Hamilton Happenings- A year of family stories and photos

Kathy and I are flying overseas again tomorrow, so I won't have time to write a new blog this week.  In the meantime, I'm sharing Kathy's 2014 year-end Hamilton4 newsletter.  I removed or altered the Christmas-y bits. 

This family update was originally sent out as a Christmas letter to our friends and extended family.  As always, links to earlier blog posts look like this.

From Kathy:

Greetings, Family and Friends!

Our biggest news of 2014, in case you haven’t heard, was the birth of our son Levi James Hamilton on January 15^th. 

Levi weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz. and was 19 ½ inches long.  Now 11 months old, Levi is crawling, climbing and getting into EVERYTHING!  More than Lena ever was at this age. He continues to bring us so much joy and happiness.

Vine video: Unclick the mute button above to hear Levi singing as he learns to crawl

Lena has accepted her role of big sister very well.  Lena loves her baby brother very much, and Levi’s face lights up whenever he sees her.

Lena and Levi enjoy playing together, except for the occasional, “Mommy!  Levi is looking at me.”  Yes.  It has already started.

In September, Lena turned 3 and began preschool two mornings a week at Aloha Christian Preschool, a ministry of our church.  Lena loves school and is making lots of friends.

Open house at Aloha Christian Preschool


Lil' Lena gets jiggy with it during Aloha Christian Preschool's Christmas program.  Kinda.

We are still serving as Youth Pastors at Aloha Church of God.  This past summer we led a combined group from our church and Tigard Church of God on another mission trip to Vicente Guererro,Mexico in Baja California.   We are planning to go back once again in 2015.

Missions work trip in Vicente Guererro, Mexico with Welcome Home Ministries

Garth preaches on occasion, when his shift at Delta Airlines allows.  We love the people whom God has called us to serve.

In addition to working for Delta at PDX airport, Garth also became a hiking leader for NW Wilderness in 2014.  He also started assisting with expeditions for other local outdoor groups.

NW Wilderness climb to the summit of Mount Adams

Garth organizes and leads hikes, scrambles, and adventure expeditions all over the Pacific Northwest, as he does with our ministry students.  Combined with his leadership, love for people, and passion for the outdoors, his aggressive-leaning hikes often fill to capacity.  This role also allows him to explore wild areas that would be too dangerous for hiking with Lena or Levi (or me!).


Garth also ran in the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon with some Delta coworkers.

A tutu-clad Garth with Delta coworkers, after crossing the "Finish Swine" of the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon

I still work 3 days a week at The Portland Clinic, and I love my new position of Nursing Support/Referral Coordinator for our Family Practice department. The other days, I am a stay-at-home mommy to two very busy L’s (Lena and Levi).  I often joke that I go to work to relax.  But being a SAHM to the L’s is definitely the best job ever!

In March, we (without kids) flew to Dublin, Ireland for a few days.

Dublin, Ireland- A few days before Saint Patrick's Day

I flew home to the U.S. early, and Garth continued on to meet some friends near Belfast, Northern Ireland for a couple more days.

Northern Ireland: Garth and a few friends from Australia cross the rope bridge over to Carrick-a-Rede, on their way to the Giant's Causeway

It was this Ireland trip that first brought out the separation anxiety that I get from being away from the L’s.  But I really enjoyed uninterrupted time with Garth! 

This summer we took our first road trip as a family of four for some hiking and visiting in Southern Oregon.

On that same trip, we also visited the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon.  

Lena loved seeing all the animals up close, and Levi was too young to care.

We also took the kids on our annual Hamilton family camping and water ski trip at Banks Lake in Coulee City, WA. 

Garth of course occasionally flies over the pond for quick overseas friends day-visits to his many international buddies, but only when the kids are committed to plans that don’t necessarily involve him, allowing him to get away for a day or two.  Depending on the destination and the festivities, some of these international trips are eventually covered on Garth's Blog.

In addition to these overseas weekends and international family getaways, we sometimes take domestic trips as well.  For example, a few months ago Garth blogged about taking Lena for a Daddy-Daughter day trip to Seattle.

Daddy-daughter airplane ride

Earlier this month, Garth and I flew away together for a completely kid-free week.  It was intended to international  We tried to return to Johannesburg, South Africa (for a safari that Garth was planning), and then to Nicaragua and Seoul, South Korea.  But due to flying stand-by and encountering oversold flights, we ended up visiting friends in Seattle and spent some time in L.A. and Atlanta instead, including hiking Stone Mountain in Georgia.

Hiking Georgia's Stone Mountain before catching a flight to Rome, Italy

With only a couple of days left, I encouraged Garth to stick with our original plans and continue on for the planned Saturday night out with friends in Rome, Italy without me since he had a couple of extra vacation days.

It’s hard to sum up our year in a short letter, but I encourage you to follow Garth’s blog: www.garthhamilton.blogspot.com. Garth does a great job of writing about and posting photos of the things we do, including some of our exciting family hiking and surfing, and of course our travel adventures.

We are blessed by a faithful God... May each of you feel His love this blessed [Lenten] season!

Love,

Garth, Kathy, Lena and Levi Hamilton

Thanks again to Kathy for writing this update!

Garth's blog will return next weekend with a book review of "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Cheryl Strayed, followed by updates from our latest hikes and overseas trips!

Southern Oregon road trip, Pt. 2: Wildlife Safari

Mommy and Lena get a shotgun seat view of a giraffe as I drive through the Winston Wildlife Safari

In the company of friends again

...Continued from Southern Oregon Road Trip, Part 1: Visits and hikes (link).  And consider this story the unofficial prequel to our upcoming safari in Kruger National Park, South Africa.  Let's hope we make those flights!

Guest blogger Kathy picks up our Southern Oregon road trip story where my Part 1 left off:  After the driving, visiting, and hiking.  Thanks to Kathy for writing this post.  I was happy to merely be on tap to plug and caption the safari photos.  Enjoy!

We had a great time so far with our hiking, visiting, and swimming.  On our final morning down south, we took advantage of the continental breakfast the hotel offered and then set off for the Wildlife Safari in Winston.

Neither Garth nor I had been to the Winston Wildlife Safari since childhood. We were so excited for Lena experience it, too!  Levi was too little to care.

Once Garth drove through the gate, we were allowed to take Lena out of her car seat to sit on our laps up front.  She was thrilled!

As we began making our way through the safari, I forgot how up close and personal the animals could be.  Lena loved seeing all the animals: lions, giraffes, rhinos walking right next to our car, bears, and the list goes on.

Lions resting in the shade

A zebra mixed in with the herd

A hungry giraffe stops traffic ahead of us

Black bear UFC pond/cage match: Tag team edition

Lena brakes for llamas

Buffalo roam

Lucky for this deer, another safariing family had randomly given us a bag of animal feed

This emu poked his beak inside our cab a bit too aggressively for Lena's taste

"I'll take the wheel from here, Daddy."

Baby Levi watches with envy as Mommy lets Lena ride the bear

Lena runs through the Australian Outback

We've got no food, got no jobs... our parrots' HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!!

Levi, Mommy, me, and Lena leaving the Australian Walkabout

Before Garth and I started driving the kids back up north, we made a final stop to visit friends who live 10 minutes from Wildlife Safari.  It was nice to catch up and see how big their girls are getting.

Beating the heat with longtime friends

Thus, we began the long journey home.  A stop for burgers and ice cream at Rice Hill was a must do.

Lena and Levi got plenty of sleep on the drive home, even as we stopped to redeem yet another Groupon for the grownups.

Lena reminisces about the safari animals with one of her favorite books, "I Love My Daddy Because..."
(At least that's MY vote for her favorite book!)

Thanks again, Kathy, for writing about our first ever road trip with our all-new Hamilton Four.  Lena and Levi would've loved to join us on the upcoming African safari that we have planned.

And it's a shame that the L's can't come along on our REAL Australian walkabout in 2015!

Bonus Vine video:

Click the mute button for audio of two bears throwing down at the Wildlife Safari

Southern Oregon road trip, Pt.1: Visits and hikes

It's no secret (depending on the trip, anyway) that we've been flying a lot in the off-season.  While a typical spring or fall Hamilton weekend away can easily snowball into an overseas adventure, some of our summertime family trips happen right here in the U.S.

Earlier this year, Kathy began devising a plan that would involve:

1. Rivaling my international trip-planning exploits with Kathy's domestic leanings.
2. Our first ever road trip as the Hamilton Four, now including baby Levi.
3. Visiting friends anywhere between Eugene and Roseburg.
4. Using a Groupon for the Wildlife Safari in Winston.  Kathy will be sharing a blog post about the safari and those friend visits in a few days!

In exactly the same way as I plan for those international trips, our friends in southern Oregon were put on notice that we may be passing through.  Everyone who responded with interest to my messages/calls got penciled into our itinerary.  The only difference here in the U.S. was that Kathy handled all of the non-social logistics of the trip this time!  I just came along for the ride.

The drive down south

Working on connecting with friends, and getting started with stamping our McMenamin's "passport" in Eugene during the journey to the Umpqua Valley

Hiking and exploring the Umpqua Valley

The beauty of the Umpqua River

Fly fishing on the Umpqua River

Starting the evening rounds early in Roseburg

Lena's first time in a swimming pool!

Winding down in Roseburg's warmer waters

Kathy's been anxious to share about the following day in Winston, so she'll be our guest blogger for this upcoming week.  I'll start rounding up some safari photos for her in the meantime.

Bonus:  Kathy writing Part 2 will buy me some time to tackle my massive backlog of traveling and outdoor adventure posts!

Coming the week (after) Thanksgiving...

Part 2- Kathy shares about the Wildlife Safari!

Climbing Mount St. Helens

Our scheduled Mount Rainier climb (as usual, links to earlier posts are in blue) was only a few weeks away. The plans for Mount Rainier last month ultimately did fall apart at the last minute. But Mount St. Helens was a fun addition to the string of easier conditioning hikes and climbs intended to train for climbing Rainier in August.

A catch-up post from July:

Photo from Sam's camera

I've climbed Mount St. Helens countless times.  But this latest Mount St. Helens climb was posted by NW Wilderness months in advance, and booked to capacity.  I was part of a very long wait list.  To my surprise, a climbing permit was freed up a couple weeks before the climb. Long story short: I was in!

Suffering from a painful, off-trail hiking foot injury (see my Fear of the Unknown: Hiking Wahkeena Falls to Larch Mountain post) and adjusting to new orthotic inserts, I was ready to put my recovering foot to the test.



3:15 a.m. on July 5 was the moment when I limped that injured foot out the door to meet up with the group in Portland.  My earlier post, Lil' Buckaroos at the Buckaroo Rodeo, shares the story and photos from our Hamilton family's Fourth of July celebration the evening before.


We picked up our climbing permits in Cougar just after the register opened. Less than an hour later, prior to 7 a.m., we had geared up at Climbers' Bivouac and were already heading up the trail to timberline. It would be a glorious day, with the perfect group of friends.

Trip stats (from Craig's GPS/ altimeter)

Distance: 10.5 miles
Elapsed time: 8:03:05
Moving time: 5:17:16
Stopped time: 2:45:49
Avg overall speed: 1.3 mph
Avg moving speed: 2.0 mph
Min elevation: 3743 ft (trailhead)
Max elevation: 8330 ft (near true summit)
Ascent: 4968 ft

Craig's trip report is here.

Setting out from Climbers' Bivouac:  Janice, Tongbay, Craig, Sam, Barbara, Jurgen, and me

(Photo from Sam's camera) 

The ascent

Reaching timberline
(Photo from Craig's GPS unit)

Beginning the boulder fields (no good pictures of the fun stuff, as it was tricky for me to free up a camera hand while scrambling)

Climbing over the top of the ridge

Photo by Sam

Barbara and Janice choose a route over the ridges

Craig and I sidestep over to the snow fields for a steeper, but more direct, approach

The most HILARIOUS photo bomb that I've ever fell victim too--  Thanks, Craig!!
Craig's alternate photo bomb on this slope was randomly featured in my post, Twin Lakes Hike.

The final stretch

A quick break near the Monitor Ridge station

Think you're keeping pace with Sam, but then you stop for just a moment to snap a photo?  Be prepared for this view, up in the distance (Read: Sam is fast).

The rest of the gang reaches the rim

But where's Janice?  Oh that's right... she reportedly tagged the rim after us and then scurried back down to the car to flee the biting winds and cold.   Poor thing.

The rest of us couldn't stop laughing.  We all still love you, Janice!

The rim, the crater, and views from the top

The lava dome, Spirit Lake, and Mount Rainier

Looking back at the Monitor Ridge route

Tongbay and I wait for the group to reach the rim, while Sam gets a head start over to the true summit and back

We boys traverse over to the true summit

Photo by Sam:  He must have snapped this while running back over to join us

Photo by Sam

Mount Rainier seemed like the perfect backdrop, assuming that I would climb it a few weeks later

Photo by Sam

Only Sam (blue jacket) is visible on the rocks above, as we all climb back over the true summit to join the girls across the rim for lunch.

The descent

Glissading down from the rim

Vine video:  Slowing down, but still nearly mowing down Tongbay during my glissade

Running, jumping, and sliding:  Jurgen and I do whatever it takes to race down the mountain
(Photo from Craig's GPS unit)

Barbara leads a final charge down to timberline, beginning our woodsy hike back to Climber's Bivouac
(Photo from Craig's GPS unit)

I've climbed Mount St. Helens nearly a dozen times, and the glissading or backcountry skiing down is always the highlight. But I've NEVER glissaded quite as many snow fields or had more hilarious fun with anyone than on this descent!

I blame the people.



On our next climb a couple weeks later, though, we would have a dramatically more terrifying ride. In two weeks, we'd be using our glissading skills to negotiate our descent of the icy slopes of Mount Adams.

Very rapidly!

But before our Mount Adams climb drops on Garth's Blog...

A guest post by Kathy about our family's hiking, the wildlife safari, and visiting friends in Southern Oregon!