Knee Deep Blog

Hiking In The Backcountry aka Vacation

This is my first week back in the office after one of my more memoriable backcountry hiking experiences.  In retrospect I wish it was more memorable for the incredible scenery we saw...alpine meadows, boulders, wild mountain goats in our campsite, turquoise lakes, incredible mountain views, etc.

(This first picture looking at the mighty Asgard Pass from across Colchuck Lake where we camped the first night.)

Unfortunately what most stands out was the exhausting hike out escaping the unrelenting wind and unexpected winter storm (yes that meant snow and ice and then rain which followed us throughout the day) and the scattered party of six that started the trip.

I have to admit that I had "visions of sugar plums" in my  head and had envisioned sunny blue skies and laying by a lake for a few days pondering just about any things as well as spending time with friends and alone time (that's what parents call it) with my husband Tim.  Four years ago we had done a trip to the same area and this is what we experienced.

(This is a picture of our group enjoying a evening cocktail before dinner on our 4th night of the trip - just before the weather changed.  I'm all the way on the left.)

I do believe in manifestation and I have to admit I thought I had done a damn good job of manifesting a sunny and memorable trip.  Perhaps I focused too much on the memorable.

Creating Your Home Office Boundaries

Tim and I both work from home which has pros and cons.  Working from home has meant creating boundaries for each of our offices. When my office door is closed it means do not enter...I'm on a client call and especially don't send any thing to print from the wireless network because the noise from the large printer is enough to drive me crazy any time of the day, but when I'm on a call it's especially distracting and a challenge for both clients and myself.

I don't have to worry about Elias, who is three, sending any thing to print, but he hasn't quite caught onto the closed door means do not enter and open door means you can come in thing yet.  Eli wants to come in at any time and if the door is closed it simply means knock and bang louder and progressively call my name louder and louder and sound like you are going to die if the door isn't opened. These antics although a bit annoying at times were acceptable until he learned how to open doors. I figured at least he would learn about open office door means X and closed office door means X.

Any one that has a child fully understands life with a child or children is not a science and "most days" don't mean every day and preschoolers being preschoolers are going to push boundaries to the edges.  Eli being particularly articulate has plenty of ideas and thoughts that he likes to try out.