Adventures with Clint

A couple weeks ago I posted a picture of my first deer that I got. There were a lot of comments in that post but one that stood out to me was by my friend, Cindy, who said, “You sure have the adventures, Rose!!”.  It made me stop and think about what my life has been like for the past few years. Boy, oh, boy, I have had some adventures. Here are a few of them ...

This was one of our first backpacking trips together. We had done the North Country Trail before and enjoyed it. This trip wasn't the best trip as we camped in a place where we kept hearing other campers across the lake all night. Not a great night's sleep.
I honestly don't enjoy the camping part much but could hike all day if I could. I like to move and be productive as I go. Camping doesn't do that for me.

Clint really enjoys camping so we spent several summers camping a few days in his parent's backyard. We would take our bikes along and ride a few miles to the local ice cream place. In the evening we would sit around the campfire with the guitar. Good times, although because of having the option of sleeping in a bed in the house, I have to admit that I've resorted to doing that a few times.

The summer of 2010 I went hiking with other ladies from the Ft Wayne area to West Virginia. It was a great trip!
In this photo we had just spent a few days of a lot of hiking and camping a couple nights. We were ready to head home to our families.

In 2011 Clint and I went to South Africa for vacation. The reason we went is a story in itself. We won the trip at a school auction. Our intention was to bid up the other bidder and in the end got "stuck" with the trip. Lesson learned... stop when you need to.
This was a trip of a lifetime and we thoroughly enjoyed it! We went on a lot of safaris and saw some amazing things.
In the photo Clint and I went off on our own to another excursion and came up on these elephants ... quite a few actually. We found out later that when elephants have their ears out we should be concerned. Yeah, Clint was not concerned, but only amused. The elephant could've easily pushed our mini car over and we could've been in trouble.

We spent some time in Brown County hiking, biking and enjoying a bed and breakfast. Yes, a bed & breakfast! I was quite pleased with that. :)








And then in 2010 I started going to Uganda and Yei, South Sudan ...

2010 - these children stole my heart.

2012 - We were able to witness baptisms in the river and meet our sponsor child, Gifty

The greatest adventure has been experiencing Africa with my husband! We have fallen in love with the people of Africa together. That is a gift.

The summer of 2012 was filled with fun. We were invited to go to Puerto Vallarta with some friends. It was their 10th wedding anniversary and their desire was to renew their vows somewhere special. So, Clint is a pastor and I take pictures AND we're great friends so we all went to Mexico to celebrate Adam and Candace! What a great time we had. We had a beautiful ceremony on the beach of an island and we went ziplining. Candace and I had the time of our lives on the 12 ziplines! Oh so fun!!

For years Clint talked about one of his favorite places, The Algonquin Provincial Park, in Canada. It has been his place to recoup and to heal. After hearing many stories told by him and his Canada guys, I decided that it was time to experience what he so loves to do and to see the place he loves to be.
I had a crazy opportunity to go with a group of ladies from Chicago area last year. Oh my, what an amazing week! I now understand my husband so much better and can see, feel and experience a big part of his life.
THAT was an adventure like none other.

I had been to the Warren Dunes many times over my life but I hadn't experienced it like I did this past summer. When Clint is in on the fun, things change. Those of you who know him, know that this is true.
The short version is that we ended up hiking up the big dune and then instead of going back down the way we came up, we kept going up, down, over, up, down, over, etc. We discovered so many more dunes behind the big dune. What a blast we had! I will never just sit on the beach again and just go up and down the big one. There is so much more to experience there.

This past summer we went on a 5 day trip to Minnesota for our anniversary (we get away every year to celebrate "us"). Clint bought a Groupon deal for a place in Grand Marais, MN area. Off we went 11 hours north. Each day we hiked, biked and hiked some more. One day we went to the Boundary Waters. We had been wanting to check it out to compare it to the Algonquin Park so this was our chance to do that. Long story short, we canoed and portaged 10 miles that day! We are an awesome team. :) We have discovered that when we work together and work as a team, we can accomplish so much and it's a lot of fun. This was a great day.
 

So this may be the craziest thing I've done. Shot a deer! Just 20 minutes or so before this took place I was processing it all and I thought to myself, 'If someone would've told me 10 years ago that I would be hunting right now I would have told them they were insane'. It still seems crazy to me.

It was fun though. I found that I enjoy hunting more than I ever thought that I would.






Oh the adventures that I've had with Clint. I'm sure this isn't the end. We have a lot more life to live together...