Friday, August 20, 2010

Backpacking at Mt. Whitney

Last week, Ben went backpacking with some of his brothers, brother-in-laws, cousins, nephews, niece and dad at the Mt. Whitney/Cottonwood Lakes area. He was gone for seven days, five of which I had zero contact with him.

ZERO. (Because there was no cell phone reception in the mountains)

This was not easy for me! Especially when we have little boys who love their dad so much and missed him like crazy. But I’m glad he was able to spend time with his family, enjoy the outdoors, hike, fish, camp, and come home refreshed from a quality trip. The only negative experience of the trip was on the first day when many of them got altitude sickness (including Ben) and were throwing up and had headaches. Luckily, Ben’s cousin Chris is an ER doctor and had brought altitude sickness medicine along just in case. I think it was put to good use!

Here’s our nephew Luke, Matt’s son -

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Calder, who is Joe’s son -

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Here’s a picture of a Golden Trout, which is California’s state fish and can only be found in freshwater lakes about 10,000 feet. Crazy! This was the first time Ben caught a golden trout, so it was very exciting.

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My cute scruffy husband (I’m so glad he shaved as soon as the trip was over). He thought the red bellies on these fish were so beautiful.

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Levi with his dad, Joe:

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(Joe and Matt are twins and we always joke that Ben is the third twin, because they all have strong resemblances):

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Ben’s dad, doing his favorite thing (fishing):

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Ben’s cousin’s husband, Alan:

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I thought it was interesting that the only thing growing this high were pine trees. And that there were so many rocks.

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More golden trout:

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Cute cousins, Levi and Abbie walking together – I am so proud of Abbie for being the only girl on the trip. This 10-year-old is TOUGH – she is an awesome hiker and has such a great attitude.

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Alan’s son, Michael -

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Ben caught a bunch of tiny frogs, which I think are so cute -

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Our brother-in-law Jon -

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Abbie with her dad, Rob -

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The whole group:

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Ben getting even scruffier -

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I breathed a huge sigh of relief when he called me on Monday afternoon as they were driving back to the Bay Area. We are all SO glad Ben is home!!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You pictures are all so beautiful! I think it's high time I got a new camera!

I hadn't heard about the tiny frogs! Those are awesome!

Aimee said...

I know what you mean about boys missing their Daddy! My Nathan was so excited to talk to Allen when they finally were able to call on the way home. I'm glad they had such a great time, though, and the pictures look beautiful.