weekend adventure: beg'd borrow'd & steel'd

Summer Heights High came in the mail last monday. I'd been contemplating buying the genius Australian series for a long time. I watched it for the first time when I was living alone in Michigan in the summer of 2009. It lifted my spirits considerably. I watched it again once I'd moved back to Arkansas just because I'd loved it so much. It was cheap with free shipping on Amazon, so that's pretty much what I watched all last week when it was gray and cloudy.

I came home from work each day last week to the kitchen. I cooked: chicken and veggies; a casserole Aaron's mom used to make with ground beef, mushroom soup, vegetables & cheese; eggplant/zucchini parmesan. I used to be terrified of frying things, but now I think it's really fun!

There was even a freak thunderstorm in Montgomery on Friday evening which caused an evacuation of the indoor pool I was swimming in at the YMCA. …Something about the water pump being outside?

The weather on Saturday was perfect, though, as we headed up to climb at an event called Beg, Borrow & Steel. I described it to friends as a "rock climbing party," though we didn't do much of the "party" things like jousting & a belly flop competition …or drinking except for the little bit of beer Aaron put in his water bottle.

We climbed almost 10 hours straight on Saturday with breaks for lunch (hotdogs, so I snacked on jerky & oreos) and dinner (BBQ & salad!), we woke up on Sunday and packed up. Aaron climbed a route and a half before declaring he was done. I wasn't even going to try….

We went for a swim in the beautiful river and left at about 10, making it to the Chipotle in Hoover in time for lunch at Chipotle! We picked up a few things at Mountain High - a new, purple, narrow neck nalgene for me …my dream water bottle. I also fell in LOVE with a pair of Merrell shoes that hardly exist anywhere in my size… and we got some Pink Berry for dessert before making it back to Montgomery.

I was so happy to see Boone! I hate leaving him, though we'd had a local dog walker feed and walk him twice while we were gone. We unpacked and made a quick trip to the dog park before spacing out on the couch for the rest of the evening.

I posted photos from the weekend and from the rest of our time in Alabama so far, since I hadn't done that yet. I actually haven't shot too many photos with my "real" camera. I'm a pretty good instagrammer, which you should know if you follow me on twitter.

The photos I have taken make me happy. This weekend, especially was a good time of reflection. It's easy to let the work week get you down, but we really do live in (near) a beautiful place. I'm thankful for that, and for being able to climb and hike and swim. So, I'm heading into this week with good energy and lots of water. Can't beat that.