Story Of The Year

The day of elopement, about to become Husband and Wife....
...the Elf joyfully picks up the Hobbit...
...for a big smooch!
Katrina, David, Thim and Courtney (our lovely witnesses)
Katrina, David, Thim and Courtney about to go in the Santa Cruz County Courthouse to see David and Katrina bloom into Mr and Mrs Rainoshek!
The next day it was off the the Grand Canyon for a pre-honeymoon!
David on his way down all the switch backs.
We made it all the way to the Colorado River!
Our first hike as husband and wife.
Stopped on the way home in Sedona (Cafe Raw Bliss) for some honeymoon cake.
Honeymoon cake!

Hello Everyone!

How is your Thanksgiving weekend going? Things have really cooled off here in Patagonia, and it is time for cozy sweaters and scarfs while walking outside. We just got in from a brisk, crisp walk and now are warming up with some hot tea. We had a wonderful day on Thursday, and lunch at the Tree was fabulous. I brought little chocolate cups filled with coconut chocolate cream and pomegranate. I didn't even get to try them because they disappeared so fast, but the sweet potato pie that the cafe made was delicious. Even more delish was getting to see all the Tree folk, and we had a good afternoon of visiting and soaking up sunshine. And, we were able to share with everyone our Story Of The Year, which I am about to share with you here....

The Story Of The Year! (for us anyways)

David and Katrina Elope! Yes, we did, and we are now a very happy husband and wife. So, November 15th was our marriage, and in June 2008 we are having a wedding with close family, and then sometime after that we will have a big party to celebrate. It was perfect for me, not wanting anything fancy and flowery and big, to slip down to the romantic (hehe) town of Nogales, AZ with our dear friends Courtney and Thim as witnesses and get married in the Santa Cruz County Court House! We joked that it was faster to get married than it is to go grocery shopping in Nogales!

David and I spent a very sweet, tender day with each other and then off we went to become man and wife with tears of happiness in our eyes. It has been a long journey to find each other for each of us and we both feel blessed every day to know each other....It has been very sweet to discover that many people thought we were already married! I guess that would happen when you both use the same last name!

After the wedding, we came home and Courtney and Thim had made us a beautiful raw wedding cake (you'll have to ask Thim for the recipe, I would recommend that you do!), so we made up about 3/4 of a gallon of orange/grapefruit juice and we all visited and had juice and cake (accept for Courtney who had juice).

Late on Friday afternoon we packed up the leftover wedding cake and piled some things into Pegasus the veggie oil truck and headed South for the Grand Canyon. We made it part way, and stealth camped in a park that was closed for the winter, piled under a mountain of blankets to keep out the chill. I LOVE sleeping outside!

Saturday morning found us up early and chilly, and in an hour we were at the rim of the Grand Canyon. It will never fail to take my breath away.

"It seems a gigantic statement for even nature to make..."
~John Muir

It is truly one of the most richly layered visual and spiritual places I have spent time in, allowing you to feel as though you are touching time, watching evolution, and rubbing your nerves of awe with firecrackers! And then once you descend below the rim it only gets better...

We did so on Sunday. It was my first time below the rim, and gave me a whole new respect for the canyon. Looking into and upon are very different than feeling the enormity of it with your body. We walked the Bright Angel Trail, first down to Indian Gardens. David did this hike when he was just seven years old! Then, we decided, against all warnings, to go all the way down to the Colorado River. Down, down, down we went on a trail packed with switch backs and epic views every direction you turned, as we passed through many different layers of rock and different colors of trail dust. We were elated when we reached the swift Colorado, and sat with it for a brief time and ate and took in the canyon from the very bottom. Then, up, up, up! Now, there is a reason there are warning signs the whole way down that say "Do not attempt to hike from the rim to the river and back to the rim in one day," going up on the second half of your day is a whole different story than going down, the way you would after climbing a mountain. Canyon hiking really beats you at the end of the day! I can say raw food rocks for this kind of thing though. David and I hiked for 10 hours that day, 15.4 miles, and first went down for 4,500 feet, and then hiked up 4,500 feet! All this on six oranges, four bananas, four Lara Bars, and a bag of cashews and raisins, and of course three gallons of water, EACH! I would highly recommend doing this hike at the time of year that we did, the crowds were small to none, the mule traffic was light, and the temperature was perfect. I could not have walked that in the heat of the summer, no way!

We had forgotten our MSM, so I did get a little limpy for the next two days. On previous all-day hikes I have taken loads (such as 5TBS in water) of MSM at the end of the hike, before bed, and find that this works like magic for keeping my muscles from stiffening up. Ah but stiff muscles were SO worth it, I got to sit beside the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with my husband!

We would love to share just one more little thought with you...about love. This is for those of you that are looking for the love of your life, or if you have found the love of your life, you can do this too. That is, if you haven't meet your love yet, you can begin sending love to your love RIGHT NOW! She or He is out there RIGHT NOW, breathing, sleeping, eating, dreaming, and you don't have to wait to meet that person in order to start loving them! You don't need to know what he or she looks like, or smells like, or how they laugh, you can send your love love! Send them love today, and then when you do met them, you can look them in the eye and say with all honesty, "I have been thinking of you and sending you love every day." This is very powerful.

Imagine if someone special told you that they had been thinking of you and sending you love, even before they knew who you were? I'm sure you would be very moved. This will also help to draw your love to you, and it will help him or her find you because they will be pulled towards your love. And, if you have found your love, be sure to send them love every day, and then when you look them in the eye you can say "I am sending you love all day, every day, you are my love" and this is very special to hear.

On that note, David and Katrina send you all love everyday and hope that things are glorious and juicy!

Love,

The Happily Married David and Katrina Rain (officially)