Rachael Lake Hike

We took the opportunity last Sunday to hike. With it being such a nice day we set out to Rachael Lake, a hike we had never done this late in the fall. The group consisted of Bet, Chris, Nicole, Eliza, and myself.




The hike is 4 miles out and 4 miles back. The last mile gains in the neighborhood of 1300 ft so it is a challenge. Luckily there are several waterfalls along the path to distract us.


When we got to the top the lake was beautiful as always. If you actually continue past Rachael Lake, uphill another half mile, another series of lakes exist. The lakes in my opinion are even better then Rachael however we didn't have time to visit them on Sunday.




Nicole and Chris decided to take a nap.

Bet and I worked on getting pictures of he lake.

Checking In

Hello!
The Penick household is just emerging from being sick most of the week. I came down with it first (after running a great Heifer 101 workshop in downtown Seattle). It came at a good time for me, as I was forced to take some time off while waiting for my broken laptop to be fixed & sent back from Little Rock tech support (who knew you were supposed to clean the things every week!? :)
Then Levi came down with my cold, worse than me & right when he was trying to finish 20+ reviews at work. We're both feeling better as we head into the weekend--Levi headed off to a card show this morning & I am sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight to Denver. It's going to be a long, intensive week with my 12 colleagues from around the U.S., but I do get a little time to see my cousin Meredith & hopefully go on a hike tomorrow.
I've been working a lot & am still trying to figure out those work/personal boundaries, with the realization that I knew the first couple years of this job were going to be pretty demanding. It's a scary time in the not-for-profit world & as we approach the holiday season (in which over 50% of our revenue comes in) we're all a little nervous about how things are going to pan out.
I hope everyone is well & enjoying this gorgeous fall weather!

Congrats Eric and Nicole!!

Eliza and I's good friends Eric and Nicole got engaged last weekend!

Congrats!

Sightline

This is a very cool outfit Eliza and I found out about last year.

Check it our if you have the time.

http://daily.sightline.org/

We Heart Fall

Saturday we had a lovely girls' day ushering in the autumn season. We lingered over breakfast at our favorite spot in Ballard (Wild Mountain Cafe), we browsed Antika in Greenwood & Momma picked out her birthday present, we sipped tea & spent over an hour playing with pumpkins at Swanson's Nursery, & then bought pretty gourds & yummy food at the Ballard Market.

At Swanson's, it's $25 for as many pumpkins you can fit into a Radio Flyer wagon. We piled it high & had one additional large pumpkin that we thought would need to be purchased separately, but as we stood in line, a young workman came over & with a smile balanced the final pumpkin on the top of the pile & cheerfully brought it to the attention of the cashier.

My front step makes me happy. :)

Three years ago I brought home two tiny kittens in October.
Here they are now.

Happy Fall to All!

Sonics or rather THUNDER

If any of you have followed Seattle sports over the last year, yes very depressing I know, check out this blog http://benditlikebennett.blogspot.com/ it cracks me up. The comments make it all the better as many people just don't get the "tone" of the blog.

Our Poor Blog

Clearly Liza and I are not doing a good job updating our blog. It has been a busy summer and we have both been very busy with work. With that said here are some of the things we have been doing to keep ourselves busy.


Co-workers wedding on a sunny Saturday. I was really fun to go to the wedding because Liza and I seriously looked at this venue for our wedding some 4 and 1/2 years ago.





I also got a new (used) SLR camera a few weeks back and have been having fun learning and playing with the settings.



The sun is out so it is time to go on another bike ride!

Oh and for all of you wondering Liza's shoulder keeps improving. She has now been out on the road bike several times and has almost all her range of motion back. Strength in the shoulder is still building however and will still be a few more week away.

Crashes

Over here at the Penick blog, you may have noticed that we like to post photos of our various bike crashes. Bruises & injuries are always fun to show off & perhaps they serve as reminders to us--now whether those reminders do any good is debatable.
It all started with the documentation of my encounter with a tree in early 2005 when I first started mountain biking.
I don't know that this one even warrants mentioning, but there was the small road mishap I had on the Fremont Bridge in May 2007 while commuting home from work.
Then Levi took his first tumble on his new Truth, on Tiger in July 2007.
And this May he went ass over handlebars at St. Ed's. With the nature of his pain & injuries we're guessing he also had a disruption in his AC joint, probably a class 1 or 2.
To continue the tradition, here are photos taken earlier this week from my crash.
Can you tell which shoulder it is?
My bike landed on my left leg.
I have no idea when this happened.
A few scrapes to go along with the bruises.
The good news is that I saw the orthopedic surgeon on Thursday & I don't need surgery! I've got a 95% chance that everything will heal up fine in the next 6-8 weeks with full range of motion & no residual pain.
A full week after the crash, bruises on my shoulder are showing up.

Bend

We took off for Bend, Oregon last Thursday morning & returned late last night.
Our only agenda: ride bikes, drink beer.
Accompanied by our friends, Mike, Joy, their two kids, & Chris, we had an awesome time. We all agreed that it was some of the best mountain biking any of us have experienced.
Here's our campground, with the entire Phil's Trailhead right in our backyard & a peek-a-boo view of Mt. Bachelor.

Levi with Alina & Cameron.

Riley trying to nab the bacon that we hung to attract the bees away from our campsite.

Nice rocks in our campsite--perfect for climbing, warming in the sun, & star watching.

Alina Bina had a fun afternoon in the dirt. The desert dirt was so fine & got everywhere!

Deschuttes--one of three brewery stops.

Whoops Trail--the beginning of a seven mile descent.

Hands down the funnest (yes, that's a word now) trail I've ever ridden.

Chris riding a berm on Whoops.

Me riding Whoops.

The trip would have been just about perfect, except I crashed on Saturday's last ride. It was on the Whoops trail, which I had already rode once just fine that day. The second time around I was a bit over-confident & pushed my limits, gathering too much speed as I hit a 5 foot tall double-peaked table (or Whoop-de-Woo). Coming off the top, my back tire caught a lot of air & I didn't bring my front up enough, so I went over the top, landing mainly on my right shoulder. I walked off the trail just fine, but the evening of Levi's 29th birthday was spent in the Bend ER. The image below shows the AC joint--where your clavile meets your shoulder blade & there are four ligaments.AC injuries are fairly common among athletes--it's actually nicknamed the Quarterback Injury. I have a class 3 distruption of that joint, meaning I blew all four ligaments. I see an orthopedic surgeon on Thursday, but from the information I have learned from my knowledgeable Uncle Casey & the internet, hopefully surgery will not be necessary. I'm praying that with some rest & physical therapy, it will heal well & I'll be back to full range of motion by our trip to Hawaii in December.
Next summer, I'll definitely be ready to head out on another mountain biking adventure for Levi's & Mike's birthdays--we're thinking Whistler. :)

Favorite Photos of Late...

Calvin, biker kitty.

Liz, Jen & me at our 10 year reunion.

Gowey pool party at Boo's.