Me and My Buddy

My best buddy is Eric Wilson. Our moms happen to be really good friends as well and so we get to hang out often. We have a lot of fun while our moms are taking turns biking and running.

We go to the park a lot and run around. Well, I run around and Eric watches me but hopefully he can join me soon and we can run around together.





Eric really likes to swing and so I push him. I am too big for the little swing now but ...



...still too little for the big swing



Then we get hungry and have a snack. I like to share with Eric because otherwise he eats the leaves and rocks.




These are my favorite shoes because I can run really fast in them. But I like Eric's car shoes as well.



One day we went to the Dinosaur Museum which is pretty much my favorite museum because you can do more than just look. Like climb on top of dinosaurs.



You can also play in the sand and water and and pretend like you are an archeologist. I liked that!



Eric liked it, too, and so Jen helped him.




There were not just cool dinosaurs...



...but also REALLY big sharks



Sometimes Eric and I just like to hang out and eat cookies together

Italy

Another really fun adventure we went on this summer was our trip to Italy. We found a beautiful spot close to the Swiss border and the Lago Maggiore. Our campground was in a small valley right by a river, had a play ground, a water fall, a swimming pool and all kinds of amenities, which was really fun for Noah.

We went hiking as much as Noah could take






Explored old, tiny villages in the mountains



The following little village is really worth mentioning since one can only get to it by foot. The few people living there park their car down by the lake and hike one mile pretty steep up the mountain to get to their old and simple but beautiful homes. This kind old gentleman and his wife were hanging out by the churchwaiting for their grandson to come visit them when we came, and while he played with Noah, the lady talked to us in Italian (which we tried hard to understand and were successful most of the time) telling us about the village and people living there. Most people used to live there but now only come back during the summer but two families live their year round. Pretty amazing.



This is the view from the village down to the lake





Played on the beach



Swam in the lake. Well, Karl did. I was still recovering from the Ironman and Noah preferred the pedal boat.



And of course had really yummy Italian food



Noah borrowed this VW bus from a neighbor boy and it had to come on every adventure

Mt. Rainier

I figured I would start this Blog by telling you about climbing Mt. Rainier. It is recent enough, it is something we have always wanted to do and we have pretty good pictures.



Besides Karl and me, our climbing crew consisted of our friends Mike, Brooke, and Paul. We flew into Seattle, where we stayed with Mike and Brooke one night and did some sightseeing. Then we were off to Mt. Rainier National Park. After having been squeezed into a little truck for four hours, we were all ready to head up the mountain. Despite a late start, the scenery was beautiful, and after getting used to the weight on our backs, we were having a great time.







Because of our late start we had not quite made it to Camp Muir before dark and so we stayed in another fun place in the snow and dug out our tent sites. Freezing? Yes. Still fun? Yes. Well, kind of.





Karl in his element



Our goal was clearly in sight when we woke up.



But I really liked this peak (Little tahoma), too.



The next morning was beautiful and after melting snow (which turned out to be our second most frequent activity besides hiking), we went out to finally conquer Camp Muir and did so in only a few hours. Lunch break and off we are again to our second base camp, Ingraham Flats. Now we had the pleasure of roping up as a team and getting onto the glaciers. Yeah, that is what we had all been waiting for and so the real fun was about to start: crampons, helmet, rope, harness, rockfall, crevasses and lots of other things which names I can't remember. But this is what it looked like



Ingraham Flats - and yes, there is a big crevasse pretty much right next to our tent but it was not as scary as it might seem. However, it was even colder than it seems.




Brooke decided to stay behind and so the rest of us left for the summit at 2 am. Trying to avoid a billion crevasses in the dark was not as scary as I had anticipated, thanks to the well-formed trail ahead of us and so just hiked and hiked and hiked. It went slower and slower and slower because the oxygen was getting really low now and our muscles were tired. We all made it to the top at 9 am and here we are.



When we finally made it back to base camp at 3 pm, Brooke was very relieved to see us all alive. She had a rather disturbing morning due to frequent avalanches near her and heavy rockfall, so she was happy to finally get out of there. We had some more curry and rice started a very long hike back to our car which we did not reach until 9 pm that night. We took a couple of more pictures of us and "our" mountain but for more we were simply too tired.



It was a great adventure and now we are all proud owners of green Nalgenes that say: "Mount Rainier 14,410". And what can beat that?