One year and counting...

My Goodness...my blog has been silent for quite some time!  Somewhere between traveling for the holidays and seeing everyone, I just haven't really sat down long enough to put thoughts and pictures up for y'all.

It has been a whirlwind of a year.  On the 18th of December we celebrated our first anniversary.  It was hard to believe it had been one year since our wedding.  As I was considering what pictures I wanted to post today, I realized that I never put up pictures from our wedding.  So, in celebration of our anniversary, I thought I would share some long awaited photos from our wedding.  Our pictures were taken by our good friend Mary Fox at http://www.maryfoxphotography.com/ and also by my dad, Mark Steensgard. 

Twirling in the dress

It was cold out, so between every shot I was in my down jacket!

Gabe's wonderful family

A rare picture of me with my parents

My beautiful sister-in-law, Tori

Gabe's mom and grandma

My lovely mum

Footwashing

Thanks to Nancy Zdenek for decorating!

Tori prepared amazing food!

Doing what this dress was meant for...swing dancing.

 

Paddle like crazy

The last few months have been pretty crazy with Explore students here at camp.  Explore is the outdoor education and leadership college program from Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada.  The program partners with Camp Bighorn to do a variety of skills and courses here at camp for half of the school year.  On Sunday, we woke long before the sun rose to say goodbye to the forty-something students who had been here the last two months.  Gabe and I, being facilities people, checked their dorm rooms one last time, to make certain that they had cleaned and tidied their rooms.  Then we all stood in the cold, dark morning and waved goodbye to the bus pulling away.

A quietness has spread over camp in the evenings with the lack of students.  But our days, at least for operations staff, have begun more pressing projects.  One of the top priority projects is to get the snowcat and the two military trucks into working order for when the students arrive back in January.  The trucks and the snowcat allow us to transport students up to Siegel Pass where they do their winter skills such as tele-skiing, snowshoeing, survival and avalanche training.

Today I wanted to share with you all some photos I took back in September during the college students skill time.  One afternoon, I headed out with Dianna, the office manager at camp, and we took pictures of orange team canoeing and black team kayaking as they all came through Cascade rapids down the road from camp.

Graham and Dennis...I love Graham's expression

and down they roll...

Ethan and Joe followed by Josh and Katie

In my mind I envision this being Lewis and Clark on the Columbia...but, alas...

Is Joe practicing his acrobatic tricks?

Looby hitting the wave train

Megan fighting to stay upright

The aftermath

Blackfoot River: Canoe Scouting Trip

On Monday and Tuesday of this week I got an amazing opportunity to go on a canoe scouting trip on the upper portion of the Blackfoot River, which is just east of Missoula.  My friend Becky was scouting the river for possible future use by the Explore college program and needed a paddling partner.  I offered myself because I remembered paddling as a kid and I am interested in getting more involved in whitewater canoe ventures.  We paddled twenty-four miles in two days.  It was relaxing and quiet after a long summer of working with and alongside multitudes of people.  The section we did was from Cedar Grove to Russell Gates.  We spent Monday night camped at River Junction.  It was a fairly calm area with mostly ripple sections and several areas with quite a few strainers.  There was only one rapid section that followed the box canyon that we paddled through.  It was a good opportunity for me to practice paddling strokes and learn to steer.

The view from the back of the canoe

Our campsite at River Junction

A cozy night's stay

Our tent is on the far right

One Beautiful Sunday

This Sunday, Gabe and I went to watch a friend run a marathon and then attended a beautiful wedding.  Many of us at Bighorn went to cheer on Leanna, a Bighorn staff, as she ran her first marathon.  She ran the Missoula marathon in three hours and forty-eight minutes, just shy of the Boston qualifying time.  She looked exhausted from the race, but she was still smiling at the end!

From there a crew of us headed to Pullman, WA for Dustin and Beth's wedding.  During my year of Explore, Beth was my intern and Dustin was Gabe's intern.  We were surrounded by gardens of flowers, and they were even a few cats that added to the serene beauty of the sunny, warm day.  It was so wonderful to see Dustin and Beth finally get married!  From Pullman, we headed to Moscow, ID, where they had their reception.  There we dined, danced, and celebrated their union with many friends.  And, after a long, beautiful Sunday, we headed for home and arrived early this morning to begin work.

I sadly forgot to bring my camera along for our entire trip.  But, my good friend Timo Towne took pictures of the wedding.  Through his photography, I can share a bit of our day!

Beth and her dad

Praying over Beth and Dustin

Excited for the start of the wedding

Here is the precious flower girl

Some of the Bighorn/Prairie people at the wedding!

Gabe and Aaron being silly

First dance

An Engagement

This past week Gabe and I got engaged.  I just wanted share a small glimpse of our year with those of you who haven't been able to see our relationship firsthand.  This is not a thorough representation of our year by any means.  This year we were both in Explore together, so you may recognize some of the photos from other blog posts.