Pfeifferhorn Summit and my mountain

It's important as a married couple that you have date nights and time away as a couple.

It's also just as important that you have time away on your own to do you things you like to do on your own or with your friends.

Marc has really gotten back into backpacking again and got a couple of friends to go on the Pfeifferhorn Summit Bid with him.

I was a little worried when about an hour after he left I started hearing thunder and lightening and the rain started to pour down...

But, these pictures he brought back for me to see show that it was, all in all, a great trip. They only heard a rock slide during the night and weren't part of one, and didn't get rained on too bad.

from left to right: Scott, Marc and Brian

I'll try to spare Scott and Brian from ALL the shots that Marc took of them (smile)

The storm is starting to roll in during their hike up.

The view of the lake from their campsite

Just some of the pretty stuff around.

Happy campers!

Sunset

Their campsite in the morning

Getting ready for their summit bid

just beautiful

Cheeser!

Marc said they had to do a LOT of rock scrambling to get to the top... he wasn't exaggerating!

At least they saw a few of these in the crags of the rocks every so often.

The view on the way up to the summit...

Panoramic view from the summit

summit pics

All three happy to be at the top! Awesome shot too!

Before Marc and I had kids we backpacked together all the time. I look back and I actually can't believe how often we backpacked and camped together. We lived a whole other life, it seems. We were, what I would say, a bit "granola," or "tree-huggers." We were very into nature, and preserving and leaving nature as we found it and all that.

Blast from the past!

This is from 1997 or  98 when Marc and I hiked to the chalet up in Glacier National Park.
Still one of our favorite hikes to this day. And, yes, I used to scrap book, pppfftthhh!! don't ask!

Then we had our kids and well, heck, we are just glad that nature still survives with them around! (smirk)

I feel like we've been scrambling up our own mountain ever since the first day we got the news that Brother was delayed. We didn't need the label of Fragile X Syndrome to knock us down a few feet, we were struggling our way up that mountain already.

It was with our 3 diagnosis for our 3 child that the shale on the steep mountainside started to get a little slipperier. But, just like Marc found on the hike last weekend, there is beauty along the way, friends that keep you going, sights that keep you wanting to see what's ahead and overall there's the summit we want to reach in the end.

We all have a mountain to climb. I just pray we are not expecting to do it alone.

Make sure you have a hiking partner through life's trails.