i love october! the crisp temperatures (although it's in the 80's this weekend!), the changing leaves and the bright blue skies. next year at this time, hopefully we will be carving pumpkins, going to fall festivals and looking for a halloween costume for max!
since i haven't been blogging as much as i would like to (for the whole photo/memory thing), i will at least try to summarize our month of september.
labor day weekend: we went to wild iris in lander, wyoming. this included climbing on a bunch of pockets, camping in the van, and scoring at an outdoor gear labor day sale.
september 7th was our 10 year anniversary. brian was excited to give me gifts the night before (in true brian style). he did well with his shopping... ipod, backpack for upcoming 14'er hike and a snuggie :)
at work i was surprised with roses and a card. later that evening we went out to dinner and then had fun shopping for a new work wardrobe for brian... as he received an awesome job offer!!!!!
september 11th: michelle, gabe and james met brian, steve and me at our house at 1am to head out to hike long's peak! we began the hike at 2am with headlamps. there were a lot of people out on the trail. as the hike was immediately and pretty consistently uphill, i quickly realized that this 15 mile hike was going to be more difficult than i had anticipated... especially after only having an hour or two of sleep the night before.
after about 5 hrs of hiking in the dark, we approached the keyhole right around sunrise. it was beautiful and i was so relieved to be hiking in the sunlight which was also beginning to provide us with some warmth.
here we looking up at the keyhole.
we knew after the keyhole was only another 1.5 miles to the peak... so we thought we would be there within the hour. we were wrong. it's hard to believe that it could take 4 hrs to hike 1.5 miles, but it did! my lungs and heart were not used to the elevation and steep, dramatic incline. michelle was scared on all the technical rocky parts of the climb, but she did awesome!!!
this was the last stretch up to the peak.
finally at 11am we reached the peak. i was exhausted and my gi system was not doing so great. i think i had a bit of altitude sickness as i was dizzy, nauseaus and couldn't really eat. the views were amazing though, and i was so proud of michelle!
the hike down seemed to last forever. it was kind of neat how we would keep seeing the same people that we saw on the way up. i had several conversations with various people on the trail. 7 hours later (6pm) we were all back at the car and exhausted. it was definitely a highlight of the summer for me.
the next day, september 12th we celebrated max inchan's birthday. although his birthday is the 13th because of the time difference in korea, we wanted to celebrate while he and his foster family were celebrating. we went toy shopping and then had a little pizza party (me, brian and steve).
september 13th: brian started his new job! this is very exciting and absolutely perfect timing. this job kind of fell into brian's lap. i heard there were around 80 applicants, and the administrator respected brian's work and personally called him to come interview for the position. after 10 years of marriage, this is brian's first job with benefits/health insurance and the timing is perfect with us getting ready to bring our son home. it just gives us (me) a lot of options with parenting/schedules etc.
since brian is working full time, i am trying to become more domestic. i've been cleaning and cooking more... fun, fun. i'm also trying to use this last bit of time to get as prepared as possible for our son. i've been researching montessori learning. i am contemplating doing a mixture of montessori activities at our home as well as having him go to a montessori preschool 2-3 days per week when he is ready.
some other things on my to-do list:
learn some korean (easier said than done)
baby-proof the house
prepare menus (plan to prepare a bunch of freezer foods)
purchase and plan for activities for max (educational toys etc)
create a list and/or register for toddler items we will need
work on max's bedroom and play area
finish decorating our house and making the space how we like (take the house off of the market soon)
check out/apply for preschool (apparently you have to do this early)
finish and read more adoption books... specifically focus on bonding and attachment
purchase some good beth moore bible studies and make this a priority
figure out a good workout schedule that won't take away time from parenting
work on max's "life book"
so even though we still have 8 months or so until we bring max home, i am realizing that i have a lot to accomplish before then. i think the time is going to go quickly!
