Getting Ready to Climb...

Garret, Carissa, Maria, and Jim arrive at Black Buttes high camp. Tricia went down to help out, only to find out that they didn't need a hand (what a woman!).


Here we all are, setting up camp on the snow.


Home, sweet, home. Look at the great view!


The Black Buttes!


Kathy gets some shut eye before the big climb...

At Hogsback Camp

Friday brought Tricia, Kathy, and I up to about 6,000 ft. at the Hogsback Camp at the base of the Coleman Glacier on Mt. Baker.


There's Tricia. There's Mt. Baker.


And Kathy. Reading over how to climb a mountain.


Here's Todd, trying to look slick.


A beautiful sunset, and the last time we'd see sun for two days (well, almost).

Up to Mt. Baker!

On July 25th, Tricia, her mother Kathy and I began our climb of Mt. Baker. Here Kathy just had to put on the helmet for a photo op.

Here we all are dreamy-eyed and fresh before our 2400 ft. climb to our first camp.


We came from down there to up here. You can't see them in this photo, but the wildflowers were amazing!


Go Kathy go!

Go Tricia go!

Floors to Walk on

Before moving in we refinished the original oak and fir (and hemlock?) wood floors. Since we took out two walls and moved the front door out a few feet, we had a little patching to do. Here Todd makes a final trim on the largest section after we stitched in all the oak and fir in the main room.


With the new boards in place, Tricia taps in the nails so the sander doesn't get damaged.


Here she is, sanding all the old gunk off our floors. Turns out the "safe" sander takes a long time. Lucky for us we got to try the drum sander (for big kids) once we realized we (okay, Todd) put too much wax on and we had to REsand the floors and REapply the coating.


Here's the bare wood, once sanded.


And here is the finished product after Tricia reapplied the Osmo finishing product (a wax and oil based "green" alternative).


Notice also the newly painted walls, kitchen appliances, exposed beams, and even a few plants! We've been sleeping in our house (camping style!) for a few days, and it is really seeming like home.