The Big One

So last weekend was a momentous occasion in the Martin household. Sarah and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on June 18th! Hooah! We did it. An entire year without killing each other. An exciting mile marker indeed. To make matters even better, I was fortunate enough to score a 4-day weekend the weekend of our anniversary. We decided to celebrate with some adventure..

The "greatest" waterfall in CO.

Our first anniversary weekend activity was visiting the famed Seven Falls water fall here in the Springs. This is the place that is advertised all over town on billboards, in magazines and newspapers, and is touted as one of the "must see attractions in Colorado." Not wanting to miss out on one of the greatest attractions in the state and also wanting to cross it off our do-before-leaving-Colorado list, we headed over there on Friday afternoon. We paid the $12 a person entrance fee and headed up into the Cheyenne Canyon where Colorado's largest waterfall is located. The canyon is made of beautiful red rocks surrounding you on all sides, and as we climbed up into the canyon we drew closer to .... a water fall. There was water falling down some rocks. Yea it was a fairly tall waterfall, but i have to say that I have a particular memory from childhood at the Washington D.C. Zoo where I saw an elephant peeing, and there was more water flowing there than at this waterfall. Yea, it was pitiful. There was a nice hiking trail that went up around it and climbing the 500 stairs to the top was cool, but I have to say that we were thoroughly unimpressed. 

Approx. 2,000 ft. below the summit (and yes, there is ice on that lake).

The following day we drove up North to Mt. Evans, a 14,265 ft. mountain which happens to be home to the highest paved road in North America. The weather wasn't the best with scattered rain, but we decided to make the drive up anyway. The road was nice with beautiful views at all times. The terrain changed as you gained elevation, going from pine forest, to open grassy plains above the treeline, to rocky tundra, and ending with nothing but rocks and snow up at the summit. Yes, snow. In June. It was actually snowing at the summit and was somewhere between 32-35 degrees at the top. You couldn't see a bloody thing from the top of the road because we were basically inside a cloud. The last few hundred feet of elevation to the summit you have to make by foot, so I persuaded Sarah to get out of the truck and we started climbing to the top with a snow storm coming down around us. A few hundred feet up the trail, I hear a yell from Sarah behind me and turn around to see her hair sticking out horizontally. "I can feel the static in the air... this is freaking me out...I'm going back to the truck!" But I really wanted to reach the summit, so I pushed on. a few minutes later I began to feel the static in my hair. I begun to get a little worried and stopped. Then I began hearing a buzzing sound in the air and coming from the rocks, kinda like the sound of a power transformer at a power plant. Thats when I got freaked out. I thought about how I'd really like to avoid being the guy they talk about on the news who got barbecued by lightning on top of a mountain. So I turned tail for the truck in pursuit of my wife. We were able to eventually make it to the summit after waiting on the storm to pass, and made it safely back off the mountain without getting fried. 

She's not so sure this is a good idea...

It's now Sunday, and having decided that getting up to 14,000 ft. was a lot of fun, we pursued another activity that got us almost as high. Only this time we would be getting down a lot faster than when we were up on the mountain. We decided to go skydiving! This is something I have always wanted to do, and Sarah mustered up the courage to suggest that we go as our anniversary present. We decided to go tandem (where you are strapped to an instructor) for our first time to avoid any fear-related issues. We got a quick crash course on what we needed to do to have a successful jump, donned our harnesses, and headed for the plane. Now I had pictured a decent sized plane where we would walk to a door and jump out , kinda like you see in movies. Nope. We were greeted on the run-way by the smallest puddle-jumper plane I have ever laid eyes on. This thing is tiny. As I'm trying to figure out if this thing can even get my big butt off the ground, my instructor ensures me it will be alright and tells me not to make any comments on the size of the plane as the pilot tends to get upset about it. So the 5 of us pile in, and take off down the runway. We had a nice scenic tour of southern Colorado as we climbed up to 8,000 ft above the ground (13,500 ft above sea level) and prepared to do the most ridiculous thing I have ever done. Jump out of a perfectly good airplane. That's not something people normally do. But the door opened over the drop zone and our instructors threw us out of the plane, Sarah first with me right behind. We free-falled for about 25-30 seconds, reaching a speed of 130+ mph (my instructor says him and I were going 'bout 160 mph since the two of us together were about 425 lbs.) before pulling the chute. We then enjoyed a few minutes of gliding around on the parachute before making safe landings in the landing zone. It went by super fast, and truth be told, we don't remember much of it. They say you experience sensory overload the first time and so your mind doesn't retain much of the experience. But from what we do remember, it was insanely fun and the most exciting thing we have ever done! Definitely something everyone should do at one point in their life. 

This plane is so small!! I think i felt safer jumping out of it than I would have trying to land in it

We ended the exciting weekend on Monday with a relaxing drive up Pike's Peak (another 14,000+ ft. mountain), some fishing at a mountain lake nestled along the road up Pike's Peak, and a romantic diner at Red Lobster that night. It was a weekend to remember, and exactly the way I wanted to spend celebrating a  year of marriage that has been filled with love and adventure with my beautiful wife. I am so proud of her for being courageous and going skydiving with me! I pray that God would bless us with another year together and that it would be half as fun as this past year.

We got a Bear!

Matt has been in the field for the past month and a half more than he has been home. So to keep Tucker from getting bored with me, we got another puppy! We got a chocolate lab. Having a Chocolate Lab has been a dream of mine and I always pictured myself going on long runs with a chocolate lab when I was younger. I have the lab now but I don't know about the long runs. I struggle to run a half a mile. Fortunately it's going to to be a while until he can go on long runs so I have time to build my endurance.  It took us three days to name our new puppy.  Probably because we decided to get him after only three days.  I was watching a friends black lab for a few days and when Matt came home for the weekend he loved Sam and I knew we were going to get another dog. After finding a breeder Sunday night and going to see the new puppy on Monday we had him by Friday. After having our puppy for a few days we finally decided to name him Bear. He is going to be huge. He is 10 weeks old and weighs 20 pounds. When Tucker was 20 weeks old she weighed only 20 pounds. Though Bear being huge is exactly what Matt wanted, so that is good! We were surprised at how small Tucker was and we were really bummed when we found out she was terrified of guns. So far Bear is making up for Tucker's downfalls.  On the second day we had Bear we introduced him to guns. We started further away with my 9mm (our quietest gun). He didn't flinch at all. Next we got out the shot gun and began to move him closer to the gun. He still didn't care. We were so excited and Matt is really looking forward to using Bear as a hunting dog.  Eventually Bear even fell asleep while we were shooting. Hopefully he won't fall asleep if he goes hunting. These dogs are definitely keeping me busy but it is slowly getting easier. They give me something to do while Matt is gone but I will be very happy to have him home in the evenings and on the weekends. After this week he will be back in from the field for the rest of the Summer. That makes me happy!

We apologize for not keeping up with our blog. Matt thinks about it more than I do, but since he has been in the field he hasn't had a chance to update it. This month we are planning to hike Pike's Peak so hopefully we'll have an amazing blog post up soon.

Sarah is Tuckered Out

It's me (Sarah) again. I know I haven't written since last year, but it's about time I try my fingers at typing once again.

The title of this post is 'Sarah's Tuckered Out' but I think it should be the other way around. Tucker is all Sarah'ed out. Matt has been in the field since Tuesday and will be in the field until the 26th of April. What I mean by "the field" is that he is on base right down the road, but out in the middle of no where so he can't come home at night. This time while they are in the field the Abrams tanks are at a range firing their huge guns. While Matt isn't firing any of the weapons on the tanks he is in charge of coordinating how they will be fixed when they break. And it isn't if they break it is when they break. I got a text from him the other day after asking him how his day went he said, "Not bad, not nearly as many tanks broke today as did yesterday so we weren't as

busy." So he's been busy but I think he's learning a lot and hopefully enjoying his new job.

Back to what I was saying about Tucker being all Sarah'ed out. Not only do I miss Matt but I'm pretty sure the dog does too. Matt is usually the one that plays with her and gets her all riled up. She's bored of me and has been making me quite aware with her whining. I have been wanting to take her out on longer walks but it has gotten cold and windy here. Not really the nicest dog walking weather.

So other than spending my time trying to keep the dog happy and working, God has provide

d me with some new friends. Yay!! God new it was going to be hard for me when Matt's away so I think he was holding out to provide me with these girls until Matt left. The morning that Matt left I went to a bible study at our new church (Wooodmen Valley Chapel) for Military Wives. Among the women there I met Natalie and Jessica. They are about the same age as me. Natalie and I have very similar time lines with graduating, getting married, and beginning military life with our husbands. Jessica may be a little younger than us but she is mature beyond her years and has been teaching me a lot. She's been married for two years and jumped into military life right away. These girls have been such a blessing to me while Matt is away. Both of their husbands are deployed right now. We have become a band of sisters keeping each other company and encouraging each other. I have only know them for about a week but I think I've spent time with them four out of the seven days of that week. These women amaze me. I am struggling with Matt being gone for 17 or so days, while their husbands are away for months.

God is teaching me a lot while Matt is away; a lot about how much I appreciate Matt and all that he does for me and this marriage, but also about how much I need Jesus. I can rely on

him to keep me safe and to keep Matt safe. He provides me with a peace that surpasses my understanding (Philippians 4:6). I am so thankful for having Jesus Christ in my life because I would be a mess without him.

Here's a few pictures of Matt and myself hiking Manitou Incline.

The trail is one mile long while you go up 2,000 feet. The average grade is 45%.

Outdoor Adventures

Garden of the Gods in the Snow

The best part about living in Colorado is the landscape and the sweet opportunities that it provides for outdoor adventures. Sarah and I both love being outside, and have quickly set about doing everything we can find to do out here. Our first adventure was in the famed Garden of the Gods park, a place of amazing red rock formations that rise out of the mountains. The rocks are awe-inspiring and we spent an afternoon walking/climbing around gawking at the beauty of God's creation. The best part about that day is that it was snowing, making for an even more exciting landscape with the contrasting while snow and red rocks. We will definitely by coming back to this place to do some rock climbing this summer!

Admiring the scenery

Our next adventure was to try what literally EVERY single person asked us if we would do when we told them we were moving to Colorado: skiing. Skiing is no great thing in PA, and while I had always had fun doing it, it had never been something extremely exciting that I would deem "worthy of writing home about." But seeing as how Colorado is clearly known for its world-class ski areas/resorts and we had about 1,000 people tell us that we should do it, we decided to investigate. It turns out that everybody was right (go figure). Skiing in Colorado is seriously amazing!  For our first trip, we decided to try Monarch Mountain at the recommendation of the Outdoor Recreation employee on base. It isn't one of the huge resorts, which means less people and subsequently shorter lift lines and less people to run over going down the slopes. The snow conditions were amazing, with a 69" base of 100% real snow powder. Neither Sarah or I are very good skiers, but on this quality snow with the superb rental skis we were able to secure, we turned out to be pretty good. I think each of us only fell a couple of times, and by the end of the day we were both skiing on some of the intermediate slopes. Now before you laugh at us for having to work-up to the intermediate (blue square) slopes, you have to consider that here you are skiing on a legit mountain (the base elevation was 10,500 ft.) and the trail rating system is way different than back east (a black diamond trail at somewhere like Ski Round-top compares to one of the blue squares here). So yea, we were doing pretty darn good and had a blast!

View from the top of one of the ski trails (click to enlarge).

At the summit

Most recently, we went to check out the Manitou Cliff Dwellings and the Red Rock Canyon Open Space. The cliff dwellings are an old Anasazi Indian village that they built into the side of a cliff. It sounded pretty cool, but after paying $8 a person and walking around for an hour, we decided that it wasn't really that exciting. It was rather small and un-exciting, with many of the signs talking about "mother earth" and other hippie mumbo jumbo. So we moved on. We then spent the afternoon exploring the Red Rock Canyon Open Space with tucker and messing around with our fancy new camera. The canyon has rocks very similar to those of Garden of the Gods, hence its name. We discovered numerous rock climbing routes there, which we will be utilizing at some point this coming weekend. I hope you all enjoy the pictures, and use them as reason to start making travel plans to come visit us out here! (we are lonely and desperately want visitors!)

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings

Atop a rock formation in Red Rock Canyon (with Garden of the Gods in background)

On thin air

I am having a difficult time adjusting to Colorado. Such a difficult time that it has me feeling light headed and nauteous. Its not the city or the people, so far we love both of them. It is the climate. If you weren't aware, Colorado Springs has a base elevation of approx 6,000 feet. That is almost a mile higher than you folks back on the east coast. The elevation difference isn't immediately noticable other than a little bit of feeling light-headed the first day. So after being here a few days and not feeling the ill-effects of the altitude I had been warned about, I thought I was adapting well. And then I went running...

I would not consider myself a stellar athlete, but I like to think that I am in fairly good shape. At least good enough to do well on the Army's PT test. But when I went on this run I was reduced to a whimpering little boy. It felt like someone was standing on my chest and I was trying to breath through a straw at the same time. I was light headed, felt nauteous, tasted blood, my mouth was drier than a cotton ball, and I felt like I had just ran a marathon. It was only a little over a mile. Sheesh.

So it really does make a difference being at this higher altitude. The air is notably thinner here, especially when you start exercising. In addition, the air is much drier in Colorado requiring you to need almost twice the water to stay hydrated. But it isn't all bad. The landscape here is seriously beautiful and the weather is amazing. It is sunny and warm almost every day. And since that first run I have continued to exercise and have begun to feel more acclimated every day. Hopefully by spring Sarah and I will both be used to the altitude and can start preparing to hike to the summit of Pikes Peak!

New Beginnings

3 days, 8 states, 1,635 miles, and 1 sore tushie later we made it to Colorado Springs. It was an interesting journey full of varying landscape, crazy weather, and drivers from numerous states attempting to run us off the road. It seems that New York is not the only place where bad drivers roam the streets; they are everywhere. I also observed that it seems Kansas would be a kite-flyer's paradise.With a constant 40-50 mph wind as we drove through and an apparent complete lack of trees to get in the way, Kansas is so desolate that there appeared to be nothing else to do. The wind was strong enough to cause me to constantly hold the steering wheel cocked to the right to avoid being blown off the road. Oh! I almost forgot. I am pleased to announce that tumbleweed does in fact exist. It is not just a creation of Hollywood for western movies, as we saw it blowing across the highway all over the western plains of Kansas. Despite these obstacles, we did make it to our destination safely, helped in a big way by my in-laws Mom and Dad Hedrick. Our drive would have been much more grueling and less exciting had you two not helped us out with the driving. Thank you!

After driving for 6+ hours across the surprisingly desolate western Kansas and eastern Colorado plains, we were greeted by the truely majestic Rocky Mountains. You can see the mountains (particularly Pikes Peak) that backdrop Colorado Springs from about an hour away from the city. They continue to grow in size and beauty the closer you get, and make for a truly beautiful landscape for the city. Literally anywhere you go in this town you are greeted by the massive peaks and I am constantly in awe of them. I cannot wait to begin exploring these mountains and to see the beautiful majesty that is God's creation. 

After arriving here on Thursday, we spent the first few days hunting the biggest game I have ever hunted: houses. Get it? "House-hunting"? But yea, we were looking for a house to live in. And I am happy to report that we got one! It only took 2 days to find and we are in love with it. We signed the lease on Saturday and move-in tomorrow. It is a newer 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath house with a 2 car garage and is conveniently located near base. This is our first house and we are so excited to move in and start our life out here. God has definitely provided for us and answered prayers to lead us to the right house and right church out here. We started looking   for churches yesterday but have not found any that feel like the right fit so far. We know that God is leading us to the right one and we are excited to see where he takes us.