Rock Climbing? Book Club? Yeah we are that awesome!

When I found out that hockey practice would be the same night as the women's ministry at work I was a little bummed.  I really want to do both, but I can't be two places at once.  So I started looking for other things I could do with some women from church.  I joined a book club and have been loving it, the first book we read was Unspoken by Francine Rivers.   It is a story about the life of Bathsheba, it really brought the bible to life for me.  I know some of the stuff she wrote about may or may not have been true, but it was great to take a bible story and make it feel real.  So often the stories in the bible tend to feel unreal or not as lifelike, I know times were different when the bible was written so to have the story redefined as very nice indeed. 

So what does all this have to do with rock climbing you ask?  Well, the second book we chose was much longer so we decided to take a whole month to read it and do something a little fun on our first meeting instead.  The votes came in that we would go rock climbing, only 3 of us ended up climbing and another came to watch.  I had a blast and am planning on taking the intro class and possibly getting into doing that more often.  It certainly was a good workout.

Pink the Rink

This is the second year that we've gone to the Pink the Rink Silvertips game, a portion of all the ticket sales goes to breast cancer research.  We normally go with a group of people from my work. It gives me a reason to wear my pink Silvertips jersey and give a bit back to a good cause.  This jear Julie got to ride on the fanboni during the intermission, lots of fun!  I really do need to go watch more tips games!  The guys wore special pink jerseys that were auctioned off after the game and the proceeds from that went to breast cancer research as well.  All in all the event raised over $38,800, I'm glad I could be there!  If they do it again next year I'm sure we'll go if we are available.  Here are just a couple pictures from the game, I didn't take too many. 

My "first" hockey game...

I say my "first" hockey game because it is my first game playing a forward.  When I said I was going to start playing hockey again everyone just assumed I was going to play goalie again.  But I really wanted to skate, pass, shoot, do a bit more then hang out in front of the net stopping pucks.  I want to be the person with the puck.  I may still be working on that one, but I am enjoying playing a wing so far.

The first game went well, I had a blast and that's what matters.  Here are a few pictures from the game.  I didn't have my new jersey yet so I'm wearing a borrowed one, I got the choice of being happy or dopey.  Happy seemed like a much better fit for me.  Oh, and this is the only time you'll see me wearing my old #5, my new number is 3, it only seemed fitting I would take Richard's favorite number if he was using mine.

"Butterfly" Puzzle

I bought this puzzle about 3 years ago now and have just stared at the box every time I went into the laundry room.  Recently I finally decided that I would put it together.  I think it's pretty.  The only thing I don't like about puzzles is the taking them apart and putting them back in the box after I make them.  Here are some pictures of my progress on the puzzle.  I love all the little details in this puzzle!

Lord Hill Regional Park

After going to Mirror Lake I had really wanted to do more hiking right away.  We decided to head out to Lord Hill Regional Park in Snohomish, it has miles of trails and such for people to enjoy.  We only walked about 3 miles since we got a late start on the day, a.k.a. Amy wanted to sleep in.  The trails are nice, I particularly liked the ones that weren't as large and kind of went through between the larger trails.  When it comes to enjoyment, I really am much more a mountain hiker then a park stroller.  When we first started out there are houses on both sides and it really did NOT feel like I was out enjoying nature.  The further into the trails you go the less you feel like you're in someones backyard.  I would still prefer going to the mountains and seeing a lake or vista or old growth forest, but I had a nice walk with my boys on a beautiful October day.