December 2024
Capping off the year. December is a great month of reflection with a season of Advent and a tangible enjoyment of family and friends.
Backpacking Trip
Went backpacking with the boys earlier this month. At least it was supposed to be backpacking. Basically what happened is we piled in my gem of a 2000 Lexus Landcruiser and head up to North Georgia in search of vibes and manhood. We drove to a trailhead on Google Maps that we thought was on the Appalachian Trail, hence making our camping experience easier with less regulations involved on the AT. Anyways, we get there and start our hike. About fifteen minutes in we’ve climbed some 400 feet of gain in half a mile and are confused. This wasn’t the way the AllTrails map had things going and were very confused.
It turns out, there are two trailheads with the name Three Forks in it, and we chose the one two hours away from the Three Forks we intended to start upon. So we’re in an area with apparently bears in excess (a guy at the trailhead literally warned us that someone counted 23 bears on the hike we were about to start on) and we decide to head back down to the car to re-evaluate things. The trail we were on had drop-offs on both sides and didn’t seem keen to flatten out at any point. Daylight was waning and we needed to set up camp at some point before the temps dropped into the low 30s and got dark.
We hop in the truck and start heading back an area we thought may have some backcountry camp sites for us when we drive up on a little hill that looks somewhat like a road and crest upon the perfect campsite. Flat, a great spot for a fire, and perfect for what we needed. So the backpacking trip turned into a hike and car camping trip, but it was great. The gear held up to frigid temps and vibes were high. Ready to go again.
Foster Care
Foster care has been very challenging. For those of you who have fostered, I don’t think this is breaking news. It’s like anything in life: You prepare the best you can, but living in it changes things. Seeing the effects of such a drastic, sudden shift in home dynamics and how that affects your marriage, kids, and life overall is pretty jarring.
Now, I’m pretty emotionally braindead. I’m a very logical thinker and it’s very, and I mean very, hard for me to do something I see no tangible benefit to. Foster care is that exact thing. You’re loving and pouring into a child who will prayerfully return to their parents and never see you again. For emotionally mature and caring people that isn’t a problem. That’s not who I am naturally, I’m a selfish turd. God is sanctifying me through many things, marriage and fatherhood namely, but even marriage and fatherhood have day-to-day ROIs that a tangible person like myself loves to see. Foster care has none of that. You’re trusting that God is using you in the lives of the children and their parents in ways you will likely never get to see.
Our kids are having the time of their life. They get a new friend and when that friend leaves, yes it’s brutally hard and they are sad. But that just means they get to wish, yeah like a Christmas present they have their requirements: “Next foster kid, can it be a boy maybe 4-5?”. They don’t have any reservations about loving a random person who shows up on the doorstep. They’re an unbelievable example, for me especially, on unconditional love and welcoming someone into your home.
10th Anniversary
Katie and I celebrated our tenth anniversary in December. A decade is hard to encapsulate in a couple of paragraphs, but I’ll do my best.
Getting married as teenagers isn’t for most people. We’ve gone through immense amounts of life change in tandem with emotional and spiritual growth. In most cases, speaking for myself, growth is often paired with a period of obtuseness towards a given problem or straight-up being oblivious to the problem at hand. Shoot I’m still figuring out how to simply communicate feelings effectively.
I will say this, for all the maturity I had at a young age in finance and navigating adulthood from a logistical perspective, I’ve been straight up braindead regarding emotional maturity for the majority of my 20s. That part of me has been stunted since my parent’s divorce in high school. I could, and still can, shove things down and carry on leaving whatever problem till a later date. Unlearning that behavior is a hard thing, and had I not had Katie since our wedding day I know I wouldn’t have seen those problems till much later on.
Marriage is the best. It’s easy to go day by day forgetting how special it is and what it represents with Christ and the Church. It’s easy to get pouty about little things and let it ruin a day. What’s not easy is being married for a decade before you're 30, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. We grew up together and we get to grow old together. What’s better than that?
Yellowstone Anniversary Trip
In the most Sutter fashion ever, we had a time frame for a 10-year anniversary trip, but nothing was picked. We couldn’t decide where to go in the States, half hoping our passports would be renewed in time. Only to realize the weather in the northern Caribbean wasn’t that warm and a flight to Europe wasn’t smart given we only had four days for the trip. So 10 days before our flight took off, we decided to go spend a few days around the Northern Entrance of Yellowstone snowshoeing and wildlife watching. We’re writing a more comprehensive post on that because we learned plenty about visiting the park in the winter including fun snowshoeing trails, amazing guide services, and plenty of horror stories of nearly driving off a cliff in the ice. Needless to say, an incredible experience visiting the park in the winter and we’re excited to share why that is in the full blog post.
Best and Worst of the month:
Best thing I watched, read, or listened to: Pursuit of Holiness - Jerry Bridges, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - Guy Richie, our children, our neighbors — Jen Wilkin, a bear in hibernation and a wolf pack playing at Yellowstone.
Worst thing I watched, read, or listened to: The Google Maps directions that led me two hours from original backpacking spot.
Best experience of the month: Camping with the boys, Christmas lights with the family, and snowy Yellowstone with Katie
Best thing I ate: Elk Chili Mac - Wonderland Cafe & Lodge Gardiner, MT
