Can you say excited?!

Once upon a time there was an old man (he's almost 30) who would go on week-long hikes with his family every other year. This year was no different! After planning this trip that will be occurring in 3-4 months time, supplies were bought and tested. Yup, tested...

Because you know.... he has to make sure that everything is ready to go! :)

Ben is so stoked for the Big Hike this year! They will be going to the Grand Tetons during the end of July and Ben has been preparing by upgrading a lot of his equipment! Everything is super light and durable. Hopefully (and this is a very BIG hopefully), we won't have to buy anything else because stuff like this gets expensive!

I'd come home from work every night and Ben would be messing with his backpack, unpacking it and then packing it again (Just to see how heavy/light his pack will be, etc). Or he'd be watching TV in the comfort of his sleeping bag (which he basically built himself.... He added a new lining using an emergency blanket that reflects 90% body heat. He calls it The Noisy Cricket.) that was laying on top of this sleeping pad thing that is super small and light but can inflate to over 2 1/2 inches. He also rebuilt the pad by taking out the air pump inside it and adding a better, more efficient one. OR he'd be laying in our front-back-yard in the sleeping bag that was inside the bivy sack on top of the sleeping pad because it was cold enough outside to test it out....

Yup, I'd say someone is really excited for this hike :)