by Amy | Sep 27, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
Here’s the thing. Derek is going to be leaving for a few days for a little work exercise. And you all know what I like to do when Derek’s gone…right? If not, look at this. Or this. Or this.
Another thing you may know about me is that I have a deep felt hatred for old carpet. Especially carpet in bad carpet in ugly colors. Especially old carpet that is hiding hardwood treasures.
This whole hating carpet thing really didn’t set in until we moved into our house here in PraCan. In nearly every room we found bad, ugly, dusty, smelly carpet. So I started ripping it out. The stairs, the living room, the office, the bedroom. Gone, gone, gone, gone. Then, there was only one lonely room left with bad carpet: the Guest Room. Which is a bummer, because I love to entertain…and I feel like a big jerk when I shove a weekend visitor in the only ugly room in the house. I feel terrible letting them shut the door before bed, only to sequester themselves in a room that has a weird smell coming from the floor.
Take a look. This is the last time that you will see blue carpet in this house.
Derek actually hasn’t left yet. I had him help me move the furniture out. I meant to wait until he was gone to start ripping…but I couldn’t. It’s like opening a present when you see that natural, aged wood pop through. He’s on the couch next to me now, taking in the premier of Parks and Rec…meanwhile, upstairs, the floor looks like this.
It only took a few minutes. And I couldn’t resist. Now, all that stands between me and a dazzling floor are a few staples, some tack strip and a couple coats of polyurethane.
Look for a B&A coming soon. As in next week soon. I’ve got a bestie coming!!! And she’ll need an amazing room to relax in.
Amy
by Amy | Sep 25, 2013 | Blog, The Art of the Moment
You know the phrase, “All because 2 people fell in love…” I’m sure you’ve seen it on picture frames, wall decals, signage above a gallery wall of family photos. A few weeks ago I had the great privilege of photographing one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever attended. It was like walking into an issue of Wedding by Martha. One thing that stuck out to me during my day with this lovely couple was a sign that read:
“All because 2 3 people fell in love.”
That’s the truth. This wedding is the story of how Erika, Elly, and Matt officially became a family. It’s not simply the story of two adults getting married, it’s the story of a family being formed.
Just look at this beautiful family, and prepare to be amazed. This day was Erika’s vision and she carried it out in amazing, affordable, DIY fashion. Every detail of their big day was thoughtful and beautifully carried out. (more…)
by Amy | Sep 24, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Faith
Remember high school? Well, to be honest, some of you are probably still in high school. That’s okay. This will apply to you soon enough. Because as all of us HS alum can attest to, the years after graduation go faster than free hot dogs at a baseball game.
{Then: looking awkward, doing something weird.}
{Now: Looking awkward, doing something weird.}
{In high school your name probably flowed right into another. That other was your best friend, your slumber-party companion, your cram-for-test partner, your secret keeper. Your names went together because you were together. At the end of my high school years I was Amy-and-Krissy. And that was fine. Krissy and I were different on a lot of levels but somehow, we became nearly inseparable senior year. I could probably count the weekends she didn’t sleep over on one hand. .
Anyway, one day you’ll be sequestering yourselves in the family room with a fire in the fireplace, pop corn, and hot cocoa on a bitterly cold January night. And the next day you’ll wake up and realize that you have been friends for more than half of the years you’ve been alive. You have literally spent more time knowing each other than not. On that day, you’ll start to feel old. But it’s okay, because I’m slowly learning that it’s better to feel old alongside friends who truly know your soul inside and out, than young alongside people you can’t be genuine with.
I can hardly remember a time when I wasn’t able to speak totally candidly to her. Whether it was about a ridiculous dating situation circa 2004 over Taco Bell, or finding a definition of “success” circa 5 days ago. But the best and greatest thing about this friendship is that even though we have plenty of nostalgic ammo and could reminisce for days, our conversations always seem to stay current. Our visits are always refreshing and invigorating. When we part ways again {because we always have to eventually} I go back to my routine feeling realigned and challenged. The good kind of challenge. I think it’s beautiful and rare to find a friendship that can whether puberty, college, marriage and multiple moves. And I think the key to finding this type of friendship is to surround yourself with people who have qualities you admire. Eventually one of those relationships will click, and you’ll find yourself, like I do, having a hard time remembering when it didn’t exist.
If you think for a minute, I bet you can name-ties that you know. I can: Susi and Lyn; Ann and Terri; Warren and Lauren. You might even be lucky enough to pair yourself off with a few different names. What I’m getting at is this: Life will often call us to part ways from our pairing. And because this friendship is so stable and so easy to pick back up it is easy to neglect it. Don’t do that. Let’s not take our greatest friends for granted. Who haven’t you called in a while? Shoot them a text, give them a ring. God has called us to be creatures of fellowship. Take time to nurture the blessing of friendship.
So raise a glass {of whatever you are drinking at 3:30 in the afternoon} and remember the great friends you have in this life. God has called us to a life of fellowship, and we should never take our greatest relationships for granted.
Amy
by Amy | Sep 23, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Adventure, The Art of the Moment
This is it. Our final day in Glacier. Tomorrow we will move on to other things. I won’t say better things, because after our short trip to Glacier National Park, I really don’t think there are many things better than this…but I’ll move on nonetheless. {Also, isn’t it crazy that nonetheless is an actual word?}
On our final day we got up nice and early and made the long drive from West Glacier all the way to the opposite side of the park to the stunningly preserved Many Glacier Hotel. It was built in 1910 and sits right on Swiftcurrent Lake. When you finally get there it’s like you’ve walked into a postcard. The hotel is idyllic, if a little surreal. The lake is pristine. The mountains are so gorgeous they couldn’t even be dreamed up by Bob Ross himself.
{Above photo: Swiftcurrent Lake}
{Below bottom: Many Glacier Hotel, other photos in the collage: along the Grinnel Glacier Trail}
We left from the hotel and headed to the Grinnel Glacier trail head. Now, next time we visit I think I’ll try to plan things out just a bit better in the time department. You see, there is a boat shuttle that leaves from Many Glacier Hotel that will take you across the lake where you can catch another boat that will take you up the trail a bit. All in all it will shave off a good 1-2 miles off your total hike.
We did not catch the boat.
So that meant another long day of hiking. However, I am very, VERY glad we decided to save this one for last. While the hike was strenuous {a steady incline over 5 miles…then a very steep, rocky climb at the end} it was the biggest payout of any of the trails we hikes while visiting the park.
Along the trail you’ll climb steadily until you are high enough that you look down upon Lake Josephine and eventually Lake Grinnell. You can see Lake Grinnell in the collage above. It’s that brilliantly teal body of water next to the pine tree. Then far, far in the distance you’ll notice a waterfall. As you continue it will become clear that the waterfall is simple melt from Grinnell Glacier, and it is this fall that feeds the lake.
You’ll pass falls closer to the trail and you’ll smell all these amazing smells. You know how men’s fragrances are called “Glacial Waters” and “Mountain Pass” and stuff like that? Well, there is a reason. This whole corner of the world smells like the manliest, best ever, cologne ever made. Forget Axe Bodywash. I want a man who smells as good as the woods around Glacier.
Now, I’m getting off topic again.
Anyway. Remember that steep climb I mentioned earlier? It’s rocky and lasts for a good stretch. Like climbing a rustic stone staircase. Up, up, up. Your quads will tell you to stop. Don’t listen. Keep climbing. Because eventually you’ll get….here.
You’ll walk right up to Grinnell Glacier. Yes, this is what a glacier looks like in summer. And the photo really stinks. It’s breath taking. The water is clear right to the bottom. The ice bergs are so white they sting to look at. And that water, oh the water…it’s a color even Crayola envies. All the fatigue you feel walking up, up, up will be gone as soon as you see the oasis before you.
Before making our descent, we were lucky enough to spy this beauty. Who, even though I was pretty scared, let me get close enough to nab this awesome portrait.
Needless to say, we were left pretty darn tired at the end of our last day. So, after dinner, instead of going for another walk, or finding something else to do…we simply pulled off and waited for the stars to come out. It’s so dark you can see the Milky Way and constellations become a blur of millions of tiny lights in the sky.
I think these few short, exhausting days away were just what we needed.
Amy
by Amy | Sep 17, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Adventure, The Art of the Moment
At the end of our first day at Glacier National Park I was so tired I dreaded even standing for the 15 minutes it would take me to shower. {You know how I get about showering sometimes…} So, needless to say, we were glad to spend our second day at a much more relaxed pace.
We started with a morning visit to Lake McDonald at Apgar Village, just inside the west entrance to the park. It was a beautifully gloomy fall morning.
We really wanted to rent a canoe or kayaks and paddle around the lake a bit…but for some reason there were none to be had. All the rental places were closed for the season, or opened after noon. It was hard for us, but we managed to just hang out without much activity. We checked the souvineer shops, we watched the clouds roll over the lake, we walked {but not much} by the edge of the water. Derek even bought me a fancy coffee to drink while the chill dissipated from the air.
Chilly mornings aren’t half bad when you have a good coffee, the best sweater in the world, and your best friend in the world with you.
Later we saw some Jammers leaving from Apgar Village. Aren’t they cute? They got the name “Jammer” because when the were first put into use the drivers were called “Gear Jammers” in jest.
After lunch we headed to the Glacier Raft Company for an afternoon of white water fun. Now, you may be surprised by this…but I am afraid of white water rafting. I don’t like it. It’s too scary. I know, none of us are perfect. But Derek really loves it. So the trip we took was a perfect compromise. It was an eight mile trip. The first four miles were a scenic float. The last four miles were rapids. And at this point in the season the rapids were really low and tame, so that really worked out in my favor.
We were encouraged not to bring our cameras. However, I’m not one for rules. So I took it anyway. I just put it in a Zip-Loc baggie and put that securely inside my life vest. It survived just fine.
It was incredible to see the park from this angle. {Especially incredible since we got to sit down and our arms did the work instead of our legs.} Oh, and you know me and movie trivia…here’s a good one for you. This section of the river and this exact company worked with the cast and crew or The River Wild to film the river scenes in the movie. Pretty cool, right? If you haven’t seen it, you should. Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon…how could you hate it with a cast like that?!
Okay, so I’m getting off topic. After we got past the rapids our guide told us we were at the deepest point in the river and that if we wanted to jump in this was our chance. I don’t know if she was being sincere or not, but Derek and I took advantage. We would never pass up the opportunity to swim in a river of glacier run off. I jumped off the side of the raft before thinking too hard about the choice. I knew if I did, I would rationalize just how cold that water would be. So I just hopped off. And yes, it was cold. Very, very cold. Like take your breath away, can’t move your arms and legs–cold. After resurfacing I tried to make some lame joke about demonstrating the proper rescue form for when you fall out of the boat. But my lips didn’t work, so it just came out in gibberish. My fellow rafters laughed, but I’m sure it wasn’t at my wit.
Derek jumped in too. He agreed, I wasn’t crazy, it was cold. After he’d had enough I hauled him back into the boat. See, the camera was a good idea after all.
After the rafting trip it was well into the afternoon, so we went back to our motel room for a very hot shower {to dethaw after our polar swim}. Then we went out for dinner at the Belton Chalet. I didn’t take the photo below. That’s from their website.
It’s fancy. Maybe too fancy for us. But the food was delightful and the view was fantastic.
We rounded our relaxing day out with a few hands of rummy by the fire place at our motel and a cozy effort to try and dry our shoes out before our final day of hiking…
Amy
by Amy | Sep 15, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Adventure, The Art of the Moment
I’ve come to realize that there are two basic types of hikers. Those that find a trail and hike it…when they are done, they are content to do something else, maybe something a little more lax. And…those that make a list of trails. They set out to do as much as possible, and as long as the sun is still up and they still have feet, they will continue hiking until they literally cannot take another step.
Derek and I are the latter.
We get a rush when we are out hiking, exploring, seeing beautiful, rugged places. As long as we are feeling “pretty good” we will keep trucking…because we are awful at relaxing and taking it easy. So we will push it to the limit until the sun goes down. Really, we don’t know what to do if we aren’t moving with intention.
That’s pretty much the story of our first day at Glacier National Park. We started with a single trail that we wanted to hike. Then we just kept adding things on to it. It’s easy to do here. The trails are all well marked and the whole park is just gorgeous. So we kept going. Kept exploring. Kept walking, and climbing, and descending, and hiking. I’ll just go ahead and admit that we over did it.
But boy, oh boy, was it a lovely over do. Here’s what our first day looked like.
We started by driving to Siyeh Bend via Going-to-the-Sun Road. {Fun fact…GTTS Road was featured in The Shining.}
Once there we started out on the Siyeh Pass Trail. The trail takes you, well…to Siyeh Pass. But it’s touch getting there. There’s just about 2100 feet of elevation gained along the way, and a lot of it comes up very quickly on you at the end. Really up until the rocky climb at the end, the trail ascends steadily and isn’t too bad. Along the way we had a close encounter with some lovely femail Mule Deer…which was just magical. We stopped at the top and had some lunch while taking in the view. Round trip this hike is just over 9 miles {from where we parked.}
After lunch we headed back out. When we got to a split in the trail we decided we were still feeling “pretty good” so we took the fork toward Piegan Pass. This one was less strenuous. Only about 1900 feet gained, 4 miles round trip. Unlike Siyeh, the Piegan trail ascends very gradually. The payout at the top is big. We got our fist glimpse at one of the turquoise glacial lakes in the park as well as an up close encounter with a group of lady big-horn sheep.
After we got back to our car our feet were tired, but we still had some solid daylight. So we decided to power through a few short hikes to see some waterfalls. If you are keeping track…we are up to 13 miles so far.
First stop: St. Mary’s Falls. This is an easy hike. Just shy of 2 miles round trip, it’s very well traveled by all levels of hikers. But there is good reason for that…it’s beautiful. Just look at the color of the water! So, stinking awesome!
After St. Mary’s we made the short drive to Sunrift Gorge. That’s a short hike up a series of stone steps, about 0.5 miles in all. Then we hiked downhill to see Baring Falls {that’s the bottom right photo above.} It’s another very easy hike, only about a mile round trip…but by the time we got to the waterfall, we knew we’d done a bit too much. By the time we got off the trail and walked back down the road to where we had parked we totaled a 17 mile day. Now, I’ve done more…but this was some hard hiking. {Or I’m a whimp. Or maybe a bit of both.}
By the time we got back to the park entrance it was way past dinner time and we were both pretty slap happy. But for me, that’s a good thing, because it makes all my jokes even funnier. Let’s just say we downed a pretty massive amount of food and topped it off with huckleberry cobbler a la mode. The kind of eating that would make Ron Burgundy “…not even mad. I’m impressed!” {If you don’t get the reference, you should probably go rent Anchorman stat.}
I’ll be posting more from our trip as the photos get edited. Hopefully more tomorrow. But it’s Sunday, the day of rest, so we’ll see.
Amy
by Amy | Sep 6, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Living, The Art of the Moment
I met Bethany a bit over a year ago. At the time, I was brand new to Practically Canada…and she had been here over a year herself. As we chatted over some delightful Qdoba I learned that she and her husband were in the process of becoming foster parents. They were young, fun and longing for a family. Not to mention, awesome people who would make great parents. After our lunch date she was headed to Target to buy a few things for some respite foster care they had volunteered to do. {Respite care just means that they looked after a couple little ones while their foster parents had to be out of town for a few days.}
Shortly after that, Bethany and her husband Austin had the opportunity to care for a beautiful little girl who had been put into the foster system. They learned that this precious child had an older brother and sister and fought to bring all three children into their home. Those three children have been there ever since. Soon after their arrival Austin and Bethany began actively pursing a formal adoption of all three children. Since then they have been loved and cared for in a way that I know in my heart of hearts makes Jesus smile.
Then, nine months ago Bethany became pregnant. And just eight days ago beautiful baby Briggs was born. Yes, folks in less than a year these two willing parents have gone from “just the two of us” to a nest full. Let me say, it’s a lovely thing. When I went over to their house to take some family photographs and some portraits of their newest addition the house was full of action, laughter, a little scolding and a whole lot of love.
Families come in all shapes, sizes, colors and timelines. As you look at this one, I think you’ll agree that no matter how the pieces come together the puzzle is always uniquely perfect when it’s complete.
Amy
by Amy | Sep 6, 2013 | Blog
I’ve lived in North Dakota {aka Practically Canada} for more than a year now. And in that amount of time I’ve learned some things. Most of what I’ve learned has had to do with coping with seasons. Particularly winter. Go figure. One thing in particular that I’ve learned about winter is that it follows what folks up here refer to as “fall.” Now, I put that in quotations because it’s almost not even a season up here. Yes, it does exist, but only briefly. The leaves change from green to red. But here the red is a warning.
As in “Red Alert…Winter is nearly here.”
So you can image how my hear sank when I looked out my window a few days ago and saw this:
Because here in Practically Canada, we don’t just see pretty leaves. We see this:
While the rest of America thinks about fall and pictures this:
Fun and games at the fall festival
Our mind fills with thoughts of this looming over us.
You see this.
We imagine this.
You look forward to this moment.
We know this moment is coming.
So please, summer. I’m begging you. Stay a while longer. And Fall, take your time. There’s no rush. And Winter…don’t be such a jerk. Just because you stick around for 8 months of the year doesn’t mean you are the favorite. It only makes you seem vain.
