Joyful.

Ahh, June you crazy month you. While I don't quite have the time to sit and share story after story of Ryan and Rou's visit, I do have time to share this photo and a little moment of thanksgiving. Thanks for friends, health, endless adventures and always the most important, love. It was an incredible weekend - one for the books. I can't wait to share more! For now. I'm off to scoop my parents up for the weekend { !!! }, but will be back in a flash.

Much loves!


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TGIF!

Have a safe, adventurous, silly and spontaneous weekend, friends!


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{a short!} Currently.

::WORKING ON:: Staying centered, present and thankful! Err'day.
::THINKING ABOUT:: Living the life I could have only dreamed about 5 years ago...1 year ago...heck, even 3 months ago.
::ANTICIPATING:: A day date in Seattle tomorrow before Ry and Linds land! And of course, Ryan and Lindsey landing!
::LISTENING TO:: Rockin' Robin from Hunter's Pandora right now. TWEET! TWEET LA DEET!
:: EATING:: A healthy and wonderful combination of fruits and veggies - all local and organic!
::THANKFUL FOR:: Too many things. The ability to pick up on a Tuesday for a 3 day vacation to the ocean - vacation from vacation we call it. Thankful for the friends and family willing to take the time/investment to come see us in this stage of our lives. The ridiculous and abundant laughter that is constantly flowing from our condo. The ocean. Friends and family a phone call/text away to listen to so many little details of life out here. Ability to go run for 2 miles straight with no breaks, no knee pain but slow and constant growth from my knee injury months ago. New friendships in all shapes, colors, ages and sizes being formed from the incredible Farmer's Markets I've been volunteering at 2x/week.
::PLANNING FOR:: What nail polish color to use next, what time to leave for the market, where to watch the game tonight, camping spots for Ry and Linds, and what's next for Beff and Uncie Huntie.

June Visitors :: Bob's Visit!

June kicked off the month of visitors for us here in Bremmer.  Sadly, our first guest has already come and gone - wahh!  We got to hang out with Bob { Hunter's dad } from Wednesday-Sunday and had a really lovely and enjoyable time.  It was incredibly comforting to have him here.  I thought a dozen times over in the days we got to hang out with him, that it really made what we are doing so much more real.  Having a familiar face around, one we lived with for 3 months, to marvel at the beautiful and easily accessible open water.  To comment on the dozens of eagles we saw while he was here, and the stunning green forest where we went camping { a direct quote from our camping trip "I really hate to repeat myself, but it really is so damn beautiful here."  It made me feel so much better about the repeating adjective that keeps popping up in my blog posts as of late : }.  To take in the weather and city the same way we took it all in a short month and a half ago.  To point out things that have gotten so regular to us lately, and remind us that where we live really is freaking incredible.  He said a few times "This is where you guys need to be right now.  You are doing it right.  It's so vastly different that where you were in CO or WY, and this is an adventure of a lifetime."  While he was here we rented a condo on the beach in Long Beach, WA.  Took our time picking the perfect camping spot while stopping for wineries and fresh local markets along the way. After exploring a new city; Port Gamble, and making it back to Bremerton we were able to show off some of our favorite spots in the city.  Der Blokken then later Anthony's for dinner.  Walking a quick walk across the bridge to The Boat Shed for brunch, then taking a tour of the Turner Joy a quick stones throw from our condo.  We walked and walked, watched the ferries come in and out.  Sat outside soaking up the sun and taking our time drinking a few beers at Bremerton Bar and Grill.  We spent a lot of time on our patio just admiring the view; I swear Bob could have sat there for hours on end just watching the boats/ferries drift in and out.  We ended our time together with a trip to Toro Lounge for some tapas, and an early bedtime for all.

It really is so very easy to get hung up on such small details while living miles and miles away from close friends and family, but having Bob here was such a fantastic and much needed reminder to embrace where we are, not only location wise but also in life, hold on to it with both hands and enjoy the stories and memories we are making to share for years and years to come.

On Friday {!!!!!!!} our dear, dear friends Ryan and Rou come until Monday!  Hunter and I have a few { actually just one big } tricks up our sleeve to really add some punch and adventure to their time here, but we'll be spending our days camping, kayaking/paddle-boarding, laughing, juicing and many things in between, I'm sure.  Then, the last week in June my parents come for a long weekend!  By then we will be tour guide masters!  We also get to celebrate their anniversary with them which will be extra special!

There are a lot of !!!'s in this post, and I'm quite alright with that.
Cheers, friends!

Chicken Soup for the Backpacker's Soul

If I were to ever write a Chicken Soup for the Soul book, it would be entitled Chicken Soup for the Backpacker's Soul.  In it, I would write about the truly healing powers mother nature, hiking with 30lbs strapped to you including everything you need for 72 hours on your back and not to mention how peaceful and serene the wide open space hugs you while putting everything in life into perspective.  Everything.

All the planning that goes into our backpacking and camping trips is done by Hunter. He researches areas, maps, picks the place and plots how to get us there quickly and efficiently without missing out on any of the killer views.  Buuuuuuut....I have a secret for you.  It's not that I don't listen to him when he describes to me where we are going....it's just that I trust him so much in what he picks that I get too excited and end up not listening to details.  I don't know if it's because I'm an over-sharer of details, or that sometimes Hunter can be an under-sharer of details but these are the two things I knew for sure about this trip before taking off: We were going to drive through Forks, WA and that we would be close to the coast.  Something Hunter failed to mention, or that I completely failed to pick up on was that the hike?  WAS ON THE BEACH. ON the beach.  Waves crashing 2 feet from us, dodging sea shells and seaweed.  Seagulls for miles.  We drove half the way the first night and camped out about an hour from Third Beach, and drove the rest of the way the next day to arrive at the trail head.   After reaching the trail head, after all was said and done we knocked out a 2 night, 3 day 17 mile backpacking trip.

And it really was three of the best days of my entire life.

The trail ended up being about 70% on the beach, and 30% up the cliffs into the rain forest.  We had to keep our eye on high/low tides to get through some areas of the trail though there were situations where regardless of how low the tide was just had to climb up into the forest.  And by climb, I mean use the ropes provided to pull ourselves up because it was too steep/uneven ground to simply walk up it with no assistance. Sometimes I think it would be a kick in the pants to put a voice recorder in one of our packs to not only record the conversations we have on the trial, but to also get how many times we use the words "beautiful, stunning, gorgeous,  ohmygoshlookatthatview" to explain what is before us.  I can only tell you guys so many times from so many different hikes how breathtakingly beautiful it is up her before you are like YEAH B WE GET IT.  IT'S BEAUTIFUL.  FIND A NEW ADJECTIVE.  However, I don't want this blog to be read like a recommendation letter from Joey on friends Friends, so I really try to refrain from using a Thesaurus as much as possible when explaining things like this to you guys...so though I've said it before in describing other hikes, I'll say it again.  

It was beautiful.

The rain forest, the ocean, the views...oh my heavens the views!  The animals/birds we saw on the trip seemed to be never ending, too. Including, but not limited to: a few dozen seals, a raccoon { though we saw far more raccoon footprints in the sand than we did see an actual raccoon which was only 1 }, *a whale so many different types of birds, slugs, a snake, a mouse, and dozens of eagle sightings!  Not necessarily saying we saw dozens of eagles, though I would say it was at least 10+, but they were active little buggers and flew overhead pretty much every step we took.  The part of the coast line we were at was sadly scattered with litter.  SCATTEREDDD with litter!  Not only were there oh so many fishing buoys washed up, but we saw everything from buckets, lighters, TIRES, water bottles, wrappers...man you name it we saw it.  Hunter mentioned how this part of the coast was getting a lot of trash washed up from the tsunami in Japan.  I briefly thought it was kinda cool how some stuff I was seeing was all the way from Japan, but there was such a small chance to really confirm it until we found this detergent looking bottle at one of the campsites with Japanese written all over it!  So cool.  

We lucked out on a campsite we would refer to as "having all the bells and whistles".  One thing that really amazed me, and still amazes me is how much work strangers have put into assuring the campsites were something of "luxury".  They had built swings out of the ropes, tied up hammocks, clotheslines, so many fire pits/seating areas.  I really loved the effort that was put in by people for future people to come, sit and enjoy.

Ok, ok!  Enough talking.  Prepare for photo overload.

:: the photo is stretching funny, but it was the moment i realized we'd be hiking on thiiiis close to the ocean! ::

:: views ::

:: a lunch break turned laying in the sand turned feet calling out for that water :: 

:: wonky ass rope ladder to conquer! ::

:: every step i would scream AM I HALFWAY THERE YET?! ::

:: one of manymany crow sightings ::

:: so many fishing buoys! ::

:: self-flying kite.  we called it backpacking tv ::

:: that's what i call a swing with a view ::

:: had to have been a looooong trip for this here bottle ::

:: can you spot the seals? ::

:: three words; my. happy. place. ::

:: another favorite of the campsite; people turned the buoys into little characters!  we made cleatus who is on the very end next to hunter.  these guys made me laugh so hard each time i looked at them! :: 

:: fishnet hammock ::

:: campsite! ::

:: sunset the first night; hunter wins the award for the two best photos of the trip!  this is #1 :: 

:: late night stroll ::

:: we went for a day hike the 2nd day, and see that little circle up on the tree trunk?  that is what we had to look for while hiking on the beach to tell us it was time to climb up into the forest for a bit. ::

:: h trying to find where the rope is to guide us up.  gives a good scale of what we had to climb up several times on the hike! ::

:: a day spent flying a kite on your own private beach ranks pretty damn high in my book ::

:: second best photo of the trip! ::

All in all, it was a huge massive ridiculous hit, and I'm itching to load up my backpack and do it again.

Peace.

*The humpback whale.  I could have just left this out completely, but it was such a big part of our experience I would have felt remiss to just ignore it.  When we went to get our permit from the ranger before heading to the trail head, he mentioned to us that a whale had washed up over Memorial Day.  Clearly it was no longer alive, but he didn't make a big deal about it and though I was sad my first whale sighting { besides at Sea World } would be one that was dead, I still thought it would be kinda cool!  When we were at the trail head getting all our gear in order, a father/son couple had just come off of the trail and we were chatting with them about how it was.  We asked if they saw the whale and they both laughed to each other and exclaimed "The whale!  Everyone is talking about the whale.  We didn't see it, and everyone we passed on the trail hadn't seen it either."  Hunter and I both kinda assumed that the tide had taken it back in the ocean and really didn't give it a second thought.  There was one area on the beach where a mudslide had knocked several trees over the beach so we played a really fun game of tag/dodge-ball getting through the trees while avoiding the water and started walking about a few feet when we both, almost at the same time, noticed there was a very large something in the rocks that wasn't surely wasn't a rock.  Hunter had me stay behind so he could confirm our suspicions and sure enough...it was the whale.  Not that I need to splash how natieve I am all over this blog, but when the ranger had talked about the whale being washed up, I really seriously imagined that a beautiful black and white whale would be lying on the beach looking like the little bugger was sleeping.  Let's just say it most definitely wasn't black and white anymore, and it surely wasn't just sleeping.  I really hope that sooner then later the tide takes it back under because that isn't anything hikers need to see or smell.

Easy like Monday morning.

The mornings following a 12+ overnight shift for Hunter are fairly routine. He gets home at about 7:30am we sit and have our smoothie together. Sometimes catching up on the past 13 hours, sometimes watching the news and sometimes just staring outside the window watching the ferries come in. Usually when he heads to bed, I load up with my computer or yoga mat and head out the door for my workouts or to park my tush somewhere for a few hours working on my computer. This morning, however I've decided to take it a little slower and leave the workouts and work for later today. This morning it's me, my crochet afghan, cup of coffee, fresh flowers from the market yesterday and book 3 of the #olsonfieldbookclub against the world. And I'm happy as. can. be.




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#olsonfieldbookclub

It's hard to say exactly how our Olsonfield Book Club got started, which was dangerously close to being called #methbookclub { sometimes Mary and I like to pretend we are a celebrity couple and combine our names.  Beth + Mary = Meth or Bary }, but didn't think that name would go over too well with the masses.  With my recent Bookworm Beth habits { updated post and books coming soon! }, and the fact that my BFF also happens to be a bomb.com librarian, it just seemed the most natural and organic decision to start our own long distance book club!  We are constantly bouncing books off each other...some major winners i.e. Cutting for Stone + Kite Runner and some have fallen rather flat i.e. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and Life of Pi.  Ultimately though, Mary and I have a blast sharing the same love for books.

:: mary's instagram'ed #olsonfieldbookclub::

::my instagram'ed #olsonfieldbookclub::

We will alternate who picks the books, and since Mary recently read Gone Girl per my suggestion, she was up for the first book pick!  She went with And the Mountains Echoed which was such a polite choice because she knows how I love Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns when I have an inkling she realllllly wanted to pick something more along the lines of David.  It was so much fun reading the same book side by side your bestie and getting to chat about like chapters, characters etc.  We had a few hiccups along the way with schedules, audiobooks/Nook book but all in all it was most certainly a win!  I dove into the book hard and fast partly because the most demanding part of my day is making it to yoga on time { read :: I have a lot of down time } and partly because it really was that great of a book.  If you like his first 2 books, you will really love this one.  There were maybe 3 too many character plot lines to follow along with, but all in all I give it a solid 4.5 stars!

The next book choice was mine and we are close to both being finished with it, so I'll share what it was soon!  You are on the edge of your seat in wonder, aren't you?  Aren't you?!  You aren't.

SPOILER ALERT: It's the book above in Mary's photo.

Catch ya on the flip side.

We leave for a 3 night, 4 day camping/backing adventure this afternoon and it couldn't come in a more timely manner.  Something about the fresh air, wide open spaces, green trees for miles beyond miles while pushing ourselves/being each other's biggest cheerleaders with 30+ pounds on our backs always leaves me feeling more connected and centered with that man of mine.  

A couple of photos from our recent camping/backpacking ventures.  Have a great week!

p.s. RAWR!

{ fictional } Brunch Party!

I've recently gotten a new computer { Enter Apple boner here. }  { TMI? }  I am in the process of phasing out my old computer and prepping my new computer.  Let's not discuss how many hours I've logged strictly transferring files { think 8+ }, but in the process, I've come across these bookmarks for a party I was apparently planning to throw at some point?  I vaguely remember bookmarking them, but dang-it if I didn't really really wish I had gone through with the party because it just looks like a hoot and a hollar.  I'd prefer if you read that "hoot" with a heavy North Dakota accent. Think h-ooooooo-t.  Long o.  N-eeeeee-way.

Enjoy my fictional Brunch Party complete with avocado flatbread, biscuit sandwiches, a mimosa bar, and my personal favorite, a bloody mary bar with bacon and habanero infused vodka!

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I know what you all are thinking, and I know, I know.  I'll just say it for you.  

Damn, that Beth can throw a party.  

Thank you for coming!  It really wouldn't have been as much fun without you. And you...YOU! With your crazy stories. Such a jokester you are. Life of the party that one!