Bornstein / Peyton family picture day

Bornstein / Peyton Family picture day:
So on the one year remembrance of dad passing away we decided to have a weekend together to remember him. It started with a dinner on Thursday night with all of his favorite food... Pistachios,Rigatoni with Kielbasa sausage, Salad, and my mom's amazing cheese cake for dessert. We watched his memorial video and I was reminded of how much he thought of Lina and her family. On Friday we all got together for family pictures and Chinese food, another one of dad's favorites. Today we are heading off for a special church service together. It has been a really great time of remembering and of being together... we are all so richly blessed!

Santa Barbara

So... first of all, thank you to all the bridesmaids who chipped in for us to be able to have a absolutely wonderful weekend up in Santa Barbara. If you will remember back, Lina was scheduled to have her bachlorette shower in Santa Barbara and all the bridesmaids chipped in to get a deluxe house up there. Well, with fires and my sick dad things fell through. So they gifted it to us for a first year getaway. It was wonderful. The glorious cottage style house was just a short walk from the Biltmore Wall right close to the center of Montecito. It was a great weekend for us to getaway from our busy classrooms and all the other stuff that life has been throwing at us.





















Do you ever feel like your faith is like this boat? They had it roped off, but people were still all over it checking it out.

























Yes, teaching first grade does give you a Mr. Roger's complex.













































Dinner at the Enterprise fish house is a must when in Santa Barbara... along with a breakfast at Summerland Beach Cafe.

The start up

Whew! .... summer is over and both Lina and I are back in our classrooms with a couple of weeks under our belts. I am trying to remember if last year's start up was this crazy with all the new kids and adjustment that is taking place. I have been using the analogy of merging onto the freeway to describe this time. You start, stopped, rested and peaceful at the stop light, then whammo! you have to floor it and start looking for the least dangerous way to squeeze yourself into the massive flow that is going 3 times faster than you. I bet all the teachers out there know exactly what it is like. Well, we are in it. Lina has switched to second grade this year and is enjoying it although it is a big adjustment from what she was doing last year in third grade. She has two little boys that have been more of a handful to go along with my three or four "more active" little ones... I guess it has been good in that it has really increased our prayer lives. I am excited this year to have a Promethean Board in my room. It has been a lot of fun having the kids up there clicking and dragging stuff as we have been reviewing our ABCs. It has been a busy time and even a little bit of a crazy time at moments, but both Lina and I are often caused to stop and give thanks. Even though our jobs take a lot out of us, we have several friends who are out of work right now, to say nothing of the masses out there with the downturn who are struggling to put food on the table. We are truly blessed and are so very thankful that we have our Lord, each other, and our jobs.

John Muir Trail 2009

John Muir Trail - 2009

We are back after a 19 day adventure through the back bone of the high Sierra mountains. The JMT is a trail that starts in Yosemite and ends at the top of mount Whitney over 200 miles of walking to the south. Our adventure was one of beautiful high mountain lakes, steep passes and lots of mosquitoes. We are both so grateful for the prayers and support of everyone. The Lord blessed our trip in just about every way that it could be.

A lot of the passes still had a lot of snow and we had fun working our way down some of them. There was nothing too crazy, just some careful stepping and a little bit of sliding.


Yes, the Sierras are having a big bug year. Most evenings it was more comfortable to be in the tent and away from them. Our first evening in Yosemite I counted over sixty mosquitoes on the mesh door to the tent, waiting for a meal. The tent time actually turned out to be a real blessing. Lina and I were able to do a bunch of reading out loud together and came to really enjoy those times of quiet and rest... much more relaxing than keeping up with the frantic pace of the big city!













One of our favorite locations was Evolution valley. Some of the most majestic peaks and views to be had on the whole trail are found there. We had a great time watching the colors of the sunset paint the mountains with all kinds of different hues.
































We have learned a lot about thru hiking over the past two summers and this time we were able to go lighter on our food thanks to Lauren and her dad Glenn. They resupplied us on day 15 making our trek that much lighter. It was great to see friends again on the trail and we especially enjoyed the fresh fruit and cheese they brought with them. Thanks again Matts!


We decided to come out a day earlier to have some extra time before Dom and Sarah's wedding in Ohio. Here we are walking up to Mt. Whitney and finishing the trail through the Mt. Whitney portal. It was another amazing trip! We have already began to plan the next backpacking adventure. Perhaps the PCT, AT?!?! Maybe in years to come but one thing is for sure, God willing, we will do some sort of outdoor camping each summer.

Here is our before and after shot. We lost some pounds! Mark about 15 and Lina about 8. Now our challenge is keeping it off:)!!

Thanks to everyone who was praying for us and supporting us, you guys were such an encouragement!

JMT... the night before

Well... Lina just took off to bed and I am just behind her. Our bags are packed and plans are made. Tomorrow we drive up north and then on Thursday we start walking. The bigness of what we are doing is starting to settle in a little more. It is kind of like seeing that cool roller coaster and really wanting to ride it, and then actually being strapped into it with the cars clicking up the rails for that first big fall. We are locked in and heading out. There is a lot of excitement with us both right now. Every time we head out for something like this there is a real transformation that happens in us during the time. Being in the wilderness, being saturated in natural beauty for long periods of time does wonders for the soul. I think we are both looking forward to encountering God and each other in a deeper and different way. Hummmmmm.....

Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts during our time in the woods. Pray for safety... blisters, bumps, sore legs etc... but also keep our spirits in your prayers. Pray that God would meet us during this time. Pray that God would work in our lives individually as well as working in us as a young couple. I think that more so this year than in years past our goal is not just to accomplish the trek but rather to be spiritually transformed by the process of doing this trek. The walking and the miles are only a part of what our desire is for the time.

We love you all...

Welcome Summer!

Summer has finally arrived and we are soaking in every moment of it before our long awaited John Muir Trail trek.

We've gone on a couple more training hikes in preparation for the JMT

Here we are on Memorial Day weekend before heading to Coloumbine Springs for the night. We thought it would be super crowded but thankfully were the only ones at our site.

My lovely husband Mark showing off some of his new hiking gear!! Straight out of a REI magazine!







In true Bear Grylls fashion, Mark dug to find a water source. He followed the dry creek bed and when he saw a damp spot, he dug down and found a good amount of water. We were relieved to have a good flow!

Here we are on the top of Limber Pine Bench.

Mammoth and more!

The spring has found us busy (as normal it seems) with more trips and adventures. We trekked once again to Mammoth for the annual spring snowboarding trip. To our surprise we were actually met with blizzard like conditions on Friday and then were able to enjoy fresh powder for our Saturday snowboarding. It was incredible!!! We enjoyed the trip with a smaller group and we are sadly hanging up our snowboarding things until next year.
April was the month for visitors. We were blessed to have some wonderful friends and family come and stay in our extra room. My mom came down to stay for a few days and helped buy our first spice garden and house plants. We have invested in the hanging tomato branch and eagerly await yummy, ripe off the vine tomatoes. Mark and I were trying to keep a picture journal of all our guests but have so far only taken pictures of my mom and Nate, Katie, and family (sorry Davii). We have loved playing host and invite all of you out of countiers to come down for a visit:). Mark is a fabulous cook so you'll be well fed!So now we are trying to prepare for our next adventure... The John Muir Trail. Marriage has been good to us and our bodies have enjoyed all the good eating and relaxing we have done. They will not be so happy when we get on the trail and die from lack of training. So..... we are beginning a semi-strict regimen, or at least some sort of activity from climbing our one stair on our porch or walking the steps at a near by stadium to smaller backpacking trips on the weekends when we can. We are excited to be out in the wilderness for a good chunk of the summer. We are on the trail by July 9 and can't wait!!!!