More pictures

Now I look like a homeless person, since I had to carry out the trash on the outside of my pack.

Greg climbing up to Emory Peak

At the top of Emory Peak

Find us! -- Campsite for the 3rd night

Big Bend pictures

Thanksgiving at Big Bend

I don’t really know when the idea of: Let’s go to big bend came to play.  We decided it would be a fun trip to take before we move out of TX (since it is a possibility now).  It’s a 10 hour drive from Houston, including the 80mph speed limit on i-10 past San Antonio!   Big Bend is a place I’ve been wanting to go for sometime, but because the drive is so long it was impossible to do it in a 3 day weekend.  I didn’t want to take any vacation for Big bend since my vacation is limited, so I had decided that visiting big bend while not taking any days off would be great.

We got a late start on Wednesday, Greg picked me up at 4:00pm, drove all the way to Fort Stockton (north of BB). We arrived a bit past midnight, small town, small hotel, HUGE bed.  We were supposed to leave by 6:30am since we still needed to drive about 2 hours to get to the park office where they give out the backcountry permits (Panther Junction).  The getting up early did not happen, we were too tired and ended up getting up at 6:45am, got some breakfast at a gas station and headed out to the park, we arrived at the park at around 9:30am.  Got the permit and off to Chisos Basin mountains, this was another 3 miles.  It’s 26 miles from the park entrance to the office where you get the permit and another 3 miles to get to where we were leaving the car.

Got everything ready, backpacks, hats, water and started hiking towards our campsite   North East 1 (NE1).  I knew it was a long hike, but never really knew what I was getting myself into. Started the hike at around 11am, the first 3 miles were crazy, all uphill, gained about 2000ft.  Made a stop at Toll mountain, used the “toilet” and rested a bit.  We were still needed to go another 3 miles to get to our destination.  The last .5 miles were hard, all uphill again.  Our packs weighted between 40-45lbs each, I had 2 gallons of water plus 2 nalgenes (a liter each).  All of that water plus my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, clothes, pans to cook, 12 eggs and a few other things.  Greg had the tent, sleeping bag 4 L of water, food, lamp, jet boiler, clothes and others.  The packs were heavy.  I could feel my legs killing me along the way.  We finally arrived to our destination at around 3:30pm (Took us about 4.5hrs from the trailhead, through the pinnacles trail).  Set the tent, cooked, and got in the tent again.  We saw deer about 20ft away from us, they were really cute.  It started to get super cold at around 5:30pm, so we were in “bed” by 6:30pm, it was also very dark by then.  We watched the stars for sometime but it was so cold that it was hard to just be out there without being inside the sleeping bag.

The next morning we got up at 9:30am, cooked breakfast and started hiking the North and South rim loop.  About 7 miles roundtrip from NE1, the views were awesome, the mountains were breathtaking, we took a few breaks, got great pictures.  The hike was a bit challenging but not too bad specially because we didn’t have our backpacks with us. The second night we camped at the same place NE1.  Another early night and this time an early morning since we got up to see the sunrise. 

On the third day, we packed everything and hiked to Toll Mountain (about 3 miles), dropped the bags at the bear box and did another 3 mile hike (roundtrip from TM) up to Emory peak.  The view from Emory peak was awesome! But the last 30ft elevation were pretty much a vertical 30ft.  I climbed without a problem,  then I had to look back to see where Greg was and that was a bad idea.  I looked back and there were cliffs on either side, Greg was stuck since he couldn’t get his leg high enough, he eventually got it and we made it all the way up.  It was beautiful up there but it was very very scary.  There were 3 children up there, and the youngest one was throwing rocks and pushing his siblings.  Note that the drops around the peak were over 400ft straight down.  I sat in one rock and didn’t move from there, it was very scary.  We got some pictures and made our way down, I didn’t want to be up there too long, fearing I would see someone fall and die.  Got back to get our pack and hiked down another 1.5 miles until we reached Boulder Meadows 1 (BM1).  It was still a cold night, and an early/long night for us.  The next morning, we packed all of our stuff hiked down another 1.5 miles until we made it back to the Chisos Basin lodge, it was 10:15am by then.  A 9 hour plus, car ride awaited for us to make it back to Houston.

It was an AWESOME trip, another one for the books, another great adventure. Unforgettable.  Greg and I are very much glad to be back home though, and sleep in a warm and comfy house. We were able to see nature at its best, the sunrises and sunsets, the mountains and animals, everything was great even having to dig a hole in the ground to use as a toilet in an emergency.  

NBA night

We went to see The Clippers vs The Rockets!  Great game, even though Houston lost.

Halloween party

Kevin Voogt and Hayley (church friends) threw a costume party this past Saturday.  Greg and I had to quickly stop at walmart, where we found 50% costumes.  7:00pm and we were making our way through the messy costumes selection, Greg found Luigi which was a XXL size, while I found Mario.  One was a XXL and the other one was for a 6 yr old kid, GREAT!  So I went with the smaller one, well I managed to put it on while riding in the car.  I couldn't sit, because bending would rip my costume, then I couldn't close up my back because it just really wouldn't fit.  I ended up attaching a white inflatable thing to my back, this was supposed to be Mario’s belly! The party was fun, we played games and enjoyed the friendships.

Note that my legs were supposed to go all the way down, and not stop at my knees...

A quarter century

Today, I dressed up for work.  I can’t wear toms to work all the time even if I wanted to, sometimes I have to feel a bit more confident about myself and today felt like a good day to look 25.  That sounds so old.  Yep, there I am in my middle twenties.  Can I have a mid twenties crisis? I should go out and buy something expensive… or just go to chipotle.  Chipotle is my favorite restaurant, Toms may be my favorite type of shoes and I now own only about 100 T-shirts, after Greg made me give away over 60 of them this week.

Things have changed, well just a bit.  I’m still crazy, I just get mad more often I’m more strict (thanks dad and mom).  I’m still working on this.  25! Geesh I’m climbing up to 30 and its coming fast.  I’ve had really blessed years, God’s given me everything I’ve ever needed. I have a great job, a place to live, a loving husband, a car, friendships (awesome ones) a great family.  What else can I ask for? Not much more needed.   

Really this next year, my goal is to serve people in a better way.  I’m so busy with life (I’ve always been), but I really want to be that person friends can rely on and know that I can listen to them and provide help.  I have put many things off, I have hold up on friendships a lot because of other events in life.  There is one thing I ask God for this new year, to not lose any more friends over stupid miss understandings.  That’s all.  Of course I ask for a blessed year, to protect me and my friends and family and to continue surprising me like he always has.

This year is a hard one, we may be moving to a different state, different city, and different job.  Greg is in the process of interviewing for residency and this is very nerve wracking.  So far I think GR is on top of the list which could be ok, since my brother lives up there and all my best friends are up there as well.  I know I can make life up there, I know it will be ok, but there are doubts inside of my because of my job.  It’s hard to leave a good job and in a way step backwards but I know God has everything under control.

Also, my awesome work friends decorated my cube!

Today is a special one

Today is a great day, today is Greg’s birthday! Sadly he is not around.  Greg has been such a blessing in my life, he has been there with me along the way of my ups and downs.  I can only imagine the day he was born and his parents were bouncing off the walls of how happy they were to have a boy.  Greg is in his last year of medical school.  This is the interviews time of the year, so he is out of town at the moment.  He is currently in Grand Rapids and actually interviewing as I write this.  

I am wishing Greg a wonderful awesome birthday, a great and perfect joyful day and an extremely blessed birthday.  I cannot believe he is now 26, that means he is climbing the ladder to 30! AHH!! We are getting old.  Greg is an awesome husband, a loving and caring husband even when he doesn’t do things right.  Someday we will have a big family and we will sit there at the porch of our lake house overlooking the grandkids and remembering when he was only 26.

Happy birthday to GREG!!! May all the wishes come true in this year.   Your birthday present is very late, so I’m glad you’re out of town for the moment.

I love you handsome. 

Sue Ann’s wedding

Sue Ann is now married.  Last weekend we flew to Atlanta, where we rented a car and got a free upgrade! Wahoo. We got a two door Altima, very speedy, very bad for the 30 cops along the Atlanta highways.  Drove up to TN and made it on time for the bridesmaids lunch.  This whole thing brought so many memories of when I was getting married.  That Friday, Greg went into town with his dad while I stayed at the house with Greg’s mom.  We sat by the lake, took the sun, the breeze, the colors, the trees in.  Such a great time.  Later in the afternoon, Greg and I took a nap. I recall his words: set the alarm to 4:30.  It was 4pm when we laid in bed, I thought to myself: I will wake up in 5 min.  Next thing I hear is Greg’s dad knocking on the door saying: are you all ready? It’s 10 to 5pm.  SHOOT! The wedding rehearsal was at 5pm.  Quickly woke Greg up, my heart was pounding like if I had had a nightmare.  Got ready and as fast as we could, we made it to the yacht club.  Turns out they were waiting on other people so we weren’t that late.  I guess I need to mention this, I hadn’t had time to shave my legs and I was wearing a dress with really high heels.  Everyone wanted to see the high heels while I wanted to hide in embarrassment.

Well we went off to the house where some of Greg’s relatives were waiting.  Walked into the house and Greg’s aunt said:  That’s a big nice birthday present (while moving her head towards the garage).  I had walked into the garage earlier and had seen a really nice car parked inside, I asked Greg’s mom about it, but she said: I don’t know who’s it is.  Things clicked in my head rather quickly.  I distracted Greg by saying, your present was out on the table but they probably put it away to wrap it.  Greg asked if he was going to like it, all I said was: yes, I think so.

Greg’s dad: let’s go to the rehearsal dinner in your car Greg.

Greg: dad we don’t fit in our car, it’s a sports car and it’s only a two door, we don’t fit.

Greg’s dad: yes we fit, you’re driving, let’s go.

Walked outside, keys were handed to Greg.   Greg walked over to the Altima and tried to open it, it wasn’t working. Eventually he turned around and saw that the beeping car was in the garage.  His reaction wasn’t that intense.  He kept asking if the present was real.  It was a great surprise, and also a great blessing. Since the Subaru is currently getting really bad mpg and getting pretty old.

The rehearsal dinner went well, low key  but nice.  Saturday was a very busy day, got up very early to accompany Sue Ann to the rental house so we could get our hair and make up done.  LaOra did our make up and a lady did our hair.  It was a beautiful (despite a little rain) great day.  The wedding went smoothly during the ceremony.  A few things leading up to it, like the arch falling and the flowers not being done but it all turned out great!

Sunday was a bit chaotic, went to church, then home, then look at homes.  We looked at a few houses at National in Tennessee, they were really pricey and probably not too convincing.  Greg and I have always wanted a house on a lake and I think we are willing to sacrifice a lot of things to fulfill the dream.  However a lot for 500K and still a house to build is not going to work for us.  

After that I had to rush to drive to Atlanta (CRAZY!!) made it after a series of unfortunate events like trying to find a gas station around the airport before returning the car and the gps telling me one thing while the signs were saying something else.

Made it to Houston and the car had 2 flat tires, plus the spare which was also flat! Great welcome event back to Houston.  Fortunately my awesome husband had called USAA to arrange people meeting me at the parking lot to change my tire, then they followed me to the gas station so they could put air in my tires.  It was a very eventful day.

In a better place

Loosing is a bad verb. For some people as competitive as Greg and I this word has never been fun.  Well I wish I was talking about losing a game, unfortunately I am not.  I am referring to relatives going to be with the Lord.  Last week Greg’s uncle passed away (uncle Gary) I didn't know him too well, but I had met him a couple of times and he always seemed nice, plus he was a Tiger’s fan.  It was unexpected, a heart attack.  He had some heart problems but he seemed ok back in July when we saw him (there is actually a picture of him in this blog in July on our visit to GR).  I am glad Greg and I made some time to visit them.  This place we call earth is a funny place, we never know when the last time we will see someone will be. Uncle Gary was a great person, a missionary in China, someone who absolutely loved the Lord, he left a legacy.  It’s so great to be able to say that because we are all very sure that right now he is in a better place.  He is rejoicing and praising God up there in heaven where we all desire to be someday.

October is a brutal month, I also found out that one of my good friend’s dad passed away on Saturday!  He died of cancer, I talked to her and she was very sad about the whole thing.  Who wouldn’t be? But she was sure that her dad was completely ready to go with the Lord, praise God.  I know deaths are never easy, but it may seem a bit easier to know that your relative or friend is in a better place.  It’s also a matter of believing that they are in a better place and not just saying it.  One year ago, my cousin Jaime passed away, I remember those days like if they were yesterday.  It was such a hard time for the whole family, he was critically injured in a car accident and died at the hospital a few days later.  Jaime was an AWESOME man, he was very loved, he was humble, funny, charming, God lover, he was the kind of person you'd want to live next door to.  Jaime brought many people to the Lord, I know he is indeed in an awesome place, I know he is rejoicing and riding bikes and enjoying God’s presence.  It’s hard to understand all these losses in the family but I have absolutely no doubt that they all went to heaven and that they are all having an awesome time with God.

Now I only have the task to pray for those relatives that are not close to God.  Those relatives that I am not sure that they would go to heaven, it even makes me mad to say that I’m not sure they would go to heaven.  It only makes me think that I haven’t done my job on them and I am truly sad about this.

A few years ago, I had a dream that God came to earth, and there were really big lines everywhere to go to heaven.  In the dream I was worried and when I got to the front of the line the angel wouldn't let me in, I started to cry, I started to beg to please let me in!! it was by far the worst nightmare I've ever had.  All the streets were destroyed there was nothing good left on earth, my family was gone and I was standing there holding the wrong ticket to get to heaven.  I woke up and prayed to God, I prayed for repentance, I prayed to please not let be left out on earth once he comes.   A few months ago, I had a dream that it was the end of times and God was coming to get us, to my joy, this time I was going with Him.  Oh it was great, it was an awesome sweet feeling, there was a big beautiful noise all around, I looked around to see people, I was rejoicing, I felt like the happiest girl alive.  Really everything was peaceful, there were no worries, it’s hard to explain the joy I felt inside of me.

When I think of uncle Gary, Jaime and my friend’s dad, I think of joy. I truly think that they are in a way better place, where there are no worries, where everything is really peaceful where things are awesome.

We are just passing through. I’m still here because I am not done with God’s requirements for my life.  I haven’t been called yet, because there is still so much more for me to do here on earth.

The triathlon

Sept 22^nd arrived and as probably expected, we failed at having a consistent training.  Seriously, I need to take these things more serious!  We biked and swam and ran two weeks prior to the event, but as we all know that wasn’t enough!  Well we arrived in Galveston, picked up our packets at moody gardens.  Stayed at a very cheap hotel because I didn’t want to get up at 3am and drive from Houston the day of the race.  Greg didn’t seem too nervous about this, let’s be honest, I was terrified inside.  I think I was more terrified about Greg participating in the event and myself going through the race.  I was scared he would hate it, I was scared he would collapse (not that he wasn’t ready, I was just scared) and I was scared he would get a flat in the middle of the race.  Well none of the above happened, so it was a blessed day.  They canceled the swim part to our surprise, because it was very windy out there and for safety reasons they decided it was safer to just ran and bike.  The running part was good (5K) and the biking was also kind of good (12 miles), turns out I was flying at 20mph on the first 3 miles and then I was barely making it at 6 mph on the second half of the course.  It was so windy that it was hard to move.

I saw Greg on the run course, I was a bit close but I sped up to try to catch him.  Figures, he had the same idea and sped up so I wouldn’t catch him.  I finished the race, then Greg said: I went the wrong way! Hahahaha.  Well I wasn’t sure how you could miss the HUGE arch at the end of the race.  There were two courses, the people doing the olympic distance had to do another lap, so Greg went on the wrong course.  He went back to the course and ran through the arch to finish his time chip.  So his racing time wasn’t very accurate at all.

It was very fun to race together, I think we both really enjoyed it. There goes for the memories.  Maybe in the future we will do another triathlon together. 

Greg’s first camping experience

Over labor day Greg and I went camping. It was very hot, like 100’s but we still decided to do it.  Got up kind of late on Saturday and then off we went to Lost Maples northwest of San Antonio.  The drive up there was nice, awesome and beautiful scenery. We stopped in a Bandera, a cute small town where there was a festival.  We got out the car and proceeded to walk around the little fair. Bought a handy knife and continued our way.  We were already late to our destination, so we arrived and the office was already closed.  We walked 1.7 miles, and arrived at our camping spot. Camping spot #3 at the park. It was way better than I had pictured it. Some people were jumping off the rocks into a pond, it was just great.  About 15 more people were staying near us but the tents were really spread out.  Set up the tent, cooked dinner, threw a Frisbee and sat around just talking.  At night it was hotter than I wanted it to be, we didn’t even need to put the cover on the tent.  About the cover on the tent… interesting since we were near the path and people could see us inside the tent haha.

On Sunday we took a really long hike, it took us a long time, it was very hot.  The park was really pretty though! We saw interesting rock formations, great views from a cliff and pretty trees.  I also tested how hard the rock was while hitting my head on the rock.  I ended up with a huge bump on my head (glad it wasn’t on the forehead; that would have been pretty embarrassing).   After the long hike we ate lunch and relaxed, went into town to get some cellphone reception, then we swam in the pond and I jumped off the rocks, it was probably a 15ft drop.  Greg was too scared to jump!

We moved the tent to a spot where we could see all the stars at night, it was a perfect night (minus the hot weather). It was great until Greg woke me up at 5:30am or so to let me know that the sun was coming out and that I needed to see it, because it was beautiful. 

That morning we ate breakfast, and packed our things, then walked to the car and drove back home.

Greg y sus "chorsitos"

We are in the process of training for out triathlon (Sept 22nd).   I think Greg is looking official...

Michigan, summer 2013