A new Year, a new Blog

When I first started this blog, way back when, we used it to chronicle all of our travels and adventures in the Colorado high-country.  Each weekend was a new peak, a new traverse, and a few more photographs above the treeline.

As life has evolved, and by "evolved" I mean Adeline, we've had to slow down a bit, sit home more often, and don't quite get to as high of altitudes as we use to.

In the coming year, the Bishop Clan is in for a lot of changes.  The two biggest changes will be our newest addition, Brighton Aurelia Bishop (due March 9th-ish), and we'll also be moving to California (or so they say).  As we transition into this new phase, it's only fitting to transition the blog as well.  Sarah has started a new blog to replace this blog.  This new blog is less about where we've been, and more about who we're with.

We welcome you all to make the transition with us and see what all those crazy Bishop kids are up to.  This blog will probably transform in some way or another, but under a new title for sure.

Have a happy new year!

~Brian

A Day in the Life of Adeline (and myself)

(This is an older post written back in July by Sarah.  I just noticed and and published it now)

I'm terribly at this blogging thing lately, but I would like to detail a typical day in the life of Adeline. Seeing as Brian works crazy shift schedules, it's just been Adeline and I holding down the fort much of the summer. So without further ado, here is "how Adeline do":

Morning:
My alarm rings at 7am. Dang it. I get out of bed and get a shower. At this point I'll usually hear Adeline stirring,  playing with her musical dog "Violet" and just talking to herself in general. She's a happy girl when she wakes up, on the weekends sometimes Brian and I will listen to her yack for an hour even before we get up if she's not crying. It's a glorious thing really. So I go in her room, and she sees me and jumps up all excited like. I pick her up and the first thing she usually says is "Bay-la," as she sees Bella walking in the room. I put her on the changing table to change her diaper - this is the only time she gets mad when sometime changes her diaper. First thing in the morning, you take her diaper off, and she's pissed. I mean really, this should be the best thing that happens to her all day! I try to remind Adeline that she's getting her butt cleaned and a refreshing diaper after sitting in doo doo for 12 hours, but she doesn't care. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm laying her down again right when she got up for the day. But anyway, diaper changing is not usually a fun part of the morning. Kids.

So after I change her diaper, I sit her up and she's instantly a happy camper again. I get her clothed so she can calm down a little before I do her hair. Getting her hair did is not quite on the list of things Adeline loves either. Usually she gets in a fuss, so I take her off the table and put her down, and start doing the hair of a moving toddler. She laughs and thinks it's hilarious that I'm trying to do her hair while she's running away from me. But it gets done. I get the diaper bag ready and we take off to daycare. We leave the house around 7:30am or 7:45am at the latest. It's pretty much a get up and go routine every morning.

Daycare:
Adeline goes to daycare every day and she really likes it. She needs to be entertained by other kids, as you will find out later in this post. I'll go visit her at lunch most days, so that's fun for both of us. At this point, daycare is a good situation for everyone involved. By the way, Brian was a stay at home daddy for two days last week when Adeline was sick. I have been informed that he has since retired, however. I will be hosting a lunch soon for his long 48 years, er, hours of service.

Evening:
Fast forward to the evening.
Get home from daycare around 5:30pm. Adeline is grumpy. I think it's a combination of a few things: 1) I've taken her away from the awesome toys and kids that she was engrossed in 2) Because of this she needs my undivided attention to entertain her and make up for it 3) She suddenly realizes she's hungry and getting tired
So I hurry up and try to get dinner ready while trying to keep Adeline occupied in the meantime. Today, she is hungry, and I sit her in her chair and she's in excited about some pizza. she gobbles the pizza down and is in much better spirits afterwards. I get her down from her chair, and runs to the back door and pounds on it squaking "eh eh eh!!!" So we go outside on the patio. She gathers all her toys and throws them in the baby pool. She then starts taking the toys out one by one and throwing them over the stone wall. She wants me to go get them. I know this game, as I know she will just throw them back over the wall once I get them. So when I don't get them, she climbs onto a patio chair and stands on it. I try to ask her to sit down but she won't. I decide it's time to go inside.

So we go inside, and now she wants to go play in the front yard. So I sit on the porch and watch her run up and down the driveway and yell and laugh. She loves it.

So we're done with that. I decide we should go for a walk. So we go for an hour walk around the neighborhood. This is one of the best parts of the evening. I get to get out and get some exercise, and she's very content sitting in her stroller and taking in all the sites.

We get home, and I try to sit on the couch and relax. Adeline wants to get on the couch. So I put her on the couch and she climbs all over me. Then she wants down. She wants the TV remote I just picked up. I take the battery out so she can play with it. But now I want to change the channel. I take the remote back, but the battery back in, and change the channel. Adeline grabs the remote. I try to hide the remote. She wants up on the couch again. So I just resign myself to the floor and I put her back on the couch. So she gets on the couch and is now running on the couch and yelling, and then falling on the couch and laughing. She is being super silly. She does it over and over again while i'm trying to make sure she doesn't fall off - there are several close calls. Finally she does fall and I catch her before she hits the ground. I decide we're done with that. I tell her to go get me a book. So she does and we read a book.

She wants to go back outside on the patio. I let her go outside for a few minutes. I tell her it's time to come inside again. She sees I have a clementine. "Eh eh eh!" She wants some! We eat 4 clementines. She runs to the front door. I tell her we're not going outside anymore today. She gets mad but then wanders off.

I try to sneak away to the computer. She follows me and climbs on her table and chair set nearby. She climbs onto on her chairs and then on top of the table and plays for a few minutes and then wants in my lap. I put her in my lap, but she immediately tries to climb on the desk. So I put her on the desk. She bangs on the keyboard. I try to keep her from doing this and push her hands away to thwart her efforts - she thinks it's hilarious and laughs as I push her hands away. She just tries harder. She pushes something to make the font and letter really small. I don't know what she did. We're done with the computer.

We go back in the living room and I try to sit back on the couch. I'm sitting here for 5 seconds with my feet on the couch, and Adeline comes over and puts her head down near my feet.

Ouch!! She just bit my toe!!! She looks surprised at my reaction.

I get down on the floor and read her a couple more books. She starts climbing over me again and again. I then ask her to bring me her toys by name, one by one, to keep her entertained. The living room is now cluttered with toys. She is starting to rub her eyes and get a little whiny. Lo and behold, it's 8pm! Bedtime!

I bring her up to bed, change her diaper, and put her in her F-15 t-shirt. I take her in the bathroom and put a smidge of toothpaste on her toothbrush. I attempt to brush her eight teeth - she complies fairly well. We then go sit in the rocking chair and read Goodnight Moon. I think she has had enough books today - she doesn't really want to read. I put her in her bed and turn on 10 min of Violet's bedtime music. Her pink blanket is not in her bed. She loves her pink blanket. Omg, if I can't find this pink blanket she might not go to sleep. She always goes to sleep so well. I look all over for it and finally find it in our room. Thank goodness. I also fill her cup with water and hand it to her. I make sure a book is in her bed so she can read if she wants before she goes to sleep. She makes no fuss and falls asleep shortly.

I was a engineering major and collegiate athlete. But taking care of a toddler even for 2.5 hours takes hard and tiring to a completely different level.


Goodnight moon, goodnight stars and the red balloon.

A Michigan Kind of Weekend

Last week, Adeline, Sarah and I headed back to Michigan for a short vacation/family visitation.  Adeline and I flew into town on Tuesday, which was my first experience flying as a single dad.  Luckily for me, Adeline was a joy to fly with, didn't fuss, didn't cry, and really made the trip well.  For the first few days she and I stayed in Middleville with my folks and visited all sorts of great friends and family.

On Thursday we headed down to the cottage where all of the cousins were going to meet up for Cousin Weekend.  Sarah flew into town on Friday night, and I left Adeline with my folks at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and we had a ridiculous good time on Saturday with everyone.  Melissa showed up with a massive 8 person inflatable raft which was the perfect addition to the weekend.  It was a much more stable platform to drink on in the lake that our usual personal raft method.  Eventually though, all good things come to an end, and we each had to head our own ways.

I think we all had an amazing weekend and I can't wait to do it all gain next year.

Indian Peaks Wilderness

Last weekend Sarah and I had one of those very rare weekends where we weren't in charge of Adeline.  Caitlin and Knox volunteered to watch her for the weekend so that we could do some hiking and hopefully some sailing as well.  We took full advantage of a responsibility free weekend and went out to a movie (our second this month, CRAZY!) on Friday night, then turned in early for some hiking on Saturday.

After getting up at 4am, we were packed and out the door by 4:30, and in the parking lot at Brainard Lake by 6am.  Despite how early we got there, we found the parking lot already 1/3 full.  Those are some hardcore people.  At first we thought about hiking up to Pawnee Pass, then bagging a few peaks, but after arriving at the pass, we looked at how much scrambling there was to start off, and decided against it.  Instead we relaxed, enjoyed the view, and decided to hike back down, and then up to Isabelle Glacier.

By the time we got down, Lake Isabelle was packed with tourists, but as we headed up the valley towards the glacier, it started to thin out, and eventually, we were hiking alone again.  In the end we never did make it all the way up to the glacier.  We stopped at a small lake right below the last stretch, and decided that we'd relax, and then head back down to the car.  By this time, we had already been hiking for over 6 hours, and I was getting hungry and thirsty for a frosty cold beer.

Sunday, our original plan was to drive up to Dillon Reservoir and put the sail boat in the water.  Mother nature had other plans though, and was throwing up thunderstorms in the mountains, so we decided to head down to the Denver Nature and Science Museum to see the "Real Pirates" traveling display they were hosting.  I highly recommend the display, it was very interesting and you get to see the only REAL pirate loot ever recovered.

Overall it was a beautiful weekend, with my beautiful wife.  Who could ask for more?

NEW POST!

Wow, has it really been that long since we updated the blog?  I'll need to work on that.  So what has been going on in the Bishop household since we last updated the Internet?

Work and parenting mostly I suppose...  Adeline is growing like a weed and picking up new things every day.  She now knows how to high-five, fist bump, and raise the roof, so we obviously have the essentials down now and can start working on the tertiary stuff like colors and counting.

The Bishop clan is starting to get into summer mode and plan out our adventures for the year.  Sarah and I kicked off the hiking season last weekend with a jaunt up to Vail for a hike up the Booth Lake Trail in the Eagles Nest Wilderness.  This has been an epic snow season in the high country, so we knew we would have to pack our snowshoes.  Sure enough, about a half of a mile up the trail, we threw them on and started crunching through the snow.

The trail starts out with a mile of hiking through and Aspen grove, then quickly climbs up through some pines before leveling out some into a wide open valley with more Aspen.  We want to come back during the summer when everything is green and do this hike again.

While we were snowshoeing up, we were following in the footsteps of someone else who had blazed the trail for us.  After a while, I looked down and noticed some funky looking boot prints.  After staring at it for a minute, I realized that what was so funky about then was the huge claws on the front.  Apparently this valley is the home to a large black bear who is now awake and probably very hungry.

Sarah was a little nervous about following the footprints any farther, since obviously the bear is following the human footprints up the mountain because it's easier walking, he'll probably do the same on the way back down.  I convince her to follow me a little farther, and we'd see if the bear peels off at some point.  I walk ahead about 200 yards and saw that the bear turned and continued on his merry way straight up the hill and left the human tracks, so we continued (although now with a much more watchful eye.)

Eventually we got to the Booth Falls, which is about half way to Booth Lake, but unfortunately we had to cross a large avalanche path.  There we some small pine trees on the first half so we started across it carefully.  After about 75 yards, the path turns into an avalanche chute, and I decided that I wasn't comfortable crossing the chute.  A lot of the trail we had hiked on was already avalanched, and this still looked nice and fresh, so we decided to turn back and called it a day.

We eventually head back to Frisco and walked through town, grabbed some lunch at our favorite place, the Butterhorn Bakery.

Other things happening:  We had a bunch of family come out and visit us recently.  My mother, grandmother, and two brothers came out there to visit Sarah, myself and Adeline.  They hung out here for a few days, did the Denver Mint tour, and basically just showered Adeline in love.

Sarah's mother and sister Haley came out to visit and watched Adeline for a week as well, and gave Sarah and I some much needed time off.  Well, Sarah got time off anyway.  I was forced to re-finish the cabinets in the kitchen, which is still slowly coming along, but looking great.

My satellite, GEO-1 finally launch on May 7th at noon, so I've been very busy at work getting everything online.  Sarah is staying busy at her job as well, designing a wind-farm in Lompoc, CA.

Adeline recently celebrated her first birthday with a party at our house.  Sadly, she was not really into the whole cake thing, so maybe next year we'll get some good cake-smash pictures.

Not much else is going on right now here in Denver.  Sarah and I signed up for the Tough Mudder, a 8 mile military style obstacle course up in Beaver Creek.  I'm also training for my first 62-mile bike race.  If I complete this metric century well enough, I'll probably try and sign up for a 100-mile one at the end of the season.  We'll see how well my butt feels afterwards.

Until next time! (which will hopefully be soon)

Walker's Haute Route Day 10

Day 10: Europa Hut – Taschalp – Findeln - Zermatt

It was hard to believe today was the last day on the trail. It was quite bitter sweet. However, we couldn’t have picked a better day to end our adventure on. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I knew we’d be able to see the Matterhorn today for sure! I was ready.

There was much chaos and confusion in the morning as everyone hurried to get ready and get on their way. We had dressed, packed our bags, but on our shoes, and we all set to go. Brian just needed to pay the lady for the night’s stay and we’d be on our way. I was just about the head outside and wait for Brian when he called me.

“Hey, I need some money, I don’t have enough.”

*pause*

“WHAT?! I gave all my money to you, what do you mean you don’t have enough?”

The conversation that followed is not important. What’s important is that I knew no one in the whole joint spoke English.

I’m not sure how we were short cash. Leaving Gasenried we took money out of the ATM and we had plenty of money for the night’s stay in the Europa Hut, or so I thought. I’m not sure if he lost a couple hundred bucks or what. But all said and done, we were about $10 short. But I was still fuming out of my ears, as I tried so hard to be very careful to make sure we had plenty of cash the whole trip. I knew several towns only took cash, and ATMs were few and far between. I just felt like it was very irresponsible.

Luckily, Jeremy lent us the money. And after the situation was resolved, Brian took off on the trail and left Jeremy and I to hike by ourselves. I complained to Jeremy a bit about how it wasn’t the money, but the irresponsibility that I was upset about, and he assured me it was no big deal and talked about things that he and his wife fight over, as if to try and make me feel better. And at the end of the conversation he said something I’ll never forget:

“Well I’ve seen how you and Brian are with each other, and I think you’re very in love. In fact, I think you’re soul mates and are very lucky to have found each other.”

It was one of the most touching things anyone has every said to me. I’m sure I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. My eyes welled up with tears, and I agreed with him.

After a few miles I caught up with Brian and we apologized to each other and all was well with the world. While sitting there, in an attempt to be romantic (my first mistake) I told him what Jeremy had said,

“Jeremy said he thinks we’re soul mates.”

*pause* *laugh* “Ha. That’s kind of funny.”

“NO, he was talking about you and me, not me and Jeremy!”

“Oh. Yeah I thought that was kind of a weird comment!”

I don’t know why I even bother.

The rest of the hike was beautiful and uneventful. The Matterhorn did not disappoint, and we watched it all the way as we descended into the town of Zermatt.

Afterword:

10 hard, gorgeous, inspiring, life changing days were over, it went by so quick, but seemed like so long all at the same time. In the next 3 days we went on to visit the Big Cities of Switzerland: Lucerne, Interlaken, Bern and Geneva. And they were great in their own way and we saw some wonderful historical sites. But a big city is a big city is a big city. With buses and noise and trains and shops and people. And during those last three days, I couldn’t help thinking about our trip in the Alps. There’s just something about walking the countryside on your own two feet with your livelihood on your back that cannot be reckoned with in any way. It’s something about discovering the world, discovering yourself, and discovering others you can’t get from doing anything else.