Peru: Day 2

We went to Peru back in May, so seeing as we are now in December my mind is beginning to slip and the events are beginning to fade somewhat. I can remember while we were in Peru someone mentioned day 2 of our trip, which also happened to be the first day of our trek, and even then I had the hardest time remembering exactly what happened that day. I think it's because day 3 of our trip was so excruciatingly hard and the events of that day trumped anything and everything that may have happened on day 2.

What I do remember of day 2 is the "bus" picking us up at our hostel at 4:30AM and driving us up as far as the road would take us. I can remember the driver being a little scary on the road. He was driving a stick shift, and from what we could all tell it had to have been one of his first times doing so. It was still dark out and my eyes were still so tired, probably from lack of sleep since the trip began, but I remember my brother-in-law, who happens to speak spanish, leaning towards the front and telling the driver something. "More gas, more gas," he said. In spanish, not english, of course. At one point during the drive the sliding door flung open and one of the natives in the car with us jumped out to place a rock behind the back tire. We were stalled out on a steep hill at the time and there were cars trailing behind us, honking at us over and over again. The driver's rock trick worked and we were able to "safely" make it to the start of our trek.

The bus took us as far as it could go and then we got out and had breakfast at a little shop. After breakfast they crammed all of us (there were several other tour groups with our same tour company) into the bed of a truck and started up the dirt road. We hung onto a flimsy wooden pole that hung from the top of the truck as the vehicle climbed up a bumpy terrain for about 30 minutes.

This is the part that is a little hazy for me for some reason. We hiked. That's all I really remember. I don't remember what the landscape looked like during that time. I mean, I know it was beautiful, but all I remember are what the photos have to show for it. We reached our camp around 3 in the afternoon. Our tents had all been set up and our cooks were finishing making our lunch. Yes, we had cooks to make all of our meals. And yes, we had people to put up and take down our camping gear. It was my kind of camping. But honestly, I don't think any of us would have had the energy to do all of that on top of all of the hiking we were doing. After eating we were told we had to climb up a super steep mountain just behind our campsite. It wasn't technically part of our "hike" to Machu Picchu, but we were told by our hiking guide it was more of a test to see how we would fair the next day, because the next day would be hard. That was a scary thought because that "little" hike was really, really hard. At the very top of our mini hike that afternoon was a little lake. We took a few photos there before returning back to camp where our cooks were making dinner for us. After dinner we were all so tired. I can't remember what time it was when we all went to bed, but I know it was early.

The man in the middle in black was our tour guide. His name is Nilton and we all loved him. I think he was telling us about mint here and how it helps with altitude sickness.

 Not the best capture of Scott, but this shows there were stray dogs everywhere, even up on the trail! This photo also clearly shows how hard this hike was by the sweat-stained back of my sister's shirt. 

 All of us at the top of our "mini" hike by the lake. It was beautiful. We heard and saw a little avalanche in the mountains seen just above us in this picture.

The middle of that night is when the fun began. However, since it was technically morning I'll include those events in day 3.

Peru Day One

This trip posted below was one of the highlights of our summer. It's probably one of the highlights of my life. Traveling the world and seeing how others live fascinates me. My one hope in this life is to travel the world with my children and help them open their eyes' to the world around them.

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It was the last flight of our journey and my eyes were so tired, but I couldn't shut them for fear of missing out. Just outside the window to my left were the most beautiful and majestic mountains towering over the ground below them. Maybe it's the fact that for the past eight months my eyes had been longing to see something a little less flat like they were accustomed to in the state of Nebraska, but those mountains were for lack of a better saying, "a sight for sore eyes". I remember silently thinking to myself, "how can there not be a God?" over and over in my mind as I looked out the window at the beautiful mountains just below me. I found myself silently asking myself that same question time and time again during our trip to Peru.

When we finally returned from our nine day trip and everyone asked us how it was, we all replied with the same answer: hard. Everyone seemed to be caught a little off guard and somewhat confused by our answer. Honestly, I'm not sure any of us had really anticipated how physically demanding this trip was going to be. We went to Peru to see Machu Picchu. But, we went to Peru to hike to Machu Picchu. We hiked close to 40 miles in three days before finally arriving at our end destination. And honestly, those three days of strenuous hiking made visiting Machu Picchu a little sweeter for all of us.

Day one quickly opened my eyes to how the rest of our trip would play out. After landing in Cusco and grabbing our bags, our travel agent picked us up at the airport and took us straight to our hostel where we dropped our bags and walked down the street to a little LDS church in the middle of a busy town. We spent the next hour there before heading back to the hostel. We grabbed some authentic street pork tamales on the way back and literally only had time to eat and maybe take a potty break before we headed back out again. We then walked to a local market to do some souvenir shopping. A poncho and hat for my baby back home were the only things on my list.

This photo below was taken just outside of the church. The guy on the right end was our travel agent.

These first few photos were taken in the Plaza de Armas, the center of Cusco, on our way to the Mercado where we did our shopping.

After spending some time there, we walked back to our hostel where we met up with Maria Christina who took us on a walking tour of the city of Cusco. We visited a couple local churches and then took a "bus" as they called it, but really it was more of a van, to some local Incan ruins called Sacsayhuaman (pronounced "sexy woman", or at least that's how we kept jokingly referring to it as).

Maria Christina is the cute girl in the middle. This photo was taken in the Plaza de Armas.

I totally chickened out after seeing how much speed Scott and my brother gained going down these natural slides at Sacsayhuaman. 

(Guinea Pig. This is a popular dish down in Peru. I didn't have any. I couldn't even look at it, so I made my family move it to the other side of the table while I ate my stuffed pepper that night for dinner.)

After returning back to our hostel, we went to dinner and then called it a night seeing as we had to be up and out the door by 4:30AM the next morning. That next morning was the beginning of our trek, the real reason we went to Peru.

Fourth of July

I have a few posts from this summer that I want to record here, so bear with me as some of these future posts will seem a little outdated.

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We don't have many traditions as a little family of three. This one is going on two years strong and I hope it continues as long as we are living in this state. Every year we watch the fireworks with my family in my mom's neighborhood on July 3rd, leaving us alone on the 4th as everyone seems to already have plans for the day. Last year we decided to start our own tradition and celebrate the 4th in my favorite little town. This year we drove up to Park City again to ring in the 4th, just the three of us. We went out to eat, drove to the same barn we took photos at last year and snapped a few again this year, and then headed to the golf course to watch the fireworks. Reese is the most social (then 18 month old) girl I have ever known. From the moment we staked out our spot on the green to the moment we left (early because we couldn't keep up with her) she was off introducing herself to everyone around us and playing with every child she could find. And everyone always seems to fall in love with her. Honestly, I can't say I'm terribly surprised.

And one from last year to show just how much she has grown in that short time:

my husband's favorite chocolate chip cookies

My husband started his second year of law school last week and as per tradition (this one is two years strong, people) I made chocolate chip cookies to celebrate his first day. This is a tradition I intend to continue with my children as they begin their own schooling. My hope is to have warm cookies fresh out of the oven for them to look forward to when they walk in the door after their first day of school each fall. This particular recipe is my husband's favorite chocolate chip cookie. Not only are they good, but they're easy to make and the batch makes around 2 dozen, which means they disappear faster and I don't have them staring me in the face, tempting me to eat them every time I walk into the kitchen.

My Husband's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

1 c light brown sugar

3 T granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 c all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c milk chocolate chips

**Note: I usually use whatever chocolate chips I have on hand. So if I only have milk chocolate, I'll throw in 2 c and then add a little more because you can never have enough chocolate chips in your cookie.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 300 degrees. 

In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift dry ingredients together in separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. 

Bake at 300 degrees for 17-20 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies have cracked. Let cookies sit on cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving to cooling racks to finish cooling. 

08.12.15

Yesterday came and went, and with it we added another tally to the mark of years lived without him. Every year as this day approaches, my body has a way of reminding my mind that we are at this point again. Even when my mind has somehow forgotten that August 12th is slowly creeping up on us, my insides deep down begin to hurt and quickly remind my mind that we are here again. It's as if my body can never forget the hurt of this day and the events that took my dad from this life nine years ago. Nine years. I still can't believe it has been that long since we have seen his face or heard his voice. The thought that in just one more year we will have lived 10 years without him knocks the wind completely out of me.

As much as it hurts knowing that I've lived almost 10 years without my dad, the knowledge that Reese (and all of my future children) will never know their "Coach" in this life stings even more. And that's why I felt that sending love notes to him this year was needed. Reese loves balloons. And although she didn't understand the purpose of letting them fly up to heaven this year, I'm sure she will in years to come. The face on these kids' faces turned this day into a happy one. As we released the balloons an army of dragonflies magically appeared and flew in the sky with them. I heard recently that dragonflies have a deeper, more spiritual meaning and are often seen after the passing of a loved one. Yesterday I noticed them, and I can't help but feel that was a way of him saying, "I miss you too."

We love and miss you, Coach.

Welcome to the world, baby Taggart Jack