Boot Camp

Look - our boots are waterproof. But, alas, too shiny and new to call ourselves respectable hikers. So, David and I joined our friends Jeff and Maja for a day of hiking on the Bruce Trail to try them out and scuff them up. We went to Tews Falls, Websters Falls, and about an 8 km loop in between (which included a LOT of map-checking and a bit of getting lost and some redirection). But it was a beautiful day to be outside, with friends, and in our new boots.

The goal? Someday these boots will be taking us around Australia and (fingers crossed) Europe (including the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain) in 2008. Yes, we know Europe and Australia aren't really close to each other, but it's all part of our plan to travel the world, see the sights, and serve. We're praying right now and trying to figure out where God wants us to go, and soon we'll have our travel itinerary for 2008 up here and on display - and eventually countless photos and stories for our family and friends as we travel. Yeehaw! We can't wait to tie up our boots and go!!

A Walk in the Park

We have now been married for a year. And a week. A year and a week. And it's been grand. A fun walk, indeed. There have been a few trips and falls along the way. But we've picked ourselves up, kept walking (sometimes even skipping), and are so excited to think we are an extremely mature, serious, old married couple.

Anniversary no. 1 was celebrated while on our holiday to the great wild west of Canada. We danced at midnight to the Proclaimer's "500 Miles" at my cousin Clayton's wedding in Salmon Arm, B.C. and then the next morning we were off to Banff (after eating some delicious blueberry pancakes made by Auntie Alice... yum) for two days of camping.

We took our time getting to Banff... David thoroughly enjoyed his drive through the mountains, craning his neck to see out the car and using the highway's rumble strips as his reminder to occasionally keep his eyes on the road. At cousin Roxie's suggestion, we made a stop to take a walk through Cedar Grove, just off the TransCanada. It was a beautiful, refreshing walk among tall, tall trees (some 500 years old) and the air was so clean (just like those tree-shaped air fresheners). Once we were back in the car, we opened cards from our family and reminisced about what we were doing 365 days ago. And amid the talking and the memories and the (happy) crying, we realized our walk among the cedars had been a perfect stop on our anniversary day - in his homily at our wedding Mass, Fr. Tom quoted Psalm 92:12 and compared us to the tall trees. "The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon."

A year and one week after our wedding day, we are enjoying our walk. We're no longer among the cedars, but at home in Oakville. But we'll still use those trees as our example... together, we want to grow big and tall and old.