YO: Today is the first real day of winter, snow and all. While some look forward to warm days inside, Jarred and I don’t. We tend to drive each other crazy. I become a cleaning maniac while Jarred gets into zombie mode while watching kayak and mountain bike videos on the internet. We usually end up bundling up and heading outside. So while we could still manage sitting around, I thought I’d start the annual Widdop-Jackman or the Wackman update.

Here’s the down and dirty for this past year in a handy-dandy third person timeline format.

January- During the first week of the new year, Jarred discovers hernia #1 in his groin and sprains his ankle by getting it stuck in a rock after swimming out of his kayak at the base of a waterfall. Surgery (on the hernia) follows. Sarah quickly discovers that she is not a nurse or sympathetic towards those who are hurt and whiney.
February- Jarred’s back in shape and kayaking. Sarah ramps up for a great show season with Nic, her horse.
March- Jarred whines about inability to kayak. Bike trips are planned, cancelled, then re-planned.
April- Sarah and Jarred embark on their first multi-day bike trip. After purchasing a bike trailer, loading it up with minimal gear, and heading over to “better” weather, they head out of Ephrata to bike a loop up through Bridgeport, Chelan, Wenatchee and finally back to Ephrata. 200 mile trip is completed in three days. Sarah competes in her first derby with Nic, does well but whips out a great score of zero because she can’t count and over-spins.
May- Jarred makes his infamous whitewater run on the Little White Salmon. While continuously refusing to admit a near brush with death, a story Jarred wrote about the incident is picked up on website’s across the US (no money though, bummer.) Jarred discovers hernia #2, surgery follows. Sarah promises herself that she will NEVER become a nurse and is reminded that men are babies. She is reminded that abdominal cuts hurt though!
June- School’s out for summer! Sarah and Jarred finally put house on the market…only to be met with recession and 19 other people in North Bonneville who also put their houses on the market. Sarah and Jarred head off for a summer in Idaho. Nic, Sarah’s horse becomes lame, which begins a summer of vet and farrier visits/bills.
July- Mountain biking, mountain biking, mountain biking. Nic is still lame. Sniff, sniff, sob, sob, Jarred sells his Jetta and replaces it with a teal (despite Sarah’s grumbling about HATING teal vehicles) Mazda B2200, affectionately know as the wheelbarrow for it’s power and carrying capacity.
August- Road biking, mountain biking, road biking. Jarred raft guides for Zoller, a great company that guides the Middle White Salmon. Jarred’s career as a raft guide is cut short by a brutal road bike crash which left Jarred with little skin, a broken collar bone and scapula (shoulder blade.) Sarah begins to believe she’s done something to make the nurse gods mad because here she is again, playing nurse to a fly infested, puss laden, VERY grouchy Jarred. Nic is still lame.
September- Back to school. Sarah begins a new job at Camas High School. Jarred attempts to teach ceramics at Mountain View with broken bones and crusty skin. Nic is still lame.
October- Jarred is back in action. He tentatively mountain bikes and purchases a new road bike (the crashed bike was not reparable.) Nic is no longer lame but now really FAT. Sarah is glad that she has her biking partner back and that he now bikes at her pace!
November- Great weather continues. Jarred starts kayaking again Nic is back at work and Sarah and Jarred get crazy with the bikes. Sun Valley is no longer the mountain biking mecca of the Northwest, it’s been trumped by Washington…the promised land!
December- Nic is ready to show…but wait, he missed most of last show season! Sarah and Jarred now have six bikes total, recently adding two single speed cyclocross bikes to their collection. Now if they could just sell that stinking house in North Bonneville so they could bike to work!

We’ve discovered that life is only as boring as you make it and we’re both dedicated to making the most out of what we have despite injuries and the necessary evils, like work. At times both of us feel that we could be doing so much more but maybe there are not enough hours in the day, and we’ve not yet figured out how to live our lives the way we want to without working. We’ll get there. But in the meantime, we’re having copious amounts of fun.
As always, we invite any of you down for some good hiking, biking and boating. Jarred is a great raft guide, he took my parents down the river this summer and they’re still alive!
Merry Christmas and enjoy 2009! Sarah, Jarred, Shuksan, Gretta, Bella and Nic