Raccoons > Ducks.

So do you remember that famous childhood book that you all grew up reading?  The one about the little dinosaur who struggled with friendships?  C'mon, you know which one I'm talking about!  This one:

Ok, Ok, so I never read it (but I think it looks hilarious).  Two weeks ago, tragedy struck the Peterson Ranch, as the late Cheech (one of my ducks) mourned the death of Chong (I know, I know..... I am that professor :) ).  Keep reading for the details (this is my "rope-you-in-make-you-keep-reading" introduction.... my 5th grade english teacher would be proud!).

If you recall, I went to Colorado to spend some time with Landon three weeks ago.  But what was seriously awesome is that I got to see my boy again over the 4th of July!!  Two weekends in a row?!? Who does that??  He had planned to come to SLO over the 4th before CO came into the equation, and I fully got to reap the benefits :)

The last few times that we have seen each other, it has been one crazy adventure after another.  Which is awesome, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's nice to just be.  And that is exactly what we did.  For five glorious days.  We just hung out like a normal couple.  Well who I am kidding.... we'll never be "normal" (thank goodness!), but we did have a blast.  And, per usual, I did not take a single picture.... whoopsie.  Except for the following incident.....

After a rather hectic and slightly changed arrival into LA, Landon and I enjoyed a week of just relaxing.  We hung out with my friends, cooked dinners in, enjoyed some date nights, wrangled up some loose cattle in the middle of the night, went surfing (Landon did awesome!!  He's a total natural and now wants to get a board of his own.... conversion?  Check!), and enjoyed our new favorite past-time: shopping at western stores.  I scored big on the sales (Cruel Girl jeans for $25?!?!  Come to mama!) and got some pretty baller new spur straps (wow....how country am I? Ha.).

I also have quite a few new animals that Landon hasn't met yet (Belle, ducks, Captain Jack, and Gunner).  Landon promptly renamed my dog "femur" because of the marking on his face (unfortunately, "femur" and "Gunner" must sound alike, because the dog responds to both names.....Awesome.)

Anyway, as I'm sure you are aware, I get waaaay excited about showing people new things.  So on the second day of the visit, I very enthusiastically took Landon to see Cheech and Chong in the duck enclosure that we had built out of an old dog kennel (we were only keeping 2 ducks at our house).  The excitement immediately turned into shock as we approached the murder scene..... I took pictures, but I'll spare you the gory details and photos, and just let you know that we found one duck alive..... and one who met a very, very disturbing end.

We were super puzzled as to what could have killed the duck in the manner that it did (trust me folks.... it wasn't pretty), and then leave the the carcass whole?  We were pretty meticulous in making our duck fortress mountain lion/coyote/owl/falcon/possom-proof, and there was no room for something big enough to get in and kill the duck the way it did.  We got our answer a few nights later.  Fletcher heard a ruckus outside at night and found a freaking giant (GIANT.  Like "found some nuclear waste and mutated" giant) raccoon with a dead Chong.  So, the moral of the story is, apparently raccoons eat ducks.

Anyway, in less gory news, Landon left Weds afternoon, and I was able to skip out on LA traffic somehow and get back to Pismo Beach in time to watch some awesome fireworks with my friends at Sandy's house.  Sandy and our crew even made the local news!

Minus the duck massacre, it was a great week where I am reminded of how much I love my familly, friends, boyfriend, and the beautiful creation that is around me daily!

Proud to be an American, y'all!  (but not this proud)

Why I Love Surfing

Everyone has their "happy place."  Sarcastically we are all often told to go to our "happy place" if we are stressed or angry.  For some, your "happy place" is cleaning the kitchen.  Maybe its cooking.  A super hard workout.  A great book and a glass of wine.  A nice quiet hike with your dog.  (FYI, if you couldn't guess, all of the above are my "mini" happy places).  

But my REAL happy place is one that really allows me to have those precious moments where the worries of my day and of the world  literally disappear, and I can put life on hold and just enjoy the beauty of God's creation and really bask in His love for me and His grace over my life.  And no, it's not on the back of a horse, contrary to popular belief ;)  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love riding, but riding isn't about forgetting my cares and problems (especially since it's my job!!).  Riding is about getting to utilize my talents and having fun while doing it.

When things are all messy, or I'm stressed, or sad, or angry, or hurt, or prideful, or selfish, or conceited, one place has the ability to wipe my mental slate clean for a few hours, no matter what.  And that, my friends, is on a surfboard.

I haven't always loved surfing.  I haven't even really been doing it for a long time.  But I can honestly say that there are few things in this world that come close to the peace that I feel out in the water, and I am so blessed to live in a place now where I can surf all the time.

I love getting up at 5 am.  I love grabbing my wax, my wetsuit, and a towel and heading for the beach to get in a session before work.  I love the smell of the ocean and that first freezing step into the water that gets your heart racing.  I love the rush of diving onto your board and paddling out to the line.  I love the stillness and the patience of waiting for a set.  I love looking at the horizon and watching the new sun break through the fog.  I love feeling the energy of the water change as a swell approaches.  I love the anticipation of figuring out the perfect wave to take.  I love the adrenaline of the ride.  I love the aching muscles from paddling and popping up.  I love the way the ocean is never the same.  I love the way that it will humble you abruptly when you get a little too big for your britches.  I love using this as a way to start or end my day. 

When I'm out in the water, everything melts away.  

"Still" and "quiet" are words that no one will ever use to describe me.  But when I'm in the water, I am still.  I am quiet.  I am able to open my heart and hear things that God is trying to teach me that I am otherwise unable to hear because I fill my life with so much activity and noise.  You spend a lot of time sitting on your board waiting for the next set in search of the ever-elusive "perfect wave."  That is a lot of time for God to speak and for me to listen.  

Hebrews 4:9-11 reads "So then, there remains a Sabbath for rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Translation:  work can take over our lives and drown out God's spoken word for our lives.  When you cease work, you are allowing God to work in your heart, and you are allowing yourself the chance to have your heart reached by His word and be refreshed and encouraged.

I love surfing because its not about me.... its about my heart resting from work, and enjoying the blessings that God has given me.  

Whatever your "happy place" is, I challenge you to spend more time there.  Its good for the soul, you know :)

AP

A Big Discovery

Gunner lets me put things on his head.  Kind of like www.stuffonmycat.com.

Examples include the following:

I encourage you to torment your pets in similar ways, as it is a great way to keep yourself occupied.

And despite the terrible look on his face, after every "balancing" act, he was incredibly rewarded and quickly thought that this was a great game :)  P.S.  the beagle was not amused, as evidence by the picture with the pink pony.

Went to Colorado....didn't catch on fire.

Greetings faithful blog followers (or random folks who stumbled upon this due to some sort of awkward internet search likely including the words "fracture," "mule," or "snake")!  First, I must sincerely apologize for my hiatus in posting recently.  But I think I shall be forgiven when you how much fun I've been having (I'd like to think that you would all encourage me to "live in the moment" rather than to interrupt the moment to blog about it) :)

When we last spoke, I had just finished an awesome adventure with Keri, Ron, Katie, and Baby Kiwi that included some spectacular hiking at Yosemite National Park.  I got to continue my national park tour three weeks ago by going to visit Rocky Mountain National Park with Landon.  We had such a great time, and per usual, it did my heart so good to see that boy :)

Landon works for a company that moves by-products from breweries to dairies so that farmers can use the brewer's grain as feed for the cattle.  He had the awesome fortune of getting to go to CO for his work for a week to meet with their lead nutritionist and tour some of the dairy facilities in the northern part of the state.  I decided to fly out (hey, a ticket to CO is a heck of a lot cheaper than one to FL!) so that we could spend a 3 day weekend together hiking and exploring.  We were worried that the fires would interfere with our hiking plans, but God is good and kept the smoke away from our area of the park.

I started out the trip by juuuuuust missing Caroline and Cameron and their herd of youngsters (I arrived in Denver as they were leaving Denver, but I could feel their presence in the air and it was really cool to be able to send her a text while in the same time zone :) ).  After basking in that small triumphant feeling (don't hate.... being 3 time zones away really sucks sometimes!), I picked up our rental car and headed off to find my man.  For the record, this trip made me officially experience a feeling of hatred towards a Chevrolet.  I did not know this was possible.  But I shall never drive a Chevy Cruz again, mark my words.

We headed off to Estes Park, CO.  If you have never been, you really should.  Estes Park is such a neat area, with lots of hiking and a beautiful down town area.  I forgot to take pictures, but you should totally just take my word for it.  Or Google it.  Whatev.

After spending the first part of the day in Estes Park, we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park to get to Grand Lake, CO for the night.

Chillin a mile high.  There was snow next to us.

Mountain Man got so excited about the Rockies that he forgot that it is illegal to walk on the tundra.... Oh well.  Picture turned out pretty sweet anyway. 

Please take this moment to note the excessive wind.  My free arm is holding down my poofy shirt so that I don't flash yall, and I think my hair is self-explanatory.

Oh, hey Rockies :)

Found some elk in a meadow.

And lots of beeeeebies!  And the poor babysitter doe. Ha.

The next morning started bright and early to hit the trails!  I have been to this park a few times, but Landon was a newbie to it, so we chose to hike the southwest corner of the park to hit an area that I have never explored before.

After lots of careful planning on my part (much to the annoyance of Landon), we chose to hike from the Green Mountain trailhead to the Tonahuntu Creek divide, to Granite Falls, to Haynach Lake, and back.

It was a super pretty trail.  Started out nice and flat, very well maintained, with a huge circle around the aptly named Big Meadow.  Lots of beautiful wild flowers, and we even stumbled on two young bull moose.  Mooses?  Mice?  Wait, that's not right....

Self-timer on a rock!  Davys would be so proud :)

Trail begins to get steeper as you approach Granite Falls, and a good majority of the hike is next to the beautiful, and crystal clear, river.  On the way back, our water supply was pretty low, and considering that we were at pretty high altitude, the water was glacial run-off, and we still had about 8 miles back to the trail head, we decided to play russian roulette with intestinally upsetting bacteria and just drink from the river.  We won. :)

You can even climb to the top of the falls, like this creeper.

Everyone respects a man who speaks softly and carries a big stick.  Or a man who lifts many hundred pounds and carries a big stick..... ha.

Elevation started to increase, and Landon got tired and found a chair.

The falls are a turn-around point for most hikers, but we pressed onward.  The trail got less maintained, and we didn't see another soul for the rest of the hike (which is how I personally prefer to roll).  We did find some VERY fresh mountain lion tracks and clear evidence of a struggle with some sort of cloven-hoofed mammal, which was slightly disconcerting, but well worth it when we reached the meadow at the top of our hike at 11,500 feet.  We hung out on a huge boulder, ate lunch, and just took in the majesty of the scenery.  Majestic really is the best word to use to describe the Rockies, I think.

Now is the point where I should mention that I did not do a good job with math for this hike..... I got so excited about exploring this part of the park that I totally did not take mileage into consideration.  Here is the equation that we ended up with:

1 power lifter (with ZERO type I slow twitch muscle fibers) + 17.2 miles of hiking + 11,500 ft elevation = the "drunken monkey walk"

What is a drunken monkey walk?  It occurs when you lose all glycogen stores to your muscles and are running on only lactic acid.  You basically can't support yourself and rely on your walking stick, and throw one leg hopelessly in front of the other and struggle to stand upright.  I took a lot of video because I thought it was semi-entertaining, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post them.  Ha.  So here is a still shot and the rest will have to happen with your imagination:

Either way, we eventually made it back to the car, with Landon and my ankle in on piece.  I asked him if he ever wanted to go hiking with me again and he was silent for a while.  After much thought he replied "Yes....... if we are smarter about the distance...."

We spent the night back in Denver, and the next day almost drove to Ft. Collins to see FRIEND KATIE B.!!!  Its a good thing that she caught on to my directionally challenged self and re-directed me the right direction..... towards Ft. Carson.  Which is where she actually lives.  Which is the exact opposite direction of Ft. Collins.  Of course.

Y'all, this chick is amazing.  She is such a beautiful, hilarious, talented, brave, and loving-hearted woman.  And I haven't seen her in almost 3 years because she has been serving overseas in the Army and we kept missing each other when she was home and I was in MI.  She is now engaged, and I got to meet her fiance, who is awesome.  We ate brunch at a sweet restaurant that reminded us both of Griffin's back where we grew up :)  It was soooo good to get to see this girl!  So good, in fact, that we forgot to take a picture :(  So here is one from the last time I saw her when we went rock climbing!

Bottom line:  I love the Rockies, Landon, and Katie, and I was so glad to get to see all three of them!

Also, if you're bored, feed a lemon to a baby and see what happens!

Love,
AP