May 2016

The past two months have been a blast! In the middle of May, my sisters took a train up to visit us for the weekend. We had fun playing games, talking 'till 3am, and doing pancake art.

The next day, all four of us drove down to my parents' place and we spent the day there. While there we did a short hike, played Wii sports, ate treats, and played games again.

Memorial Day weekend was once again a blast. My mom came up on Friday and the two of us went on a bike ride along the Foothills Trail, from Orting to South Prairie. It was an easy trail with beautiful views--great place to talk and ride at the same time. That evening we went to the temple with Jon and enjoyed a wonderful session.

The next morning we woke up early and went to Mt. Rainier to hike to Carbon Glacier. This hike was easy in that there wasn't a sharp incline, but proved difficult in other ways. Several sections of the trail were washed out and we had to adventure our way through to find where the trail picked up. At one point, it took us an hour to find our way across the river we were hiking to!

Jon finding his way across the river:

The reward at the end of the hike was great. Not only was there a really cool suspension bridge that went across the river, but Jon got to satisfy his dream to see a glacier.

All of us in front of the bridge:

 Me at the far end of the bridge:

Jon crossing the bridge:

That huge mound of brown stuff behind me--that's the glacier!

Altogether, it was a very long hike. 19 miles and 8 hours after we began, the three of us made it back to the car and went home, tired but very satisfied.

This weekend exemplifies one of the things I love about my mom--she's getting older in age, but she works really hard to stay active and healthy so that we can do fun stuff like we did this weekend. It wasn't always this way for her. When I was younger, there was a time when she was overweight and had to decide that she wanted to change her lifestyle. She didn't do any crazy diet or exercise program; rather, she merely started to eat more consciously and exercise regularly (while still eating chocolate just about every day!). I'm sure it took a lot of work and self discipline on her part, but ever since then she's always tried to be healthy and take care of herself so that she can better take care of those around her. Her example has helped me in countless ways, and it's probably the main reason why I try to stay healthy and exercise today!

In summation, May was absolutely wonderful because it was a month filled with time with family!