Fall turns into winter - catching up AGAIN

Just a little catching up. Here is a slideshow of some of the highlights from the last 2 months. Halloween, playing outside, Cody earned his Bear badge in cub scouts, the twins had a class play at school, Sadie shot a deer and had a recital - just to name a few of the things we have been up to.

We have enjoyed a lot of things the fall like playing football in the crisp autumn air, raking leaves and jumping into the piles, seeing the first snow fall and feeling the temperatures start to plummet. It has been crazy with school, but something that I have learned is that my family has to come first whenever that is possible. I can't miss school if the kids are sick or have a school party, but I can try to enjoy the time we have on my weekends and in the evenings.

This slide show is Thanksgiving and the day after when we went and got Christmas trees. We had a great weekend and had a lot of fun - the kids especially.

We will post our Christmas letter soon. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and that your holidays will be filled with the love of those around you, and those like us who are far away.

Sadie's Deer and Recital

Just real quick, back in October Sadie and Brett had the chance to hunt together for deer. Sadie's first ever big game hunting trip. She was a trooper. She got her deer after having to shoot it 3 times(2 of those shots were kill shots, it just wouldn't die). That had to be hard for a first time hunter as sensitive as Sadie is. So here is a photo of her and her first ever deer.

At the end of November Sadie had her piano recital. We were finally able to get Sadie started with a wonderful piano teacher back in June. On November 21, Sadie competed in a piano festival and scored 98/100 points. Then she had her recital on the 22nd. The following video is of her recital, playing one of her festival songs. We are so proud of her and her dedication to her playing. She really does love it.

Catching up

Well, time is flying by and here it is, 2 months since my last post. We have been more busy than ever so I will touch on some of the highlights from the last 2 months.

School started for all of us (the kids and I) at the end of August. Sadie is in the 7th grade, Cody is in the 4th grade and Jackson and Greg are in the 2nd grade. They are all doing great this year at helping around the house and being more responsible for themselves. I am in my senior year in the dental hygiene program at Idaho State University. I had an instructor tell us last week that our program has to be the hardest bachelors program in the nation - I would agree. I will not bother you with a list of why I am so stressed, just know that I am really busy and can't wait to graduate in May.

September was a good month. On the 12th of September I ran my first ever 5k. That is 3.1 miles for those who don't know. I had trained since July with my friend Tasha. We slowly worked our way up to be able to run that far and ran in a race together to say that we had. It was a fun, and exhausting day.

For anyone who knew me growing up you are probably a little surprised that I would do this. I used to think the cross country runners were crazy. I have to admit though that I really grew to love running and felt such wonderful benefits from doing it. I can't wait to get back into a routine with it after school gets done in the spring.

Here I am with Tasha and her husband Bob, and their oldest child Aliysa.

Before the race.
This is right at the start of the race. I was feeling a little competitive with all the people around, so we kind of started off faster than we should have.

Here we are at the finish line. We finished in around 34 minutes, which was great for us.

Afterwards, just grateful to have it done.

That same afternoon we had a family reunion for Brett's mom's side of the family. It was fun to catch up with people we hadn't seen for a while and meet some new members of the family.

Since then we have just been busy with school and Brett has been really busy with work. He is finally done with his field season, of course now he is just hunting a bunch so he isn't really home any more than before! He was able to go out this past Thursday and get his antelope. He got a really nice buck, I will have to have him post some photos when he gets home.

Sadie is excited to be turning 12 years old tomorrow. She has asked for a crimper for her birthday, which is kinda funny because crimping your hair was popular when I was in middle school too - pretty crazy. She is growing up so fast. She is wearing mascara now, (one thing at a time) and she talks way too much on the phone with her friends. We really are blessed to have such a sweet spirit in our home. She is so helpful with me being in school. She has even started getting dinner ready for us on the nights when Brett and I are both late getting home.

Anyway - life is pretty good for us Highs. We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends and such supportive families who help us out while things are so crazy right now. Thank you all! We would love to hear from you.

Mt. Borah, Idaho: elevation 12,662 ft.

Yesterday, August 22, Brett and I finally got to hike to the peak of Mt. Borah. It is described on a website about the "50 Highpoints" with the following statement:

"Mount Borah is the tallest mountain in Idaho and ranked 6th hardest of the state's 50 highpoints. Although the hike to the summit is relatively short, 3.4 miles, it gains over a vertical mile in that distance. The trail is very steep and unrelenting. There is only about 1/10 of a mile of the trail that is flat or a grade less than 20%."

Our adventure started on Friday when we dropped the kids off in Blackfoot at Brett's parent's house. We headed out from there and camped in our Suburban pretty close to the trail head. There were so many people right at the trial head that we decided to just pull off into the sage brush, away from the crowd, and go to sleep.

This shows us on Saturday morning as we are eating and getting our packs ready for the day. Yes, we both look tired, I know. We got up at 5am and were on the trail around 5:45.
Here is a portion of the trail right after leaving the parking area. I just wanted to document that it didn't start off leisurely, but was steep from the get go (I thought this was steep until later when I learned what real steep is). We headed from the trail head into the trees where we hiked a steady climb for about 1000 feet elevation.

This is one of the first views we got to see since we started in the dark. You can see the shadow of the mountains, showing the sun coming up behind us.

No, I didn't tilt the camera in this picture. This is when the climb really started. Brett hiked up ahead of me so that I could get him in the photo, then I made him wait for me to catch up. You can see up at the top of the photo quite a few people up ahead of us, including a scout troop from Meridian.

Here is where the trail came up out of the trees. It was this steep for a long ways and we rested as often as we needed to. This photo really shows how busy the mountain was.

Here is that same section, you can see the treeline, but looking down on it. You can see in the background the parking area (kind of a light "C" shaped area still in the shadow) and really get an idea how far up we are all ready.

This photo is taken from the start of "Chicken out ridge", looking back at what we had just done. The red line is the trail and the prior shot was taken at the very start of the line. It may look level, but it isn't. The blue arrow is showing where the trail comes up and over, that white speck is someones shirt.

First off, I don't know that guy in the shot, he was patiently waiting for me to take my photo and get on with my climb so he could follow. OK - Now I have mentioned Chicken-out-Ridge (COR) but haven't really explained what it is. It is a section of the climb that literally scares people into "chickening out" and turning around. It is a ridge of rocks that is very steep and has pretty much a cliff on either side. There is a trail that people have made along the left side of the cliff face that prevents them from having to traverse the rocks, but it is pretty dangerous seeing that it is loose scree and snow and if you fall there is nothing to stop you. Now back to this shot - it is the beginning of COR, not too difficult, I am looking back at it from where the climbing gets more difficult.

I am really humiliated to post such a photo of myself on the Internet, but it is the only one that really shows some of what we were doing. The plaque at the base of the mountain said that the rock climbing portion was considered a "class 3 scramble" (1=easiest 5=hardest). I actually found the ridge to be the funnest part of the entire climb and found my spirits lifted quite a bit once we had finished it. It really was fun.

This is looking back at COR. The scariest part for me was that part on the left of the screen where the guy with the red pack is standing. You have to back-climb and I couldn't see where my feet needed to go, that was kinda creepy.

This is looking back at COR. This photo really gives you a feel for it, seeing the people scrambling across the top.

Now looking forward. After getting off of COR the peak was in sight. The last portion of the climb is tough. It is steep and through really loose rock (scree). After you go over the saddle (where those guys are) you have an 800 foot climb. Remember that by this point you are at over 11,800 feet elevation and the air is starting to get thin. We took it slow (probably slower than Brett would have done alone) and stopped often so that I could get enough oxygen into my system but eventually (about 12:20pm) we made it to the peak.

Someone had left this neat flag for photo opportunities so we took advantage of it. We shared the peak with about 30 other people but found a nice spot to sit down and eat our lunch. We took photos of the surrounding views and then headed back down. At this point in time I was tired, but I didn't really think that the trip down was going to be as strenuous as the trip up. The following shots are all views from the highest point in Idaho. Really amazing.

A couple lakes visible on the backside of Borah.

Brett, enjoying the view (probably thinking about which mountain we can climb next).

Can you believe we are higher than these amazing mountains? The closer of the mountains are Leatherman peak and Mt. Breitenbach.Right here is where I should tell you that the trip down was not as strenuous as the trip up, but it was way harder. On the way up it was just pushing yourself to keep going up, taking breaks and catching your breath, but always feeling like - yeah, I can do this. Well, anyone who has ever hiked downhill on scree can imagine what our downhill climb was like. It was awful. By the time we got to COR I thought, oh good a break from the pounding that my knees were getting. What I didn't realize is that rock climbing is a lot harder when your legs feel like jello. At one point I was climbing across this rock face where you really had to reach and there was nothing behind you and I just locked up - like I felt frozen to the rock. I about completely lost it. Thankfully I was able to snap out of it and tell myself (out loud in fact) "Katherine, you can do this". I think I had Brett a little worried at that point. Anyway, by the time we hit the tree line my knees were killing me, but what can you do? There were thunderstorms lurking and the last place we wanted to be was on a tall mountain when lightning was striking, so I pushed on.
This photo is when we are almost back to the parking area. I desperately needed to use the bathroom and wanted to just crash. I am proud to say that I completed the hike without Brett having to carry my pack.

Overall, I am very glad that I did this and that we were successful. Would I do it again? Maybe if I had better gear like boots that fit right (you don't really know if they fit until you are going downhill like we were) and trekking poles. Being in better shape would probably get us up in better time, but we weren't in it to break any records. I am happy to say that I can check that peak off of my list. I think that next year we will climb Mt. Whitney in California (the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states). Anyone wishing to join us let us know. Right now I am just dreading my scheduled run for tomorrow - my legs are killing me!

Brett's Rexburg Rush Triathlon Experience

Well, today was the big day. Brett swam, biked and ran his first triathlon. I have posted individual photos instead of a slide show so that I can take you through the whole process. He did this because back in April his brother Cameron asked him to do it with him, Brett said he would. I was planning on doing it too but decided I would wait until next year - I really would like to do it and not have to walk the entire "run" section of the race. That is going to take more time to train. This was right when the men started, they were pretty bunched together. Brett is on the far left side of the photo - no cap on, no goggles.
The swimming wasn't Brett's strongest part but he kept up and finished right in the middle of the pack. He swam the side stroke the entire 1/2 mile.
Too bad he can only do the side stroke on his left side or we could have gotten a better shot of his face in the water!

I love this photo. He is running up to the first transition area after getting out of the water. He is pooped here but he doesn't show it. Nice six pack huh?

Here he is after changing, heading out for the 14.2 mile biking section of which half was uphill.

Heading down the road!

Coming into transition two to shed his bike and helmet and run 3.1 miles. We didn't realize a helmet was manditory til the day before so Brett wore Sadie's helmet - it didn't fit very snug so Brett just let it slide to where it felt comfortable, on the side of his head. No time to adjust during the race!

Even with his legs cramping up he had a smile for me and the camera.

Coming over the finish line. The time in the back is for the intermediate level runners who began an hour before the sprint (Brett's group) so Brett finished in 1 hour 47 minutes and 5 seconds. His goal was to finish under 2 hours!

Brett and Cameron after the race.

Everyone squeezing into the sweaty guy! Say "Smelly armpits"!

From left to right - Chase (Cameron's brother in law) Cameron and Brett.

Overall, Brett finished sixth in his age division and really pushed it harder than he intended to. He entered to finish but couldn't stand it when people passed him on the bike section, just too competitive I guess. Overall it was a great morning, very motivational for all of us, in fact the boys are talking of doing one as a team when they get old enough (they only have to be 10 to enter this one). We are very proud of Brett's effort and dedication to fulfill this goal.

STUPID . . . IDAHO . . . WEATHER!!!

Sorry if my title sounds a little bitter. I was supposed to be able to post some beautiful photos of Idaho's majesty from my view atop Mt. Borah this weekend, but NO! Thunder storms, a high of 40 deg. and possible snow showers kept us off the mountain this weekend. I am still pretty bummed about it - we have had this on the calendar all summer. For those of you who don't know this, hiking the tallest peaks in the six most western states (WA, OR, MT, ID, CA, NV) is one of my lifetime goals. This hike was going to be the first one to be checked off my list. So instead of hiking my butt off today we are working around our property trying to get our pasture ready to get a sprinkler system. So fun, I can hardly contain myself. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for us in a couple weeks when we are planning to try again. Wish us luck. We will keep you posted.

Family Fun - Sawmill Canyon

This past Saturday brought our family a day of fishing, shooting, hiking, sweating, some tears and a lot of fun. We headed out to Sawmill Canyon first thing in the morning. We first stopped at squaw creek for lunch and some fishing. The kids shot the 22 and Brett and I shot his new 357 magnum which didn't kick nearly as hard as I expected it to. We then headed for the Mill Creek trail. This trail starts at a campground and heads 2 miles up (and I mean up - approx 1000 vertical feet up) to a high mountain lake, appropriately named Mill Creek Lake. The kids did great on the hike but about 3/4 of the way up Sadie got very emotional and dramatic (she is 11 yrs old so this is to be expected) and started crying about how we were never going to reach the lake. It was actually pretty funny to the rest of us, but don't let her know that! We got up to the lake around 2:30pm or so and the boys were so hot and sweaty from the hike they decided that they were going to go swimming in the lake. Now mind you, we didn't bring swim suits, so they stripped down to their undies (even though we were not the only ones there), and went swimming. It was COLD water and you can tell by the photos that they could feel how cold it was. I had to take pictures, sorry boys. We spent the rest of the day fishing in the lake. Sadie and Brett fly fished most of the time. It was Sadie's first real fly fishing experience and she did really well. The photo of the fish being pulled out of the water then Sadie leaning over a fish are her catching her first fish on that fly rod, with a fly that she tied herself. Can you say "Daddy's girl"? Anyway, we built a fire and cooked our fish (some grayling and some trout) in some tin foil and ate it fresh for dinner. It was so good. The hike back down was a lot easier than the way up and we reached the car about 10:30pm. On the way back down, we were hiking along a pretty steep side hill and Greg was getting a little worried because his legs were tired. He told me, in all seriousness, that if he were to fall off the side and die that it would all be daddy's fault because it was his idea to go on this hike. I had to laugh pretty hard about that before I assured him there was no way anyone was going to die. We got home super late and it was hard to get up for 9am church the next morning, but I think we have all recovered quite well. Next weekend Brett and I are going to hike Mt. Borah, Idaho's tallest mountain. We will certainly post photos of that. Enjoy!

Rockets and Wolfe Badges

Cody with his rocket, ready to launch!

Sadie finishing up her rocket so she can launch it too.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . . BLAST OFF

Cody on his first launch

Sadie on her first launch. Do you see how tall she is getting?

So, Sadie and Cody attended a 4-H rocket day camp. They had a great time learning how rockets are powered, how to make them and how to launch them. They got to launch them twice and get to enter their rockets in the fair.

Cody just received his Wolf badge for cub scouts last night. He refused to hug me back when I tried to hug him. What a stinker!

The boys spreading out one of the flags to cut into smaller pieces. You can see the man in the background who played the bagpipe while they cut the flags.
Cody asking permission to retire the flag.
After putting it on the fire.

After the advancement ceremony where Cody got his badge, the scouts retired several American Flags. They cut them up and then asked the VFW representative if they had permission to retire the flag, he would salute them and say, "permission granted" then they would walk the flag pieces to the fire and put it on. I was touching to witness.

Hope you all are keeping busy like we are! Keep in touch!

OH Summer time!

This first slide show is of the Hawkins Family Reunion that we had at my folk's place in Stayton, OR back in June. I traveled over with the kids for an extended stay and my folks and Brett surprised me by flying Brett over for the reunion. It was a great surprise and a great day. We did family photos - it is the first time our entire family has been together in probably 6 years! So that was cool. We had a lot of fun catching up with everyone. I really do love my family!


Last week we took another summer trip south and went to Downata Hot springs for an entire day, camped there overnight and then went to Lagoon (an amusement park in Utah) for 2 whole days. We had so much fun. At Downata we enjoyed the pool and the multiple slides, I forgot to get out my camera until almost closing time so there aren't any photos of the big slides. Brett and I both swam a 1/2 mile just to see if we could. Brett is doing a sprint distance triathlon in August and the swimming part is the part he was most concerned about, but after this trip I think he feels more confident!


So we spent 2 entire days at Lagoon. It was a bit much, considering we did the same thing last year but we still had fun. I seemed to discover my inner dare devil. I rode almost every ride in the park, including the ones that I had sworn that no one could pay me to go on (Yes, I rode "Rocket" and "Wicked"). It was really fun. On the first roller coaster that we went on (Jet Star)the seats are configured so that you have 2 in a seat, one in back and one in front kinda between the other's legs. So Greg was with me and I had my arms over the side holding onto a bar. This coaster goes supper fast and kinda whips you around a lot. I ended up banging my arm against a bolt or something and got a HUGE bruise on the inside of my left bicep. Battle wound I guess :).

Overall - our summer has been all it needed to be so far. It has been relaxing yet busy and we still have several things planned for the next month. I will try to do better at posting more regularly, at least until school starts back up! Hope all of you are enjoying your summer as much as we are.

Spring 2009 Adventures

I didn't include the captions for these photos because they blocked half of the picture. To see them all in a web-album with captions go to this link :
http://picasaweb.google.com/kathigh27/Spring2009Happenings?authkey=Gv1sRgCM361--M8Kz6MQ&feat=directlink

Well, this spring has been busy to say the least.
Let's see . . . right after the pinewood derby Greg lost his first front tooth (he is pictured against a brown wall).

We got to go to a cabin up in Island Park with all of Brett's brothers and their families for a weekend full of snow machining and sledding - that was really fun and relaxing.

Easter came and the kids looked adorable in their Easter clothes (I am sure you can figure out which photo that is).

Then the last couple of weeks of school really dragged for me. Finally I finished out the semester and gladly I can consider myself a senior DH student. Now I am really busy doing all the stuff that I haven't been able to do since in school, like chaperoning for field trips.

This past weekend we went to CJ Strike reservoir (over by Mt. Home Idaho) and camped for four days. The crappie fishing was HOT. The kids were catching fish at a rate that was amazing, almost every cast at some times. Two of Brett's brothers, and families, plus his best friend and his older kids came too. By the end of the first day we had completely filled a cooler with crappie (that was approx. 200 fish). We gave that away and by the second night we had filled another cooler. From then on we fished "catch and release" only :). The slide show has photos of Jackson holding a large mouth bass that he caught on our last night there. He was pretty excited about that, as were we all. He released it though so that it could get even bigger. It was really exciting to see all of our kids able to cast, catch, pull the hooks out, release and even re-hook their own line when it broke (most of the time) - all by themselves. That is pretty impressive considering crappie have sharp spines sticking out with their fins and they don't like to hold still. Brett really enjoyed seeing all of us having fun catching fish. It took him almost 3 hours to fillet the cooler full of crappie that we brought home. I think I need to plan on cooking crappie at least once a week for a while.

On the way to the reservoir we stopped to eat dinner and Jackson came over to me and said "Mom, something feels weird" and then he opened his mouth. Well, one of his front teeth were gone. He apparently took a bite of pizza and it came out and he swallowed it. It was pretty funny. Then two days later, while camping, he lost the other one. The photo of him holding the large mouth bass -face forward- shows his toothless grin pretty good.

Overall, our spring has been fun, busy and full of memories made. We are so grateful to have family and friends to make those memories with and look forward to the many memories we have yet to make this summer.

Pinewood Derby 2009

Cody participated in his first ever "Pinewood Derby" for scouts last night. He won every race he was in except for one and ended up getting second place overall. His average speed (in scale) was 180mph.
We all had a great time helping him with his car. Overall, we were happily surprised at how well he did, but now he keeps asking if we think he can beat the boy who got first place next year. What a goofball! Maybe next year we will start working on his car earlier than the week of the race.

Catching up

The kids loved it when Brett would pull them on the sled with the snow machine. We love having a property that lets us enjoy the outdoors all year long!

We went hiking a couple weekends ago and enjoyed the sun shining for a change, even if there was snow on the trail. Even our dog Jessie enjoyed getting out. In fact she ended up chasing some deer over the hill and Brett had to go find her. Needless to say she got in trouble.

Well, it has been 3 months since I have updated this blog and I am sorry. Honestly, we have been so busy, but not doing anything that was really worth writing about. School has been really stressful this semester for me and it takes up almost all my thoughts and energy. Brett has been busy with work and with picking up the slack around the house and with the kids. He is a really great cook in case any of you didn't know that. We got a lot of snow this winter and the kids went out and played almost everyday after school. Their snow clothes were constantly wet it seemed.

In January Sadie and I sang a duet at church and everyone was really impressed that Sadie was such a great singer. In fact I could hardly sing because I was choked from hearing her do so well. It was fun to do that with her.

In February I (and all the other dental hygiene students from my school) had the opportunity to go and volunteer at the World Winter Special Olympics that were held in Boise. They do all sorts of health screenings, and I was able to interact with athletes from all over the world. I had the chance to make them mouth guards, apply fluoride varnish to their teeth, and screen for any emergent care needs they may have so that we could take care of that. A lot of them had never been to a dentist or other health care provider and they were very grateful. Overall it was a life changing experience that I am very grateful to have been able to participate in.

A couple weeks ago Cody had his first Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts. He finally received his bobcat award (he earned it back in May - but leaders didn't get it recorded) and he felt really proud helping with the flag ceremony. I will post the photos when I figure out how to get them off of my phone. :) He has been busy trying to earn his wolf badge before his birthday in April.

Jackson and Greg have been keeping busy being first graders and learning to read. It is amazing how different identical twins can be, even when it comes to how they learn. They are doing well and both of them love math. Greg's teacher told him he should be an engineer someday because of his math skills and the fact that he is the only kid in his class who organizes his desk. Jackson is anxious for summer and the outdoor adventures that will accompany it. I think we all are though.

Hopefully I will do a better job at updating this in the future, but for now please accept my apologies. I hope that all of you are doing well.