Today I'm thankful for: #1 - Surviving! What an adventure we had starting our hike at midnight. I'm pretty sure it was a blessing that it was dark because this way I didn't have any idea of what I was getting myself into. We were just putting one foot in front of each other and could only see a little bit in front of us with our head lamps on. I thought I'd die at the beginning of the hike but I was surprised at how well I was doing. I was just having a great time. We'd stop every now and again have a little snack and then keep going. We'd made some yummy trail mix and were loving eating that on the trail. I said to Kerri, "Is this going to be one of those hikes where I think I'm almost there and then I'll come up over a hill and we have to hike up another big hill?" She just laughed at me - we were hiking to the top of a mountain so of course there would be plenty of high points followed by the next high point. We made it to the saddle and we were felling pretty great so we pushed on to the summit. It was the steepest part. I felt like I was climbing huge steps as we scurried up the rock face. The lights of Utah county were spectacular and it was fun to look out over the valley as I caught my breath. We made it to the top at 5:15 a.m. we found a nice little seat out of the wind and started to watch the Eastern Horizon. It started out as a thin orange line very pretty stretched across the sky. We rested and ate more of our goodies and snacks. We waited and watched and finally around 6:45 that beautiful sun peaked itself up over the horizon and the whole world was filled with light. The sun was beautiful on the clouds it was quite the sight. After taking lots of pictures we decided it was time to start our descent. We got down to the saddle a lot quicker than going up and I thought we'd get down back to the car much quicker than getting up. However, I couldn't have been more wrong. We didn't stop hardly at all on the way down and by the time I got back to the car I felt like I was about ready to drop down and die. Mainly just because of my feet. My legs were tired but my feet were hurting so bad. I was so happy to sit down in the car. I was so happy I'd gone and we'd all had such a wonderful adventure but I was also very thankful to be finished. It reminded me of a quote that was used in one of my classes at BYU-Idaho. "You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know." - Rene Daumal. I love this because it's so true summiting on top of any of life's peaks changes us. Why make the hike? Because it will change me for the good. It teaches me about myself and my determination to do hard things. It blesses me in the future as I remember what I've seen, what I've experienced, and I am thankful for the climb. Today I was thankful for great friends to share great adventures with.
#2 - Uploading tests. When we got home I mostly rested all afternoon but also made part of the math test that I'll be giving my students on Monday and uploaded it to MasterConnect.
#3 - Dinner at Preston's. We barbecued on the roof. Kerri and I were pretty tired and soaked our feet in the hot tub until the chicken was done. After we were finished eating we went back to Preston's apartment and turned on a movie. Kerri and I quickly fell asleep and were looking pretty out of it when we finally left to go home to sleep in my bed.
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