30 Moments I Remember
Today marks 30 years on Earth. It sounded a little daunting to go run 30 miles today, or even 30 kilometers. I didn’t feel like doing 30,000 feet of elevation gain today either. But I did want to do something to commemorate this milestone. So how about 30 moments in my life that I remember? Not necessarily my favorite moments, or most important moments, or anything like that. Just 30 memories that spring to mind as I think back from start to present.
Building little fish farms (circles of rocks) in the Tolt River to watch the fish my dad caught swim around.
Getting pushed around in the jogging stroller by my mom over to where all the blackberry bushes were, then feasting on berries.
Holing up in a tent at Island Lake in the Cascades while it was dumping rain and reading Harry Potter books with my dad for the entire day.
Making a deal with my dad that if I could even just hit the rim during my basketball game, I’d be allowed to stay up as late as I wanted playing Age of Empires.
Going to Boy Scout camp and making safety sticks (basically wooden staffs) but then another kid smacked me with his safety stick ironically and I had to get stitches.
Planning my family dinner nights (every Thursday night was my turn to make dinner) and my favorite meal to make was Papa’s Mac, which was basically just a really basic cheesy pasta casserole.
Sneaking out of a church youth dance thing with a couple friends to go across the street and get candy from 711.
Purposely losing the Boy Scout Pine Wood Derby model car race by tightening my wheels up so much that they barely moved because whoever got last place got to pick a prize first for some stupid reason. I think I got a massive bag of Starbursts.
Winning the Leavenworth winter puck sweeping race. I don’t really remember much about the contest, I just remember that the prize was a big Bavarian sausage and I walked around town snacking on it and trying on funny hats at the hat store.
Building snow caves to sleep in near Snoqualmie Pass and being so sore after all the digging. We filled ours with glow sticks and it was surprisingly warm.
Creating the largest bonfire I’ve ever seen out of driftwood on Shi Shi beach. Each log took 3-4 people to move into position and once it was going it transformed the chilly night into summer.
My British soccer coach yelling at us for not playing well during a big tournament and wondering if I should just quit soccer after the fifth time being called a muppet.
After XC Kingco champs race, finding a bunch of extra grape juice from the team tent and Jack and I each tried to finish a whole bottle. That much grape juice has some crazy effects on the GI system.
A five-day expedition to climb Mount Olympus (the Washington one), with Greg and Reece (and others). Greg tried to convince us that if we got struck by lightning our fingertips would fly off. I led the rock pitch to the summit with trad gear, which was my first time really trad climbing in the wild.
Driving in circles around the roundabout with Steve in the car when I wasn’t supposed to be driving anyone else yet because I didn’t have my 6 months (amount of time you had to wait after getting your license before driving others) and blasting Danza Kuduro then looking over at the sidewalk and making eye contact with my mom who was out on a jog. Busted.
Climbing Mount Rainier for my first time in a whiteout and we just called it good at the crater rim and weren’t able to cross the crater to tag the actual summit.
Responding to my first Search and Rescue mission after joining King County SAR. It was a body recovery at Snoqualmie Falls and traumatized me for a little bit. I stopped at Chipotle on the way home but I couldn’t eat my burrito. That was my first time seeing/being near a dead body that I remember.
Curling up in a freezing sleepy hypoxic ball in my damp old rental puffy on the summit of Cotopaxi waiting for the clouds to clear and the sun to come out. It took too long and we were getting too cold, so we started heading back down and of course all the clouds cleared out like 20 minutes later so we never got the view into the crater.
Living in Argentina with Garret, we set up little soccer goals in the backyard of our place and played 30mins of soccer every day as soon as we woke up. Loser had to pay the winner as many pesos as the goal differential. I always won, then usually would go buy us both freshly-baked facturas for breakfast.
Kayaking in the big University of Washington fountain in the middle of the night. We carried those kayaks over a mile from our house to the fountain, jogging with them over our heads. Didn’t have to carry them back though because the cops showed up and impounded the kayaks.
Getting back an F on a big exam which meant I was failing my first and only class ever (Calc 3 I think, and I’ve got some excuses for how I got to that point that don’t matter anymore), and deciding to drop it knowing that meant closing the door on being a Chemical Engineering major.
Watching all of the seasons of Arrow on my dad’s iPad while we waited out storms on Denali, hoping the clouds would clear enough to keep the solar charger going. We spent over two weeks on the mountain and the pack plus sled was by far the heaviest load I’ve ever had to carry.
Getting tacos with Morgan and her friends the first night we met. I’ll always remember that her friend Amanda had a pet hedgehog.
Jacob pulling a large rock down on me during a scramble in the Enchantments after telling me “look dude there’s nothing I can do about it, this is going to fall on you.” He was right, it had to happen and I couldn’t get out of the fall line, but that was a close one that luckily ended with just some minor scrapes.
Getting Curry Pizza after a long adventure loop through the canyons of Capitol Reef. I was absolutely starving and the butter chicken slice was some of the best pizza of my life.
Reece eating a gallon ziplock bag full of bacon during our 12-hour ride around the White Rim trail. That’s all the food he brought and he polished it off in the first half so we ended up needing to ration out my baguette to get us through.
Biking alongside Morgan on the Lake Sammamish trail while she did her final 22-mile long run training for her first marathon, the day before our wedding. Possibly one of the more impressive runs I’ve seen her do. Too bad that wasn’t race day.
Meeting Finn, Grant, and Eli during the Corner Canyon 50k race and chatting most of the morning away. I ended up finishing less than a minute ahead of Finn, who immediately connected me in with the rest of the SLC trail running friends after that. It was also my first time running through what would become my home turf and neighborhood for the past 5 years.
Borrowing Morgan’s puffy jacket because I was freezing climbing Mont Blanc with her. She was locked in and I was in survival mode trying to stay warm. We stopped in the emergency shelter at about 13,000ft to get out of the wind for a bit and that helped.
Marshall’s purple little face trying to figure out how to take his first breaths while the doctors smacked his back to try to get him going. He was fine, just took a few tense minutes before we got to hold the little fella.
It’s been good. Each year keeps getting better. Hopefully we stay on that trajectory for many more years.
I remember seeing the funny shirt at WSER and you hammering PF gels (only a little vomit). So epic, you should be proud.
Happy birthday! And thanks for sharing these 30 moments. It reminds of me how big impact those little thing could have on us. Being grateful. And hope each year is getting better