going, but you have to ford the river to get to the trail on the other side! No thanks!

This was a cool spur on the trail that we headed up, with a crazy view down to the river FAR below us. Being a bit freaked out by heights, we didn't take any pictures and quickly headed back down to the safety of the main trail!

The sunshine peaked through all the lush greenery along the trail. I have been suffering from some pretty intense sinus headaches the last couple of weeks, but as soon as we get up into the mountain air, they disappear! Now all I want to do is go walking in the woods!

Pretty views along the way, not many of the mountains in the distance, but this one was great!

The lovely Boulder River. I love the sound of rivers flowing over rocks, such a soothing song they sing!

We scrambled down a rocky wet trail to get a view of the first waterfall, not realizing this was the little one!

The second falls were much bigger and spectacular, though we weren't able to get down to the river for a closer look on these ones.

Taking a breather on one of the huge fallen logs along the river!

This pretty little bridge was the only stream crossing that was actually in tact. The railing was nice, as there was a substantial drop on one side!

We've got some big trees in these woods!

The third waterfall, so pretty!

Settling in for a nice lunch along the river bank. There was some great spots to camp here on the river, and Kevin is itching for some overnight trips. We may have to head back soon for a camping trip! I'd like it if it were a little warmer, but I'll sacrifice for my husband! :)

The drive home was very pretty with the sunset, and a great big rainbow! Another awesome day in the woods for us! Kevin is taking off in a little bit for another business trip. I'm looking forward to the long break he has until May with no traveling booked! Too many days apart lately! I'm hoping to get lots of knitting done, including a pair of socks for him that I have been working on off and on for well over a year! Sheesh! Then on Friday we are heading to the coast for a weekend getaway with some friends at a cabin! Looking forward to the little vacation!

Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Hike

We decided to go for a hike on our extra day off on Monday up in the Cascades. How could we resist, with this glorious weather! It was sunny and 50 degrees, and I needed some fresh mountain air in my lungs!

The view from our kitchen into our pretty backyard. Love my house!

Awesome bridge at the start of the hike spanning the river

The base of Stegosaurus Butte

Gorgeous views of Garfield Mountain. So little snow up there for January!

This is outside a gas station in Twin Falls, next to the air and water dispenser. Random!

We had been hoping to get out on our new cross country skis, but the weather is just not cooperating on that front! Oh well, we have them forever now, there's always next season, or maybe February will bring some snow to the mountains! We're thinking about going for another hike on Saturday if the weather holds.

Thinking of Haiti

Or another disaster relief charity. Give what you can. Thanks!

It keeps you running!

Heads Up - This is one long post about running!

Since we moved, I have not once gone running. In fact, the exercise department in general has completely fallen by the wayside, other than a handful of walks around the neighborhood. I've been feeling lethargic and lazy. I needed to step up and make a change. One of my goals for the year is to run a 10k race, and if I have any hope of doing that, I need to get running! :)

So after work, I got into my running clothes, figured out a path around the neighborhood, and set off. It was drizzling, but pleasantly cool out. And the first 10 minutes....well, they sucked really really really bad. I have not been running in 3 months. Yikes! My lungs were burning, my legs didn't want to hit a stride, and I was not enjoying the feeling that I had let all my hard work from last year waste away. Then at about minute 12, my lungs started to clear out, and I hit that movement of the legs where you feel like you can just keep running forever. I love that feeling.

Now, let me back up a minute, and disclose a little something about myself. I have always been a hater of runners, running, and would take any opportunity I could to make fun of runners. After all, we're all going to die, why would you want to be all hot and sweaty and out of breath. Yuck. A couple years ago I tried running, would go for about 5 minutes, and think, what the hell is this??? I think the problem was that I was RUNNING, instead of starting at a slower pace, a gentle jog. I gave it up after a few weeks.

Last year though, I decided to give it another shot. I had lost 65 lbs before out wedding, and thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad anymore. I started out just walking about Green Lake, and one day I just felt like I was ready to break into a jog. Eventually, I just decided to see how far I could make it. I gave myself a 10 minute minimum, and after that I could go back to walking if I needed to. Surprise, surprise, I didn't need to stop! I just kept going, and for the first time since middle school, I ran more than a mile. 3 miles in fact. And it just sort of stuck after that. I started to understand the runner's high, and looked forward to running.

I never really got a routine down, I would just get the urge once or twice a week, but I really loved it. Then we moved, and I no longer had the lake right next to me. And winter arrived, it gets dark so early, and I just hadn't made it a priority to go after work. And I didn't really know the neighborhood, and felt uncomfortable going running here before I really had my bearings.

Today at work, I just decided, enough is enough, time to get off my duff! And away I went! My legs are stiff, but it felt really great to be outside and doing something good for myself. I went about 2.5 miles, about 30 minutes. I've got work to do! I saw a 10k race around Lake Union in August, and think I need to just register for it, so I don't slack off again. Never got around to doing a 5k last year, can't let that happen again! So I'm going to check in every once in awhile here, track my progress, and keep myself accountable. Whew, sorry for the long rambling post! Happy trails everyone, and anyone who cares to join me for a run, let me know! :)

Some Goals for 2010

*Learn how to use my sewing machine*

*Swim More*

*Refloor a room in our house*

*Take care of my body and mind*

*Become a better photographer*

Hope everyone has a wonderful new year! What are some of your goals?

New Year, New Projects

Kevin and I have been a little slow to start on our home improvement projects since we moved in, what with the weather being freezing, Kevin being out of town, and then the holidays hit! Well, yesterday we decided to bite the bullet and get working on a project. When we had our inspection done, it was recommended that we fill in some of the holes in the grout in the shower where it had come out. Seemed like an easy project to start with, and we could feel good knowing we did something that will help maintain the integrity of the house structure.

Easy, right. Well, when we started really cleaning and inspecting the tiles, we noticed that the wall underneath the window in the shower moved when you pressed on it. That didn't seem good. We are assuming that the caulking around the seam of the window had come loose, and water had gotten inside of it, and now the plaster or dry wall is water sodden and likely covered in lots of mildew and mold.

The Main Suspect: Missing caulk around the window
There's a lot of mildew in these here parts!

Using a hairdryer to maybe dry it out a little. We don't really know what we're doing! :)

What were just a couple little areas to patch has now become an entire wall that we need to take the tile off, cut out the old wall, put in new wall, and then retile. Retiling the bathroom had been one of my projects that I had hoped to do, in like 3 years. After we refloored the rest of the house, painted all the rooms, got our landscaping done. You know, later. Well, looks like we'll have to do it sometime soon now. We're thinking we'll probably just get all new tile and spiff up the bathroom, which will be nice to pick out our own style. We also discovered that some of the floor next to the tub has become lose from the subfloor, so we'll probably that to put in new floors, too! Yikes! Our tiny little bathroom just became the big focus!

So, yesterday we got started on a stopgap measure to not allow any more moisture to seep into the wall. I cleaned the whole shower tile area really thoroughly, then Kevin scraped out the old caulk around the rim of the tub. Then we went to Home Depot for our weekly trip (funny since we haven't done any real projects, yet we have literally gone every weekend since we moved in!) and got our supplies. Then we got busy caulking the tub and the holes in the grout between the tiles of the wall, and around the window. It was a bit of trial and error, but we pretty much got the hang of it by the end. It only took about an hour of actual caulking, so if any of you have any holes in your tile grout or gaps in your caulking, fix it now, so you don't have to redo your whole bathroom! :) Which will be very interesting for us to do, since we only have one bathroom. Oh, let the adventures of home improvement begin!

I have a caulking gun, and I am not afraid to use it!

Okay, maybe a little afraid, but we'll do it anyway!

Smoothing out the caulk, so fun.

We feel we did an impressive job, considering how not handy we both are! We are trying though, getting our feet wet, and trying not to be afraid to making mistakes. It can always be fixed later, right? :)

Today, Kevin attempted to make our bathroom fan more effective, but discovered it is basically worthless because it doesn't pull any air out, and what little does get pulled out doesn't actually have a vent to escape from. So now we are thinking new fan, plus building a new vent pipe through the roof. Fun! We also managed to pick up about one million paint chips yesterday, and have been agonizing over colors for different rooms. We think we have the bedroom picked out, and possibly the kitchen. Progress! Looking forward to a year of learning about all this crazy house stuff, and getting some work done around here! Next up, cleaning out the garage and cleaning up the garden area.