Backpacking

Chris and I went backpacking last weekend. It was actually our 5 year wedding anniversary while we were up there. I know sounds sooo romantic, not... Where we went is near my parents place and is called the "high lakes" there are a bunch of lakes up around 11000-12000ish ft. My brother knows those mountains and lakes like the back of his hand and over the years we could never get it worked out where he could take Chris so we attempted it on our own. I had went to the specific lake we were going to when I was 12 with my family, only we went on horses and packed all our stuff on the pack saddles. Chris and I did this on foot. We have been backpacking several times before but never this high of an elevation or over 3 miles. This specific hike was 6.2 miles to where we camped and we didn't even make it to the lake. Yep didn't even get to our anticipated destination. To make a long story short. It was about a 3 1/2 hr hike to this valley area that we camped at and you can see in the pictures and then about another  est.1 mile hike over a mountain to Lake Ann. We made it to the valley and decided to wait until morning to hike up the lake. That night it rained and rained and rained. It rained so hard I was afraid the small stream we were close to was going to flow over. The thunder and lightning was non stop and I was scared out of my mind that we were going to get struck by lightning. Needless to say I didn't get any sleep (Chris wasn't as freaked out as I was so he was able to get a few zzz's) With all the rain of course the fire wood was soaked so no fire and we had run out of our propane the night before so no food other than candy for breakfast. It was sooo muddy and awful to walk in. We still attempted to go to the lake only I could't remember exactly which mountainside we needed to go over and there are more than one trail up that way going to various lakes but all the other lakes are 3-6miles further so we didn't want to go climbing over just any mountain on little empty stomaches and little sleep so we just turned around and started home. It was a little slower on our way out because  # 1 it was muddy and hard to walk in and freezing #2 because the sun eventually came out half way through our hike and Chris fished the river and streams. He caught A LOT of fish and thank goodness for that since that was the main reason we were even making the trek to Lake Ann to begin with. Luckily it was jaw dropping beautiful up there so that made it worth it for me and the pictures I have do not do this place justice at all.Will we attempting Lake Ann again? Yes, but on horses and with a better guide than myself.

After returning home and plugging Chris's watch into the the computer, which has a GPS, we found that Lake Ann was over the mountain thats on the very left side of the pic and where we gave up was less than 1 mile away :(

His spiffy rain coat which came in handy. 

Every once and a while we would have to stop and warm chewy up, he was soaked.
When warm he was on turbo mode running and chasing everything.

The Latest

A few changes have come about the Abney house. Chris and I both have new jobs. Chris use to work at a big corporate gym and wasn't happy with the management, they were all about the money and not about the client so he is now now working at a small strength and conditioning facility which he likes a lot better.  Several of his clients have followed him to this new place as well and seem to like it a lot. I started my first dental hygiene job out of school. I was intimated to start because there are 5 other hygienists who have been practicing for 20+ years and know so much about the profession but they have been amazing and so helpful.  It's a bit weird because in the dental world in Utah, for the most part, everyone is fairly young but where I work all of the assistants are even 40+. I m not use to being the youngest person at work. This is the first time in our marriage that one of us hasn't been in school so its been really nice to come home and be able to do whatever we want.Chewy goes to our neighbors house every day when we are at work, essentially he has a sitter. The lady that watches him is an 85 year old german woman that looks and acts like she is 65. She has a small dog as well and absolutely loves chewy. Like if we don't take him to her house she gets mad at us, so we just go with it and let her watch him. I often think she likes chewy more than her own dog. She always calls him "my love" or "my Chew Chew" in her little german accent. We are getting adjusted to our new routine and are content with the way things are going.