Jon and I started off the month by going to one of our new favorite places in Tacoma--Swan Creek. Swan Creek is a local park with trails that you can walk through for several acres. What has attracted us to it recently, though, is the mountain biking trails also found at the park.
Jon grew-up in the brown, flat, desert region of Southern California were he learned to love dirt biking. He misses it dearly, but I'm fairly certain that I would not enjoy the activity if I gave it a go, so we haven't attempted it yet. That, plus we don't have a bike and they're rather expensive. Mountain biking has become the middle ground that Jon and I have discovered that we both enjoy, and so since finding Swan Creek, we've been back to visit many times!
For the Fourth of July, Jon and I took a break from mountain biking and went on a hike instead. We went hiking to a place called Perry Creek in the Mr. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest north of Seattle. It was a cold and rainy day, which was nice because it meant less hikers were on the trail. The down side of this though was that the last 2 miles of the 6 mile trail was in a cloud which meant that instead of getting a view at the top, all we could see was more cloud! On top of this, the snow still on top of the peak made it very cold! Despite this all, we still got to see many beautiful waterfalls in the valley on our way up and had a fantastic time together!
Here I am at the top in the snow and the rain!
Towards the end of the month we escaped away for a fun weekend camping at Millersylvania state park near Olympia with our friends Nicole and Pierre. Nicole and Pierre have also been getting into mountain biking, so we spent a decent amount of our time there riding our bikes around on the trails at the park. When we weren't biking, we were eating yummy food and playing games around the campfire.
We are so grateful to have become friends with Nicole and Pierre during our time here in Tacoma. Like us, they enjoy watching sports, playing games, and having fun outside. We've had many game nights together and have spent several evenings watching basketball games with them. At a time of life when Jon and I are just starting out, don't have any kids, and are figuring the whole married things out, it's been comforting having friends in the same boat who we feel like we can relate to. Our friendship with Nicole and Pierre has been a testament to me that Heavenly Father is aware of my circumstances and will take care of me by sending good friends into my life no matter where I am.
