Friday, October 3, 2014

hiking with the boyz.



So here’s something. Hiking in Oklahoma. It’s not actually a thing. Now, I could be wrong, but I generally define hiking as an activity where one experiences at least some degree of incline or decline. Oklahoma does not have either of those things because Oklahoma is flat with a capital F and a capital L and a capital A and a capital T. Like way flat. I personally think it’s at least a little more interesting than places like Kansas because at least we have trees and shrubbery and the like. When we drove through Kansas I could have sworn we weren’t even moving because the scenery stayed exactly the same for like 6 hours.

Anyway, so this hiking. Levi works with the Young Men/Boy Scouts in our ward, and for the boy scouts to achieve their hiking merit badge (or in order to get ready for trek coming up in a few weeks) they decided to go on a ten mile “hike” around the lake last Saturday. Which was really code for “walk” around the lake because again, no incline. Levi so kindly invited me to join in on the fun! by waking up to meet at 8 am for this awesome! and exciting! hike! Being as I’m such an awesome wife (or that I had no other commitments and I just wanted to hang out with Levi), I agreed to wake up suuuuuper early at 7:30 am. (Although I think my exact words the night before were “I refuse to wake up any earlier than 7:30.”) We headed off and met the strapping young men ready to hike.

It was a very nice day, I must admit. It was like in the seventies temperature-wise, so it was warm, but it wasn’t so super mega hot. And at this moment I would like to pause and remind everyone back in Utah or basically anywhere besides here that I am so jealous of you. You get to have fall right now; all I get is a never-ending summer. Sniff. Anyway, hiking. We headed off around the lake, carrying our water and our snacks (read: Levi carrying our water and our snacks and me carrying nothing. Confessions of an adult-aged drama queen.) The plan was to walk five miles out and then five miles back. Sounded like a great plan to me.

Some of the boys weren’t quite as active as others so the hike was a little rough, but they all finished and that’s what matters! Plus, there were gummy bears and cookies along the way, so what could be better? We finished without losing anyone to exhaustion and that was quite an accomplishment. There are a few who aren’t looking forward to the additional 4 10-mile hikes and the 20-mile hike they still have to do to earn the merit badge, but hey. Let’s just celebrate our accomplishments for now. Plus the pain and sadness that they may have experienced at the end was nothing that couldn’t be solved with an orange sherbet push pop. No, but really.

What I would really like to focus on now is again the fact that it is still basically summer. At the end of September. In Oklahoma. Also we were walking around a lake. Also science. All of these things play a part in the crime known as “Now I Have a Crispy-Fried Sunburned Face”. Even though it wasn’t so mega hot, we were out there for 4 or 5 hours and mostly not in the shade. Also I think there’s that science thing where the sun reflects off the lake and that doesn’t really help. And gosh darn that sun, it just works on you so slowly you don’t even notice until you get home and realize that you’re so red you’re not sure if it’s really you. And then you have to go out in public and your face feels really tight and constantly hot and it burns and is sore and then a couple days later your entire face starts peeling off and anyone you interact with at work stays back a few feet so as not to get the close up and personal view of a crispy flaky face. It’s rough.

Now some of you may be thinking, well gee! I’ve never been sunburned that bad! In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever been sunburned. And skin peeling off? Unheard of! And to you I say, I know your name is Levi Heperi. And it’s just not fair that you can’t feel my pain and that your only comment is “Hey, lobster. Are we having lobster for dinner?” The only thing I have to say to you is that you had better have strong enough genes so that our children get beautiful dark skin and that they don’t get sunburns. I’m completely serious. One would have thought that my own mother was tan enough that at least some of her offspring would be able to maintain some degree of a tan, but alas, it was not meant to be. The powerful forces of my father’s whiteness overruled it all, so now we’re all very pale. So don’t drop the ball, Levi. Unless you want crispy-fried crying children in the summer. The choice is yours. I’m just sayin’.

(Also, that picture. I just love it.)

3 comments:

Mom said...

I think you REALLY like the picture because there is an ocean in the background, haha:). Also, fyi, it was over 100 degrees today in Santa Rosa...so, even though there are some fall colors, we are still having summer here as well:(!

Ed Eschler said...

Yeah, we're getting 80 degree days here on the Oregon coast. Definitely a long summer.

Brooke said...

You kill me. Also, seriously dying over that picture. I mostly hate hiking haha.