Mt. Rainier

A friend of ours called us in August to ask us if we wanted to go hiking Labor Day weekend. He wanted to show us this great hike on Mt. Rainier, and we jumped at the chance. Who wouldn't want to hike on a volcano? Especially one that's not very likely to erupt. It was one of the best hikes I've been on, certainly the coolest. It was a 12 mile hike, but not terribly difficult so it took a long time without wearing you out too badly. We went with a big group, which ended up including another friend of ours. On our way up we hiked through beautiful forests, meadows, and we hiked on a couple glaciers! The area was just so beautiful, we were constantly astounded by the scenery. We saw various animals as we hiked including a bear! I've never seen a bear out in the wild before. This one was an adolescent, and we saw it as it came running down a glacier most likely frightened by all the hikers. It was so cool!

That's the distinctive peak of Rainier in the background

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Hiking across a glacier! 

Bear! Uh-oh where's the mom?

Bear footprints in the snow

Once we got to the top the view was incredible! We were really lucky that it was a clear day. You had to look carefully because it blends in with the clouds, but we could see all the way to Mt. Hood in Oregon. We ate lunch up there, took some group pictures, and watched a herd of mountain goats.

Mt. Adams and on the far right possibly part of Mt. Hood

The peak behind us looked like it wasn't too
much further, but it's another 7000 ft up!

The hike back was nice. It wasn't too steep, but it still felt like we were going much faster. We stopped for dinner on the way back where everyone was a little sleepy-drunk since we were so tired and finally made it home. It was a long day, but so much fun!

Seminary

So, I haven't posted in awhile because life has suddenly gotten much busier. About six weeks ago I was called to be a seminary teacher! For those who don't know, it's a scripture study class for high school students in the morning before school starts. I know some of you are laughing because, well, I was not the most on-time student when I was in seminary myself, and I'm not at all a morning person. It hasn't been easy, but so far so good! I've managed to make it there early every day, and I'm really enjoying teaching. I have a team teacher so I don't have to teach every day, which helps takes some of the stress off, and there is always someone there to help me. We teach the juniors, and we usually have 19 or 20 come. The students are really awesome. They're not always very awake, but we've had some fun and I hope they're learning. We're studying the Old Testament this year. I love it because it has so many good stories and some unusual ones that really make you think. I learn so much every time I prepare a lesson, and the hardest part is trying not to simply dump everything that I learned on my students. I'm really glad that I have this great chance to teach and do some good even though I'm not teaching school this year. It really is exactly what I needed right now.