Variety in the High Sierras

The key to having a great time in any setting is adding variety to the experience.  When you're at Disneyland....don't just ride the rides....eat and see a live show.  When you're at a party...don't just talk to the same person all night....find the loneliest person and strike up a conversation.  Variety.  It makes any experience better. 

The same is true in the mountains.  The best experiences in the mountains are the ones that have lots of variety.  On one occasion with my friend Jay, we backed off a climb because we got scared.  There's never shame in that....backing off adds variety to an experience!    

We found another climb that made more sense for us on the day -- a beautiful slab with a beautiful view of a lake from the summit. Variety. 

Back at camp....more variety:  Food & Fire & Friends.  My three essential "F's".  

There's actually another "F" that is deeply important to me.

Faith.

Alpine sunsets always bring me to faith.

Variety:  Food, Fire, Family, Faith.

....oh wait...there's another "F" I forgot!  Fun! Swimming in a cold alpine lake is fun!!

....so.much.variety.

We also found a climb that we knew our kids would have loads of fun on.  It was easy and wonderful!  They loved every second! 

...they also loved hiking around on a beautiful granite slab.  Fun! 

....oh wait.  More variety.  We forgot another essential "F".  Family. 

Food Fire Friends Faith Fun Family

Variety

These are good days

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Framily is Forever

Some dear friends of ours from Canada recently visited us on their amazing west-coast road trip.  We have loved our "framily" (when friends are your family) for a third of our lives and had countless adventures on mountains in wild places and in in our pjs in the living room with a bottle of wine.  

Friendship is an important part of what it means to be human.  Jesus himself called his followers "his friends" (John 15:15).  Maybe he knew we needed this analogy to show us how deeply he wants us in his life.    

Who is your "framily"?  Young people often feel the pressure of having a lot of friends.  Social media teaches that more is always better.  We've found that isn't always true. 

Jesus had his multitudes, his 70, his 12, and then his 3.

We've enjoyed many framily moments over the years.  We've come to discover that the goal in life is not to be popular but to have good friends.  Framily.  Pursue framily.  

Jesus said in Luke 8:21 that his friends were his family.  Jesus had a framily...and so do we. 

Framily is forever.

These are good days.

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Sometimes we miss home

We think about our friends in Vancouver, BC every day.  Having moved to California was one of the hardest things we ever had to do as a family.  We say,"had" because Jesus asked to to "drop our net" and follow Him... but it meant loosing everything we loved: our friends and our church.  We are still not "over it".  Will we ever be?  We don't want to be...."over it."

God has richly blessed us in Fresno -- an amazing growing Church with an incredible vision, new friends, family, new rhythms...so many more new.great.things.

But none of these replace the old...the tried, the tested, the true.

I think in life...God gives you only a few forever friends.  Do you agree?  You can never really move past your forever friends.  They are somehow with you where ever you live in the world. 

We are learning how to look back and look forward and see it all as gifts from God.

These are good days

Behind

and Ahead

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Cycling Mount Seymour & Deep Cove

Went on a really nice ride today with my friend Jay.  Jay and I have been on many adventures together (rockclimbing & cycling)....and he is a pastor too!

We decided to cycle to Deep Cove and then cycle up Mount Seymour.

We generally followed this route (except that we included a loop around Stanley Park and the hill climb to Prospect Point) as opposed to going right through. 

The cycling to deep cove could be classified as rollers.  Short climbs and short descents make it a really nice ride to warm up the legs and stop in a really beautiful town next to a gorgeous inlet.  This is a highly recommended ride. 

Then it was time to get the business done...

The Mount Seymour climb is 1045 meters (3430 feet) in 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles).  It is unrelenting with a constant grade of 8% and the first five kilometers amping up to between 9-10%

For the ride profile (click the photo below)

photo taken from here

We chatted the whole way, sweated under a 25 degree Celsius sun, and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL ride.  Saw a few deer on the way up (and one on the way down...that was not so fun.  Careful cyclists!)

At the summit we used the bathrooms, found some shade, and refilled our water bottles.

The descent was really fun.  

15 minutes at 70 kmh (43 mph)

After the ride (86 km and 5000 feet of climbing), some hamburgers and beer were a nice surprise from my good friend Jay!  Thanks brotha! 

...and dude, you gotta love it, right?  A mid ride espresso plus power bar.  Great combo! 

This was one of my favorite days on the bike...

These are good days, friends

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Rockclimbing with 4 kids

Yes. It is possible.  

Elizabeth's fever broke....so we seized the day 

and headed to Squamish with some friends and their two kids for some Sabbath rock climbing 

I.love.granite.cracks

Josiah, mostly did this:

Elizabeth mostly did this: 

"A" mostly did this:

"C" mostly did this:

But there's nothing like....

climbing granite in the sun.

So Heidi got in on the 5 week postpartum lead

atta girl!

These are good days....

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