Barefoot is better!

After posting a picture on my facebook account of my new Vibram Five Finger Shoes, I thought I'd give a little more explanation to the "what are those things on your feet?" statements I've been getting.

Over a month ago, Sean was working a city Triathlon as part of his Guard Drill weekend when he noticed a guy wearing these toe shoes while completing the running section of the triathlon. He came home and tried to explain what he saw to me--we immediately got online looking for information. We had no luck--just weren't Googling the correct terms. The next day our friend Nate sent me a link to the Vibram shoes and thus began our journey towards barefoot sports.

Remember when you were a little kid, running all over the place during the summer with no shoes on? I was one of those kids. And the more information I found about the Five Finger shoes, the more I knew these were the right shoe for me.

God made us perfect and in his own image; Man has screwed up the body with the shoes we have created. Now don't get me wrong--I LOVE shoes--but the reality is, out of the 15 or so pairs I own, I only wear 2-3 on a regular basis. Through Sean's and my investigation into barefoot sports, we have run into TONS of evidence that shows the shoes we put on our feet every day actually cause us quite a bit of harm. Our foot was engineered to hold out body in a certain posture, muscles were used for balance, and your gait falls perfectly because of the foot construction. Shoes put your foot in an unnatural position, causing all sorts of aliments--many times leg, knee, hip, and pack pain can all be traced back to your feet.

This barefoot shoe is a revolutionary, back-to-basics design based on the simple principle that being barefoot is the healthiest way for you and your feet to be! It gives you protection without harming God's perfect creation.

(Image copied from Vibram Five Finger web site)

I must say, I've noticed a BIG difference in my feet; once working past the few days of my feet being sore during and after wearing Five Finger Shoes, I have noticed less back pain, straighter posture and less leg pain during and after major physical activities. If you want more information on these shoes check out Vibram's website at www.vibramfivefingers.com

Summer Fun and Garden Goodies!

It's been a busy and quick summer! Can you believe it's August and school starts in 3 weeks?!? Sean and I have been SUPER busy. Between working in the garden, a trip to Idaho, hiking, biking and camping, finally pouring the patio, MANG, and our jobs, we've had little time to just sit around and do nothing. And it doesn't look like our Fall will slow down either--Sean will be taking an EMT class at the C.O.T. and refereeing high school football. I have had a small promotion at work to Assistant Project Manager which means I'm really have my hands in everything but the actual construction of the homes we are building. I am also toying with taking some online management classes. BUSY!
So here is a picture update of all we've done this summer! Enjoy!

Pictures of our trips. Finally!

A little catch up work to do!

I left you all with our upcoming trip to Michigan back in May and have been horribly busy and not able to update this blog since then. And to top it off, the few minutes I get to try and upload pictures to this blog and Facebook, my computer freezes during the process and the last hour's work of editing pictures is lost. Needless to say, I quit and haven't touched the blog in over a month!!

So here is the much needed update, and hopefully pictures to follow when I get home.
Michigan was a blast! We celebrated Teresa's graduation from MSU; Sean was able to enlist in the Air National Guard and his dad was able to swear him in; we FINALLY met the cutest niece ever as well as one of Sean's Aunts and her daughter; we also met Megan's husband and made it back home in 2 days! What a whirl wind trip!
As far as other news, we are almost ready to pour our patio--this has almost been a 3 month endeavor! Dig a hole, bad weather for a week, compact dirt, bad weather for a week, get advice how to form it, bad weather, get gravel down, bad weather...You get the idea. We are SO close! Now it is just a matter of timing our schedules with one of my co-workers to finish the concrete...we are shooting for the week of the 22nd -26th! Hopefully the stars will align and the '2-weekend' project will be done!
The garden is growing! I spotted my first little tomatoes today, and will have some peppers to follow if the cold night temperatures don't get them first! It has been in the low 30's the past 4 nights, and I have been covering all my little plants with anything I could find--old bed sheets, tyvek, buckets, and seedling pots. At lunch I was finally able to take everything off, and it looks like everything made it through the frost and rain!
The best news for Sean and me will actually happen this Friday, as we celebrate our 1st Anniversary! YEAH!! They say the 1st year is the hardest as you adjust to the married life, but I can happily say, this was the easiest year of my life!! Never have I been more happy to argue with Sean and know at the end of the day, we love each other more than before the fight began! Each day gets easier and easier as I fall more in love with my best friend.
Some other little updates: we are involved in Marriage Mentor group where a 'Young married' couple meets with a 'more experienced married' couple once a month. We have taken a few short hikes up into the Sluice Boxes. Sean plays ping-pong with my cute old grandpa and some of his friends once a week. We took a long kayak trip over Memorial Day with some good friends of ours. My work is CRAZY busy with one job really starting to roll and a second one coming to an end. We are both exercising like mad-dogs as Sean is getting prepared for basic, and I have plans to run a half-marathon in September.
So that about sums up the last month of our crazy life in Montana! Hopefully I can get some pictures up to document this long post! Until then, God bless!

Look out Michigan...

Yep, it's time for another Johnson vacation! This time, it should be a little more safe than our river float 2 weeks ago! It will be a whirlwind of a trip, but we will have much fun!
We will be heading out to the great state of Michigan to celebrate with my mother-in-love as she graduates with a degree in Nutrition. We are also going to cram in Sean's swearing in to the Air National Guard! It's a double blessing because my father-in-love, as an officer in the Air Force, will be able to oversee Sean's commitment! YEAH!

Many pictures of these great events to come!!
GIGATTAATTGIG

Kids say the funniest things...

Sean and I have been blessed to live in a really great neighborhood. People from all life styles live there--lawyers, counselors, car sales men, retirees, high schoolers and ankle biters.
Yesterday, I was blessed by some of the younger neighbors knocking on my door. The 2 younger girls had found a dog wandering the street, and they thought she might be mine. We chatted a bit and decided to phone animal control to pick up the dog. The girls wanted to sit on my deck keeping the stray dog company as we waited for animal control, and I happily enjoyed the chatty girls' company.
The previous 3 days had delivered over 2' of good snowmen snow, and earlier in the afternoon, as I waited for Sean to get home from work, I made 2 miniature snowmen and sat them on the BBQ and a pot on my deck. The girls noticed the snowmen as we sat there chatting. This is the conversation that followed.

Girl 1: Looking at the snow men, "Do you have kids?"
Me: "no, just 2 dogs."
Girl 2: "Then why do you have snowmen?"
Girl 1: "And why are they so small? Did you have a little kid make them for you?"

I giggled to myself. I guess only kids are allowed to make snowmen, and only little kids can make small snowmen on this block!
Hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Smith River Float April 2009

Here are a few pictures of the float trip Sean and I took last week. We started out the day with 70+ degrees, 2 kayaks, 2 drift boats and 6 Smith River newbies! 9 miles down the river and Sean dumping his kayak twice, we were at our 1st camp for the night. We woke up to about 20 degrees and snow slowly falling. We all dug in and paddled as fast as we could to get to the next camp site 21 miles down stream. Sean and I made it in a little over 4 hours. Only once did we have any trouble due to the gusting winds. No matter how hard i paddled to go right, the wind was determined to push me left and we were forced to pull our kayaks a few hundred yards until the river turned and the wind was at our backs. I wish I had more pictures of the canyon cliffs on this day, but it was snowing, foggy, and the wind was blowing so hard, we could barely take our eyes off the river! It didn't help that the cold temperatures zapped the life out of my batteries! We got to camp 4 hours before the other 4 guys and got a roaring fire going! We were the little beacon on the hill for our drift boat buddies! Day 3 was 180 degree difference to day 2! 50+ degrees and no snow! We took our time fishing and floating the next 15 miles. As Sean and I pulled into our final camp, we could hear turkeys all over the place, but they managed to evade my camera! The last 14 miles of our float was marvelous! It was the final mile that almost did Sean and I in! There is a major split in the river 1.5 miles from our take out; the left side was very low and we would have to drag our boats; the right side was full of streamers and sweepers (our naive-ness lead us to choose the right side). About 400 yards down the right side, multiple trees were down in the river and there was a huge gravel deposit right in the middle. Sean was forced to go further right than he wanted and got slapped in the face by a branch and turned broad side to a huge downed tree. The undertow was so great, it sucked his kayak out from under him leaving him hanging on to the huge tree. I managed to pull out upstream from him and run over and help him off the tree. His kayak was about half a mile down river from us by then. I jumped in my kayak and Sean was picked up by some rafters behind us. I paddled my heart out trying to catch up with his kayak. It finally got lodged at a corner of the river on a tree branch. As I pulled up to it, I was trying to maneuver around when my paddle caught on a branch below me and flipped me--I was held under for a second by the cooler Sean had just placed at my feet--once I was able to free my foot, I popped up, and held on to my kayak as the current took us around the corner. I was able to pull up on a rocky beach next to another rafter that just had the same experience while trying to free Sean's kayak! What an adventure!! We were truly blessed the whole trip, but God was really looking out for us on mile 59! We were also very blessed by 3 other raft parties on the river helping us out. Which is amazing by itself as we only saw 1 other party on the river the whole time we were out there! Needless to say, we had quite an experience and adventure! I highly recommend this float trip to anyone! Just make sure to watch out for streamers and sweepers! They will get you every time!