Peanut butter goodness!

I made these cookies this afternoon and they were sooo good. Very peanut buttery. Usually my oatmeal cookies come out flat and crispy, but they even had a nice texture after baking. I was worried because the dough was really dry and I had to work to form the balls into, well, actual balls and not just dough crumbs. The only adjustment I made for altitude (or maybe just b/c I'm impatient) is cooking them at 375. I highly recommend!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Us vs. Weeds

This weekend we had the opportunity to go to Steamboat with our friends Mollie and Rob. Steamboat is one of my favorite mountain towns, and has amazing mountain biking, so I was pretty excited. But, in a rare act of responsibility, Chris and I decided to stay in town instead so we could work on the yard! We have several busy weekends coming up, and were out of town last weekend, so it actually has been really nice to be around today.

Last night, our friends Jeramy and Christine stopped by for "happy hour" on our back patio. Their 2-year old son, Carson, was a big help and watered the lawn for us. He is a cutie! Check out this picture, he is kind of sticking out his tongue from the effort - that watering bucket is pretty heavy for him.

Today, I spent 4 hours (and Chris spend 5-1/2!) battling the weeds in the back yard. I decided to take before and after pictures, so I could prove to myself that I've been productive. We got a lot done today, and will probably work for a few more hours tomorrow too.

Along the side of the house, the grass had gotten REALLY tall. It was a struggle to pull some of it up, I might have fallen over a few times - and I might have really sore hamstrings tomorrow!













Last summer we planted wildflowers along the side of the yard, but since then the weeds have helped themselves to this area (along w/ a family of snakes who lived under the plastic last summer, which is why I haven't moved it yet!). We've reclaimed it - for now.

Chris really had his work cut out for him in the garden, but now it looks much better than before, and some of the veggies are doing really well. We have a lot of lettuce to eat over the next few days - yay for salads!

Here's what happens when an over-analytical person is also obsessed with biking, running, and hiking

About two months ago, I made a goal to run 625 miles and bike 3000 miles in a year. (What was I thinking??) 9 weeks into it, how am I doing?

So far, I've ran 84.3 miles and biked 545.8 miles, and according to my goal I should be at 108 and 675 miles. I am little behind, but oh well. I had some pretty pathetic weeks (a few weeks ago I only rode 13.5 miles, and last week I only ran 3.2), but also some good accomplishments (last weekend I mountain biked 42 miles, I rode over 200 miles in the last two weeks, and two weeks ago I ran one of my fastest 5Ks in 24:36). Also, I've commuted almost 273 miles (about half of my total riding), which since my car gets about 25 mpg has saved me more than $28. And honestly, another major accomplishment is not letting the "need to train" take over my life.

Since I am a dork, I've included some charts :). I count playing softball or kickball as running 1 mile, unless it's a really slow game. I haven't done any trail running yet, which needs to change ASAP because it's so much fun.

I have two races I'm planning on doing in the next two weeks: the Boulder Sunrise duathlon on Saturday, and the Winter Park hill climb on June 12. Hopefully I can continue to enjoy all this exercise, and not obsess over it too much, although the pie charts on this post might suggest otherwise ... :)

SPRING!!!

According to the weather station near our house, today is the fourth day this year that it's been above 70. We have been yearning for some warm weather (after snow and high temperatures in the 30's last week), so this feels amazing! We've done a little bit of work in the yard - mostly Chris has been expanding his garden. Today we moved a truckload of dirt into a new section of garden in the back yard. I have to admit, I was not psyched about shoveling dirt on such a gorgeous day (my bike was calling to me). But after we were done I felt very satisfied (and tired).

He's been talking expanding the garden for a couple of years, and this year our friend Rachel said she'd like to grow some vegetables in our garden, so that was the impetus he needed. A few weekends ago, they both worked for a few hours moving rock and breaking up the ground. It should be ready to go soon!

So far, Chris has planted leeks, spinach, swiss chard, peas (ick), radishes, beets, carrots, onions, potatoes, cabbage, kale, and a variety of lettuces. Rachel planted arugula, peas, carrots, and beets. And, we have some nice looking pepper plants. Soon Chris will plant even more veggies, AND, we signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share with Grant Family Farms - so we are going to have vegetables coming out the ying-yang this summer!!


Chris also planted 2 raspberry bushes, and we have 2 blueberry bushes, so we'll see how that works. They need a lot of water, so we have to keep on top of that (the raspberries are in the picture to the right, along with 2 rows of irises Chris' friend planted for us last fall).

In the front yard, we have some irises that are about to come up (I love irises!) and some nice tulips in bloom, and the landscaping we put in a couple of years ago is doing pretty well, too.






And the last project has been our compost pile. After a few years of just accumulated waste, Chris made an "official" bins in the back so that we can rotate them and finally start using the amazing looking dirt on the bottom. You can tell it's cooking, too, Chris said it was steaming when he turned it the other day. Yeah, microbes!









Above: the new bins, "dirt" after and before composting. (It's amazing how little we throw away when most of our kitchen scraps go into the compost pile.)

What's my story?

Friday we went to a talk from Donald Miller, who is a Christian author whose most recent book ("A Million Miles in a Thousand Years") I read a few weeks after getting back from Liberia. I think the timing of it was just right. The book (and his talk Friday) is focused on the concept of "story". Basically, a director contacts him about making a movie about his life (based on his earlier book, "Blue Like Jazz"). But as he thinks about how the movie will go, he realizes his life doesn't really tell a good story. So he sets out to discover what makes a good story, and makes some interesting changes to his life in the process.

He finds that the elements of a good story are: "A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it." (Although of course there is more to it than that, since he wrote a whole book on it.) The thing I liked about the book is that it makes you think that your life doesn't have to be just a series of moments of you living, working, playing etc. No matter what you love in life, it's exciting to think that you can write a story through your life. Not that there's anything wrong with enjoying the moment and living for each day, in my opinion. But after being in Liberia, where I felt like what I was doing mattered in a much deeper way than just sitting at my computer all day, it affected me strongly to think that even living in Fort Collins, Colorado, I can live out a life that "tells a good story". Beyond that, I am kind of lost, because what would have to change for me to live a good story? Is my story decent now? Or should I sell everything and move to Africa? That seems a little extreme. These are kind of deep "life" questions that I don't intend to answer in this blog (or any time soon, to be honest).

But it's been on my mind lately and I think a great thing to think about. I do know that my life will involve working with Transformation International for the foreseeable future. It's a good thing I've already decided not to devote much time to training this year because that time has been easily filled up doing things related to the Peanut Butter House. I'm planning (another) event focused on it and other grass roots projects going on in Africa. I think it's going to be really neat, but maybe I should have gone into event planning rather than grad school.

Pictures

Here's a quick post of some of what we've been up to lately. First, a poignant photo from a coffee shop in Laramie. We tried to go snowshoeing in the Snowy Range a few weeks ago but bad roads in Wyoming resulted in us just getting coffee and going to Sierra Trading Post.


Last weekend though we were successful in our first backpacking trip of the year - yay! The weather was great except for a brief spurt of thunder-snow, which changed to some pretty intense graupel/hail for about 10 minutes. After that, though, it was clear skies.


The next morning we hiked up a little mountain near our campsite that had amazing views! Maybe I'll post more about that trip in the coming days. :)

Back to School

To anyone who thinks nothing good can come from blogging, I would like to say that after my post yesterday, I was motivated to get up bright and early this morning and call Christine in Liberia. It was great to talk to her, and the rest of the morning I was back to thinking about how much I just want to go back to Liberia (as hard as it was while we were there).

She said that Alfred has been registered for his classes and will start this week! Yay! She and Luther (her husband) went to Alfred's house a couple of times to speak with his father, but both times Jerome wasn't there. Apparently he was with one of his daughters, but I don't know for how long. I hope everything is okay there. The good news is that she is going to ask if it's alright for Alfred to come to the Transformation International house on the weekends to hang out with the boys there. I think that will be so good for him and fun, too, so that was exciting to hear. I'm so happy about how much they are reaching out to him.

Chris told me nice work on getting him to school but I have done basically no work on this. I just got suckered in by a little boy's smile, listened to a little nudging from God and then gave some very busy people more work to do. But it's great to hear that it is working out so far, and Christine said Alfred was very excited about going back to school.

I want to send all the kids who live in Alfred's house to school. I know some of my friends would help since it is so cheap but can make such a difference. Which is why I need to go back to Liberia, so I can set this up. (haha, now I'm daydreaming) :)

Alfred

Here is the rest of the story of the little boy I met in Liberia, Alfred.

After meeting Alfred’s father, Jerome, and seeing the tight-knit community he was a part of, I thought the best I could do for him would be to send him to school. Even at a public school, students have to pay for a uniform and their books. This comes out to about $35 a year – which is nothing to us but can be insurmountable for a large family with little to no income.

While I was in Liberia, I read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and it impressed upon me the importance of education. Especially somewhere as poor as Liberia, having an education could make a huge difference in how someone’s life turns out. Depending on the person, that is, because with an unemployment rate of 85% it takes more than an education to get a job.

Another thing that had inspired me to help Alfred was a story that Luther told us about his childhood. He got very sick as a boy and his family couldn’t afford to take him to the hospital. He was sick enough that he thought he was going to die. But some missionaries came along and took him to a hospital. At first they just dropped him off. He ended up in what he called the “hopeless” room. It was just him and a crazy lady, who kept talking to herself. He knew he was there to die because no doctors came by to check on him.

Then this man Jonathan came along (I might be off on some details here) and took Luther out of the hopeless room. Jonathan paid for his care until he was better. They have been friends, close as brothers, ever since. It was amazing to me because Luther does so much good work. At the very least, he has completely turned around the lives of 18 teenage boys who had no hope for a future. All of this wouldn’t be possible if not for the intervention of one man. So, you never know, the one person you help could make a huge difference!

After thinking about helping Alfred for almost an entire week (& yes I’ll admit to wondering if I could just take him home with me), I was anxious that my chance had passed. We were leaving for the States in a few hours! Christine had agreed to help me, but she is very busy with teaching at the Baptist seminary, helping Luther with Transformation International, taking care of her own children, and who knows what else. So I was extremely grateful when she said she had some extra time to go to Alfred’s house with me.

We pulled up and Christine was clearly touched by their living situation. From my perspective, the children are dirty and half-clothed. Some are clearly malnourished. They are small. Their home is a looted shell, a reminder of the war. I know why she was touched by their situation because I clearly was, too.

But the people living there are so friendly. Fatu remembered my name, and asked how Cindy and Chris were doing. She had a great personality and was very smart. Alfred had actually gone to the Peanut Butter House site to look for us so we just spoke with Jerome. Christine told him that I wanted to send Alfred to school. Alfred was in nursery last year and Jerome got his report card from Kendeja School. Christine said she would keep the report card so she could know where to go to talk about registering Alfred. She gave Jerome the task of finding out what needs to paid for and how much.

Unfortunately, that is where the story stops for now. I sent some money to pay for Alfred's school (thanks to a friend of mine from church for chipping in, too) but still need to talk to Christine about what she has found out. I hate that I've been home for over 2 months and this is still on my 'to-do' list, it's amazing how quickly time can pass and how easily I fill it with other things to do. Since I've gone through the trouble of posting this, I am making a promise to myself (& Alfred) that I'll call Christine tomorrow. I would really love to talk to her anyway because she was one of my favorite people that we met! So hopefully I'll have more information soon. Thanks for reading this kind of long story, but it was something that had a really big impact on me while in Liberia.

I heart supercomputers

OK, so my title is a lie. I'm trying to debug something on a new supercomputer and it's going VERY slowly. I learned that running my job interactively is much faster than going in the debug queue but it's still pretty tedious. So ... while my code does nothing I thought I'd write about my weekend, which was much more exciting.

Chris and I went for our first mountain bike ride of the year - a nice loop up Maxwell behind CSU's stadium, along Shoreline Trail, then linking up with some of the Foothills trail to Michaud Lane. Overall it was about 14 miles, a perfect length. Although in general Chris is better than me, one thing I am better at is keeping my expectations low after not riding for a while! He got frustrated a little easier when he couldn't make it through some rocky sections, whereas my response was just, "Yeah, I expected that". But I am excited about riding more and all things considered it was a very fun ride.

In the evening, I spent a few hours at the Bean Cycle reading for my class. Considering I was working, it wasn't too bad. Maybe that is because I didn't have coffee Friday (horror!), so a couple of cups made me very happy (until I couldn't fall asleep that night).

Easter was really nice. We went to church at 8:00 to avoid the crowds, and then had a relaxing morning with breakfast, getting ready for lunch (we had some friends over), and I went for a run. It took a lot of effort, but I didn't freak out this Easter like I usually do. In Georgia, Easter is BEAUTIFUL. The weather is warm, the flowers are blooming, and every one wears dresses to church. As a child, I associated this awesome weather with God being happy on Easter. Here, it's still mostly brown, cold, and snows sometimes (even this year it snowed for about 10 minutes). One year, I had a fit b/c I'd been planning on wearing a nice dress to church and it was a freaking blizzard. So I pouted on the bedroom floor for a few minutes and then had to wear pants and a sweater. What is Eastery about that?? Anyway, this year I was better, even when it started to snow. And by about noon it was gorgeous weather for my run, so I guess God likes Colorado Easters after all.

We also had our first softball game on Sunday. We continued our dominance in the rec league with a shut-out against a kind of intimidating looking team. AND I hit a triple!!! Sweet!! It must have been my belly full of macaroni and cheese (although that made running to 3rd a little painful). I hit well my first game of the year last year, too, and then ended up sucking a lot the rest of the year and perfected the art of hitting to the pitcher. So I really hope that doesn't happen again this year! We have another game tonight so I guess I'll find out soon.

A new goal

Well Chris and I have decided to put off children for a little bit. His job is very much up in the air right now and it doesn't seem like a good idea financially. Plus now we are seeing signs of summer and having conversations about backpacking in the Rockies, and I don't want to give that up! I think being pregnant in the winter sounds better, so we'll probably revisit this topic in a few months, depending on his employment status.

I was thinking the other day how my fitness level is very yo-yo like. Last summer I was probably the fittest I've ever been after doing the half ironman and 200 miles of backpacking. I think I did a reasonable job of staying in shape over the winter, but traveling and health issues have left their mark.

So, my new goal is to be CONSISTENT! 12 months a year! I get motivated by having concrete goals so I came up with some reasonable ones for the next 12 months:
- Run 625 miles ... that's an average of 12 miles per week. I've maybe averaged 10 miles a week the last couple of years.
- Bike 3000 miles ... This comes out to 30 miles a week in the winter, and 75 miles a week in the warmer 6 months of the year, plus a few hundred miles thrown in for good measure. :) Although when I was racing I definitely put in more than 75 miles a week, for a yearly total 3000 would be quite a lot for me.

A little motivation from some of my favorite runs and bike rides over the past year or so:
road bike ride in Arches National Park:

Views along my run along the Pacific coast in San Diego:


I think I can do this and have fun without overtraining and getting burnt out, like I kind of did toward the end of my half ironman training last summer. Also I figure things like hiking count as running so I can be flexible. Most of all, I am really excited about the spring weather and a summer full of good times in the mountains!

Of course, if I get pregnant then this will all change. But part of the motivation for doing this is that the better shape I'm in when I get pregnant, I would assume the more I'll be able to work out through the pregnancy and the healthier I'll be in general.

Things in My Car

Maybe we need a lighter post so I thought I'd share some of the interesting things I found in my car. I just finished cleaning it (well, it still needs to be vacuumed) for the first time in weeks. Ok, maybe it's been more like years, but who's counting!?

- A hand-made wooden cup from Nigeria. We must have meant to give it to Eric when we drove to Georgia for Christmas 2008!

- Maps from Arches and Canyonlands from Chris and my road trip in Sept. 08.

- Special cat food from when Tiger was feeling sick in July 08.

- Grease from somebody's head on the back window.

- Grand prize: Exploded mini-coffee creamers I picked up at Ted's Place on the way to a yurt about 2 or 3 years ago. If you've been in my car in the last year and wondered why it smelled, this is probably why!!

My Friend Alfred

There were many kids who hung around the Peanut Butter House site, and they were all great. But something about Alfred stood out to me. He’s probably about five and has a sweet smile. And, we understood each other, which to be honest was hard to come by. Even though the Liberians speak English, it can be really hard to understand! After a while, he said to me, “My pa is sick.” I asked him if his mom was alive and he said no. We’d been to a few orphanages by then and I just thought, “I do not want this boy to end up on his own.” I said maybe I could come see his pa one day to say hello. He said he didn’t live far so it was a date as far as I was concerned.

A couple of days later the opportunity came up to go to Alfred’s house. I decided that going along might not be the best idea, so Cindy and Chris came with me. We were also escorted by Abraham, another little boy who lives close by. We started to walk – past some houses, through a field, through a garden, past a school, past some more houses, up a hill … I guess Alfred’s idea of far and mine are different! Finally it became apparent where we were headed – to a burnt-out concrete building at the top of a hill. Honestly, it looked creepy.
The house on the hill is not actually where Alfred lives, but his house is just next to it and looks very similar.

We approached the house. It was three stories high, but completely gutted. No windows, doors, roof, or floors. All that was left was a concrete shell, blackened by the rains that fall in the summer. Alfred took us to where he lived – just one room – with his father Jerome. Jerome was healthy until about 8 months ago, when he fell (maybe he had a stroke?), and now he has lost feeling in half his body. I would guess Jerome is around 50-60, and Alfred has a brother and sister but they are both older than him and don’t live at home any more. So Alfred helps his father, he brings his cane and a small chair for Jerome to sit in while we visit. We said a prayer with him, and I could feel God working on me to do something to help.

About 2 or 3 other families are also squatters in this home. One of the women, Fatu, gave us the grand tour. The house must have been pretty magnificent before the civil war. It used to belong to Liberia’s former President Samuel Doe’s brother. Now the only decorations that remain are a few tiles in the bathrooms and some drawings on the wall. The drawings are of soldiers with large guns. Some of them have “boy” written above them. One looks like he is holding a knife and the head of a corpse that is by his feet. It says, “War in the city.”

A few of the kids who live in the house. 2nd from the left in pink is Abraham, and Alfred is in green next to him.

You can see the hardship in these people’s lives. Jerome can’t work anymore and can’t afford to send Alfred to school. Other boys living in the house have huge bellies from malnutrition. But they are all smiling and grateful to God for what they have today. Fatu was as hospitable as any woman wanting to welcome you to her home. Another older man who lives there took his machete outside and came back with 2 big sticks of sugar cane for us. And they have a poster of Barack Obama, who has brought great pride and hope to everyone we spoke to in Liberia.

After a while, we left but Alfred’s situation stayed on my heart the rest of the trip. The next day, I asked Christine for advice on the best way to help Alfred. Something hard to figure out while in Liberia was how to help people well. We have enough money to temporarily fix people’s problems, but setting up a pattern of sufficiency isn’t really the answer. She said she would go with me to see him and ask his father what we could do. So I know this is getting long so I will leave you in suspense for part two!
One of our gracious hosts showing us how he will get us some sugar cane! :)

Day 14: Domhutte to Zermatt in pictures

I can't find the journal I kept on the trail so for now here are some pictures from our final day on the Haute Route.


The view from the Domhutte as the sun rose was amazing. We wouldn't have seen any of this if we had stayed at the Europahutte or descended the night before because of the thick fog in the valley. So it was well worth the trek!

These are the stairs leading to the part of the hut w/ the beds. I met an interesting guy up here who said he had fallen on a glacier the day before trying to summit Dom. He asked if I could look at where he fell to make sure he was okay, and then pulled down his pants and showed me his butt! Luckily Chris was there but I tried to not make a big deal of it and kept talking to him. Then he pulled out some ointment and asked if I was a nurse! Eek! Apparently the whole time we were talking he was rubbing it ALL OVER but I was determined to keep my eyes on his face and no lower. Crazy Europeans!

It wasn't as scary going down as it had been going up the night before.




We made it to Zermatt! I don't know if I've ever been more exhausted! :)

Day 13: Gasenreid to Domhutte!

The Domhutte

Chris’ stomach hurt this morning and he didn’t eat much. I was wondering if he’d even be able to hike but eventually he felt a little better. By now, our anger, or any frustration we felt about the difficult trail, was taken out on Kev – the author of our guide book. We’d already grown tired of making fun of his disdain for the ski industry. We dropped to the level of speculating why he uses the word Pennine so much and that he has wet dreams about the hamlet of Jungu. Today was the last straw, because he hardly mentions the trudge up to the Europaweg and uses the word “belvedere” to describe what I can only guess is the trail. So our insults were in full force when we could actually gasp out a few words because the first 2 hours of the hike were brutal!

There's a fine belvedere over there somewhere ....

I just might not make it!

We finally reached the fine belvedere and our moods improved with the expansive views. The day before, as looked across the valley to the slopes where the Europaweg lays, I wondered where on earth the trail could possibly be – the mountainsides were so steep and rocky. It turns out that those two words also accurately describe the Europaweg. Sometimes the going was very slow because of all of the boulders we had to pick our way through. The Weisshorn, meanwhile, continued to look like one of the most bad ass mountains I’ve ever seen and a huge glacier on one of its flanks began to come into view.

We finally reached the Europahut at 3:30, after leaving Gasenreid 7 hours earlier! We held out a small hope that they would have 2 magical openings so we could stop hiking and enjoy the afternoon. So, to say we were bothered by what we found would be an understatement! First, the hut was full because someone had rented it for a private party, and every single one of the people relaxing on the deck with a beer had been flown in by helicopter! When I heard this, I had to get Chris and I out of there ASAP because we began to think of many not-so-nice things we wanted to say to the people walking around in $50 United Colours of Bennington t-shirts. This greatly diminished the Swiss Alpine Club in my esteem. I guess I thought they harbored ideals of outdoorsmanship, but when someone offers you a load of cash to turn away all hikers for a night – the very clientele you were purportedly founded to serve – well, who can blame you for accepting, right?

Second, one of the hut hostesses kindly informed us that the Europaweg was closed between there and Zermatt. We would have to detour down to the valley floor and then do the heinous hike back up if we wished to take the famed Europaweg all the way. Yeah, right. Well, as upsetting as these two pieces of news were, I believe things worked out for the better. We began hiking to the Domhutte on the trail labeled “alpine route” on our map. It quickly went from steep to SCARY! The fixed cables, hand-holds, and ladders were usually on some pretty exposed rock. The beginning was the worst because were going along a ridge or nose of rock that began to make me very nervous. I was also anxious about the trip back down the next day. Going down always seems scarier than up, for whatever reason.

About an hour into the trail, we took a break and almost decided to turn around. But we kept going and eventually left the crazy death-defying jungle gym for a boulder field which was much easier to navigate. Still, you can’t imagine our relief when the hut appeared above us. I was so happy I cheered and gave Chris a kiss. He was too exhausted to celebrate with me. The hut is on a broad slope below one of Dom’s many ridges. It is right beside an impressive glacier spilling down the ledges of the mountain. But the most impressive part was the view! The tallest mountain around, Monta Rosa, was a huge mass dominating the upper left side of the valley. Part of the mountain is in Italy, so it’s not officially the tallest mountain in Switzerland. That distinction belongs to Dom. Directly across the valley was the Weisshorn. And between that peak and Monta Rosa was the royal queen of the Huate Route – the Matterhorn. Yes, I’ve finally seen it in it’s entirety. It is an impressive pyramid rising imposingly above the valley. That mountain is really fickle though, it is often covered in clouds. I think some of the other mountains around it don’t get the proper attention for their own individual badassness. In any case, the vista from the Domhutte is probably one of the best anywhere in the world and made the strenuous hike up well worth it.

Staying in the hut was a humbling experience. While the “alpine route” had challenged our nerves and bodies, most of the people in the hut were preparing for an epic 12+ hour climb to the top of Dom in the morning. I was very impressed and have never been around so many crazy, death-defying people!

A couple of views along the Europaweg

I was so relieved to make it to the hut!

veg-heads

Chris and I decided to give up meat for Lent. It's not too much of a sacrifice, since we already don't eat a lot of meat. But, as Chris pointed out, knowing we can't have it makes bacon and hamburgers sound even better than usual! But our church is doing a focus on hunger issues for Lent, plus being in Liberia made us aware of what a luxury meat is in much of the world. So we are 6 days in and going strong. So far, we've made vegetable stirfry with tofu, french onion soup, and pizza (it's cooking right now and I can't wait!). We've also enjoyed eating at Chipotle, Spoons, and Mad Greens. And Sunday we had amazing hamburgers at Five Guys!

I tried being a vegetarian in college, but it was really hard and I ended up getting sick about once a month during my 6-month stint. Oddly enough, it took my family about 6 years to figure out I was back to eating meat. (Between studying geology, enjoying spending time in the woods w/out showers, voting democrat in the last 3 presidential elections, and marrying a guy with a big beard, I have definitely been stamped the family hippy, even though this is far from the truth!)

Anyway, last weekend I made a bunch of vegetable broth so we could have some stored up for making soups during lent. It was an interesting process, mainly because it involved A LOT of vegetables - carrots, celery, leeks, butternut squash, onions, sundried tomatoes, and red peppers. It was easy to make and basically involved cooking all of these together for about 3 hours. The only sad part is that all of those beautiful veggies turn into mush and then get thrown away. But we made french onion soup with it last night and I was pleased with the flavor.

Here are the veggies before and after broth making:




If you have recommendations for vegetarian meals, let me know! :)

Day 12: Gruben to Gasenreid

We got an early start because of an ominous sign in Gruben stating: “St. Nicklaus 6 hr 40 min.” and we were headed 1-2 hours past St. Nicklaus! We left the hotel at 7:45, bought some groceries at an extremely limited shop at the main hotel in town, and started straight up! The views were nice but we felt kind of rushed by the long day. We made it up the Augstbordpass by 11:00. Unfortunately I was exhausted at the top. This was probably when the cumulative fatigue of the past 11 days really caught up with me and never really left. We were relieved but somewhat sad to leave the top of our last pass.

Our lunch spot was an amazing perch looking up the valley of our final destination. I admit to feeling very tired – almost more sleepy than anything else. I finally pulled out of it by thinking about my office, of all things, and how in a couple of weeks I would kill to be back on that mountain side, enjoying the limitless views and sunshine. So just remembering to appreciate the moment boosted my spirits immensely, although the insistent downhill began to get to both of our knees!

In St. Nicklaus I decided to respect my own limitations and took the bus to Gasenreid. Chris, with his superhuman powers marched straight up the valley side to the very small village. By the time he got there, I had checked us in to the Alpin Rosi (we were the only guests!), showered, and bought lunches and snacks for the next two days (and wine, of course!). The gracious hotel owner cooked us a comfortingly delicious meal of beef stroganoff. It was about time we stop just walking by the cows and finally eat one! We were both completely beat after dinner and barely finished our bottle of wine. I slept soundly but Chris was restless and felt bad in the morning.

Our last pass

Switzerland's tallest mountain, Mt. Dom (14911 ft)

Our lunch spot

Nice hamlet of Jungen

A nice church w/ a beastly-looking glacier spilling off Mt Dom in Gasenreid.