Week 13 & Pictures as Promised

(This was taken by Sean with the necklace Nate got me for graduation. I LOVE this picture!)

One day into week 13, for a running total of 84 days. I think I like it in weeks better...it seems shorter. Nothing, nothing, nothing new. I did get a couple of children's books and What To Expect In the First Year. I figure you can't really go wrong buying some books and spending a few dollars at Half Price Books does a waiting mother good.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite pictures of the trip. We had well over 200, so it was hard choosing just a few, but here ya go...

First full day of hiking to the Cirque.

The river picture was taken just behind our second campsite. It was my favorite campsite and we stayed there two nights. We took a rest day after hiking in and climbed Mt. Mitchell (below) for a day hike where we got caught in a pop up thunderstorm on our way back down. That was a little scary!

The Fearless Boys, Nate and Sean, at the top of Mt. Mitchell. Molly and I elected to stay a little lower and let the boys have fun climbing their way to the top. In the picture with Nate by himself, behind Nate and down in the valley is actually our campsite. It is a long way looking up, but an even longer way looking down!! The picture below shows the area of Mt. Mitchell that we climbed. Molly and I stopped just below the bigger snow field, but the boys climbed to the top near the left corner of the picture.



The picture with Nate crossing the river was the beginning of a pretty grueling day of climbing 2000 ft, and one of several river crossings throughout our trip. Nate lost one of his sandals on this little excursion.

This day was pretty rough, but the views were just absolutely amazing. It seemed like every bend you came around, you had an even better view of the Range or a couple of lakes down below.

The pictures below show the snow embankment that we had to cross. I was pretty scared going up it and my arches in my feet hurt so bad from digging into the hardpacked snow with my boots. It sure was a gorgeous view from the top and the boys had fun playing in the snow while Molly and I took a breather and enjoyed the view from the top.

This left picture shows just how steep it was. I think I did pretty good for being a little afraid of heights!

I was definitely feeling pretty proud of myself after making it up that embankment!

These were taken at our last campsite, overlooking a giant lake. It was gorgeous and we got to witness a pretty good storm come through that barely missed us. However, it rained most of that night and as we hiked out the next day. We were definitely ready to be done, although we all had a really great time.

That's our trip! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!