Tuesday night after work we took off with our friends Derek and Jase (the two raddest coworker brothers around). We drove out to Echo Cove and hiked in to a beautiful campsite. We roasted some hotdogs and then went to sleep around 2 in the morning - you know, cause it was still light out so we lost track of time. In the morning we walked around the beaches.
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| Jase, Derek, Dani and Chris |
On Wednesday WE HAD OUR FIRST DAY OFF! Well technically we have Sundays off, but we are large supporters of keeping the sabbath day holy - you know, since it's a commandment and all - so we try not to do any large adventures on Sundays. Anyways, after coming back in from our hike with the guys we headed straight back out. We hiked from a shuttle drop-off point downtown to the base of Mount Juneau and then started our ascent. Unfortunately we think we're getting used to living at sea level because we sure felt the elevation gain of 3,576 feet more than our Utah minds expected! When we told people we were going to hike Mount Juneau in the rain they all laughed at us and warned us how dangerous it can get. We decided it wasn't storming that bad and we needed to take advantage of our day off so we just went for it. It was rainy, but beautiful. But as we passed the first layer of clouds and started crossing waterfalls from the rain, and sections of icy snow the "rainy, but beautiful mindset" started drifting to a "rainy, and freezing, and this is steep whey aren't we at the top yet" mindset. When we finally summited we were so excited to set up our tent and get into our warm sleeping bags!
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| We learned what it meant to live in a rainforest. |
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| Waterfalls? I guess we just gotta cross them....not like there's a giant drop-off if you slip on the wet rocks... |
Chris actually wrote about this experience in a talk he gave in church on Sunday, and I think he explained what happened next better than I could: "Thankfully we stayed fairly warm and dry after we were in our sleeping bags, however, the storm got worse during the night and we hardly slept with the wind blowing the walls of our tent in every direction. When it finally became light enough for us to see the trail around 3:30 in the morning, we decided to break camp and hike back down.
"As
soon as we got out of our tent we had a Lehi's Dream experience. Our
hearts sank a little when we realized that we could only see about 20
feet in any direction because of the thick “mist of darkness”
that shrouded our view. I was reminded of the sign at the beginning
of the trail cautioning us against losing our way off the path.
Because the trail is well defined, I knew that as long as we could
find our “iron rod” and didn't stray from it, we would be able to
find our way. With a quick prayer we began hiking and within half an
hour we were safely out of the clouds and freezing rain."
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| Our summit shot - it was too cold to stand outside for a picture. Not like you could see past the clouds anyways. |
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| Disappearing trail. |
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| Thank goodness we have a large living room to dry out our gear. |
Needless to say after work on Thursday we were grateful to climb into bed, and decided it wise to take it easy on Friday.
On Saturday we celebrated our six-month-aversary! That means we've already spent six months of officially being best friends for eternity. My, oh my, time has gone by fast - but what a great journey we are on. Our boss found out about it and actually ended up giving us another day off! We know we are up here to make money, but with the amount of overtime and tips we've been getting lately we gladly accepted the invitation and were glad to have time to go on a real date and celebrate our marriage. After all, cultivating our marriage is much more important than just one days work on a paycheck. And - get this - not only did we get the night off, but the B&B wasn't fully booked for the night so the owner let us stay in one of the rooms for free! We're talking a $200+ dollar a night, nicest place in Juneau, free stay . . . with a four-poster featherbed, fireplace, and jacuzzi tub in a fancy room, and gourmet breakfast in the morning. Yes - we were spoiled rotten. And yes - we enjoyed every minute of it. We also went out for a nice dinner, a fun bike ride, and to the movies. We rarely go on dates like this so it was nice to have a relaxing day compared to our normal crazy lives!
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| We are car-less, but a nice couple in the ward gave us these fancy sets of wheels - we love them! |
On Sunday we both had an opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting. Once again Chris killed it - he is so good at speaking about the gospel! And then there's me. My talk started out with "Good morning brothers and sisters, my name is Dani Brading, oh wait, no it's not, my name is Dani Andrew. Oops. We just celebrated six months yesterday so you think I'd have it down by now..." and needless to say flustered me was speaking as a hurried embarrassed mess and it took a moment to regain my composure. It must not have been too bad though because the bishop's wife texted me on Monday and asked for copies of both our talks because she enjoyed them so much and wanted to share our messages with people that she thought needed it. We also loved teaching our primary kids! They are such a spunky bunch and we are learning that 9 year olds aren't as scary as we thought.
Remember to pray and remember play,
Mr. & Mrs. Brading, oh wait, I mean Andrew
