Cascade mountain

Jared took me on a little getaway up the canyon. We had Karli take the kids to Grandma Barrett's house Friday, and Jared had his big hiking backpack all loaded with a tent and sleeping bags, small air mattresses, and food and a little burner, lots of water, and two little camp chairs. We hiked two miles with all this on our backs to an abandoned old scout camp by big springs on Cascade mountain, Jared had about 3 times more weight on his back but still my shoulders were hurting. He made me work for my dinner that night. We were the only ones in this camp spot,heated up cans of soup for our dinner, and slept in a tiny lightweight tent, with only the screech owls and the wind to accompany us. It was fun to sit in the beautiful nature and talk. The next morning we were awoken at 5:40 AM by a few vehicles parked 10 yards away, unbeknownst to us our camp spot was the respite point for a 62 mile mountain race. We ate breakfast and packed up and stashed the backpack, then started up the mountain to the summit. We passed those 45 insane runners and cheered on each one of them. It was gorgeous at the top, and we shared some trail mix and patted each other on the back. Steep hike, you go up 4000 feet in 3 1/2 miles. We are sore today. But it was worth it and we had a good time together.
We picked up the kids from eagle mountain that afternoon and thought we'd treat the family to macaroni grill since they were good and we were exhausted. Jared and I quickly came down from our lover's cloud nine as we argued about what to get the kids that wasn't a big rip off. The kids didn't even appreciate their kid meals anyway, I can't wait until their taste buds grow in. We won't be visiting another nice restaraunt with the kids for a while. We will stick with Jason's deli with a coupon so Jared doesn't go into cardiac arrest and the kids eat their food.

PS. Weston sang "The Lord Needs Valiant Servants" in church today and did an excellent job.