Things I'm Glad Didn't Happen

There were five people rescued on Saturday by the mountain rescue team. I am so thankful we made it without injury or the need for assistance.

This cupcake made it all the way up Snowdon:

And all the way back down again!  James had planned to put a candle on it and give it to me when we reached the summit but the weather conditions were too ridiculous to even attempt it.  Whilst this was a sweet gesture, I am so glad that once I had changed into dry clothes in the back of our car (thank you blacked out windows) this cake was waiting for me.  Having only eaten a granola bar for breakfast, the cake disappeared rather quickly; it was heaven in a plastic wrapper.

I took my iPod up the mountain with the intention of plugging in when the climb got tough (some Sigur Rós would have been awesome summit music!) but again, the weather didn't allow for this.  The ear buds would not have stayed in my ears with all that wind, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have heard anything over the noise of the wind and rain slapping my face.  The bonus for not listening to music is that I had some awesome conversations with myself.  They went a little like this:

'Left, right, left, right, left... oops, mind the slippery rock!'
'Just drink the rain... yum, Snowdon rain tastes good!'
'At least you won't need a shower when you get back!'
'Oh, aren't you glad the wind didn't knock you off THAT edge!'
'Maybe all that water in my boots will mean I won't get a blister!'
'Um, James, where are you? Oh, there you are!'
'Really young lady?  You looked at this weather and thought you'd wear your white see-through shorts?  And old trainers?  Good luck!'
'I'm in a spa.  I'm having a special facial massage with water.'
'I wonder how my panda eyes look now?'
'Ooo, I hope my trousers don't fall down, they're getting rather heavy with all that wetness.'
'I should probably eat something, it's mid afternoon. That means stopping and taking my bag off, and trying to not let the wind blow my food away. Forget that, left, right, left, right, left....'

Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa): 3,560 ft

8:25 am: Penn-y-pass, the start of our climb up Snowdon:

The weather was overcast but not cold, and the high winds and rain were due around 4 pm, well after we were due to be off the mountain.  There was mist covering the summit and we set off with a spring in our step.  This is one of the views of the valley as we were leaving Penn-y-pass:

Here we were approaching the causeway on Llyn Llydaw lake:

A remnant of the mining days:

It's getting steeper and cloudier:

Here I am, my asthmatic lungs getting a full work out:

It's getting even steeper here:

The wind was picking up by now and it had started to rain; that bad weather front was arriving much earlier than planned!:

The last bit of pathway:

We were now climbing over rocks and walking on large stones.  There were a few cairns along the way:

James and a cairn!:

We came upon a piece of wood filled with pennies: 

By now the wind was gale force and the rain was coming in hard.  The final ascent was so steep and we were literally climbing up the rocks; it was very tough on my lungs but I kept at it, slow and steady.  11:45 am: we finally reached the summit!  Look who didn't wear waterproof mascara:

James at the highest point:

Proof I made it:

We didn't hang around; the rain was torrential and the wind was hitting speeds of at least 60 mph so we set off down the other side of the mountain.  I thought I had experienced gale force winds before, but it was nothing like the wind we experienced on Snowdon.  The trail down was hard.  My lungs were overjoyed at not going uphill, but my knees did not like encountering a trail made up of lots of large, uneven stones and slate:

James was so kind and took this flattering photo of me:

By now there was not one piece of me that was dry and my boots were full of water. The advantage to high winds and horizontal rain is that I didn't need to drink from my bottle, I was force-fed rain water all the way down.  It tasted good!

I really did enjoy the experience, despite the conditions.  It made my birthday a memorable one and I was so pleased we made the summit in 3 hours and 10 minutes (the estimated time was 4 hours).  I am proud of my lungs, they can do hard things.  Also, my legs are awesome, they do not ache!  I now never have to climb a mountain again...

Conwy

This weekend James and I had a date with Mount Snowdon.  James had wanted to climb Snowdon for years so he decided to do it this year and raise money for Prostate Cancer Research at the same time.  We started our weekend on Friday, left the children with Nanny Holland and drove to north Wales to stay at Bryn Corach, a country house in Conwy:

I always worry that when I book a hotel that the photo shown online is the only decent room and the rest are terrible.  I was wrong; we had a large, beautiful room:

With views of Conwy castle and the estuary:

We arrived in Conwy late in the afternoon so by the time we walked to the castle it was closed for the day:

We took a walk along the quay:

I thought it was hilarious that there was such a thing as a museum for mussels (and a sign with spelling mistakes):

We stumbled across the smallest house in Great Britain:

The whole town has walls surrounding it, they are as beautiful as the castle they defended:

After a pub dinner we had an early night, we were to be up bright and early the next morning to climb a mountain!

It's That Time Again

Dear Jay,

Happy birthday to us!

Love Naomi xxx

Oops

Dear Jay,

It turns out that when someone at church gives me a photo that they took of you two weeks ago, it makes me cry. Love your guts,

Naomi xxx

Kerry

This week has been an incredibly sad one for me. My best friend from school passed away on Monday, she went to sleep and didn't wake up.  My heart is breaking for her family.

I first met Kerry in the canteen at school when I was 13.  My family had moved to Cambridge and it was my first day at our new school.  I sat at a table and Kerry introduced herself to me while simultaneously injecting insulin into her leg before she ate lunch.  We then had a very informative discussion about her diabetes which quickly moved on to a hundred and one other things, all the while she kept a big grin on her face.  This was Kerry in a nutshell; unashamedly bold, carefree, non-stop talking and big smiles.

We became such good friends. I loved to watch her dance.  We had so many sleepovers (her poor mother!) where we told each other our secrets and worries, our dreams and hopes.  We studied for our exams together and planned to go to college together.  We even stalked TV celebrities together: 

After school was finished for us, my family moved away from Cambridge; dashed were our dreams of going to college together!  It was Kerry that rang me with my school exam results and screamed down the phone in all her excitement.  Unfortunately the last time I saw Kerry was at my wedding over 15 years ago.  We lived at opposite ends of the country but we kept our Christmas updates going and shared news of our growing families.  Kerry's proudest achievement in life is her children, she has three living and three in heaven.  She loves them all fiercely.

I am glad I had a friend in Kerry.  She was a good one.

Noah Has Some Alone Time With My Phone

Climb Every Mountain

Above is the beautiful Mount Snowdon in Wales.  On the 21st of this month James will be climbing it to raise money for Prostate Cancer Research Centre.  His Grandad Miles died of the disease and James now has a friend suffering from this illness.  If you are able to donate any amount to this cause, it would be greatly appreciated.  Here is the official Just Giving page where you can safely donate: www.justgiving.com/James-Miles1/

Thank you x

What James Does At Church

Today was ward conference, which means an extra long sacrament meeting.  Which means James spent an extra long amount of time helping Rosie put stickers in her fashion sticker book.  I think he enjoyed it more than he'd like to admit:

Monday's Smile Lines

Today was another bank holiday so we took a stroll along the river.  Noah picked some flowers and decided that I should have one in my hair, and he would have two on his ears.  He also thought it would be fun to see how long it would take for anyone to notice.  Ten minutes later he puts his hands on his hips and sighs.  'Uh, guys.... hello!  Do you not notice anything?'