4am never felt so good!

Today I hopped out of bed at the ripe hour four in the morning to start my day. After spending time researching our backpacking plans for the summer last night my mind was racing. I’d pulled the maps of the routes to see the elevation gains for each day. Nothing too crazy, but there are a couple of thousand foot days. We’ve also got a couple of mountain hikes with over 4,500’ but at least those won’t be with fifty pounds on my back. Regardless, I was pretty amped up before I went to bed last night. Instead of hopping on my bike or sleeping in I had a different idea. Before laying down I grabbed my pack, loaded it up, and left it out.

When the alarm went off this morning I got dressed and headed out to Granddad Bluff. In the dark I shouldered my pack and knocked out a wonderful quiet and serene hike. My morning started with an hour and a half of mental stillness while walking in the pseudo-woods. Not too shabby of a way to start the day!

Dominic’s first soccer game of the season was tonight and it felt great to get another step closer to normal-ish life. I thoroughly enjoy watching all of the activities the boys are passionate about, but soccer holds some weird sweet spot in my heart. I’m grateful for the opportunity to watch anywhere from 3-6 soccer games a week for the next month or so!

Right before Becky and I left for Sparta to watch the game I ran out and grabbed the mail. In the mailbox was quite possibly the most awesome catalog I’ve ever seen in my entire life…

Get this… It is a catalog of nothing but vacation and travel!!! While I drove Becky was reading off some of the crazy adventures we could sign up for. Some of them were interesting and ones we’d already done on our own or planned on doing after we retire. Others brought back past ideas and dreams of places we want to go. Still more led to some pretty spectacular new dreams – fly around the world in a private jet in 24 days stopping in incredible places like Easter Island, Samoa, Great Barrier Reef, Serengeti, and Petra. Are you kidding me??? That knocks out several of my dreams all at once! Talk about the greatest catalog of all time. Period.

Thanks!!!