Number Eight?

Well if you haven’t heard by now then you are either living under a tree or you just aren’t important. (JOKE!) The above picture is Erwien’s reaction to the exciting news. Seven is going to have a younger sibling sometime in may around the 17th! “We” are very excited, and some of our excitement is ramping up as we start this journey for the second time.
This time as you have been reading and now putting the dates together I’m sure will be a little different though. I am leaving on October 18th and should finish my first round of training sometime in February. Then I start the next phase for 3 weeks which then I get picked up for another 4 weeks following that. So if everything goes as planned, which in life most of the time happens very infrequently. I should be home towards the end of march to move us to our new home. Should things get delayed I may not me home until april sometime and as you can see now that is pushing the dates awfully close to “new baby” time.
We are excited though for this time and all the new things that will be coming our way. I know that everything is going to work out just fine and that in the end we will still be a happy family.
Seven needs to have his spotlight shared before he thinks that he is the only thing on the planet that needs to be paid attention to, and Nana is going to have to learn how to have fun with 2 grandchildren instead of just having Seven and her time whenever we travel south.

How Much You Wanna Bet I Can Throw A Football Over Them Mountains?

While most people sat around and watched football in their air conditioned homes and eating normal food I joined family (My Dad, Josh, Matt and Jules) on a weekend adventure that was well worth the effort put out. From the looks of it in the parking lot we thought that we were going to have an easy “mosquito” year. We were sorely disappointed and after examining the before hike photos we should have paid better attention.







We hiked about 4 miles to Moraine Lake at 6,450 ft which was a pretty easy hike with our “lighter than usual” but “not as light as we wanted them” packs. We made camp in one of the designated camping areas and ate our cold chicken on pita bread (your usual food preferences go out the tent door at this point).







We went to bed early. Well, I must clarify that the rest of us went to bed and Dad apparently froze all night long and got an hour of sleep. We woke up early and filtered some water for the hike to the summit. Dad, Matt and Jules got a head start while Josh and I finished filtering water for the sprint to the summit (as much as one can sprint 4000 vertical feet). The night before we learned that the original trail to the summit had been closed down for “restoration” and we had to take a longer route which added an unexpected mile to mile and a half on our daily travels to the top of the mountain.
Josh and I gave them about a 40 minute lead on us and then started up the trail with a light warm up jog. It became apparent very quickly that training in Seattle at about 4 feet above sea level wasn’t the most effective in preparing us for a 6,000-10,000 foot climb. We slowed our pace on the uphill portions to a quick walk and ran the occasional downhill sections which became more scarce as the trail got closer to the base of the mountain itself. After about an hour we caught up with Dad, Matt and Jules. Matt got his sunglasses from my pack that we had retrieved for them at camp and we continued on our way past them at our faster than comfortable pace.
By this time we no longer looked up where we were headed as often and focused 1-3 steps ahead and kept moving as best we could. We stopped about every 15 minutes for a 30-60 second break but other than that kept moving. We reached the false summit (the area that looks like the top when you are hiking up the mountain, but after getting to it you realize you have another 1,000 vertical feet to go to reach the top of the uphill trail). We took a look up the last leg of our hike and then began our way up the soft sandy trail. We passed every person that we could see on the trail from the false summit (we were quite proud of that) and after cresting the top of the hill only had .4 miles to go around the edge of the volcanic crater to the highest point on the mountain. We took some pictures and then sat down to eat our “lunch”. Cliff bars, trail mix and water has never tasted soooo good. We made the trip from camp to the summit including breaks in 2 hours 20 minutes. We waited at the top for 45 min to an hour until the other 3 showed up and then we hung out for awhile and shared in the joy of what we had all just accomplished.
Josh and I began the downhill decent at a comfortable pace. The top is mostly sand and loose volcanic rock which isn’t the best material for stopping yourself from running over a cliff or drop off. Once past the soft ground we stopped to empty our shoes of the sand and rock we had inadvertently and then began running. We ran until Josh had some muscle issues with running and finished at a pretty good walking pace. Our time coming down was 1 hour 30 minutes.
We Made it to camp just as Doug and Mary (friends that used to live in Stayton but now live in Bend). We hung out ate some food and talked while we waited for Dad, Matt and Jules to get back to camp. Dad took a nap and then we decided to pack up and head back home a day early since we had finished what we had made the trip for.
The best part of the trip though was going to Pizza Mondo. My judgement admittedly is way off after I get back from hiking, but it was pretty good pizza. I think that everyone would agree that they would have probably eaten just about anything at that point though.
I’m still sore from the trip and have a few bug bites to prove that I was out in the wilderness, but it was well worth it. The view was unbeatable, and the weather was amazingly clear. Here are some photos from the trip.

Specialist Lambert?

Well there it is... My rank for now. I am officially a member of the US Army!
I spent a lot of time saturday down at the Seattle MEPS. Shortly after arriving at 6am we were informed that the power was out for the the entire 6 block area and that they were hoping that it would come back on so that we could do our physicals. They heard back from the power company and they reported that the power wouldn’t be on until noon at the earliest. So they told us to go home, but as I was about to go out the front door in the dark still they turned us around and said that they were going to try and do some of the physical process with the back up lights and power. 7 hours later I had completed and passed my physical successfully on generator power only. It was a crazy experience, but at least I didn’t have to go back to finish what I couldn’t do because of power. I made the trip to Oregon and got there just in time to go to the tractor pull and monster truck show with my Dad, Josh and Jon.
I got back to my house in Redmond at about 1:30 am monday morning and then got up at 6:15 to head back to the MEPS to do the rest of the process and see if I qualified for Airborne Ranger. The computers were down on Saturday obviously so I should have been able to do the whole process in one day, but God was watching out for me and paving the way in a huge way, or so I was soon to find out. After talking with the job councilor I informed her that I wanted to be an Airborne Ranger. She told me that she hadn’t seen that become available in quite awhile but that she would look. She typed in the search and looked at the screen stunned and said “this is your lucky day, I have only one opening and I haven’t seen one in a long time”. How is that for an open door? I took the chance and the rest is monday afternoon history. I swore in and got my ship date.
October 18th I leave Seattle bound for Fort Benning for 16 weeks of training. And yes those of you that just did the math that means that I may be gone during Christmas. I “may” get 2 weeks leave during that time but I’m not counting on it. Besides the being gone part Haley and I are excited about this new change in our life and looking forward to the opportunities and experiences that are about to come flooding our way.

If you have any questions or want further details then you can do one of three things.
- Call me if you have my number
- email me with the link below
- or if it is a question that you think others may ask leave a comment and I will update the post with the answers

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

And it’s all small stuff!

So my last few blog entries have been all about running, hiking, more running, old trails, new trails, great goals achieved and even higher goals set. Well this entry is no different than any of the others. There is still an old trail and a new one. I’m still running but just different. I still have goals set, but they have changed.
To those that don’t know this may come as a big shocker, but to those that do I hope to maybe clarify some questions that you have and maybe even stir up some new ones.
Haley and I have been praying and seeking direction in our life for awhile now. God has been good to provide in the mean time, but at least for me I have not felt deep down that what I was doing was what I was meant to be doing forever (Josh can back me up an this one). I’m happy for the trail that I have come down. Neither Haley or I would claim to have made the best decision even most of the time, but regardless those are the decisions that have lead us to this point in life and we wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.
Ok enough matrix talk
WE ... I will repeat that for those in doubt ... We, meaning Haley and I have chosen to take a new direction in our life. After much council with those that know our situation, personalities, desires and whom we respect enough to speak into our lives We have decided that I should join the Army. After much looking around and research we decided on Army as our branch that we would like to serve in.
We are in the final stages of wrapping things up. Thanks to some bad apples in this world there are more papers and documents to go through than buying a house. But alas, to my utter surprise I am not a sex offender and have no outstanding warrants or tickets. That was a relief. Word to the wise... if you are wondering if you are a sex offender or have outstanding warrants or tickets just pretend as if you want to joint the Army and they will check for you... easy as pie
We are currently waiting on the Army doctor to put us in the clear to come down and take a physical and go through the final remaining papers.
To those that have gotten this far you are obviously very worried, wondering if I am kidding or actually curious what I will be doing for the next chapter of my life. Well I’m not kidding, you shouldn’t worry because God has protected me so far (my mom has been witness to that) and for the last one read on.
I have always been interested in the Armed forces to some extent and very curious about what it would be like. For whatever reason I always thought that it never lined up with my life but that maybe had things been different I would have given it a try. The area that I have been interested in the most ... surprise surprise... is the Army Rangers. They get to do the fun stuff, run further, camp longer and shoot the most (at least in the movies). Yes this is more dangerous but just read above again if you are worried.
I had to score a 110 overall GT on the ASVAB to choose the Ranger route which meant a 80 something out of 99 overall on the test. This worried me some at first because I have always been extremely bad at tests. So I took their “test” and got a 92 out of 99 which equates to an overall GT of 127. Not too bad I guess. After that my recruiter didn’t offer up any of his test score results and told me that I made him feel stupid (his words not mine). After this they took me a lot more serious in the office. I told him to give me until later that night or the next morning to make a decision on wether or not to go forward with it. Haley and I talked it over and we both agreed with no persuasion on my part at all (just clarifying again) that this was where we felt God was leading our family. We decided that we would leave the door open for God to close this off but that we were going to go through with it if He didn’t make it extremely clear that this wasn’t the correct path for us.
So at this point nothing has been put on hold and everything is going through just fine. I should be going down on Wednesday or Thursday to get my physical and sign the remaining papers. Then I will be off to training for the next year + or -

There are a few things that stand out that made this decision and step of faith a reality.

1. God - He has a been laying this into place for quite awhile now and that has become more evident as time goes on.

2. Haley - from the 100 challenge to get me in shape to being supportive in what ultimately means our family being separated for long periods of time.

3. My Parents - They have taught me how to weigh the big decisions, to trust God and also that this is a great country worth fighting for.

4. Friends/Family - many of you have been supportive and uplifting and excited with is through this up and coming quick change.

Now that we are in the foot note let me answer a few Frequently Asked Questions I’m sure will come up.

- Don’t you know this is going to be hard?
That doesn’t mean I have to admit it, and you don’t need to tell me.

- Don’t you know that not all make it?
I’m not a quitter, they will have to pull my still body from the training grounds before I give up. That is what will make me better than the rest.

- Don’t you know that it is dangerous and you could die?
I’m not a coward and I know what this country was founded on... And it wasn’t anti war marching morons that have no idea the blood that was shed for the freedom of speech.

- Don’t you know that you aren’t single and have a family to take care of?
What better example can I give my son than to stand up for what I believe and lay my life on the line to protect the freedom that was bought at such a high price?