It hits summer temps around here in mid-May and it stays summer hot until mid-October so it’s a little deceiving to talk about the few weeks we have off from school as summer-time but that’s what we do anyway because we’re traditional around here.

I realized like yesterday that this is my last weekend with the kids before school starts – gah! That meant a quick trip out to get backpacks, clothes, lunch boxes and all of that junk and now they have seven precious days left of their break!  Colten and Austin can’t wait for school to start.  Jackson is a different story, a bird of a different feather, a horse of a different color.

We had a fun summer “Break” though! Jackson was gone to camp for two weeks and convinced me to adopt a kitten, we all went to Mexico to soak in some sun, and Colten learned to surf in San Diego. Not too shabby!

I think I could be a professional lounger if someone would just give me the opportunity!

Jackson & his counselor…the same counselor that awarded Jackson the “cheerfulness” feather at the end of camp.  He’s Irish…cheerful means something different to them I think.

Colten did awesome at camp – he loves to surf and wants to go back for two weeks next summer!

As far as summers go I don’t think any of us are complaining about this one!

When I was a teenager there was a magazine I would read, probably Seventeen or some such thing, and usually one of the contributors would write a letter to their younger self – like a “here’s what you should know” kind of thing.

I was thinking about that tonight….what would I tell myself? Not in the sense of telling myself to make a different decision but in the sense of general advice.  This, naturally, led me to think about what I would tell my kids if I could only give them one piece of advice.

I’m not sure what my parents told me.  Go to church.  Remember what you’ve been taught.  When you have to make a choice always choose to pay your electric bill….something I didn’t listen to.  Actually probably didn’t listen to any of that!

I’m not sure what I would tell myself. I certainly have no idea what I will tell my kids!  Maybe…..keep your life simple.

In the meantime….tomorrow morning I have to take the lid off my pool vacuum to get a rock out, Colten has a rash on his butt, Austin has requested that his next hair cut be a mullet, I accidentally committed to adopting a kitten and one of my cats seems to have some sort of skin disease. Life goes on.

At least I’ve learned to pay my electric bill.

Over the weekend I decided to clean my garage.  This will only sound as astounding and monumental as it is if you’ve spent any time in my garage.  It was a chore!

I found some boxes with childhood “stuff” in them and my intention was to move them up to my bedroom and continue to ignore them.  Unfortunately when I picked them up the bottom busted out and “stuff” went everywhere so I ended up sorting and tossing and saving.  Dude.  I used to be a pack rat.

I stumbled upon my glasses from elementary school which I made Austin wear:

He was like “Mom, you must have been so embarrassed!” And right now as Colten reads over my shoulder he is saying “Did everyone make fun of you?” No kids….the glasses were nothing when you take into account the leg braces. What? You think I was born this fabulous? No people…it took work.

Anyway….I also found a treasure trove of letters people have sent me.  All the way back to elementary school.  If you sent me a letter, I probably have it.  Over the past few days I’ve been reading them every night in bed.  They’ve made me laugh, roll my eyes, get annoyed, cry, the whole range of emotions!

I’ve compiled some of my favs for you….

From the mystery boy who wrote me love letters but I don’t remember him at all:

“Please write soon.  Don’t worry, I don’t usually use Crayons but they are FUN”

“When are you going to send me a picture? Any day now would be fine. I’ll pay for the film to get developed if that’s the hold up”

From a note to my mom from one of my brothers that I intercepted:

“MOM, Jaelene is going to spread lies about me.”

From my sister:

“How was your bday? By the way, go downstairs and look under the bed in my room that you slept in. Do it now! Before you read the rest of this. I’ll know if you didn’t! Okay, good! You didn’t find anything did you? I didn’t think so That’s because I took them.  That’s right, I have the shoes Marilyn gave you. I noticed you never wore them so I hid them in my suitcase. Just remember that I love you!”

(same sister…different bday)

“Anyway, I hope it’s a great day for you and that you get gobs of presents from your friends (I’m too cheap, sorry!)”

From my cousin:

“I was still shocked, he was so ugly! Uglier than the bottom of my feet on a rainy day.”

“Then on the way home the car broke down and some truckers picked us up. We went with them till they got to our exit where my dad picked us up. So what have you been up to?”

From my brother:

“It’s a Monday. Got caught sluffing….suspended for the rest of today and tomorrow.”

“I hope you’re doing well through if I made you mad on the phone I’m sorry I didn’t mean to. I hope you like all your classes because if you didn’t that would be dumb.”

Several quotes from the same letter from my Grandma…it’s my send off to college:

“I remember that transition well….all my choices were not wonderful but I did learn a lot about other people. I guess that is what concerns me for you”

“U of U is so big..narrowing down your sphere of action will help. You can’t meet everyone and shouldn’t!!”

“You have a chance to mature, and meet the world on its terms without sacrificing anything of your wonderful self” (awww….thanks grandma!)

From one of my other brothers:

“I hear rumors that you’re searching for a job. I’m all for that. One thing I wish I had done is invest my money into some stock or bonds or something. Especially when I was 15.”

“I enjoyed the date we had together before I left. I intend to treat you out in the future again as well so be prepared to be embarrassed in public once again!”

“Every day is a new adventure. Other than kissing Cami this is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life”

“I think you would be surprised if you knew how much I love you”

From my dad for my 12th bday:

“Boys don’t seem to change as much as girls do, which is very nice, since girls are much more interesting than boys are anyway!”

“Things will pass, however, so forgive me when I hurt your feelings or don’t seem to understand you anymore.  I’ll try to do the same thing when you don’t seem to understand me anymore.”

From my mom:

“You may use my blow dryer. Remember your parents love you and will always consider you our Princess”

“Jaelene we never get challenges that we cannot handle. I believe your roommate challenges will be in the long run for your own good.”

“You may want to also JUST THINK, JUST THINK ABOUT going to Japan with us. THINK ABOUT IT.”

“The calendar has a thought for every day so I have 365 such thoughts to share with you – aren’t you so grateful for that?”

I’m so glad I saved all my letters! I’m going to sound exactly like my mom….this makes me want to write letters and save stuff too.  I still have two more shoe-boxes to dig through.  And also…this post should explain why I’m wearing a name tag from Arctic Circle.  Still has milkshake residue caked on to it. And maybe smells like fry sauce too.

For the past few years I’ve really wanted to hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, sleep a few hours, and then turn around and hike back out.  I’m not even really sure when this goal became a goal because it’s definitely outside my normal parameters.  Last Fall my friend Bob and I decided that it was time to actually do what we had been talking about. He’s done it a few times before and I’ve hiked with him a lot so going with him seemed like the best way for me to accomplish this!  About four months ago we got our Backcountry Permit & started really training.

Our plan was to head up to the little town outside of Grand Canyon National Park the night before our hike, spend the night, hike down the South Kaibab trail, sleep at Bright Angel Campground, and hike out the Bright Angel Trail the next day.  So Wednesday afternoon we headed out after months of training and planning.

Thursday morning we got up bright & early for some breakfast, I think this is the first time it really started to sink in what I was about to do.  I had been nervous and excited leading up to this point but it was a little different, a little bit more intense, as the time got closer to our planned start time.  Once we got in the park we parked our car at the trailhead we would be coming out of the next day and took the shuttle over to our starting point.

It took about an hour of hiking before my nerves really calmed down.  Overall, hiking down was not as challenging as I thought it would be but every switchback we turned through was one more that I knew I’d have to climb through the next day and it took me a little while to stop worrying about whether or not I was ready physically to hike back out.

On the way down it started to get hot with about an hour left in our hike.  This worked out perfectly because about a quarter mile before camp there is a TUNNEL that leads to a VERY LONG BRIDGE that goes across the HUGE COLORADO RIVER! So there’s like 3 reasons to turn around and go home.  I saw the bridge and tunnel several miles before we got there and I swear that bridge and tunnel is the reason I tripped over a railroad tie and split my knee open!

Anyway….by the time we got to the tunnel and bridge we’d been hiking just over three hours and it was 101 degrees outside.  My quads were so tired that they were actually shaking, all I wanted to do was take my pack off and if I had to cross that bridge to do it that’s what I was going to do! It actually wasn’t that bad, we hung out for awhile because there was a really nice breeze!

We hiked about another quarter mile and picked out our campsite.  We made it down in 3 hours and 25 minutes.   My pack weighed around 45 pounds, maybe a little less, which is about 5 – 10 pounds more than I wanted to carry.  As it turns out I used everything in my pack.  The only thing I could have changed is I could have brought less food.  Other than that – I had exactly what I needed so I guess that’s my pack weight!

Once we set up camp we had a lot of free time to fill! We hung out in the river, hung out at the canteen and drank lemonade until we were both sick, made fun of people that rode a mule down there and had on white button down shirts with belts and fancy shoes, tried to take a nap but it was so hot we stuck to our sleeping bags, visited the mules, and generally hung out.  By 9:00 it was lights out! Literally…it was really dark out!

When I climbed into my tent I’m not going to lie, I was kind of scared. I’ve never slept in a tent all by myself, especially one that is completely open to the night sky. It didn’t help that there were bats flying ALL over the place! But once I got in my tent, laid down and put in my iPod – it was so amazing! The stars were so beautiful.  Just that alone – seeing the beautiful night sky – was worth the journey!

I slept pretty good considering and we were back up at 5:00 to pack up and head out.  We left Bright Angel right at 6:00 AM and we both guessed it would take us about five hours to get out of the canyon….or at least that was our goal.  The hike out is easily broken into 3 sections.  From the campground it’s 4.8 miles to the next campground, Indian Gardens.  From there it’s 4.5 miles to the top – there is a shade structure with water 1.5 miles from Indian Garden, and another shade structure with water 1.5 miles after that – then you are done. Sounds easy, right? Get to Indian Gardens in the cool morning,break up the rest of the hike with some breaks in the shade with fresh water.

Not so much. Which is to say easier said than done.

Bright Angel trail is beautiful – it follows the Colorado River for about a mile then it u-turns into a shady, cool canyon.  About two miles into the hike it starts to switchback and really climb.  Somewhere in the last steep climb I did something to my knee.  At first I didn’t say anything because I figured it would just work itself out, plus saying it out loud sometimes makes it worse so I just kept hiking.  Eventually, however, the pain in my knee got to the point where I couldn’t walk.  We found a spot where I could lay down and elevate my leg. I took a whole bunch of ibuprofen and laid there waiting for something to happen.  After about 30 minutes I decided that it would better for us to get to Indian Garden.  There’s a ranger there, water, campsites, etc.  I figured if my knee didn’t chill out at least I’d be able to spend the night at Indian Garden and hike the rest of the way they next day.

That definitely turned out to be a good decision.  After some hiking the ibuprofen kicked in and the pain became manageable.  After we got cold, fresh water and ate some food at Indian Garden I definitely felt like I could finish the hike.  Granted, by the end of the day I probably took 30 ibuprofen but at least my knee felt better! We made it to the 3 mile shade structure in pretty good time.  We rested for about 15 minutes, got fresh water and headed out for the next shade structure.

It’s crazy how long 3 miles can go on! By this time thanks to the slow final few miles to Indian Garden there was no way we were going to make our 5 hour goal.  It was starting to get really hot.  By the time we got to the 1.5 mile shade structure we were both ready to be done! We rested for almost 30 minutes, ate some food and headed out for our final leg!  The last 1.5 miles was so challenging! My knee wasn’t feeling great and it was getting really hot out! Thankfully there is a lot of shade on this trail and we took advantage of it! At one point we were stopped in the shade and my back was to the trail and I could hear like a whirring noise….like something was flying through the air.  Well, that’s probably because something was! Either a rock got kicked off the edge or maybe someone threw one…but a rock was airborne and guess what stopped its descent into the abyss I was trying to climb out of? My right tricep, that’s what! Umm…it hurt. Badly.  I swore. Out loud. In front of small children.

It was about at this point that I got kind of mad at the universe.  My hiking partner Bob looked over at me and said something I will probably never forget.  ”Jaelene honey….this hike is hard enough, you can stop trying to make it harder!”   It didn’t bother me when I fell and cut my knee open.  It didn’t bother me when I hurt my knee and totally messed up my goal, but when a random stupid rock came flying through the air and landed on me – I got really mad.  Like mad enough that I actually got enough energy to finish my hike! Enough with the optional “let’s see what she can overcome” hiking plan.  The last mile was probably only accomplished because I was really mad. And super determined. And because a really nice family from Charleston, South Carolina offered some really nice words of encouragement and waited for me at the last turn to say congratulations. And because my hiking partner is awesome. And because I knew lots of people at home were thinking of me and wishing me well.  And because I couldn’t wait to call my parents and tell them I did it.

We walked up the final stupid switchback and stopped the clock at six hours and thirty minutes exactly.  An hour and a half longer than I wanted but I don’t really care about that.  I sat down on a rock, cried for a second, texted my parents, and took off my boots.  And it was done.

Since I got home lots of people have asked me if it was worth it. My calves are sore in a way I can’t explain.  Three of my toenails have huge blisters under them and are probably going to fall off.  I’m not going to be able to carry my kids to bed for about a week.  If I bite into another Cliff bar in the next month I will probably throw up.  I’m not going to get all existential and say I came out a different person than I went in or that I found the answer to any of my life questions.  But if the question is Can Jaelene carry all her crap seven miles down to the Colorado River, set up and sleep in her own tent, live on protein bars and licorice, overcome extra special amounts of physical pain and carry all of her crap almost ten miles back out just to figure out that she can stop making life more complicated than it already is….the answer to that is yes, yes she certainly can.

It was worth it. I would do it again tomorrow if my toenail blisters would stop oozing.  I know…it’s gross.

I’ve posted some pictures in the picture album – it was so hard picking pictures! Lots of you offered me good lucks & congratulations and I so appreciate that! I wasn’t kidding when I said that being able to get to the top and tell my parents I made it was a huge motivator for me.  I texted my mom as soon as I could function and within minutes she called me.  My mom and dad were so excited for me! That was almost as awesome as finishing!

Now to rest for a few months before I start training for my next big adventure…….Twenty Five miles – North Rim to South Rim in a day. =0 No problem. Hopefully.

The first thing that happened was….well I watched several episodes of Barefoot Contessa in a row.  Not only did I watch them, I recorded them. And then watched them again. And again.

The next thing that happened was I watched Julia & Julie. Or Julie & Julia? Not sure. But I know for sure that I watched it.

Next I went grocery shopping and watched one Particular Episode of Barefoot Contessa again.

Then I made these beautiful cheese danishes in a very serious fashion.  Which really just means I followed ALL the directions.

The next thing hasn’t actually happened yet but I’m going to take a guess at my future.  I’m gonna gain like ten pounds because not only am I going to eat most of those, I also have a container of the leftover filling in my frig so that takes care of lunch as well.

Bon Appetit!

I’ve been so busy lately but “I need to blog” is always in the back of my head. I have probably 5 posts rolling around in this brain…somehow I don’t find time to write them! This has something to do with the fact that I have an 11 year old that likes to spend 100% of his free time on my computer! He’s asking for a computer for his birthday and I’m inclined to give him one for my benefit alone!

I have four weeks left until I check something off my bucket list – hike the Grand Canyon! I’ve been hiking a lot to get ready for this and I’m so excited.  I just keep thinking that no matter how much I train the fact of the matter is that once I get to the bottom of that trail I have no choice but to hike back out!

For Mother’s Day I took the kids to a resort in Tucson for a night. I figured that this was my best shot at getting acceptable breakfast which ended up being pastries from Starbucks but we had a great time. The boys floated in the lazy river for about 10 hours this weekend.  The only hiccup? I was lounging in my chair soaking up the sun when Austin floated by and said “Mom! I had to pee so bad but I was too far away from you so I just peed in here and floated away as fast as I could!” Naturally I pretended like I didn’t know him.   I say for the 1,000 time here – potty training is not my strong suit.

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day – especially my mom. There is no way I would have made it through this past year without my Mom (and my Dad who always supports her) and for that I’m infinitely grateful!

Did you ever wonder how Mike and Carole Brady ended up being single? I mean you have like this idealistic blended family where Carole’s ex-husband never gets the kids at Christmas.  There is definitely no guidebook for how to navigate these things but if there was one it definitely wouldn’t be the Brady Bunch.

Anyway…we are working on the current version of our family which has the kids at one house one week and the other house the next week but we also have a family night every Wednesday where we all get together and do something together. It helps a lot when I’m missing the kids on my off week!

Tonight we got some frozen yogurt and headed to a new park near our house and had lots of fun!

Colten and Scott chillaxin

Lil Boys

Jackson’s hair is almost as long as mine in some parts!

I just got back from a quick trip to St. Pete Beach, Florida for my girlfriends wedding.  I had a great time, however taking such a short vacation really just caused me to want to take a longer vacation.   Hopefully sometime this summer I will find myself on a beach again!

For Easter today I had brunch with some friends at a nice local resort.  My friend made me an awesome Easter basket and brought hard boiled eggs for everyone so we could play a game he’s played every year since he was a kid.  Everyone has an egg with their name on it and you take the pointy ends and try to crack the other person’s egg without cracking yours.   It’s a funny game that he won for the first time ever!

A fun end to a nice and relaxing weekend!

This year more than any before I am love with Spring! I have no idea how to even explain it….I’m just so ready for winter to be gone! I was walking through Nordy’s the other day and everything was so beautiful, I got so excited! I think it’s all the lovely colors that are out right now…it’s such a colorful fashion season, it gets me all excited!

Next week I’m headed to Florida for some much needed R&R and for a wedding. I’m going to be out of town for two nights. Normally flying all the way across the country for two nights would be annoying to me but not this time! It’s been awhile since I’ve traveled anywhere and I really miss it.  Plus, two nights right on a beautiful Gulf of Mexico beach? Not complaining!

And I also feel like I should let you all know that today while driving to work I came up with my New Years Resolution: Always Accessorize.

Cheers!

I started Spring Cleaning a month early in hopes that maybe my efforts to eliminate clutter would spur warmer weather to show up.  I am aware that this is not possible….nature will do what nature will do regardless of my actions unless of course we are discussing my carbon footprint and Antarctica’s Ice Shelves but that’s for another day.

Anyway…Spring Cleaning is underway.  And I’m fortunate enough to have my mom in town to help me “get my house in order” which clearly means many things these days.   She’s been busy organizing book shelves, sorting toys, cleaning junk drawers, and rehabbing my pantry.  She does this while I display my excellent supervisory skills.   And let me tell you…they are excellent.

We are starting our second week of her two week visit and we have lots of fun stuff in store like cleaning out a linen closest (!), organizing my craft room (!), and other actual fun things like heading out to a Spring Training game.  Good times!