Thank all of you for your help in Aren getting to attend the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center Challenge Camp 2008 held by the Brain Injury Association of Colorado!Nancy Moriarty and Ruthe Keller spearheaded a fundraising that allowed the family to travel to Colorado for the Challenge Camp experience of a lifetime and a much-needed family camping trip that included side trips to California to visit Aren's Grandpa, the Grand Canyon, "swim" in the surf, other family visits, a return to his college -- Fort Lewis College in Durango, a return visit also to Whistler, and a beautiful trip through Canada with a stop at Prince Rupert to take a side trip on the ferry to Ketchikan to visit sister Rebecca and his two giggly and cooing nieces, Bailey and Bristol!
Aren rafted on the Colorado River, conquered the ropes course and zip line, rode 5 miles on a bicycle, and camped with mom and dad, Nancy and Gary, throughout the mountains of Colorado before heading south to Heron Lake in New Mexico, where he finally broke out into morning smiles daily after hearing Lisa Gonzales sing! (Thanks for the lights, Tony!)
Aren's favorite quote was always, "The years teach much what the days never knew." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Aaah, so true. It has been almost 6 years since Aren's brain has taken him on a different path of life...and so much is just beginning to be made clear to us.
Our day-to-day life here in our home at the base of Hatcher Pass is never dull for long, but we do lose touch from time to time with all the inspiration we could get from the changing seasons, incredible beauty of the mountains, the dogs, the wildlife, and just being together as a family -- what with hassles in getting necessary medication, doctors telling us "there is nothing we can do to help Aren" (don't worry, we know that is not true :) ), and -- well -- Aren wanting to sleep a lot unless we have something in particular that is extra exciting for him to do.
Now we have solid proof that the thing for us all to do is just go for it! Pick up the tent and the sleeping bags and head for the hills...even the long car rides inbetween camps seemed to entertain Aren. We'd plug in Barbara Chamberlin's (Whitehorse musician) advice to "drive down south", sing our way throughout the west, listen to the lower 48 radio coverage of the unbelievable and insane political happenings, and amaze together at the warm, brightly starlit summer skies.
Thank you! Nancy, Ruth and Larelle, Jon Wilson, Bruce and Audrey, Sharon Chambers and Jane Larentsen, Barbara Martin Tyler, Dr. Neeno, Dr. Gevaert, Dr. Ferucci, Dr. Zimmer, Dr. Weintraub, Dr. Cilo (you have our hearts), Dr. Garrett, Victor, Karen and Family, Skookum Mary, Megan and John, Adrienne and Linda and the entire crew at BOEC and BIA-CO, Tony Vogt and Lisa Gonzales and the tortilla makers of Tierra Amarilla and Los Ojos, NM, Don and Karen Cornelius, Susan Morgan, Joanne Coleman, Rob and Phyllis, Chris and Pat, Jo and Rob, Bob and Charlie, Bill & Becca & Bailey & Bristol, Nancy Moore (you are our family, too), the Michaelsons and the Campbells/Hatas/Craigs. And YOU -- Those who helped whose names we never knew or have failed to mention here. And the pine martens, the juniper web worms, the osprey young and old, the skunks, the snakes, the golden eagles, the bluebirds, the shooting stars, Rio Chama, the spouting humpbacks amid the Dall porpoises and sea otters, the elk, the Dall sheep, lots and lots of bears, the Kluane sunsets, the hard ground and the soft beds, the totem poles and the soothing waves....
This year indeed has taught us much. Love and peace and forever thanks again to you all.
