Greetings! December 2011
This year the Baxter family said goodbye to government hiking contracts and a well-used vehicle. We also had some great family visits and prepared to welcome a new arrival to our family in the coming year. Since it IS the biggest news, we’ll start by announcing the upcoming new member of our family. He is scheduled to arrive by stork mid-March 2012. Something about the stork delivery process is making it more difficult for Steph to touch her toes; and she has recently started complaining about someone repeatedly kicking her in the middle of the night. We’re excited he’s coming, but I think Steph already misses getting a full night of sleep.
With upcoming family obligations I have retired from the high-stress world of government contracting. This is partly due to Steph not appreciating me being gone 3-4 weekends a month in the summer and more directly that the Forest Service was not seeking bids for similar work in the coming year. Overall there were a lot more people involved in helping with the 2011 hiking project which occurred on friendlier terrain than last year. For these reasons, it was a little more of social event around camp in the evenings, instead of three or four of us collapsing into a coma soon after daily hiking ceased. All told myself and the recruited help covered over 4000 acres of terrain during 4 months worth of weekends. The hiking crew held up with the physical part of contract work better this year, but the two long summers on marginal dirt roads were enough to finish off my Chevy Blazer. In one monumental rainy weekend we proved the 4 wheel drive was gone by spending over an hour getting out of the mud in a downpour. During the process, the driver’s side windshield wiper went out, while the check engine light provided an ongoing reminder about a seemingly impossible issue with the exhaust system. With six of us in the vehicle, it took everything we had to get off the mountain in one piece. Once we finally pushed, dug, and slid our way to a decent road, we took down camp in a bone chilling downpour. The passengers of my vehicle then proceeded to laugh until we cried while using shoelaces to operate the broken windshield wiper as we limped back to civilization. I decided somewhere in all the fun that the Blazer was finding a new home as soon as possible. Luckily the proceeds from the hiking contract made a pretty good down payment on a 2004 Honda Pilot, which will hopefully last a few more years than the last couple vehicles; especially if I abuse it a bit less.
We did manage to get out and take a few trips just for fun this year. My grandparents had a condo rented in St. George, UT for a few weeks last February. Steph and I headed to the south end of the state President’s Day weekend to get out of the snow and inversion in Salt Lake, and managed to arrive during one of the coldest rainy/snowy spells of the winter down there. It was fun to see the snow on the red rock country, and there were some spectacular waterfalls. Steph even got some practice finding lava tubes during a hike on one of the drier days.
In May, Steph and I took an epic driving vacation to WI. This was my first driving trip to WI, so I was more excited about it than Steph, who has done it a couple times over the past 6 years. On our way we stopped to see Jewel Cave, Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Badlands National Park, and several other lesser known attractions (a huge jolly green giant someplace in MN?). Our trip was a couple weeks before the main tourist season started, and we traveled during a cold snap, so we had several places almost to ourselves. The highlight of the trip out may have been Steph feeding a “begging burro” in Custer State Park—I believe the video evidence went up on Steph’s blog. (https://aroundherelately.com for anyone who hasn’t seen it.) We hop-scotched between other scenic points until eventually Steph informed me she couldn’t handle another interpretive sign and it was time to cover more ground toward home.
While in Wisconsin we took in a family reunion and a wedding. I may be getting the mistaken impression that there are constant large family gatherings with food in Wisconsin, due to my visiting only during holidays and other large events. During this particular trip I also had my first experience with an estate auction. We even purchased a few items. Thankfully our purchasing ability was limited to what we could fit in the vehicle and drive back to Utah.
In July I took a trip to the National Speleological Society national convention. This year’s convention was held in Glenwood Springs, CO. This was many hours closer to travel than it will be for several years to come so I took advantage of the proximity to see what a gathering of well over 1,000 cavers was like. It was a lot of fun to meet people whose names and faces were familiar from magazine articles and mutual friends. Additionally I was introduced to caving in an area I hadn’t visited before. It was also the first time I have spent a week living in a tent on a high school football practice field.
For Labor Day weekend, Steph’s brother Jim and his girlfriend Jen came out to visit. We took Jen through a whirlwind visit around Salt Lake itself, and then added in some places Jim hadn’t seen on prior visits. Sightseeing covered the better part of northern Utah, ranging from the Bonneville Speedway on the western salt flats, to climbing an 11,000’ peak in the eastern Uintah Mountains and a day at the ranch in the northern part of the state. We’re now committed to a trip to the southern parts of the state next time they visit; because slot canyons and red rock are about the only things we haven’t taken him through yet.
More recently we have started rearranging the house for our planned long term guest (the baby). This initially meant figuring out what was wrong with the lights in the office/baby room. I had been carefully ignoring this problem for several months, because we typically only went in the room once or twice a week. Steph seemed to think we will need to check on the baby more than once a week; and child services may not approve of my plans to get him accustomed to using headlamps at an early age. After much trial and error, it was found to be a loose connection in a junction box in the basement. Once we had lights and power in the room, it became more obvious there was too much office stuff to be a baby room and an office at the same time. So the office materials have been relocating downstairs into the unfinished end of the basement. We’ve decided it wasn’t a moment too soon, as baby items are starting to accumulate almost as fast as office items can be moved down. Steph is even starting to admit she may have to move the crafting area down to the basement as well. All joking aside we’re both really excited to meet baby Baxter in 2012 as it will be a fascinating new adventure for the Baxter family.
Wishing the best to all our family and friends as they finish out 2011 and prepare for their own adventures in the year to come!
Jason and Stephanie Baxter