Whitewater Adventures on the Wind

Each year, Hubster's employing company throws a BBQ in the summer for all the boys to get together and have some fun.

Usually, the BBQ consists of burgers, steaks, and a group of welders that over imbibe.

This year, the office administrator at the office and one of the shop bosses suggested that they try something new.

So the plan to raft the Wind River was born.

And it was AWESOME!!!!

We decided to do the whole day of rafting, which means that we rafted the upper Wind River, ate lunch at the teepees, and then we rafted the lower Wind River.

The upper river is a shorter length, but more intense, as the rapids up there are Class 3 and Class 4. The rapids boast names like 1st Dam Rapid, Sphincter, Sharpnose, and Blackcoal, and they are awesomely intense! We managed to make it through each of those without any major mishaps, piloted by a great young guide named Noah, and his brother, Eli, guided our other raft.

We obligingly named our raft Noah's Ark, and Garrett deemed our group the "A-Team."

I haven't rafted since I was a young girl in Bend, Oregon, but I've wanted to raft the Wind River since I moved to the area.

The day was beautifully hot when we stopped to BBQ chicken at the teepees, and the water was beautifully cold when we went for a swim afterwards.

The lower Wind River is a longer, lazier portion of the river, with only one Class 4 rapid at the very end. These rapids are named things like Reverend Pugh, Lone Bear, Chimney Rock, Washakie Falls, and End of the Trail.

After End of the Trail rapid, we floated the last stretch between that rapid and Wedding of the Waters, where the water plunges to a depth of 6o feet.

We leapt into the water, scrambled up onto a huge rock, dive-bombed back into the water, and floated a ways until we got back into the boat.

It was a fabulous day!

A great start to the month of August, and beginning to the countdown to back to school.

Happy Summer!

Cheers,

R-Lib

Meandering in Mexico

Our adventures in Mexico included a trip to Tulum, zip-lining over the Jungla Maya, Rappelling into a Cenote, a Mayan Purification ceremony, snorkeling in a Cenote, snorkeling on the second largest reef in the whole world, and lying on a beach (reading and napping) between bouts of eating yummy food or swimming in the Caribbean. Epic! 

Hubster and I just returned to the ranch yesterday from a week spent in the Riveria Maya, Quintana Roo, Mexico, and it. was. AWESOME.

Some of the advice we've been given during this fertility struggle has been to take opportunities that we might not have once we start a family, and this trip was one of those. My school year ended with me in a mess (hormones, up and down emotions, panic attacks), and so taking a nice, relaxing vacation seemed like a really good idea.

And it was!!!

Hubster and I realized that since we've been married (3 years in October!), we've never gone on a big trip just for us. We've traveled a lot since getting hitched, but all the trips have been centered around things--family, weddings, etc. So this was our first vacation that was just because we wanted to, and that made it pretty special.

We spent a week at a resort, in a beautiful little room with a balcony overlooking the jungle, and our front door was just 150 yards from the beach. We took time to walk around Playa del Carmen, read (and nap) on the beach, swim in the Caribbean, and eat great food.

Hubster and I also indulged in a few outings--we booked a day with a fantastic company called AllTourNative, which works with the Mayan people to bring tourists to the Cenotes (underground pools of water) and show them the Mayan culture.

We got up early, got picked up by our awesome guide, Carlos, and headed to the Jungla Maya, where we rappelled about 80 feet down into a Cenote (so cool!), zip-lined over the jungle treetops, and even zip-lined into one of the Cenotes (awesome, despite the serious wedgie).

We then got geared up with snorkels and swam in one of the HUGE Cenotes, which was a giant cave, full of awesome rock formations, both above us and under the water. It was dark and there were bats overhead, but Carlos took us through with a light, and it was seriously cool! They then fed us a traditional Mayan lunch (delicious!), and then Carlos took us to the ruins at Tulum.

The city is breath-taking, and we enjoyed touring the site and checking out the incredible buildings of the Mayan culture. We swam at the beach there at Tulum, which felt so good in the heat, and then headed back to the resort.

A few days later, we also went out to the second largest reef in the whole world and snorkeled. We got on a beautiful catamaran called the Aqua Quin and cruised along the coast for a ways, then anchored and snorkeled.

How cool that the fish swam right up around us! The reef was such an incredible sight, and swimming underwater, in the whole other world down there, reminded me of the incredible creativity and power of the God of the Universe. What a moving experience it was!

Overall, the trip was such a great getaway, and a chance for Hubster and I to just decompress and spend time together. It feels strange to be back here at the ranch, sitting alone out in the studio, writing, after almost 10 days of being with Hubster 24/7. I feel spoiled when I get him to myself that much!

The ranch was well-taken care of in our absence (we have a great gal who sits for us!), and we got home last night to a joyful pupper and hungry horses!

There's no place like home, though a little time away was wonderful.

Cheers!

R-Lib

Adjusting

Hola!!

I am writing from Mexico, where Hubster and I are currently enjoying a beautiful beach get-away. When we got married, we didn’t take a traditional honeymoon. Instead of heading off to some exotic place, we drove up to my little house up on the Owl Creek Mountains and hid away for 4 days. It was lovely, romantic, and restful, which was what needed following the excitement of wedding preparation. Plus, we were pretty excited about the…ehm…alone time, since we the choice to abstain until we got married.

Anyway, we decided that since we didn’t take a big trip, it meant that every trip we took for our whole married life would be a honeymoon, a celebration of our life together. Therefore, we are honeymooning for the…third or fourth or eighth time now (we’ve lost track).

In the midst of our fertility struggles, my wise and awesome cousin suggested that we take the time to do something fun, something that we might not be able to do once we have a baby. So, a white beach vacation, to relax and decompress, seemed like a great idea!

It also worked out (fortuitously), that we left right after my Whole30 experience was complete, since (drumroll, please) I FINALLY ditched the extra poundage I have been carrying around since the Depo Shot.

That’s right!!!! I brought 15 pounds less to Mexico with me than I would have a month ago, and that felt pretty great, like I am finally myself again.

As usual, I have been thinking a lot about having a baby. It’s never far from my mind, which I am getting used to. It used to feel a lot like carrying around the extra weight—uncomfortable, like it was something I couldn’t get rid of. But as I’ve shed that pesky weight, I finally feel like I am shedding the discomfort of fertility struggles. Don’t get me wrong, I am not suddenly just peachy about it. I still feel sad, angry, frustrated, and overwhelmed. But I don’t feel that despondence any longer—I am finding ways of adjusting, both my perspective and my emotions. 

Hubster and I have had a great couple of days here by the ocean, and we’ve had some great talks. Part of my process through all this fertility business has become planning a life without children. I still want to have a baby, but I can now look forward and imagine that we could go on and have a wonderful life that doesn’t include children. It would be a very different life than we originally imagined, but it could and would be a good one.

As part of this process, we’ve begun planning some trips we want to take, as well as strategies to save for them. Australia is on both our bucket lists, and we’re contemplating a trip there in a few years, if no baby comes along. We’re also giving some thought to a cruise in the Mediterranean at some point too. We’d also like to go visit Hubster’s grandparents in Hawaii, and maybe do a Riverboat cruise down on the Mississippi with our parents as well.

I have no idea if all these plans will come to fruition, but in the same sense, I also have no idea if my plans to have a baby (babies, hopefully) will pan out either. Yet I still plan for it and pray and hope for the best.

Maybe we’ll have a baby by this time next year. Maybe we’ll be headed off on another fabulous adventure somewhere else. Maybe we’ll just be enjoying the beauty and tranquility of the ranch, and that’s okay too. It’s hard to say, but either way, I am okay with it.

And being okay with it feels like a pretty big accomplishment.

I hope you are having a lovely summer evening, wherever you find yourself.

Cheers,

            R-Lib

PS—Another installment of Struggling to Conceive coming soon!