Climb Every Mountain

While I am loving our new tradition of making a family celebration out of our wedding anniversary, I'm still a firm believer in celebrating the occasion as a couple.  

We dropped our kids off at my parents Friday night at 8pm and then headed up to Hatcher's Pass for a sunset hike at April Bowl. 

It was calm, warm, clear, and beautiful with a 360 degree view at the top.  

Made it to the top!

Panoramic beauty

thank you to the hiker to stacked this beautiful little thing on the summit

Those lakes are surreal

Hiking is one of our favorite past times but difficult to do with our young children.  It was so nice to get that vigorous hike in and enjoy our amazing "backyard" just a few miles up the road. 

The next morning we went to the temple in Anchorage and then decided we needed to get some MORE hiking in so we ventured up Baldy Mountain in Eagle River on the way home. 

More 360 degree views after another good muscle-working, lung-burning hike. 

 On our way down the mountain we realized there were blueberry patches everywhere.  EVERYWHERE!  Our usual blueberry-picking spot is inaccessible this year as the bridge to the trail is out, so I thought it would be a blueberry-less year.  I was so excited passing these huge berries on our hike down but wanted to cry realizing we had no containers to put them in.

That's when Garrett came to the rescue.  He pulled his roll of Gorilla Tape out of his backpack and used it to fashion a huge, gallon-sized basket.

Best blueberry picking ever.  

The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have 3 more baskets like it because there were still so many berries everywhere we looked.  

We topped the evening off at home grilling some steaks and making several amazing veggie side dishes with homegrown veggies.  

Though we had to wake up early to go to some early church meetings, it was nice to get ready for church without the chaos of bathing, feeding, and dressing our three munchkins.

We really stink at making date nights a priority (I'm really good at using the excuse that paying for babysitters gets pricey), but weekends like this remind me how important it is to reconnect without the kids, enjoy each other's company, and have time to re-evaluate our family and personal goals.  

I love you heaps, Garrett.  These 8 years have really flown by in the best way possible.