“Bad Planning, Letting Go, Conquering Fears, and Climbing Mountains”

We are officially back from our 5 year anniversary camping trip! It seems like whenever I plan a trip something always has to go awry. Who knew you needed to have your passports with you if you were planning on crossing the US border?! OOPS! What a test of our marriage though! Instead of getting angry at each other we worked through it. We weighed our options, 1) drive 16 hours there and back to get our passports and continue on our planned trip or 2) cut our losses (we had paid for campgrounds across the border) and explore our home country. This was tough for me at first because I love to plan and hate when plans don’t work out the way I had hoped. It took me a little while but I finally put it into perspective. The point of this trip was not to see the coastline or the California redwoods, though it would have been a nice backdrop I’m sure. The point was to work on our MARRIAGE, to have time ALONE, to have time TOGETHER, to be ACTIVE, to UNPLUG, and to RECHARGE. None of these were going to happen if one of us was driving while the other slept. We let go of our original plans and made a new plan: to fly by the seat of our pants.

Our first night was spent in Waterton. The following day we drove part way up a small mountain and then hiked the Lineham Creek trail. The trail was gorgeous, starting in a wooded area and continuing through some open meadows with great views of mountains and valleys. We followed it over streams and through paths that had rather steep drop-offs until the final view of a beautiful waterfall. We were fortunate to meet some more experienced hikers at the end of this trail and learnt some incredibly beneficial information! For example, we should really carry bear spray when hiking in the mountains; probably should have a backpack to carry food, water, and extra clothes if we did a more difficult hike; and what the best stops, drives, and trails were between Waterton and Banff.

Upon the guidance of our new hiking friends we chose to check out Lussier Natural Hot Springs next. After all we weren’t opposed to “a little bit of gravel road driving” that is until the “gravel road” turned American Loggers on us with a steep drop on one side of the narrow lane and a rock wall on the other. Needless to say we powered through but I’m sure glad Scott was driving since I’m sure my vertigo would have put us right over the edge! If you are ever on the 93 south of Radium Springs be sure to stay at Whiteswan Campgrounds and check out the Lussier Springs. Our campsite backed out onto a serene glacial lake at the base of a mountain for only $18/night! The natural hot springs are truly a step above the pools that Radium and Banff offer. Four different rock pools with four different water temperatures and a blue-green glacial river rushing in the background is truly relaxing. 

Lussier Hot Springs

The "gravel road" to the hot springs.

Despite all these amazing adventures so far, I have to say my favourites were in Banff. Upon arriving in Banff around 4pm on Monday we set up camp at Johnston Canyon campground, bought bear spray, and set out on a 1.5 hour stroll through Johnston canyon which was highly populated compared to the Waterton trail and we probably didn’t need the bear spray! It did offer spectacular views of multiple waterfalls, some educational facts about the creation of canyons and limestone, and a surprise visit with some friends from home!

My favourite waterfall of Johnston Canyon

As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, the activity that I wanted to do the most on this trip was hike. But after our new hiking friends mentioned a mountain that you could actually SUMMIT in just 4 hours, we both set a new goal to summit Cascade Mountain near Banff. The mountain has an elevation of 4,392 metres, what an accomplishment! We began our day by driving up Mount Norway to the ski lodge parking lot around 9am. The trail led us down Mount Norway to a bridge that connected to mid-way up Cascade Mountain. From there we began a steady climb. When I say steady I actually mean every part of our legs, buns, abs, etc were in pain. The slope was easily 45 degrees on the easy sections and ranged to close to a 60 degree incline. The first 3 hours of our climb were spent in heavily forested area and towards the end we were becoming rather discouraged at ever reaching the end. We took turns using our precious breath to encourage each other and make noise to deter wildlife encounters. It was all worth it once we finally reached the edge of the thick forest and were able to see the view.

I found the next part the most difficult in terms of conquering my fear of heights. From the concealed forest path with trees to block my view of how high we were actually climbing we switch to open stretches of rock piles that showed exactly how high you were and how far you could plummet to your untimely death. As long as I didn’t look behind me I just kept climbing. I pushed that voice that said “look how far you are going to fall” to the back of my head and chose instead to tell myself “don’t think, just do”. And guess what?? I DID! We made it to the summit of Cascade Mountain right around lunchtime and sat down to a snack amongst a view so extravagant and magnificent that I wonder how people dispute God's existence. His Glory was surrounding us from every angle and in every way. 

The pile of boulders and shale that we climbed to reach the top

WE MADE IT!

The small white buildings in the background was our starting point.

Banff in the background.

 
As much as I wanted to soak in this glorious view and experience at the top of the mountain, I found my mind wandering to how on earth I was going to make my way down this mountain. Going down was my stumbling point. I have often become overconfident and climbed a ladder onto a roof, or ended up in various other viewpoints from which I have had to be carried down from or have crawled away from an edge. I honestly had a picture of Scott carrying me down this incredibly steep, rocky slope to the safety of the covered forest. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same vision as I did. So we began our climb down and one rock at a time I DID it AGAIN! The slope down raged against both of our knees and we were very thankful to reach the car at just 4:30pm. We can officially say that we summited Cascade Mountain in just 7.5 hours!!

On our way down. Very, very slowly.

We sumitted the peak on the left.  It would have been another 4 hours total to get to the other peak and back.

After a full day of climbing we were sore to say the least and wondering how we would conquer another hike tomorrow morning. We were thankful when we received a message from Scott’s parents to come back home to our girls who were missing us. As much as I work-out at home and stay fit, nothing compares to working every muscle in your body at the same time while consuming less oxygen at higher altitudes. To those of you who are feeling unchallenged in your workouts or like you need a new perspective on life, go climb a mountain!

How NOT to Camp: A Learning Experience

All this planning for our anniversary camping trip this coming week has me reminiscing about our last camping trip. Our last experience with camping was 4 years ago, before kids, and newly married. The tent that we had was one I had purchased in highschool on a whim because it was on sale and we needed one for Relay for Life. The car we drove was my husband’s old Pontiac Sunfire, “dog pee yellow” as his grandpa calls it. We had just bought a house and paid for a marriage but really wanted to get away for a long weekend so why not go camping since we had all the stuff for it anyways. 

We thought we had it all planned out. Scott would finish work early on Friday and we would drive to Waterton National Park, get a site just before sunset, set up, and stay the whole weekend. Easy, or so we thought. Turns out everyone else had the same plan… by the time we got to Waterton all the sites were full and we were turned away from multiple campgrounds. By midnight we were tired of driving, all the sites were closed, and we had resigned to waiting until morning. Our lack of planning meant there were also no vacant hotels so we parked in a viewpoint halfway up a mountain with some really nasty outhouses nearby. Our handy, LITTLE, good on gas Sunfire didn’t seem like such a fun little vehicle anymore. Even with the backseats folded down and our feet in the trunk space it didn’t prove to fit two adults comfortably. Camping fail #1 turned out to be not too bad since the view we woke up to the next morning was totally worth the lack of sleep!

Best views I've ever had while brushing my teeth!

We got on the waitlist to get a site and then had a picnic and went for a short hike up a mountain and enjoyed the gorgeous views. This trip was starting to look pretty good. We were both having a blast and I was “attempting” to conquer my fear of heights by getting close(ish) to the edge of a cliff. We climbed down a rather steep mountain side and walked back to the car via a creek. It was really a gorgeous day.

Facing my fears

Scott clearly has no fear of heights!

The creek that we walked along

I know you all are waiting for the next camping failure so here it is… remember that tent that I bought years ago? So I had left it at my parents house for them to use and had just got it back from them. We assumed that all parts would be in the bag, I mean that’s what a tent bag is for, right? Turns out we were missing a few parts. But I mean who needs poles anyways. So we headed over to the ridiculously overpriced camping gear store to find some replacement poles which, of course, they didn’t have in stock. They were, however, able to offer us two options of brand new top-of-the-line North Face tents. In the end our “inexpensive” camping trip ended up costing us about $500 more than we planned. Oh, and we forgot the basics like a frying pan, plates, and utensils. 

That's one fancy tent right there!

Made that spatula myself! 

This time around things will be a bit different. We have pre-booked all our campsites so no matter what time we get there at we won’t be left sleeping in the car. Our new, only-used-once tent is currently set up in our basement on a test run with all poles, pegs, and pieces accounted for. And the list of things that need to be packed includes everything we forgot last time and then some!

After all this reminiscing I am super pumped to start on our camping adventure tomorrow! I’m sure I will come back with many stories to share with all of you!

My First 5K

 I started preparing for a 5K in early May 2014. This was about my 3rd attempt. After I had Alice I “decided” I would go on daily runs and train for a 2K, start small. I had the race picked out and started running. It lasted about a week. My next 2 attempts lasted about 2 weeks and then I got pregnant again and used that as my excuse not to run.

May was different. This time I planned ahead. I gave myself 8 weeks to complete the Couch to 5K (C25K) app on my phone. I started running outside when it was nice at sunset and became addicted to the gorgeous views I was given while I ran. Then came the rain and I could’ve given up but I had already told so many people that I was going to run the Run or Dye 5K on July 5th that I was fully committed so I began running on the treadmill during naptime.

When I started out I was winded after the 5 minute “brisk warmup walk”. Yup, just 5 minutes of walking was all it took to tire me out but I was determined to run this 5K and reach my goal so I put mind over matter and pushed as hard as I could. When I got tired I would tell myself “run for one more minute” and after that minute I would say “you can push harder than that, how will you run ever run for 5K if you can’t even run 5 minutes, DO THIS!”. And every time my hands touched the treadmill Jillian Michaels (the one in my head anyways) would yell “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY TREADMILL!!” I pushed myself during my training harder than I ever have and a week before the race I was running 3K straight in 25 minutes according to my treadmill.

Morning of race day!

When race day came around I was so nervous because I had never actually ran for 5 kilometers. Let’s face it 3K on a treadmill is a lot different than 5K outdoors on uneven terrain. So I set my goal time for 40-45 minutes. We waited for a long time out in the hot sun while they cleared the path of some obstacle or another and then even longer while they let waves of 100 people at a time leave the starting gate.

Feeling like I'm in a herd of cattle being round up...

Sidenote: I chose an untimed, low pressure race (Run or Dye) as my first race because I didn’t want to feel like I was being left in the dust by the other runners but ended up being slightly disappointed by my choice. At this point I discovered this “race” was more like a stroll in the park than an actual 5K. 99.9% of the group came out of the gate walking and then we slowed down from a walking pace to go through the colour zone. It was like walking behind a line of seniors with walkers blocking a mall hallway. I was trying my best to get around people but not succeeding.

After the first colour zone the group loosened up a bit and with some weaving from side to side and dodging trees beside the path I was able to get around the bulk of the group. It was about this time that I realized I should have chosen a more competitive race. I was flying past people and almost tripping over some as they walked into my path. Soon I gave up on running on the path and instead ran on the street or grass beside it. My confidence was building as I spotted other runners, some people were actually running this race after all, then caught up to them and passed them. It felt so great not to be the one that gave up at the start and decided to walk the whole thing. The old me would have either a) not shown up at all or b) started with the intention to run and then walked as soon as I saw everyone else walking.

I pushed harder than I ever have and only walked through the 5 colour zones. When I reached the end I couldn’t believe it was actually over. My adrenaline was pumping so hard that I felt as though I could do another 5 kilometres! I am so proud of myself for pushing through the pain of training and putting mind over matter to reach my goal of running a 5K. Not only that but I beat my goal time of 40-45 minutes with a time of 31 MINUTES!! 

Woohoo!

I may have conquered my goal of running a 5K but I’m not stopping there. My ultimate goal is to run a marathon. The next steps in my journey are to run a 10K in spring of 2015 and run the half-marathon (yup, 21K) in the Queen City Marathon in September of 2015. I can’t wait to share these experiences with you when I get there!!

All coloured up!

Alice was a bit bored by the end...

Conquering My Fear of Bottomless Water

You know that story that your swimming teacher told you about the monster that lives in the deep end of the pool that eats kids who are unsupervised… no? Well maybe my swimming teacher was slightly evil, but that’s what I remember from my swimming lessons. Needless to say I’ve developed a slight fear of deep water. It’s not because I can’t swim, I can doggy paddle with the best of them and win any water treading competition! It’s just the fear of something coming up from underneath and pulling me under. So when a friend of mine and her husband started their own stand up paddle boarding business my first thought was “I wonder if they will have lessons in a pool?”. No such luck. The lessons were going to be held on murky Wascana lake. Bleh! I was out, there was no way they would get me to go in that water!

Then I received a private invite for some of their close friends to come out to a “Try SUP/SUP Yoga” night for FREE. I had just started coaching with Beachbody at this time and had made a commitment to myself to start trying new things. I kinda locked myself into this before I even knew it. So I went. It was a Tuesday night. I was completely prepared to go for a swim. I wore tight clothes that wouldn’t hold too much water, pulled my hair back, put towels in the car. I was ready to fall.

We started with a dry land session of how to get on the board and then how to stand on the board if we felt we could handle it. My friends husband, Chris, saw the look of fear on my face as we prepared for the water and casually told me to “relax the worst that can happen is you fall in”. Yup, that’s what I’m afraid of thanks! And then we hit the water. The first part wasn’t that bad, I could handle 3 feet of water while paddling on my knees no problem! Soon everyone was starting to stand up on their boards and, being the new competitive me, I had to go for it. After about 10 minutes of tensing my legs, shaking, and grimacing, I finally started to relax and even to take longer strides with the paddle. Telling myself the water was only 2 feet deep (it wasn’t) was actually tricking my body into calming down and I started to enjoy my surroundings. It was a beautiful, calm evening around 7:30pm and the sun was just setting over the legislative building. It was gorgeous!

SUP Yoga with Kristal

After some practice we all headed over to a little cove for some SUP Yoga with Kristal. It took a considerable amount of core muscles (thanks T25!) to stay on the board while doing some of the poses but the view was spectacular. I was able to spend the peaceful moments drawing closer to the Lord and focusing my mind on communicating with him and his will for me. I don’t have much “down time” in my life being a busy wife/mom and this was truly a blessing. Some of the group headed back to the shore to wrap up for the night but I actually found that I was enjoy paddling so much that I went around the lake with a part of the group just because! 

Love the challenge of yoga on a board!

I am so glad that stand up paddle boarding was the first fear that I conquered because my success and enjoyment of this activity has shown me that maybe I’ve changed from my past self. Fears can be overcome and activities that I never thought I would enjoy can become some of my most favourite things to do.

This experience has given me the courage to try so many more new things. Including things that I’ve written off because of fear. Some things to look forward to in the future… long distance running, repelling down buildings, skiing, and many many more!

If you live in the Regina, SK area and are interested in learning to SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard), taking a SUP yoga class, or renting a board then give Chris and Kristal a shout at The Queen City SUP Shop http://www.queencitysup.com/

Giving My Life to Jesus: My Faith Journey

I grew up in what is often called a “Sunday Christian” home. My parents had great intentions of instilling Christian values into our lives, but often the values that we learned on Sunday morning didn't carry all the way through the week. It’s nothing like “ya we went to church and then came home and all my family does is smoke, and drink, and swear, etc, etc”. My parents are wonderful and raised my two brothers and I very well. None of us are living on the streets, doing drugs, and begging others for money. We were raised to work hard for our money, be responsible with what we have and live within our means, and be respectful to others amongst other key values. This being said though I did not have any sort of a relationship with God or Jesus. The basic knowledge that I did have about Christianity told me that the majority of Christians were hypocrites and that it was a show put on just for the public eye.

Then in 2006 my grandpa passed away from cancer and I was devastated. I felt abandoned and like God took him just to spite me. I was hurt and determined to rebel against any and all authority figures in any way possible. This was quite easy for me since I was leaving for university and had unlimited amounts of freedom.  My first semester of school was spent in the “party scene”. I’m pretty sure my antics gave my dad most of the salt that’s now in his salt and pepper hair! Then at the end of my first semester I met a cute, curly haired guy that lived down the hall from my friend in residence. The three of us started going out for supper together at the food court and over time we learned that quiet, innocent Scott was a Christian and regularly went to church. He invited us to his church one Sunday and we decided to give it a chance. The music was decent and the pastor ironically preached on “Bringing your friends to church”. By this point I had a slight crush on Scott and so I continued to attend church with him every Sunday.

Soon I started to ask questions about his faith. I could see that he wasn't like the other “Christians” I had interacted with. His faith was genuine. He was committed to reading his Bible every day, he invested time in prayer, and attended church every Sunday, and not only that but his whole family did the same! That was 6 people that were genuine Christians. We started dating in December 2006 and his parents bought me a bible for Christmas. I began reading it daily and taking a list of questions to Scott almost every day about what I had read. It took me six months to logically sort through the Christian faith and test the Lord.

On May 11th, 2007, I prayed that the Lord would use my life as He saw fit and that I would be able to have a relationship with Jesus. My faith journey has had many ups and downs. After being told several times by the Lord through prayer and my Bible reading that I needed to be baptized, as a show of my faith, and ignoring or putting off every command, I felt the Lord go silent in my life. I drifted away in my readings and prayer but longed for that closeness of conversation again. It finally clicked that He stopped talking simply because I wasn't listening and so, in January 2010, I was baptized. The Lord began to speak to me again and my faith grew.

After Alice was born life became busy and my faith was put on the back burner. Though we still attended church every Sunday, I found myself making lists of things to do instead of worshiping the Lord and learning more about Him. Life was busy, prayer time was scarce, and my Bible read was non-existent. This continued until after I had Anna. Then I am convinced that the Lord stepped in and placed the Beachbody family into my life.

The Beachbody challenge group that I joined taught me to commit not only to a fitness program and healthier nutrition but also to personal development. I began praying daily again and setting aside time to actually study my Bible instead of my usual read it and forget it. I have grown closer to God and in my relationship with Jesus more since March 2014 then I have since the beginning of my faith walk. I am so thankful to be having conversations with God again, even when most of the things he tells me are things I don’t want to hear!!