Montana Vacation! JULY 31st -AUGUST 9th

YEAH! It was finally time for Miles and I to just get away! It is our only real vacation of this year and although I did not have any vacation or sick time my work was gracious enough to let me still get the time off unpaid. We were so excited We stayed in Leavenworth WA at the KOA for Friday night and then drove straight up to West Glacier Montana to the KOA. We stayed there through Wednesday when we then drove to the East side Glacier to the other KOA and stayed there until Sat when we drove home. Oh my goodness what a fabulous trip. Miles and I had 13 hours up and back of visiting and it was wonderful! Our weather was pretty great too which allowed for some great wildlife sightings. Yes, i got to see my bears- several of them actually on our long hikes including Grizzlies!! We had one serious confrontation with a Momma black bear and her two cubs. We accidentally got between her and her babies on the trail and she was not too happy with us. She 'fake" charged us on the trail to let us know of her not so impressed mood and we let her know we would continue on the trail and let her (and her babies be) It was so exciting. We were so close! Athe pictures are incredible!

I have many fond memories of family vacations to Glacier. Grandma and Grandpa Eklund were in Kalispell and we often visited them growing up. Miles however had never been there and it was so great to be able to show him all the places that I remember and love. We went into town one of the days and went by Grandma's old house and and Kehoe's Agate shop as well. While in town we had dinner with my ol friend Esther and her husband Daniel in their beautiful home. I have not seen her since our wedding! It was so lovely to be able to catch up with her after several years.

In Galicer, Miles and I took many many hikes along the Going to the Sun Highway. We visited and hiked Logan Pass, Iceburg Lake, Many Glacier, Avalanch Lake, trail of the Cedars, and many many others. There were way too many pictures to post so we uploaded them all to PICASA.

http://picasaweb.google.com/milescustis

Enjoy!!

God's Child- Holdyn is HIS and In HIS Hands!

I just had to post some updated pictures of my adorable nephew Holdyn.

Holdyn came to live with Miles and I for a while recently. I was named his legal guardian after he came home to Joshua's place after a weekend visit at his mother's and Holdyn was covered head to toe in bruises. The baby had been beaten to a pulp and of course Joshua had to report it to the police immediately....knowing full well that meant he would become a suspect and that Holdyn would be taken away. Did you know that 95% of those who report a child's abuse are the actual abusers themselves? I had no idea. Well, of course Joshua did not touch his baby in this way as Holdyn arrived with all these bruises. We took lots of pictures. I was there after he called the Sheriff who drove over immediately. The Sheriff surveyed the situation and put Joshua's heart at ease that he believed Joshua's story and would do whatever he could to keep the baby with me (family), but since Joshua is not on the birth certificate he is legally not related to this child. Holdyn has been in Joshua's care over 90% of his little life. Joshua is the father..no doubt in any one's mind..but legally he has no rights.

The Sheriff gave us a police escort to the ER where we remained from that evening until morning. Thankfully after every test imaginable done to poor tired, restless baby, and a very rough night of stress and a whirlwind of emotions both Josh and I we were relieved to report the ominous dark purple bruises had left no long term injuries. However, Holdyn was placed under "protective custody" and placed temporarily in my care. That morning, I took him home from the ER to live with me until things could get sorted out. His safety was my number one priority. Now a criminal case Social workers, court dates, more examinations, and photographs galore, Holdyn was with me 24/7. I took the week off work...he was my baby nephew and although stressful and a whirlwind of emotions i was so happy to have him in my care. I had him one week and needed to go back to work. Thankfully my mom was in town after a vacation with dad in Victoria BC and she stayed with us another week so I could go back to work. My work has been so gracious with me allowing me to take additional emergency leave without having any vacation or sick time accrued to cover the time loss. I am so thankful. I am also so thankful my Mom was here. It was wonderful having her around. I could finally breathe easier and sleep at night as I was so worried and stressed out as to Holdyn's future and well-being. it was all so sudden and crazy it still makes me tear to think of how bad off he looked in the ER that first night. ..and yet despite it all his little smiles just melted my heart and i remembered God's hand in all of this. The following Thursday was awful. My mom had to go home and as i had to go back to work having missed so much with my recovery the short weeks ago, I had to have him replaced with Foster Care. Holdyn and I both cried the entire way down town Bellingham to Child Services . It was awful.....but i knew it was the only option for us at this point.

The night before my Mom and I documented counted LOTS of ways (confirmations) of God's hand throughout this entire ordeal. Holdyn is God's child and no matter what happens I have to remind myself of that...that Holdyn is HIS and God takes care of HIS children. I don't have to like the circumstances, but He is God's and I can trust he is in the BEST hands of all.

Mt Baker July 3rd, 2009

Miles and I both had the Friday off in honor of Independence Day and Miles and I went on a day hike up to Mt Baker. We made it to the lower parking lot but could not go on because the road leading up to Artist Point was still closed due to snow/ice accross the road,. A huge snow plow blocked the entire road. We found out later that next weekend they were plowing and so we were off only by one week. Dang it! So we followed the windy straight up road to Heather Meadows. Lots of people with special snow boots and ice picks and cross country ski sticks were climbing up the side of the mountain through the thick ice....we did not have that kind of equipment nor are we even close to that talented- so we just walked along the road. So adventurous. Actually it was because we were not sure exactly how long we were going to have to walk to find our destination and there were no mile post markers which indicated on our maps where our trail heads began. Well we felt stupid later as we realized that you just have to follow the road several miles up but it was covered in snow still and we could not see that. We did however make it to Heather Meadows and it was beautiful. there were several huge streams of water pouring off the mountain in melting snow. At 10:30 in the morning it felt like 90 degrees and the patches of snow we walked through felt so good as it fell over our ankles into our boots as our feet sunk into the deep snow. NICE. Natural way to cool off for sure. The lakes we found were melting but quite solid and patches held this extreme ice blue color that was out of this world beautiful. The pictures and the scenery around us took our breath away. We were both sun burnt and tired after our day of hiking but we had another adventure together and discovered a beautiful pace we are looking forward to discovering more of ...after more snow melts of course.

Whatcom Falls- Sat. June 27th 2009

Miles and I purchased an incredible camera this year. We and bought ourselves a Cannon Rebel XSI . It has been endless enjoyment for both of us. Miles and I have always ejoyed hiking. We did a bunch of it when we were dating and living around Portland area. We have not done much since we moved up here to Bellingham. We have been hearing for years what a gordeous part of the world we live in for those who enjoy hiking. We decided to try to find Whatcom Falls and practice getting some good shots with the camera. It was an especially hot this day and the hike was good for us. We did find some good shots and found refreshment with the cool water around the falls.

Fire and Ice June 24th 2009

Fire & Ice -Hot & Cold The polar opposites of emotions.

But that is the best way I know how to put into words how I feel right now.

Not too hopeful. Today marks two months to the day since I woke up rejoicing in the excitment and anticipation of a baby on the way inside of me....and went to bed sobbing with a C-section incision accross my belly and in pain both physically and emotionally in shock that that same baby i was dreaming earlier that day about was no more. Tough anniversary ...tough day.

Though few weeks. I was home from wokr for three weeks! I had lots of wonderful people by my side. Goingn back to work has been very difficult.

People have asked me how I am doing and I feel that although I am healed physically and life is getting “back to Normal” that I am not wanting things to be “Normal” -- that somehow as things are “normal” that means I am forgetting…Forgetting about my baby…forgetting about the loss…and that I am “over it”. Does that make sense? I am not over it! It is something that I will never be over. It will be easier with time but I will never forget. While in San Diego Miles bought me a Tiffany & Co style toggle charm bracelet with a heart charm attached as a physical reminder…something physical to hold onto….

I think that jumping from one emotion to the next is also probably a normal aspect of grieving and something I should not be worried about. My feelings are laced with guilt and pain and sadness and other days are very hopeful for the future. Today is not one of those days.

San Diego CA May 27-31st 2009

This year the Lord provided for us with a huge promotion for me from my work. I am now - not just a receptionist but the new HR Representative for both Krause mfg as well as the IMS electronics down in Vancouver, WA. I am thrilled. I have been in charge of some of the responsibilities for years but it has been made official this past February. Very nice. --Anyways, I was asked to come down to the corporate office in San Diego for some meetings to go over new benefit enrollment that is coming up in August. I asked that the meetings be held towards the end of the week so that Miles and I could make a weekend out of it. So they did.

We flew down on Wednesday and came back on a Sunday. My meetings were in the mornings to mid afternoon on both Thursday and Friday so Miles and I had the early evenings and night time both days to walk around and find interesting places to go and eat. Miles spent the day times reading by the pool at the hotel and walking around San Diego. Our hotel was downtown in the Little Italy District right on harbor Drive along the water. We could see the huge cruise ships from our hotel windows. It was beautiful in San Diego. The weather was not so good. They call it May Rain- June Gloom for a reason i guess. It was awful. The sun did poke its head out ONCE ...it was raining and gray, and misty the entire time but we still had fun. While I was in meetings , Miles was walking all over. When i could join him he showed me very fun places to go see. We saw the naval ships, Sea-Port Village, the Mall, and all over downtown.

I was exhausted as I was still recovering after only being back to work full days the week before. But i did well. It was nice just having some extra time "away" too - Just the two of us. Although I was still working- it was like a mini vacation. And after Friday afternoon i had the rest of the weekend to PLAY together too. We went to Sea-World I got two day advanced tickets from my work at a greatly discounted rate. We only had time for one day but that was enough to do and see all we wanted to. Saturday we rolled out of bed early and headed to the Sea-World Park. It was dead - only a few people were there as it was pouring down rain. We were soaked within a few minutes and pretty much stayed that way all day but we had a lot of fun.

I got to see otters, and tough the dolphins, and we caught ALL the shows there to see. They were wonderful. Our favorite was the dolphin shows actually. They were incredible....absolutely amazing to be near huge killer whales and dolphins so close. We stayed out of the splash zones on purpose as we did not want to get completely drenched....

....but we did make the mistake of going on the roller coaster rides. We sat in the front remembering that in the other theme parks the people in the back get the wettest....WE WERE SO WRONG! We were soaked from head to foot. Our heads were just dripping and we got very cold and never did warm up or dry off but the experience was worth it. Once we were wet we figured nothing we can do about it so we went about 5 times in a row down the roller coaster. It was amazing. We ate lunch and had a bird take off unexpectedly with my burger and then again with the chocolate cake Miles and i were sharing. Word of advice- we careful of the birds...they are mean!! .

We stayed at tbe park until closing (11:00pm) as there were several late shows we did not want to miss. The Killer Whale Shamu Show was incredible as well. We were so close and it was pretty spectacular to see these huge mammals jump and spin in the air appearing so effortlessly and beautifully trained on command. We were in awe!

All in all it was a very special trip. It was a great time for just the two of us. A mini "get away" and a chance for us to be distracted from all that went on the weeks before and focus on eachother and have a little fun in there too. This was quite the adventure and the memories we created we will treasure forever.