Such a joyous birthday! I could not have asked for more.
Friday I skipped work (hooray!) and got ready for the trip. We left a little late, but then it didn't matter cus I was on a road trip with Billy, against all odds, and we were going to Colorado to hike Pikes Peak! This week Billy sacrificed so much and worked so hard and did so many impossible things to make it happen, but you better believe that guy loves me cus it did happen. I am infinitely grateful, it was another life saving trip.
Usually this is a picture of Billy driving, but I did drive a lot!
We drove and drove and it was beautiful and arrived in Colorado late on Friday night/Saturday morning. Mom and Dad and Doug gave us the best greeting (may Sydney rest in peace, I sure missed her running to say hello to me upon my arrival! Oh wait...that never ever happened. But still. Missed seeing her curled in her garage hole and waving at her from a distance). Then we went to bed around 1:30.
Woke up at 4:40! Woo! Packed up and took off!
We started hiking around 6 and made fantastic time up to Barr Camp. The mountain was busy! And so full of countless memories! I love love love love Pikes Peak! I was so happy. we took a quick little stop at Barr Camp then kept trucking.
The traditional picture at the top of the switchbacks.
Billy using our awesome LifeStraw--it totally worked!
When we made it to treeline, we were
already feeling a little elevation, but feeling good. Made it there in 4 hours
or so. I was SO happy that Billy legitimately
loved the whole thing and thought it was such a cool mountain. I was worried,
cus it's not like Utah mountains and he loves those so much. But he loved
it!
But i do believe it was also way harder
than he expected. We were moving slow at the top, but it was
beautiful and fun and wonderful to feel the goodness of no oxygen headaches and
heart pounds. To me, anyway, haha I don't know if Billy liked it that much. But
he was still a smiling trooper all the while.
We were super tired when we got to the
top, and had been debating the whole time whether we should go up and down or
not, but when there were no parents in sight at the top and Billy's head was
hurting pretty bad, we decided to just get down fast by just hiking down! I'd
never done that before and it turned it into a whole different hike. So fun!
Yeah! Pikes Peak with Billy!
When we stopped at Barr Camp on the way down, squirrels were just literally eating out of Billy's hands! I couldn't believe it. It was crazy.
We hiked the rest of the way down, and we were pretty tired, but it was fun and beautiful. We were glad to be down when we were down, but never reached the point of just being so miserable we didn't want to hike a single step more. So that was good. Oh Pikes Peak! How much I loved it!
We went to Grandpa and Grandma's house for a delicious krautranza dinner and a birthday song on the accordion from Mom!
Today we drove home and it was beautiful and fun. Since Billy was hot most the drive but the air conditioning made me cold and my vents don't close, we found another useful purpose for Grandma's traditional gift:
A pretty grand trip! We are home and happy. Thanks for reading the August blogs! While I did quite enjoy all the posting, it will probably be awhile before the next one. Happy August!
Here we are in Japan commenting on a trip of just a couple days ago! Amazing! So glad you got to hike your Peak. We loved having you! Happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteAh! This was the best blog ALL month! I loved it. I am so glad that you guys got to go to Pikes Peak for your birthday. I just kept thinking the whole time i was reading this..."put six donuts into the bin"...haha.
ReplyDelete