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Monday, August 26, 2013

Conquering San Miguel

Kelson loves climbing mountains and running on trails. For about a year after we moved to San Diego, he kept looking at the peak East of Chula Vista and saying that he would love to climb it. I finally agreed to go with him and give it a try. This is what we found when we got there:
It is a little bit hard to see in the picture, but the trail goes straight up. No switchbacks at all. I looked at it and was pretty sure I would never make it even halfway. Fortunately, Kelson was very patient with my plodding speed and frequent (as in every 20 feet) rest periods, and we reached the top. Unfortunately, we found out when we got to the top that we were nowhere near the end of the trail. There was a little bit of more level ground, and then another climb even bigger than the first one, also straight up, to get to the summit. At that point I gave up and let Kelson finish. I felt pretty good about my accomplishment though.
 As I sat at the bottom of the final climb waiting for Kelson, I was visually searching the mountain side trying to see where he was.  I started to get worried because I couldn't spot him. Then I saw a guy dressed in black running down the mountain at top speed, and I knew that had to be my husband. I was right.
Our first climb of Mt. San Miguel was several months ago, before we even knew I was pregnant (thus my significantly slimmer figure). Since then, we did it once more together. This time I let Kelson run up the mountain while I plodded very slowly. I still made it, but with even more frequent rest periods this time. That time, Kelson timed his climb to the summit at about 38 minutes (It is around 2.5 miles, most of it straight up.) He was determined to beat his time, so a couple of weeks later while I stayed blissfully asleep in our bed, he got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning and tackled the mountain again. He came in right around 29 minutes. He is awesome like that. I think we can count San Miguel as conquered!

Celebrating Kelson's Promotion: Wetting Down


We were both very excited when Kelson finished his time as Ensign Mosier and was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade Mosier back in March. Unfortunately,  I haven't been able to acquire the pictures from his promotion ceremony yet, but I will post them later. A few months after his promotion, we had a party to celebrate. In the Navy, it is tradition that when you receive a promotion, you spend the difference between your old paycheck and your new one to take the rest of the officers out. It is called a "wetting down". Since there were several officers promoting around the same time, we were able to get together and have quite the party. After going through several different plans, we ended up going on a dinner cruise in the harbor. It was really fun!


The group of officers, or "wardroom" of Spruance
We all boarded a boat like this one (that is actually one of their other boats), and  got under way for our adventure
The evening started out with a delicious dinner while we cruised around the harbor and watched some amazing water sports going on. (Look up fly boarding videos. It is amazing!)
 The rest of the evening was spent enjoying the beautiful sunset as well as some entertainment. It was a great night. Congratulations to everyone on their promotions!


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Memorial Day Weekend 2013: Our First Camping Trip

 For Memorial Day, Kelson & I took our first camping trip together to Idyllwild. It is a cute, little town up in the San Jacinto Mountains. We stayed in a cabin there for our anniversary last year and loved it, so we decided to go back. Kelson was ridiculously excited to use all of our camping gear for the first time.
 Kelson grilled me a seriously delicious dinner, including corn on the cob and some of the biggest steaks I have ever seen. I think Kelson might have eaten two pounds of beef that night.
 How many people do you know who camp with goblets and a pepper grinder? Welcome to the Mosier family.  We had a great time camping Friday night, and then we spent Saturday enjoying the community-wide yard sale and finding treasures for the baby.
 We couldn't get reservations at the camp ground for Saturday night, so we headed home that afternoon and spent the rest of the weekend playing around Chula Vista. Kelson's specialty is weekend breakfast, and he made me his favorite "mini-breakfast" for Memorial Day. It included mini-omelets, mini german pancakes, sliced oranges, and hash browns. I love it when Kelson is home!
 That afternoon, we drove to Imperial Beach, near the border, and went for a bike ride in the Tijuana River estuary. Some places have deer crossings on the freeway. We have illegal immigrant crossings. This is my favorite road sign ever.
 The estuary was gorgeous. We saw cranes, egrets, pelicans, and lots of other birds.
Memorial Day weekend was super fun. Since it fell right before our 2nd anniversary, we counted our trip to Idyllwild as an early anniversary celebration. It has been a wonderful two years!